ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe

  • Thread starter Thread starter @drian
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@drian

I've been looking at this motherboard for one of my test machines, but one
thing concerns me. The VIA firewire chip. Has anyone (1) Got this board?
(2) Have you used the FireWire aspect of this board and experienced any
problems?

Thanks.

@drian.
 
stacey said:
Yep that's scary! ;-)
Click to expand...

I know, horrific.
Is the firewire why you want this over the other? If so spend $14 and get a

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=15-104-218&depa=1
Click to expand...

Not just the FireWire, I want the P4C800-E over the P4C800 because of the
RAID controller in the SouthBridge, and the CSA LAN chip. Both of which I
consider improvements.

I found out tonight, I can get one of these for free:

http://www.siig.com/product.asp?partnum=NN-830112&category=Desktop - Int
ernal

Shame ASUS had to lump their board with a VIA chip, I would have preferred
the TI component

@drian.
 
I've been looking at this motherboard for one of my test machines, but one
thing concerns me. The VIA firewire chip. Has anyone (1) Got this board?
(2) Have you used the FireWire aspect of this board and experienced any
problems?

Thanks.

@drian.
Click to expand...

Why in the world would you be worried about a Via firewire chip?
Because Via once had a buggy southbridge for Athlons 3 years ago?

The issue wouldn't be who made the firewire chip, but rather how well
Asus has implemented a board with all those features, and of course
that one in particular. Generally they do a pretty good job of
integration, though many people give up before reading the manual,
trying the settings instead of assuming it should work right, "right
out of the box" in every possible configuration.

If it doesn't work right just disable it and buy the card Stacey
linked to or some other.


Dave
 
kony said:
Why in the world would you be worried about a Via firewire chip?
Because Via once had a buggy southbridge for Athlons 3 years ago?
Click to expand...

Yes. I've had enough problems with VIA chipsets to last a lifetime.
Personally, I don't trust them when it comes to compatibility. That's why,
when I see the FireWire chip on this board was made by VIA, I couldn't help
but wondering if it works without hiccup, especially for capturing video.
The issue wouldn't be who made the firewire chip, but rather how well
Asus has implemented a board with all those features, and of course
that one in particular. Generally they do a pretty good job of
integration, though many people give up before reading the manual,
trying the settings instead of assuming it should work right, "right
out of the box" in every possible configuration.
Click to expand...

Yes, agreed. I've no problem reading the manual, and reading it thoroughly.
It's just I stick to components I know have worked with me in the past and
when it comes to FireWire, I know I've had success with TI chipsets. At one
point, Adobe didn't recommend anything with a VIA chipset when it comes to
capturing with Premiere.
If it doesn't work right just disable it and buy the card Stacey
linked to or some other.
Click to expand...

Well, if it doesn't work, I have a card I can get for free, a SIIG PCI 32-T
FireWire 800.

Thanks.

@drian.
 
Why in the world would you be worried about a Via firewire chip?
Because Via once had a buggy southbridge for Athlons 3 years ago?
Click to expand...


No, because people are now bitching about problems (crap performance) with
the newest Via IDE raid chips on some of asus's boards (P4P800 deluxe) etc
USB problems with other newer Via chipsets etc.. Seems they still are VERY
good at making buggy hardware. Why suffer with this when there are KNOWN
good firewire chips, on PCI boards, for $14?
 
Wonderful. I just bought the P4P800 Deluxe with the VIA VT6410 RAID
controller. The manual indicates that if you don't put a drive connected to
this controller into an array it will work as a std. independent drive. The
VIA controller sees my drives (a Maxtor 60 GB and Maxtor 160 GB) and the
MaxBlast software sees them, but the Win2K Advanced Server install program
does not. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, by chance, would
you?

Russell Campbell
 
Wonderful. I just bought the P4P800 Deluxe with the VIA VT6410 RAID
controller. The manual indicates that if you don't put a drive connected to
this controller into an array it will work as a std. independent drive. The
VIA controller sees my drives (a Maxtor 60 GB and Maxtor 160 GB) and the
MaxBlast software sees them, but the Win2K Advanced Server install program
does not. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, by chance, would
you?

Russell Campbell
Click to expand...

Did you feed it the driver floppy when it prompted you to?


Dave
 
Russell said:
Wonderful. I just bought the P4P800 Deluxe with the VIA VT6410 RAID
controller. The manual indicates that if you don't put a drive connected
to
this controller into an array it will work as a std. independent drive.
The VIA controller sees my drives (a Maxtor 60 GB and Maxtor 160 GB) and
the MaxBlast software sees them, but the Win2K Advanced Server install
program
does not. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, by chance,
would you?
Click to expand...


All I know is people talk about seeing very large % of CPU useage when
accessing drives conected to this controller. MUCH larger than even ancient
hardware did. Seems it isn't really a hardware controller but is kinda like
a "soft modem" in that it offloads some of the work to the CPU? Something
weird is going on....

Why connect the drives to that controller or is it the only one on the
board? If so I'd return the board and get the non-deluxe version. I'm using
the regular P4P800 and it works great and has no Via based hardware on it!
:-)
 
I got no such prompt and could find no drivers other than the windows
drivers. I connected to the regular IDE and installed Win2K, then installed
the drivers for the RAID controller. I planned to then reconnect to the
RAID controllers, but I immediately found that Windows would not shut down
properly after the drivers were installed. I am hearing a lot about the VIA
chips being crap and I am seeing problems with the drivers and I think I
will just disable the RAID controller and use the regular ATA 100 IDE
controllers.

