Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Thread!

[MaverickSY19]

Ok starting this thread for those of us that are fortunate enough to have picked up one of these great boards already. This board runs like a dream. I did have some trouble with getting XP to install on it with the Audigy card though. I found it was just an install order thing. I had to install XP Pro, then the Chipset Drivers, then Audigy Drivers in that order, once I did that I could install everything else without an issue. I also put the card in PCI Slot 4 so it would not have to share IRQ with anything else. (I disabled the Fireware port built on the MB cuz I can just use the one on the Audigy card if I need one)

The only other issue I seem to be having is that I can't install the Intel Application Accellerator software. It keeps saying I don't have the supported hardware. In the Readme is says you need:

************************************************************
* 2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
************************************************************

1. The system must contain the following Intel products:

* Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor
* Intel(R) 82801ER I/O Controller Hub

2. The kit software should be installed on systems with at
least the minimum system memory required by the
operating system.

3. Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Home Edition

4. Installation of the Intel(R) Chipset Software
Installation Utility prior to loading the Intel(R)
Application Accelerator RAID Edition.

Well in the number 1. Requirement I dont have the * Intel(R) 82801ER I/O Controller Hub listed in my system drivers. I have these though:

Intel(R) 82801EB LPC Interface Controller - 24D0
Intel(R) 82801EB PCI Bridge PCI Bridge - 244E
Intel(R) 82801EB SMBus Controller - 24D3
Intel(R) 82785P Memory Controller Hub - 2578
Intel(R) 82785P Processor to AGP Controller - 2579
Intel(R) 82785P Processor to PCI to CSA bridge - 257B

So you notice that mine are 82801EB but the one it says you need is 82801ER so R instead of the B I have. Do i have the wrong chipset drivers installed, this is what came on the Asus Install CD but the CD says on it "P4C800/P4P800 series Motherboard Intel 875/865 Chipset Series Support CD Rev.52.06"

I thought maybe this has to do with the fact that I am not using any of the S-ATA ports at this time, nor the S-ATA RAID function (Though I tried it with the S-ATA RAID enabled in the BIOS). I am however using the Ultra ATA Promise RAID chip with 2x Maxtor ATA 133 7200RPM drives in a 2+0 Stripe set. Either way I remember reading somewhere that Intel Chipsets perform so much better when they have the Intel Application Accelerator installed, so I kind of want to get it to work. I tried both installing the one off the Asus CD and downloading the one from Intels website. I also tried d/l the chipset drivers from the Intel website. I just cant seem to get IAA to install.

Any insight on this would be great, or if you just want to ask about this board or talk about how much you want one or like the one you have, or maybe you just hate it. Have a beer and chat about it!

[eagleye62]

Unless you have a disk array, you can't use the IAA. The IAA only works if you have ICH5r with raid0. Look at what Intel sent me:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Intel(R) Technical Support.

Intel(R) Application Accelerator RAID Edition 3.0 provides support for
motherboards based on the Intel(R) 82801ER I/O controller hub (ICH5R) only. This
support requires the system to be running in a RAID configuration. If your
motherboard contains this component and the additional support mentioned at the
following URL, then the Intel(R) Application Accelerator RAID Edition can be
used:

http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/

At this moment, no other Intel Application Accelerator versions provide support
for motherboards based on the Intel(R) 82801EB I/O controller hub (ICH5).

NOTE: As a general corporate policy, the technical support staff does not
comment on unannounced Intel(R) products, future technologies, or technology
trends.

Please do not hesitate to contact us again if you need further assistance.

Sincerely,

Eduard M.
Intel Technical Support

[MaverickSY19]

Well good, thats what I thought, so I know I installed everything good now so at least we can go from there. Hopefully they will release one that supports the chipset without RAID.

