• SiS655FX chipset (SiS655FX north bridge and SiS964 south bridge)

The board was provided by ASUS, but its official roadmap doesn't mention this model - only P4S800D (not Deluxe) on SiS655FX and P4S800D-E Deluxe on SiS655TX. This approach looks reasonable because the twins SiS655FX and SiS655TX have only one difference - the advanced memory controller in the latter (Advanced HyperStreaming), that is why it serves a base for the more functional (Deluxe) model. If nothing changes, the today's description should be referred to the P4S800D-E Deluxe and the speed scores to the P4S800D. The board tested is a typical top product with all attributes - good speeds, accessories and features.

The layout of the components is not ideal, but it could be much worse. The position of the FDD and IDE RAID connectors might prevent installation of only extremely long extension cards, the small SATA and SATA RAID connectors might get lost between the PCI cards, and the cables coming from the audio-ins located in front of the PCI slots can be a real obstacle. It can be difficult to reach some jumpers when the board is already installed. Their functions are indicated on the PCB. +5 V Standby is indicated with the green LED. The 3-phase switching voltage regulator incorporates 7 capacitors of 1500 uF and 3 of 1200uF. There are also voltage regulators of the AGP bus (2 1000 uF and several less capacious) and of the memory (2 of 1000 uF). 

The board provides space for Realtek's LAN PHY controller chip - it's installed in the P4S800D model whose Fast Ethernet interface is provided with the MAC controller of the south bridge, and 3Com's Gigabit Ethernet chip is lacking. In addition, the low-end model lacks a FireWire controller and an additional SATA/IDE RAID controller on the SiS180 chip - they are not soldered out as the boards share the same PCB. The P4S800D-E Deluxe (on SiS655TX) is based on the same PCB, and its only difference (beside a different north bridge) is the Analog Devices AD1888 audio codec. The board measures 305x245 mm (full-size ATX, 9 fastening screws, all edges fixed). System monitoring is supported by Winbond W83627THF-A chip (which also functions as LPC Super I/O). It controls: 

• processor voltages, +3.3, +5 and +12 V;
• rotation speed of 3 fans;
• temperatures of the processor (built-in sensor) and the board (built-in sensor). 

Ports & connectors onboard

• CPU socket (Socket 478, Prescott CPUs supported); 
• 4 slots for DDR SDRAM DIMM (up to 4 GB DDR200/266/333/400, in the dual-channel mode the slots of the same color must have equal symmetrical modules; the list of the memory modules certified can be found in the user guide and on ASUS site); 
• AGP slot (with a retention clip); 
• 5 PCI slots; 
• ASUS WiFi slot (for WiFi-b adapter);
• Power supply connectors: standard ATX and 4-pin 12V; 
• FDD; 
• 3 IDE (Parallel ATA) - 2 on chipset (the drives connected can use the ATA133 protocol), the third one works with an additional controller (the drives can form RAID arrays of 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD levels with two SATA drives); 
• 4 SATA (Serial ATA) - 2 on chipset (the drives can form RAID arrays of 0, 1 and JBOD levels),  two more work with an additional controller (the drives can form RAID arrays of 0, 1, 0+1 and JBOD levels with two PATA drives);
• 2 connectors for brackets of 2 additional USB (2.0) ports; 
• Connector for a bracket with a FireWire port; 
• Connector for a second COM port;
• Connector for a Game port;
• Connector for audio-out from CD/DVD drive; 
• Connector for AUX-IN;
• CaseOpen Sensor port
• Connector for a bracket with additional audio-outs and S/PDIF; 
• 3 connectors for fans (with rotation control). 

Rear panel (left to right, units)

• PS/2 mouse and keyboard;
• 1 LPT, 1 S/PDIF-Out (Coaxial), 1 COM;
• 2 USB & 1 FireWire;
• 2 USB & 1 RJ-45 (Gigabit Ethernet);
• 3 audio ports (Mic-In, Line-In, Front).

Accessories

• Package of the standard AI Series design;
• Documentation: user manual in English, installation brief in 12 languages;
• Cables: 2 ATA66/100/133, 1 ATA33 and FDD - all are black with company's logo, and 2 Serial ATA (with PCPlug-SATA adapter);
• Bracket with a FireWire port;
• Bracket with 2 USB ports;
• I/O Shield;
• Software CD:
• drivers;
• Adobe Acrobat Reader;
• PC-cillin 2002;
• ASUS Live Update;
• ASUS PCProbe;
• ASUS Screensaver;
• Winbond Voice Editor;
• DirectX 8.1.

Integrated controllers

• audio controller based on the Analog Devices AD1980 AC'97 codec; 5.1 audio system, front I/O and S/PDIF supported;
• Network controller based on 3Com Marvell 940-MV00 chip, 10/100/1000 Mbit/s Base-T (Gigabit Ethernet) supported;
• SATA/IDE RAID based on SiS180 chip, RAID 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD, and 2 SATA and 1 IDE connectors supported;
• FireWire based on VIA VT6307 chip, 2 ports supported.

The integrated sound quality is estimated at 16bit/44kHz with the RightMark Audio Analyzer 5.2 and Terratec DMX 6fire sound card:
 

General performance: Good (in detail). We recommend that you look at the diagrams - this card has certain problems with sound. 

Technologies

• BIOS returns to defaults settings if the system doesn't start after overclocking) 
• ASUS AI Net (the network controller checks if the network cable is defective with the diagnostic utility); 
• ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 (auto BIOS recovery from diskette or CD even if the flash chip data are corrupted); 
• ASUS POST Reporter (reports about problems during booting, you can create your own messages); 
• ASUS Q-Fan Technology (auto fan speed control); 
• ASUS EZ Flash (flashing new BIOS versions without OS booting); 
• ASUS Instant Music (Audio CD playback without the need to boot OS; available only with integrated audio and PS/2 keyboard) 
• ASUS MyLogo2 (displays your own screensavers while the system is booting); 
• ASUS WiFi@Home (connector (and WiFi-b card for Wireless Edition boards) for connecting to a wireless network of the respective standard);
• CPU Parameter Recall (BIOS returns to defaults settings if the system doesn't start after overclocking, without the need to use a jumper);

Settings

We used the BIOS 1002 as the latest available version. The BIOS features listed above are available in this firmware version, nonstandard functions weren't tested. 

Performance

According to the preliminary tests this is the fastest board among two. However, the gap is only 3%.
 

Test results:

• New dual-channel chipset from SiS for Pentium 4 with FSB 800 MHz - SiS655FX

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