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 ASUS P4T (Intel i850 chipset, dual channel Rambus)
Heavyweight Championship Material (Review by MS)
top page | i850 chipset inside | specs | what you get | HIP6301 / ASUS ASIC | Layout | BIOS | setup / overclocking | business performance, memory scores | gaming performance | conclusion


Layout

The centerpiece of the P4T is the socket 423 CPU interface for the Pentium4, flanked by the MCH on the right and the four RIMM slots, grouped into two channels (A and B) on top of it. Characteristic for the MCH is the rather massive heat sink supplied with the mainboard for chipset cooling. Compared to the Intel reference design, ASUS has rotated the Socket 423 interface 90 degrees. The argument is to use the CPU fan for additional chipset cooling which appears more relevant than cooling the RIMMs, which benefit from the power supply fan anyway.


Already mentioned was the novel position of the USB connector block below the I/O connector block. Otherwise, five PCI slots in conjunction with an AGP Pro slot should provide sufficient possibility for expansion. Strangely enough, there is no CNR slot even though the ICH2 has integrated network capabilities. The reason is that a version of the P4T available with integrated Fast Ethernet port will be available, bypassing the need for a cheap CNR (not available anyway in most stores). The IDE / floppy connectors are grouped at the right edge of the PCB and, thus, don't constitute any obstacle.

In typical ASUS fashion, the layout is very clean and all components are easily accessible. The main concerned part is the blue piano-switch battery for manual configuration of FSB and multiplier settings. Once again, positioning this 10-x switch block in the lower right corner of the PCB makes it optimally accessible for those selecting JEN (jumper enabled) mode.

The 10-x dipswitch battery allows to manually set FSB frequency and CPU-multiplier. Please note that, using an off-the-shelf Pentium 4, the multiplier specification will not work, neither from within the BIOS, nor using the dipswitches.

Cube Power

The power demands of the P4, the i82850 MCH and, last not least, the Rambus RIMMs are pushing the limitations of standard power supplies. Particularly, in OEM PCs, often equipped with 200 or 235 W power supply units (PSU), the P4 configuration would, by far, exceed any hypothetical capability of the PSU, not to mention real life situations.

As a workaround, manufacturers are forced to add additional power connectors to the mainboard in order to compensate for weak case power supply units. The auxiliary power connector is grouped next to the ATX power connector in the upper right corner of the PCB; an additional non-standard 12 V connector is between the MCH and the IDE connector interface. All in all, there are three separate power input connectors on the P4T.

This is what the additional 12 V ATX power connector looks like that plugs into the extra socket next to the IDE channel connectors. With a decent power supply, there should not be any problem, though, running the ASUS P4T without the extra power input.

Jumpers

The ASUS P4T is essentially jumperfree, meaning that even the Clear CMOS jumper is missing. Instead, the soldering points next to the battery can be shorted or the battery can be removed. Make sure, though that the computer is, indeed, disconnected from the wall power outlet, otherwise, the standby power will effectively undermine any effort to clear the CMOS. There are a few jumpers on the P4T, starting with the USBPWR jumper to enable USB device-driven wake up. The second jumper (JEN) is effectively a misnomer in that jumper-enable actually means enabling the dipswitch battery. Everything else can be adjusted within the BIOS.

Connectors

In an interview about 2 years ago, one of the ASUS chief executives was asked: "Why are ASUS boards better than the competition?" and the answer was "Because we have more connectors than anyone else". The same philosophy still holds for the P4T with the restriction that there is no integrated on-board sound and, thus, there is no need to place audio codec input connectors on the board. Otherwise, the P4T is equipped with a chassis intrusion header (logging any attempts to taper with the hardware), infrared, system bus, and additional USB headers. Three fan headers, one thermistor header for external temperature measurements, Wake-On-LAN and Wake-On-Modem round up the list of connectors.

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