[vicbyrd]

P4C800 Dlx - Intricacies of the Promise SATA Raid:

The more complicated the board the better it is when you get it screamin'. After 3 days of building and testing I've gotten two striped arrays set up on the Promise controller. The first with 2 WD Raptor Serial ATA drives, each on their own channel. They're only 36 Gb each so striped I've got a 70 Gb primary array. Latest benchmarks from Sandra:

SiSoftware Sandra 2003 Pro

After update to new Promise driver - v 1.0.1450.25
C: Drive (Raid 0 – Array 1)

Test Status
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : No
Windows Disk Cache Used : No
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
Command Queue Depth : 4 command(s)
Test File Size : 1023MB
File Server Optimised : No

Benchmark Breakdown
Buffered Read : 1022 MB/s
Sequential Read : 100 MB/s
Random Read : 10 MB/s
Buffered Write : 936 MB/s
Sequential Write : 81 MB/s
Random Write : 18 MB/s
Average Access Time : 5 ms (estimated)

The second array consists of 2 Deskstar 180 GXP 80 Gb drives. They're configured as master and slave on channel 3 (P ATA). This array will be used mainly for video work. Was having serious problems with write speed on this second array until I looked at the Promise manual for the FastTrak S150 TX2 (its the same chipset thats on our Mobo's). Turns out that you have to use the Promise Array Management (PAM) to turn up the PCI bus slider. Now instead of Sequential Writes = < 8 MB/s they're over 60. Buffered writes are also WAY up. Current specs look like:

SiSoftware Sandra 2003 Pro

J: Drive (Raid 0 - Array 2)

Test Status
SMP Test : No
Total Test Threads : 1
SMT Test : No
Dynamic MP/MT Load Balance : No
Processor Affinity : No
Windows Disk Cache Used : No
Use Overlapped I/O : Yes
Command Queue Depth : 4 command(s)
Test File Size : 1023MB
File Server Optimised : No

Benchmark Breakdown
Buffered Read : 1111 MB/s
Sequential Read : 77 MB/s
Random Read : 5 MB/s
Buffered Write : 1219 MB/s
Sequential Write : 61 MB/s
Random Write : 15 MB/s
Average Access Time : 13 ms (estimated)

I haven't even started really tuning up and OC'ing the system. I have been running fine with a 10% "AI" overclock. Still need to play with memory timings! But sure is nice to have the disk systems running well.

How 'bout some comparative benchmarks. . .

I'll post cpu & mem benchmarks soon.

[MaverickSY19]

Ah you have the P4C800 not the P4C800-E Deluxe. I was wondering why you are using the Promise RAID controller for the Serial ATA drives and not the Intel one from the ICH5R chipset. To bad you dont have the -E model, that would put the S-ATA on a seperate bus from the PCI bus and cause less problems with speed because you wont be sharing the bandwidth with the PCI bus.

[MaverickSY19]

Man don't tell me I'm the only one on these boards that has this Motherboard hehe.

[iMogal]

Originally posted by MaverickSY19
Man don't tell me I'm the only one on these boards that has this Motherboard hehe.

You sound pretty happy with the MoBo... have you dealt with any other Canterwoods? Would you buy the "E" again?

[MaverickSY19]

Ya I would buy this board right now if I didn't have it hehe. I have not had any other i875 boards though.

[JoeBar]

I have a P4C800 non deluxe that uses ICH5R and don't have a single prob installing IAA raid edition.

[Viper753]

I have been savin up my cash for awhile to build my dream system. I have decided on a intel 3ghz ( no choice really) and an asus motherboard. But i can't seem to find anywhere the difference between a asus P4C800 deluxe and a P4C800-E Deluxe. Any help would be great

Thx

[vicbyrd]

Thanks for bringing my attention to the difference between the -E and normal Deluxe board. I just filled out my RMA for the old board and ordered the E !!

It's going to be interesting to see if there is a difference in Raid performance on the ICHR vs the Promise controller. Gotta believe that getting off the PCI bus will make a difference especially under "loaded" conditions.

will update with new benchmarks once complete.

Intel Pentium 4 Processor (Northwood) 2.8GHz 800MHz FSB Retail
(2) Corsair CMX512-3500C2 512MB DDR433 PC3500 Memory
(2) Western Digital Raptor WD360GD 36.7GB Serial ATA 10,000RPM
(2) IBM (Hitachi) Deskstar 180GXP 80GB ATA100 7200RPM HD
nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200
Santa Cruz Turtle Beach Audio
Asus CRW-5224A 52x24x52 E-IDE CD-RW Drive w/Flextralink Retail
HP dvd200i DVD+RW
Lian-Li case

[vicbyrd]

Viper753,

Check out this link

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10085

It's got a good description of the diff's.

