Board Analysis

Layout

Since the ATI IXP South Bridge provides limited functionality, ASUS has had to incorporate many external controllers to keep the P4R800-V Deluxe competitive with competing Pentium 4 motherboards based on core-logic from Intel and SiS. Despite this, the P4R800-V Deluxe board’s layout doesn’t seem too crowded. In fact ASUS is able to squeeze everything on the PCB without compromising too much on their board.

Across 3 screens

IDE devices in BIOS

Advanced options

The distance between the AGP slot and DIMM sockets is fairly slim, so you will have to install your system memory before installing the graphics card. ASUS’ P4S800D-E Deluxe and P4C800 Deluxe don’t have this shortcoming. In ASUS’ defense however, you will notice the extra space the P4R800-V Deluxe provides between the first PCI slot and the AGP slot. There’s plenty of room to install a GeForce FX 5950 Ultra card without occupying the adjacent PCI slot. This is the first ASUS motherboard we can recall with this feature.

To keep the RADEON 9100 IGP North Bridge cool, ASUS relies solely on passive cooling. A large aluminum heatsink sits atop the North Bridge, which we found does an adequate job of keeping the chip cool, even with the integrated graphics up and running. This is fairly impressive considering the 300MHz clock frequency of the graphics core, although do keep in mind that it’s 2x1 architecture sports a reduced transistor count. The North Bridge is located a little close to the CPU socket, but not quite enough to interfere with processor installation.

ASUS has thoughtfully placed the ATX power connector on the right edge of the motherboard, where it is out of the way of the CPU interface. This helps to ensure optimal airflow. The ATX12V connector is placed beneath the CPU socket, to the left of the North Bridge, but fortunately the cable is thin enough where this shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

To overclock or not to overclock

Frequency/Voltage control

VCore Voltage screen

For expansion, the P4R800-V Deluxe ships with six USB ports, four can be found on the back panel of the motherboard while two more are provided by an external header which is included with the board. For connecting your P4R800-V Deluxe to a TV, ASUS also provides S-Video and composite connections on the back panel of the board. ASUS provides three fan headers on the P4R800-V Deluxe, two near the Socket 478 interface and another just behind the floppy connector and the IDE connector for the SiS180 chip. Both of these connectors are located parallel to the edge of the board to save space.

To ease installation hassles, ASUS color codes the DIMM sockets and the connectors for case connections such as your power LED and system speaker. Of course, ASUS also continues to provide a power LED and its POST Reporter, which can warn you of errors during bootup. An audible voice will literally tell you where the problem lies, which can even be customized with your own voice warnings if you desire.