Motherboard Specifications

The Good

The T2P4-X, although rumored to be the elusive 100MHz bus speed "Rev4" ASUS board does not seem to support any bus speeds greater than 83MHz. Actually, the manual only states that it can be used up to speeds of 66MHz bus, however the 75 and 83.3MHz bus speed settings do exist and they are as follows:

After discovering those settings, the TXP4-X becomes much more of a motherboard and can finally be put up against the best of the best performance-wise. The TXP4-X is probably the closest thing to the "standard-TX" board you will ever come across, based on the ATX Form Factor, the TXP4-X features the now standard 4 PCI, 4 ISA, 2 DIMM and 4 SIMM slots making it an expandable board yet flexible to meet your needs. It supports all of the major voltages, including 2 special voltages, 2.1v and 2.5v for future processors. The 2.5v setting pretty much guarantees that you will be able to use the upcoming AMD K6/266 with the TXP4-X, however the 2.1v setting still remains a mystery to most people since no future processor has been rumored to use that setting. Regardless, the TXP4-X provides the user with the options and features found in most TX based motherboards today, however what really sets this board apart from the rest is the ASUS name.

When you buy an ASUS motherboard you aren't paying completely for the performance, or the features of the board, you are paying for the stability, quality and reliability of an ASUS motherboard and you should expect nothing less. As with other ASUS boards, the TXP4-X features the excellent users manual now standard with all ASUS boards. The manual includes much more than the necessary information pertaining to the motherboard, it contains detailed sketches, as well as photographs which can really aid the first time builder in assembling his or her first system.

The performance of the of the TXP4-X is quite astounding, at 262.5MHz with the Intel Pentium MMX not only did it perform reliably it produced the best Winstone 97 scores to appear on this page. Armed with the AMD K6, the TXP4-X rivaled the Shuttle HOT-569 and ABIT AX5, the two overall fastest TX based boards I have tested so far. In most cases this board is very stable, especially when using the 66MHz bus speed and even when using the 75MHz bus speed, however it does require a bit of tweaking to get it functional at those settings. Which leads us into the bad aspects of this seemingly perfect motherboard...

The Bad

The TXP4-X lifts you up, and then breaks you down, it is one roller coaster ride of a board. Although it works perfectly at the 75MHz bus speed, the 83MHz setting is a trick to operate. I don't recommend overclocking using the 83MHz bus speed setting if you absolutely must have a stable system, you can accomplish a successful overclock to a speed using the 83MHz bus speed setting, however it is a pain. That can be overlooked, since not all of us have peripherals which work perfectly at the 83MHz bus speed, this next shortcoming of the TXP4-X cannot be overlooked as easily though. The TXP4-X was originally designed to be a "cheaper" version of the TX97 series from ASUS, however I really wish ASUS had actually left some of the features of the TX97 series in when designing the TXP4-X. This board has absolutely NO unique features that sets it apart from the crowd, no special power management features (aside from those normally featured in ATX TX boards), no voltage monitoring features, and not even a single thermal monitoring function. Its a disappointment, if the TX97 series is anything like the TXP4-X I would strongly recommend you pick one of those up instead of this "imitation"

• Allows user to individually set IRQs for each Legacy ISA card

• Allows user to reserve IRQ/DMA Channels if necessary

• Auto-detects PnP Cards after HDD Detection

BIOS Settings

Here are my Recommended BIOS Settings for those of you who have been having problems with the TXP4-X and higher bus speeds, I'm not sure why though since it was very stable when I tested it. Below are my recommended settings for bus speeds < 66MHz, and 75MHz. If you are using Non-EDO RAM, then use the settings the in the 2nd (Non - EDO) column, if you are using SDRAM/EDO RAM with a 50/60/66MHz bus speed use the 3rd (66MHz Setting) column. The next column should be used if you are using the 75MHz bus speed and EDO/SDRAM. Finally, if you are looking for the safest and most stable setting, use the last column. There are more Chipset Features Setup options than those I have listed here, but they pertain to HDD settings as well as Serial/Parallel Ports and have nothing to do with memory timings so I left them out intentionally.

Recommended SDRAM

This little addition to my review layout was put in here just so you all can have an idea of what brand of SDRAM I recommend and have tested with the board, just to avoid problems in the future if you decide to purchase the board.

Recommended SDRAM: Advanced Megatrends SDRAM; Corsair SDRAM; SmarTech SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 2 x 32MB Advanced Megatrends SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x 32MB SmarTech SDRAM DIMMs; 2 x 32MB Corsair SDRAM DIMMs

Manufacturer: Advanced Megatrends
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.megacom.com

Manufacturer: Corsair Microsystems
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.nf-ny.com

The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

Test Configuration

Windows 95 Performance of the ASUS TXP4-X

It isn't the world's best performer, and sometimes it can give you a few problems when overclocking, however the TXP4-X offers performance that is true to the ASUS name =)

The Final Decision

This one is your call, if you just want a TX board, without any really special features, just an average TX board based on the ATX form factor which offers great performance and the backing of a great company...then the TXP4-X is for you, otherwise, I would consider the TX97 series instead