Asus P4C800-E: Updating the Intel Flagship

Asus P4C800-E: Stress Testing

We performed stress tests on the P4C800-E in these areas and configurations:

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing, which was conducted by running the FSB at 288 MHz with OCZ 3700 GOLD at 5:4 memory ratio (DDR461) with 2 x 256MB double-bank dimms at 2-3-4-6 timings.
2. Memory stress testing, which was conducted by running Corsair 3200LL RAM at 400 MHz with all 4 DIMM slots filled. Two pairs of Corsair TwinX ver.1.2 was used for this test at the lowest memory timings possible. We tested the Corsair because it was one of the memory brands that was not completely stable in the earlier P4C800 Deluxe.

Front Side Bus Stress Test Results:

We ran a full range of stress tests and benchmarks to ensure that the Asus P4C800-E was absolutely stable at each overclocked FSB speed. These stress tests included Prime95 torture tests, which were run in the background for a total of 24 hours.

In addition, we ran several other tasks — data compression, various DX8 and DX9 games, and apps like Word and Excel — while Prime95 was running in the background. Finally, we ran our benchmark suite, which includes ZD Winstone suite, Unreal Tournament 2003, SPECViewperf 7.0, and Gun Metal Benchmark 2.

In addition to tests with 2 DS dimms, we ran tests with 4 DS OCZ 3700 GOLD (4X256) at 288 FSB. With 4 Dimms, we needed to reduce the FSB to 284 to achieve stability at default voltage. In addition, we discovered that 4 double-bank dimms apparently turn-off PAT above 200FSB. This was confirmed by both CPUZ 1.18C and Sandra tests results. At 800FSB (200) 4DS dimms tested faster than 2 DS dimms, while at 1136FSB (284) 4 DS dimms tested slower than 2 DS dimms. CPUZ 1.18C shows Performance Mode “enabled” with 2 DS dimms and with 4 DS dimms at 800FSB. With 4 DS dimms at 1136FSB (284), CPUZ shows Performance Mode “disabled”. 4 SS dimms show Performance Mode “enabled” at all speeds, and Memory Tests confirm PAT is working.

Asus has been contacted for a fix or comments on the high-speed 4 DS dimm issue. We are also investigating whether this is an issue with all 875 boards, or whether it is unique to the P4C800-E. Running 4 DS dimms at 284 FSB is something most users of the P4C800-E will never do, so it is not a huge issue. We will post additional information on this issue here as we have it.

Memory Stress Test Results:

The memory stress test is very simple, as it tests the ability of the P4C800-E to operate at its officially supported memory frequency (400MHz DDR) at the lowest supported memory timings that our Corsair TwinX LL ver. 1.2 can achieve:

Stable Dual DDR400 Timings (4/4 banks/2 dual-channel populated)
Clock Speed:	200MHz
Timing Mode:	Auto
CAS Latency:	2.0
Bank Interleave:	N/A
RAS to CAS Delay:	3T
RAS Precharge:	5T
Precharge Delay:	2T
Command Rate:	1T

There have been many reports of problems with Corsair 3200LL on the P4C800 Deluxe, though later BIOS revisions appear to work much better with Corsair memory. We had no problems at all running 4 dimms of 3200LL at 2-2-3-5, which is a bit faster than the Corsair SPD 2-2-3-6 timings.

Since we just used the Asus P4C800-E as our test board for “Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2”, we were also able to test this Asus with Adata PC4000, Adata PC3500, Corsair XMS4000, Geil Platinum 4000, Kingston HyperX4000, OCZ 4000, and OCZ 3700 GOLD. We had no problem at all with any of the memory tested. The P4C800-E was completely compatible with all the test dimms at both SPD and more aggressive memory timings and voltages.