IMHO, if you're trying to stay as obsolete proof as possible and you use your system heavily (as I do with my video editing), then the E is the better buy.

[MaverickSY19]

Originally posted by JoeBar
I have a P4C800 non deluxe that uses ICH5R and don't have a single prob installing IAA raid edition.

Hey Joe we meet again. You know I never noticed that when I looked at the spec sheets. Why on earth would they cut costs on the P4C800 Deluxe and not put the ICH5R chipset on that, but then turn around and put it on the non Deluxe board? No wonder people were a bit annoyed by that.

Ok now that I have said that, are you using S-ATA Raid? From what I read in the post that eagleye62 put you can only install it if you have Raid 0 setup on the S-ATA ports.

I found this on Intel's website under FAQ's for IAA.

Intel® Application Accelerator RAID Edition
Why has the Intel® Application Accelerator become a RAID-only driver?



Focusing the latest version of the Intel® Application Accelerator on RAID features using the newest Serial ATA technology was deemed as the best value add for desktop customers as RAID 0 enables higher performance gains for the platform than was possible with previous versions of the Intel Application Accelerator.

If you have an Intel® 865/ICH5R chipset or Intel® 875P/ICH5R chipset and are using Parallel ATA (IDE) hard drive(s), you should be able to use the Microsoft* native storage driver built into Windows*. The Microsoft native storage driver supports both Serial ATA and Parallel ATA hard drives.

Note: Intel Application Accelerator 2.3 is still available for systems using Intel® 800 Series Chipsets and Windows* XP, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Windows 98 Second Edition (SE), Windows 98, and Windows NT* 4.0.

See it says that unless I use the S-ATA Raid 0 feature, IAA does not support the i875 chipset. It goes on to say that you could use the IAA 2.3 version on 800 Series chipsets but that does not support the 865 or 875 chipset either. So you need to use the Microsoft navtive storage driver built into Windows- Not sure if this is something you have to add or if it installed by default. I think its a default thing.

Now if your not using S-ATA in RAID then *** hehe ? DOH But your hardware list at the bottom of your sig shows "2 x 36.7GB Western Digital Raptror SATA (Raid 0) " so that would show the reason why you could install it.

[MaverickSY19]

Originally posted by JoeBar
I have a P4C800 non deluxe that uses ICH5R and don't have a single prob installing IAA raid edition.

The bigest difference is the use of the ICH5R chipset on the -E model. The P4C800 Deluxe used the ICH5 , the cheeper version without S-ATA Raid support. The -E model not only has the ICH5R chipset with the Intel S-ATA Raid on a seperate bus but it also includes a Promise 378 Fastrack chip for 2 more S-ATA drives in RAID or just normal and support for Ultra ATA 133 and below drives in a RAID setup. So you could have 6 drives in a RAID configuration on this board if you wanted. This was good for me because I have 2 20G Ultra ATA 133 7200RPM drives that I wanted to put in a Stripe set for performance to give me 40 gigs. I keep the O/S and all the Application stuff on there. I don't have any S-ATA drives yet and could not afford them right now sense I have plenty of Ultra ATA drives why spend more on the S-ATA at this point. Now later I will get 2 S-ATA drives and can still keep the other RAID set together on the Promise chipset and put the new S-ATA on the Intel chipset, they will both be on seperate busses. A bit of a smaller difference is that they used the Intel CSA Gigabit Ethernet controller on this board instead of the 3Com one used on the non -E boards. The Intel CSA one resides on the CSA bus and is not riding on the PCI bus like the 3Com one does. This take yet one more thing off the already stuffed PCI bus.

Ok enough already hehe. Here are the spec sheats for the 3 P4C800 boards, the 800, 800 Deluxe and the 800-E Deluxe.

P4C800

P4C800 Deluxe

P4C800-E Deluxe

Hope this helps!

[epicbard]

hey do you guys think/know if the knigston hyperX 3500's will work fine on the p4c800edx??

i've only seen 3200 being run on the p4c800 dlx (non e)