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Aside from the mainboard itself, the P4B266 ships with the usual 80 conductor ribbon cable as well as the standard floppy drive connector. Standard accessories include the typical ASUS manual, as usual, close to perfect, the support CD and the bag of extra jumper that can always come handy. Non-standard accessories encompass the a 4-port USB 2.0 module, where module is a different name for an integrated backpanel bracket.

The dual port USB 1.1 bracket shown in the check list was not present, which is no great loss since the ATX back panel already contains the two standard USB 1.1 ports and the additional USB 2.0 ports are fully backwards compatible anyway An additional interesting and useful addendum is the SPDIF header.

The SPDIF header included with the ASUS P4B266 is the basic variety with only a standard Input / Output jack each. No optical interface is provided. It is not really important but I personally would rather have optical I/O for the digital sound than a Smart Card Reader interface of questionable value.

For the convenience of the user, ASUS had added the quick-reference sticker, showing all jumpers and connectors at one single glance. The sticker can be attached to the outside or the inside of the case for future reference in case one can't locate the manual. In most cases, this is really all one needs. Not quite redundant in this context is the Quick Setup Guide that takes things just one step further and explains in seven postcard-size pages the most important setup procedures and connectors in no less than 10 languages. For those who need more information, the real manual, as already mentioned is a true resource as it has been standard for ASUS for many years now.

Quality

To question the quality of an ASUS board is somewhat difficult, at least when quality is defined as the overall impression of hardware alone. In the past, however, there have been issues with the interfacing of the Winbond Multi-I/O chips and the ASUS ASIC leading to erroneous hardware monitor readings, specifically with respect to temperatures. In addition, voltage settings were not always according to specs and this list could be continued. Needless to say that aside from everything being in superb quality, the P4B266 did not show any of the HW monitoring issues we found on other boards. But then, there is also no more Winbond SuperI/O chip being used, this honor goes to ITE's low pin count (LPC) controller chip.

To start with the voltage regulator circuitry, where even with the A7V266-E, ASUS went with an, however elegant, dual phase solution from On-Semi, the P4B266 features the industry standard Intersil HIP 6301 in a triple phase configuration, backed by no less than seven 3300 µF capacitors. To underscore the quality of this design, we found that Vre oscillations were in the order of about 0.01V which is as clean as it is technically feasible.

Another feature that sort of plays into the quality section concerns the board power connectors. It is certainly true that even with a standard ATX connector it is possible to drive a Pentium4 and the Northwood makes things even easier because of its reduced power demand compared to the Willamette. However, just running a board for a brief period of time does not give insight into wear and tear over time that is induced by uneven power distribution within the board. Exactly these issue are the ones causing Intel to implement a sensor into their own boards to prevent initialization of the CPU if the ATC 2.03 12V connector does not receive the appropriate power.

Needless to say that for the average consumer a reduction in life span of a mainboard from 10 to 7 years hardly bears any meaning. On the other hand, we are past the age of the 286 or 386 and even if CPU and system power will continue to grow according to Moore's law, there is still a chance that a 2 GHz PC will be fully functional and useable 6-7 years down the road. In other words we may see quality issues become more important again as the number of idle cycles increases with clockspeed.

To get back on track, the problem with power distribution and the 12V ATX connector is that not everyone has a brand-spanking new ATX 2.03 compliant PSU, however, as mentioned in earlier reviews, there are other ingenious ways to provide the additional juice to the board, using existing connector layout. The classical example is the ASUS EZ Plug, copied everywhere else now but to give credit where credit is due, ASUS was the first company to come out with it. For those not familiar with the EZ Plug, it is nothing but a power connector borrowed from a HDD or CDROM and mounted on the mainboard. Everyone has spare connectors and those who don't can use a Y-splitter to add the extra board power. Mind over Intel (er, matter) once again.

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