Monday, June 23, 2003

Technical details

First of all, the space available to install the cooling fan for the processor is well located so that it will make it possible to use the largest models without any problem.

The memory connectors being far enough from the AGP connector, the retention levers of the memory modules do not come into contact with the graphic board when the memory modules are taken out. The latter are at a distance of approximately 1.5 cm when opened to their maximum. Thus it is rather easy to withdraw a memory bar even with the installed graphic board.

The regulating circuits are of the triple phase and double MosFets type. All the parts are present on the board. I see no open spaces able to receive other capacitors or regulators.

Around the processor support, one finds 4 capacitors of 3300mfds and 3 capacitors of 1200mfds.

The socket retentions lever of the processor is made of metal.

The Northern bridge of the chipset is cooled by a heat sink only.

Connector ATX is located at the North-East of the board with the result that its conductors do not hinder the cooling of the processor. It is adjacent to the IDE 2 connector of the board which does not cause a problem.

One finds 3 ventilator connectors on this motherboard and they all are under the control of the monitoring of the hardware in BIOS.

The monitoring of the hardware is dealt with by circuit ITE It8708f-A.

Connectors supporting the standards USB 2.0 (480Mbps) and Firewire 1394(2) are present and are supported by the circuit of Texas Instrument TSB4ÁB22. The IEEE 1394 being present on the model 1394 only.

The audio circuit is ensured by the Realtek ALC650 chip which thus offers the SPDIF in and SPDIF out (on the Audio model) for the maniacs of high fidelity. These in/out are dedicated to the audio but only in its digital form.

A Fast Ethernet 10/100 network port is present and under the control of the E7205 circuit and by the BRAODCOM BCM4401 Fast Ethernet controller; however, one can get, as an option, on the LAN model, a BRAODCOM BCM5702 1000/100/10 Bases-T Gigabit Ethernet Media Access Control controller. The latter offering a speed of transfer of 1 GB/s. Wow!!

One also finds 2 ATA Raid 0/1 series ports controlled by the Silicone Sil311ACT Image circuit only available in option on SATA model.

Very good overclocking functions are integrated into BIOS to act on the FSB of the processor like on the adjustment of the Vcore tensions, DDR and AGP Voltage as well as AGP/PCI frequency ratio.

This motherboard uses a technology named Q-fan which controls the speed of the cooling fan according to the temperature of the processor.

A function called "AGP Warning LED" automatically detects the AGP 2X boards fed at 3.3 volts which are incompatible with this motherboard and prevents the starting of the system if necessary thus avoiding any damage to the motherboard.

The motherboard supports AGP 8x mode for a maximum transfer of 2.1 GB/s.

This motherboard supports Dual-Channel DDR for a bandwidth reaching the 4.2 GB/s. The total quantity of memory being able to be installed on this board is 4 GBytes of PC2100/PC1600.

Asus C.O.P. technology which protects the CPU against overheatings and Asus Post Reporter technology which informs by vocal messages about the problems encountered during the starting, are also integral parts of this motherboard.

Finally, for those who are afraid to have to reprogram BIOS, be reassured. Asus CrashFree BIOS makes it possible to reprogram starting from a diskette even if BIOS has been damaged. Interesting enough, isn’t it? Besides, with EZFlash, no need of a diskette to carry out the same task. Of course, BIOS should not be damaged.

Next: Additional features.

Asus P4G8X