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The response from ASUS to Intel's release of the i845D chipset is the P4B266. A complete set of features including on-board 6-channel sound, USB 2.0, Smart Card reader interface, SPDIF as well as headers for more exotic storage media as secure digital memory card (SDMC) and memory stick (MS) put the P4B at the top of boards in its class, at least with respect to interfaceability. Missing from the repertoire are integrated LAN and IEEE1394 firewire, which, for the standard user would be more useful. In terms of overclocking we encountered some problems that could be related to the use of the Northwood CPUs in that the board would not post above 110 MHz FSB when the soft BIOS was used. Using the dip switches, we managed to run the P4B266 at 133 MHz FSB with the Northwood 2.0 GHz and 125 MHz for the 2.2 equivalent, resulting in as much as 2749 MHz clockspeed using standard air cooling at room temperature, albeit with limited stability. Some problems with the soft BIOS vs. jumper mode prevented us from hitting the 400 fps barrier in Quake3 Arena Demo_four. We have additional issues with the layout but neither point of criticism can undermine the overall verdict that the P4B266 is a bombshell of a board.

Like almost all major manufacturers, ASUS has taken the transition to Intel's newest DDR chipset for the P4 platform. After the somewhat disappointing performance of the original SDRAM version of the i845, codename Brookdale, the new i845D chipset promises to narrow the gap to Intel's own dual channel Rambus i850 chipset and offer a serious alternative to third-party platforms such as the P4X266 (VIA), the SIS 645 and the upcoming ALi P4 DDR platform.

To say it upfront, since the ASUS P4B266 was used as test platform for the launch of Intel's Northwood processor, there is already an abundance of benchmarks that we have posted in the earlier review. Therefore, we will concentrate on some limited overclocking results and benchmarks that, nevertheless, are astounding enough to warrant a look.

With the i845D chipset, as far as we can tell so far, chances are that we will see a repetition of the 440BX scenario where almost all boards in the later revisions performed close to identical with differences only in the peripheral configuration and features. Of course, the side effect will be that the different manufacturers will beat each other to death with more and more or less useful or redundant features that are added just because the chipset supports them, rather than because there is interest, not to mention a demand.

Amongst the little gizmos we have seen lately and causing quite a bit of confusion are the Smart Card Reader interface but that's not where things will stop. Unfortunately, the flipside of the coin is that other peripherals we would like to see are completely buried, I am talking about e.g. IEEE 1394 Firewire. True, USB 2.0 is coming on strong now but USB and Firewire are not necessarily substitutes for each other. Enough rambling and ranting, there are a few new interfaces on the ASUS P4B266 that are exotic enough to spend a little time on their description.

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