Summary Conclusion
Asus have created a real winner with the P4G8X motherboard. The issues surrounding the P4T and its ability to run at high front side bus speeds are but a distant memory because the P4G8X copes extremely well with what ever you throw at it.As ever the board is of the highest quality and the Deluxe model tested was packed with features. The only feature missing is IDE raid which would have made the board complete.
Most of the Asus special features are useful. The Bios’s ability to recover from over enthusiastic overclocking was excellent.
Although the board is expensive at circa £170 in the UK it still represents excellent value if you are looking for a high specification, ultra performance board for your system. Although we tested the board with expensive DDR3500 Ram, which is totally over the top, the board works equally well with DDR2100 memory which can be purchased very cheaply indeed. An Asus P4G8X with a pair of matching 256MB DDR2100 sticks should cost in the region of £250, compared to the P4T with 512MB 4200 Rimms at circa £230 or the Abit IT7 MaxII with 512MB DDR3500 ram at circa £300.
Bios control of the Asus P4G8X is excellent with a multitude of adjustments available. 400FSB capability is a bit over the top, but the vcore and vdimm adjustments are perfect for overclocking enthusiasts.
In summary the Asus P4G8X Deluxe is a wonderful motherboard which I would highly recommend. With a good Pentium 4 processor its ability to overclock is exceptional.
Pros.
• Packed with features.
• Very good overclocking ability.
• Very fast.
• High quality.
• Very reliable.
Cons.
• Expensive – until you add the cost of memory
• Poor availability
