P4C800-E Deluxe advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve
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Steve

Hello everyone,

I'm considering buying a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. I've got some
questions about it however.

1. I've heard some are having problems with the Intel Retail Boxed CPUs. Has
this been addressed yet? I believe it is a fan issue.

2. Also, since I currently have 2 160GB Maxtor hard drives, I'd like to use
the full 133 Mhz that they are supposed to have. Can I use the Promise
controller connector to get this speed with these two drives independently
or is that only for RAID?

3. Is there a big performance improvement when using SATA drives?

4. What kind of performance hit will I take if I choose to use the onboard
sound rather than a dedicated sound card?

5. Is the GB NIC connecter backward compatible with 100mb ethernet?

Thanks,
Steve
 
1. I haven't heard this.
2. yes, independent or raid
3. small but noticable difference
4. over what sound card?
5. yes
 
Wow! Fast reply. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

On question #4, I guess I'd compare it to the Creative Labs Audigy 2 card
that I'm using now. But...I don't have a need for EAX so if the performance
doesn't suffer, I'd be happy to use the onboard sound if you think it's
worth a darn.

BTW; I have the Klipsch 4.1 speaker setup. Apparently the onboard sound is
more than capable of powering this.

Thanks again.
Steve
 
Hello everyone,

I'm considering buying a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. I've got some
questions about it however.

1. I've heard some are having problems with the Intel Retail Boxed CPUs. Has
this been addressed yet? I believe it is a fan issue.
Click to expand...

No idea. My P4C800-E works fine with a boxed 2.8C. Of course, I'm also
using an aftermarket HSF (Zalman 7000AlCu)
2. Also, since I currently have 2 160GB Maxtor hard drives, I'd like to use
the full 133 Mhz that they are supposed to have. Can I use the Promise
controller connector to get this speed with these two drives independently
or is that only for RAID?
Click to expand...

You won't really notice the difference between ATA133 and ATA100. The
ATA100 traffic on the Intel controllers bypasses the PCI bus, so I'd use
those as my first option over the Promise controller, which shares the
133MB/s of the PCI bus
3. Is there a big performance improvement when using SATA drives?
Click to expand...

No. All other things being equal, you might see slightly faster burst
rates, but in the end it's the same sustained transfer rates with the
same seek times.
4. What kind of performance hit will I take if I choose to use the onboard
sound rather than a dedicated sound card?
Click to expand...

Depends on the card. The onboard audio is pretty good. An Audigy will
be a little bit faster in games, but I wouldn't spend too much extra
money on it.
5. Is the GB NIC connecter backward compatible with 100mb ethernet?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Max Attar Feingold
maf6 at cornell dot edu
http://almonaster.sourceforge.net/mfeingol/

[Not speaking for my employer]
 
I can talk to questions 1 and 5.

1) The only issue I had with mine and the 3 GHz (800 MHz FSB) P4 I
installed in it was attaching the Intel-supplied CPU fan. There are two
opposing plastic levers you throw to press the fan against the CPU, and it
seemed to me as if the thermal transfer tape Intel chose to put between the
two was almost too thick--the fan mount seemed to be bending under pretty
heavy stress as it tried to compress the rubbery compound between the fan
and the CPU. I just took it slowly, and closed the levers very gradually
until I got them to lock. But after that dicey ordeal, all works fine, and
even under the heaviest loads my CPU temp remains 10-20 degrees Celsius
under the 70C max specified by Intel.

5) The onboard Intel networking chip works perfectly well with my existing
100 Base TX LAN.

Good luck,

Herb
 
No, the onboard sound sounds a lot worse than any Live! or Audigy.
You'd be waisting your Klipsch'es.
 
I put NO thermal paste between the HSF and CPU.

I got a used one, clean all remains of thermal paste, and put them
together as above. There is no problem for me for more than a year
with 3 P4 cpus.

------------
 
jim said:
Can you supply details please.
Click to expand...

I'm considering buying a P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. I've got some
questions about it however.

1. I've heard some are having problems with the Intel Retail Boxed
CPUs.
Has this been addressed yet? I believe it is a fan issue.
I heard on a forum that the stock heatsink/fan on the P$'s clamps down
too tight on the CPU chip and causes the MB (ASUS P4C800E-Dlx) to not
boot up. I didn't chance it. I went ahead and bought and installed a
Coolermaster squirrel cage fan w/copper heatsink the first time I put
the rig together.

2. Also, since I currently have 2 160GB Maxtor hard drives, I'd like
to
use the full 133 Mhz that they are supposed to have. Can I use the
Promise controller connector to get this speed with these two drives
independently or is that only for RAID?
I can't answer this. I am still trying to figure out how to use Raid
0+1 that they say can be used (after 2 months of trying to find out)
All I can say about this is> Beware, if you want to run a RAID 0+1
(same as Raid 10) array, you'll be pulling your hair out. The manual
instructions suck on this, as does ASUS web site. Tech support is
rude and promises to call you back and then dosen't (long distance
your dime - California).Don't know. They all say "yes" but since I am using Raid 1 (2 SATA
160 G Seagate's) they run pretty fast. But may be because I have 8 MB
on board cache on the HDD's.
onboard sound rather than a dedicated sound card?
Click to expand...
I don't think you will take a hit. This on board sound is fantastic.
Yes. Just plug in your RJ45 and it will run fine w 10BaseT as well as
faster networks. It's backward compatable.


Hope this helps.
 
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