P4S800D-E - worth building around?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ChrisH
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ChrisH

I'm about to upgrade my trusty PC and have picked up a P4S800D-E for
nowt, but this MB doesn't seem to get much mention? Considering a MB
is actually one of the cheapest components of the upgrade is it worth
building around or buying a P4C800-E. I have little experience witht
the SiS chipset it uses.

ChrisH
 
ChrisH said:
I'm about to upgrade my trusty PC and have picked up a P4S800D-E for
nowt, but this MB doesn't seem to get much mention? Considering a MB
is actually one of the cheapest components of the upgrade is it worth
building around or buying a P4C800-E. I have little experience witht
the SiS chipset it uses.
Click to expand...

Despite P4S800D-E is not mentioned frequently here, I trusted the few
reviews I found online and built a 3GHz box around this mobo 2 months ago.
Running absolutely stable, no glitches whatsoever. Good performance per $.
Onboard sound is pretty weak (low S/N) but this was mentioned in a review so
I knew before.
 
Despite P4S800D-E is not mentioned frequently here, I trusted the few
reviews I found online and built a 3GHz box around this mobo 2 months ago.
Running absolutely stable, no glitches whatsoever. Good performance per $.
Onboard sound is pretty weak (low S/N) but this was mentioned in a review so
I knew before.
Click to expand...

Good to hear. Got no problem with the sound, I have an old SB Live
platinum which can go in. I'm proposing to put a 3GHz processor and
1GB RAM in with it. For now I'll use my IDE drives rather than buy
new SATA drives, I have a file server on my network with 1.4TB of
space so I don't need that much locally. Do you use hyperthreading and
what size (watts) PSU is required?

ChrisH
 
I'm about to upgrade my trusty PC and have picked up a P4S800D-E for
nowt, but this MB doesn't seem to get much mention?
Click to expand...

I made exactly the same point a few weeks ago! One person said that the
SiS chipset isn't reliable and that's why it's cheap. Another said it
was fine.

Well, I built a computer a fortnight ago for my daughter based around a
P4S800 (basic version) which I picked up cheap on eBay and it was a
doddle to set up. Early days yet, but she's had no problems with it.

Best wishes, David

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I made exactly the same point a few weeks ago! One person said that the
SiS chipset isn't reliable and that's why it's cheap. Another said it
was fine.

Well, I built a computer a fortnight ago for my daughter based around a
P4S800 (basic version) which I picked up cheap on eBay and it was a
doddle to set up. Early days yet, but she's had no problems with it.

Best wishes, David
Click to expand...

Well I must admit this MB would not have been at the top of my list if
I was looking to buy one. I'm just a bit wary of putting good (read -
expensive) components onto a cheap board and trying to OC it. On the
other hand, ASUS claim it's a good board for OCing, but then they
would :-)

It's good you've had success, quite often bad press is generated by a
tiny number people with problems, and most times even that wasn't the
fault of the hardware. So maybe the SiS chipset aint so bad. I must go
look at what BIOS upgrades are around for it.

Cheers,
Chris
 
Do NOT use it. SIS is known inside the industry to stand for "Stability Is
Secondary." Buy an Asus board with an Intel chipset and you will find it
much more stable.
 
Do NOT use it. SIS is known inside the industry to stand for "Stability Is
Secondary." Buy an Asus board with an Intel chipset and you will find it
much more stable.
Click to expand...


Dave, you really need a new tag line. Have you actually tried THIS
board or are you just spouting about previous SIS concerns?

Anyway, I do have this board. I also have an Abit IC7-g max that I
compared it to. The Asus board is one of the most stable solid boards
I have ever used, and it is staying in my system. It overclocks just
as well as the Abit board, and is super easy to set up. It just works.

The Abit board is collecting dust.

BTW, I have used many an ABIT board in the past, and have no
particular brand loyalty. I bought the Asus after reading the many
good reviews and I have not been dissapointed. Definatly recomended.

Rick
 
Do NOT use it. SIS is known inside the industry to stand for "Stability Is
Secondary." Buy an Asus board with an Intel chipset and you will find it
much more stable.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, but I think I'll give it a try. I figure if it
proves to be unstable it's an easy job to swap it out - provided it
doesn't fry other components I don't lose anything. I had budgeted for
a new MB anyway but using this board might save me a few $$.

What I was really looking for was experience of users, whether they
managed to OC it successfully or whether there are any gotchas (I
know about the onboard sound). I propose to use this box for heavy
number crunching instead of tying down my desktop machine. Things like
video encoding, and mp3 conversions - and maybe SETI when it's not
doing that. It will not be used for games so no fancy graphics card
will be used. Mostly it will be left switched on all the time, I'll
send it files to process over the network (using remote desktop). As
it will be working hard I guess a better cpu cooler than the stock
item might be an idea. You can see that stability is important so if
it can't hack it then it goes.

ChrisH
 
Dave, you really need a new tag line. Have you actually tried THIS
board or are you just spouting about previous SIS concerns?

Anyway, I do have this board. I also have an Abit IC7-g max that I
compared it to. The Asus board is one of the most stable solid boards
I have ever used, and it is staying in my system. It overclocks just
as well as the Abit board, and is super easy to set up. It just works.

The Abit board is collecting dust.

BTW, I have used many an ABIT board in the past, and have no
particular brand loyalty. I bought the Asus after reading the many
good reviews and I have not been dissapointed. Definatly recomended.

Rick
Click to expand...

I built it this afternoon, installed everything without a hitch (well
almost) - easiest job I've done. Slight problem in that XP won't shut
down properly but I'll figure that one out later. I'm just going to
leave it running flat out converting wav files to mp3, a couple hours
of that should give it some exercise. I'll definitely have to get a
new cpu cooler though, as soon as it started working hard the fan spun
up to max and the temp is 58deg. No chance of OC'ing it until then.

ChrisH
 
I built it this afternoon, installed everything without a hitch (well
almost) - easiest job I've done. Slight problem in that XP won't shut
down properly but I'll figure that one out later. I'm just going to
leave it running flat out converting wav files to mp3, a couple hours
of that should give it some exercise. I'll definitely have to get a
new cpu cooler though, as soon as it started working hard the fan spun
up to max and the temp is 58deg. No chance of OC'ing it until then.

ChrisH
Click to expand...


FYI, I use the Zalman 7000Cu and it fits this board fine, and is
pretty quiet, plus cools well.

Rick
 
FYI, I use the Zalman 7000Cu and it fits this board fine, and is
pretty quiet, plus cools well.

Rick
Click to expand...

Thanks Rick, I was looking at that one - the one with the 92mm fan?
OK, I just ordered one!

ChrisH
 
Chris,

I built a new box back in February and have had no trouble at all with
this mobo:

Asus p4s800d-e
P4 2.8C
1G Kingston 3200DDR
Antec SLK3700 - 350W SmartPower, 120mm exhaust fan (cool & quiet!)
eVGA geforceFX 5600 Ultra w/vivo
Plextor 708A (the only glitch - wouldn't burn to DVD+RW, but replaced
NQA)
WD 1600JD SE IDE
WE 400JD IDE

DV encoding, gaming, etc - solid as a rock. Stock cooling fine.
Haven't felt compelled to OC... yet.

Good luck!

Beth
 
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