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What you get

All ASUS boards we have seen lately, feature the same package contents, including one floppy, one 80 lead UATA cable, the manual, driver CD and the sober-looking but functional 2-port USB back panel connector. For those who like jumpers, there is an extra back of jumper caps included. The manual is in typical ASUS fashion and probably as good as it can be even though there are a few carry-overs from the ISA days that are obsolete (PCI delayed transaction). One big "Two Thumbs Up" also for the explanation of the different software utilities included on the CD that allows the user to actually get an idea of whether they are interested in the software before they install it and find out that they need it like a hole in the head which is common practice elsewhere.

The same perfectionism has been used for the driver / utility CD which is plain and simply bullet proof. Aside from the VIA 4-in-1 drivers and the newest IDE MPD drivers, the CD contains the Promise Ultra 100 IDE drivers. Utilities included are ASUS PC-Probe (Hardware monitor), Winbond Smart Manager (Smart Card reader), ASUS Update (Windows-based BIOS flash utility), MS DX8.0a, PC-Cillin 2000 V7.61, Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, Cyberlink PowerPlayer 3.0, PowerDVD Trial 3.0 and VideoLive Mail 4.0. The fact that there is no Install Audio Software is excused by Windows "Install on Demand" which automatically sees the C-Media chip and asks for the drivers but does not find them automatically (see above).

(90 out of 100 for the omission of the audio driver installation and some skimpy explanations regarding performance settings)

Quality

We have never had any issue with the quality of any ASUS board and the A7V266-E doesn't break this rule. One thing that comes across somewhat odd is the fact that similar to the MSI K7T266 Pro2, ASUS relies on a 2-phase power circuitry. There is one major difference between the two designs though, in that the MSI board uses the Intersil HIP 6301 programmable multiphase controller (for the record: one of the best in the business), whereas ASUS uses the ON Semiconductor CS5322 2-phase fixed frequency controller with integrated gate drivers and 5bit DAC.

What does this mean?

With today's fast CPUs, the requirements for faster switching power supplies are increasing in a linear fashion with the CPU clock frequency. The operating frequency is usually defined by the frequency of the core controller multiplied by the number of phases. Therefore, it is inherent that a higher number of phases react faster to load changes. However, there are other factors that need to be taken into account and the most crucial factor in this case is impedance. In a conventional power circuit design three components are used, the core IC with its voltage sensing and feedback circuitry, which feeds into the driver chips which then, finally drive the switch voltage regulators (MOSFETs). Each step is hindered by impedance (resistance x frequency) which effectively puts a cap on any faster regulatory circuits since, regardless of how fast the core IC is, it is of no use if the final stage (MOSFETs) aren't fast enough to execute or else, if there are too many steps in the path that negate any fast central circuitry.

Here is where the so-called Enhanced V² control architecture can make a major difference. By integrating four gate drivers into the central control circuitry, the overall switching frequency is faster than if external driver chips were used. In addition, standard controllers can only act at the end of each cycle whereas the ON 5322 has an additional input (Cx) which can terminate the PWM cycle early if there is a signal discrepancy in the reference, voltage or COMP signals. To make a long story short, instead of using multiple phases, the ON Semi CS5322 uses a faster internal design to overcome trace limitations which, combined with flexible cycle termination, provides faster switching than comparable designs with more phases but extra components (kind of a trivial explanation, more info on the ON-Semiconductor datasheets).

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