ASUS P4GE-V i845GE Based Mainboard

i845GE chipset

The latest products of this company, including this one, based on the high-performance chipsets have a good accessory suite and support almost all technological innovations. This model is an almost full copy of the ASUS P4PE, but has a video-out of the chipset's integrated core.

Accessories:

Package of the standard design;
Documentation: user manual in English and brief installation manual in 11 languages;
Cables: FDD, 2 Serial ATA, 1 ATA66/100/133, 1 ATA33;
Bracket with 2 USB and Game ports;
Bracket with COM port
Bracket for the rear computer panel;
CD containing:

drivers;
DirectX 8.1;
Adobe Acrobat Reader;
PC-Cillin 2002;
3Deep;
Winbond Voice Editor;
ASUS Live Update;
ASUS HotKey;
ASUS Logo;
ASUS PCProbe;
ASUS Screensaver.

The layout has typical drawbacks: audio-ins and connectors along the left side of the board are not easy to reach and when a video card is installed it's difficult to handle the memory modules. It's not difficult to reach jumpers when the board is already installed. Their functions are not shown on the textolite.

The 3-channel switching voltage regulator incorporates 6 capacitors of 1500 uF and 3 of 1200 uF.

The following controllers are integrated:

audio controller based on the chipset's capabilities and Analog Devices AD1980 AC'97 codec supporting 5.1 audio systems and having connectors for front audio inputs/outputs and for SPDIF;

network controller based on the Broadcom BCM5702CKFB chip supporting 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T;

IDE RAID controller based on the Promise PDC20376 chip supporting RAID 0 and 1 on the ATA133 and SATA protocols;

FireWire bus controller based on the VIA VT6307 chip.

The board incorporates ASUS Multi-Language BIOS, ASUS POST Reporter (reports about problems during booting), ASUS MyLogo2 (for displaying your images when the system boots),ASUS EZ Plug (allows using a power unit which doesn't comply with the ATX 2.03 standard), ASUS Q-Fan (auto fan speed control) and ASUS EZ Flash.

+5 V supplied in the StandBy mode is indicated with the green LED, and when a 3.3V card is inserted into the AGP slot you will see the red LED going on which means that the card is incompatible (it's impossible to turn on the computer even with the Power button).

The system monitoring is supported by the ASUS ASB100 Bach chip. What is controlled:

processor voltage, +3.3, +5 and +12 V;
speed of 3 fans;
temperatures of the processor (a built-in sensor), the board (a built-in sensor) and an external sensor connected to the board.

There are 3 connectors for adjustable connection of fans.

Brief characteristics of the board: memory slots - 3 DDR SDRAM; expansion slots - AGP/ 6 PCI; I/O ports - 2 COM/ LPT/ 2 PS/2/ 6 USB 2.0 / 2 FireWire; dimensions - 305x230 mm.

Settings:

with jumpers and switches	Jumper to clear up the CMOS
	Jumper for starting up computer from a PS/2 keyboard
	Jumpers for starting up computer from a USB keyboard
BIOS based on Award v6.0	Setup of memory timings	+	CAS Latency, RAS to CAS Delay, RAS Precharge Delay, Active Precharge Delay, Idle timer, Burst Length, Memory Turbo Mode
	Setup of memory frequency	+	Auto, CPU:DRAM = 1:1, 4:5, 3:4
	Setup of AGP bus	+
	Setup of PCI bus	+
	Changeable scaler of AGP and PCI buses	+	AGP(PCIx2) = 66.66-104.46 MHz in 0.4-0.6 MHz steps
	Manual assignment of interrupts	+
	Changeable FSB frequency	+	100-200 MHz in 1MHz steps
	Changeable CPU multiplier	+	x8-x24
	Changeable core voltage	+	1.5-1.85 V in 0.025V steps
	Changeable memory voltage	+	Auto, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.9 V
	Changeable chipset voltage	-
	Changeable AGP bus voltage	+	Auto, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 V

We used the BIOS 1001 beta 002 as the latest available version.

This is an interesting board with richest settings and it supports peripherals via almost any interfaces. The final position of this model in the row of the boards based on this chipset will be determined only after all the solutions are examined.

Test results:

Dmitry Mayorov (destrax@ixbt.com)

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