The ASUS P4C800 Deluxe is quite similar to the i865PE-based P4P800 Deluxe, with a few noted changes. Obviously the i875P chipset and its PAT feature is a performance upgrade, but ASUS has also included 4 Serial ATA ports, along with SATA RAID (x2) and PATA RAID (x2) through a Promise 20378 controller. The overall board design is quite similar, but ASUS has gone with a 1 AGP Pro/5 PCI/Proprietary Wi-Fi slot layout, along with the standard 6-channel audio, Gigabit LAN, Firewire, and 8 x USB 2.0. ASUS has includes their AI Series of features with the P4C800 Deluxe, which include AI BIOS (auto BIOS load and recovery), AI Audio (peripheral identification and trouble shooting), AI Net (diagnoses and reports cable faults), and AI Overclocking (quick BIOS overclocking up to 30%).
The ASUS P4C800 Deluxe includes most of the high-end options and extras you'd expect with a performance i875P motherboard. This retail package features the motherboard, one black ASUS-branded Floppy cable, two black ASUS-branded ATA-66/100/133 cables, two SATA cables, an I/O Shield, a driver CD, a RAID floppy disk, a WinDVD Suite CD (WinDVD, Creator, WinRIP), a Quick Setup Guide, a 97-page hardcopy user manual, a keyboard template (for BIOS features), and an ASUS case sticker. This is right on target for the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe market, though it does fall a bit short of some of the other high-end i875P offerings.
The physical layout of the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe is quite good, and it really maximizes the board real estate while facilitating an easy install. The ATX power, floppy and IDE connectors are near perfect, and these are mainly located in a square arrangement at to the top-right of the board. The secondary ATX connector is an improvement on the i865PE-based ASUS motherboard, and is positioned at the top of the board, between the DDR and CPU sockets. The DDR sockets are color-coded and the processor socket is arranged nicely, with an offset chipset heatsink and a clear path for the four retention clips. The Parallel ATA RAID connector is offset on the right edge of the motherboard, while the four Serial ATA ports are arranged right next to it, on the bottom-right.
There are really no blatant issues with the overall design, and ASUS has done a very good job with the P4C800 Deluxe. The only small improvements we'd make would be to move the secondary ATX power connector a bit farther away from the DDR sockets, and there looks to be adequate room to use a standard top-mounted Parallel ATA RAID connector.
Installation of the ASUS P4C800 Deluxe received our top marks overall, and it provided the most seamless hardware and software load of the bunch. The exceptional layout contributed to this, and adding the CPU, DDR memory, ATX power cables and other hardware was a real snap. This board is also a full-sized ATX design, so we experienced no board overhang or the install issues inherent with it. The software install progressed just as easily, with Windows XP system drivers or other peripheral software loading without issue.
ASUS is one of the top names in overclocking, and we expect a great deal from their high-end motherboards. The ASUS P4C800 Deluxe has the BIOS features of a champ, and it also performed exceptionally well in testing. System BIOS features include 1 MHz FSB adjustment (up to 400 MHz), along with full CPU core, AGP and DDR voltage selections. The overall maximum voltages allowed are quite high, and there should be no problem getting the most out of your CPU with this board. The only area we could improve on is the lack of DDR overclocking, and there is no way to independently adjust DDR clock speeds from the standard 400 MHz (at 200 MHz FSB). This board also features an AMI BIOS, which is more than functional, but we prefer the most user-friendly and logical Award design.
ASUS has a real contender for the high-end Pentium 4 desktop market, and the P4C800 Deluxe certainly delivers on all counts. It has a super layout, a host of onboard options, and a wide selection of overclocking features. To compete in the high-end i875P arena, you really need to wow in terms of features and added extras, but here ASUS falls just behind the top-end competition like MSI. Performance is right at the top of the chart, and the P4C800 Deluxe is still one of the best i875P gaming motherboards on the market.
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