Thanks for your reply,

Russell
 
Russell Campbell said:
I got no such prompt and could find no drivers other than the windows
drivers.
Click to expand...

Then you weren't watching... During install it says "Press F5 to install
hardware drivers" (or something very similar). This only lasts a few
seconds. If you hit F5, then it will ask for the diskette with your drivers
on it and install should work fine from there.
I connected to the regular IDE and installed Win2K, then installed
the drivers for the RAID controller. I planned to then reconnect to the
RAID controllers, but I immediately found that Windows would not shut down
properly after the drivers were installed. I am hearing a lot about the VIA
chips being crap and I am seeing problems with the drivers and I think I
will just disable the RAID controller and use the regular ATA 100 IDE
controllers.
Click to expand...

I don't trust VIA for anything these days and I'm glad I found out about the
VIA controller on this mainboard. It was one of a list of boards I was
considering for my new systems next month.
 
What install? Are you talking about when the machine boots? I still see
nothing of that sort, nor can I find anything about that in the manual. If
it's there, then they put it in and did not document it.
 
During the Windows installation...

I may have mixed this thread up with another, but I'm sure I saw someone
complaining that during Windows installation that the HDD wasn't even
visible to install on, so it had to be moved to the normal IDE controller
from the RAID controller.
 
When I tried to install Win2K Advanced Server it did not see the drives and
did not offer an option to insert a floppy with the drivers on it. It did
not prompt as you stated. And why would they only let you do this for "a
few seconds"? If the install doesn't see drives, then it ought to ask if
you want to install special drivers or exit and it should give you plenty of
time to see this and do this.
 
Russell Campbell said:
When I tried to install Win2K Advanced Server it did not see the drives and
did not offer an option to insert a floppy with the drivers on it. It did
not prompt as you stated. And why would they only let you do this for "a
few seconds"?
Click to expand...

Try it again... Anyone in here will back me up on this...

At the start of the install it specifically asks if you have any drivers and
to hit F5 (it MIGHT be F6). If you hit the key, it will prompt for the disks
later in the install.
If the install doesn't see drives, then it ought to ask if
you want to install special drivers or exit and it should give you plenty of
time to see this and do this.
Click to expand...

Uhm. No. During the installation, you should be paying attention, not
watching TV and running to the fridge for a beer.

Why should the computer ask for drivers when it can't see the hardware
that's there? If it knew how to query the RAID hardware, it wouldn't need
the drivers.
 
All I know is people talk about seeing very large % of CPU useage when
accessing drives conected to this controller. MUCH larger than even ancient
hardware did. Seems it isn't really a hardware controller but is kinda like
a "soft modem" in that it offloads some of the work to the CPU? Something
weird is going on....

Why connect the drives to that controller or is it the only one on the
board? If so I'd return the board and get the non-deluxe version. I'm using
the regular P4P800 and it works great and has no Via based hardware on it!
:-)
Click to expand...

newer driver, http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=338 , and PCI latency
adjustments... those BIOS settings are sometimes adjustable because
it's of benefit to adjust them.

ALL of the recent motherboard-integrated RAID controllers on "PC"
motherboards are software-based, like a "soft modem", not just Via's.
I dont have that RAID controller so I can't be certain of the fix, but
it sounds like a driver + windows issue to me.



Dave
 
Phrederick - I appreciate your help and you could be right. I might have
just missed it, but I will say that I hope you're not a software developer.
The problem with the software often times is this "you should be paying
attention, not watching TV and running to the fridge for a beer" attitude
that you have. As a software developer, I take a different attitude. I
know how busy my users are and how they need me to make their job easier,
not harder. It's easy to miss a request that is put to the users like you
say it is. Even someone who has installed many versions of Windows on many
different machines like I have may not have seen this message and may not
have used a RAID controller before. So it would make sense for the Windows
install to ask for the drivers at the point that it decides it can't see any
drives. It could say "if you have a controller that needs a special driver,
insert the media with the drivers and press F5" or something like this and
the installation process would be improved because of it. Microsoft has, in
point of fact, attempted to make the installation more "hands off" so that
people can do other things and not sit there answering a bunch of questions.
So for the sake of increased productivity, they have encouraged people to do
other things while an install is going on. So don't fault me or anyone else
if I am not sitting there looking for any little cryptic, short-lived
message that might pop up. If they do use such a message to get these
drivers, then I believe that it's a poor design choice and any good software
developer would agree with me.

Russell
 
Phrederick - I appreciate your help and you could be right. I might have
just missed it, but I will say that I hope you're not a software developer.
The problem with the software often times is this "you should be paying
attention, not watching TV and running to the fridge for a beer" attitude
that you have. As a software developer, I take a different attitude. I
know how busy my users are and how they need me to make their job easier,
not harder.
Click to expand...

Ah, but there's a difference, Microsoft can do whatever they like,
being the monopoly. They pretty much give the finger to the entire
world by allowing all the security holes and refusing to give users
the simplest of things, like the ability to disable java "window.open"
script in Internet Explorer.


Dave
 
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