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Centerpiece of the P4B266 is naturally the i845D chipset with its hub architecture frivolously still called North and South Bridge instead of Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and I/O Controller Hub2 ICH2. Similar to other manufacturers' boards, the P4B266 sports three DIMM slots, however, like everybody else's board, it faces the same limitation that DIMM slots 2 and 3 are only half-functional if populated simultaneously. Effectively, this limits the total amount of system memory to 1 GB, at least until 512 Mbit DRAM technology will be able in DDR format. Even then, it is questionable whether the controller will have enough drive strength to push the huge load of 2 GB system memory since the i845 chipset does not support registered modules, meaning that the memory controller itself has to do the full work. Suffice it to say that drive strength can be increased, often even in the BIOS, however, this could render the board dysfunctional with lower system memory configurations because of unwanted signal ringing.

Irrespective of this excurse into signaling pitfalls, one major criticism we have about all i845 boards looked at so far is the proximity of the AGP interface to the DIMM slots. It is impossible to change DIMMs if any AGP card is installed, moreover, in case of the ATI Radeon, any (graphics) memory heatsink will sit right on the lever of the first DIMM slot and in the event that the levers of the second and third DIMM slots are not in the locked position, it is not possible to install any AGP card at all. Common sense will say that one just needs to pay attention , however, given the inside of a crowded case, it is very easy to overlook the obstacle and potentially damage something.

Closeup of the area of overlap between the AGP and the DDR DIMM slot real estate. Any graphics card with components mounted on the back will cause this kind of situation with the ASUS P4B266 as well as with any other i845D board we have looked at so far. There is hardly any clearance between the AGP slot and the bottom part of the DIMM slots, causing the levers of the DIMM slots to be in the way of even the PCB of the graphics adapter. Add some heatinks as shown in the case of the ATI RADEON 8500 and you have a situation that cries for disaster. most commercially avaliable RAM-sinks are even deeper than the ones shown here and chances are that they will overlap with at least one DIMM slot.

Six PCI slots provide more than ample expandability particularly in view of the on-board features already present, that is, 6 channel C-Media sound courtesy of the CMI8738 controller IC and an optional Ethernet controller. Both LAN and sound functionality can also be achieved in software emulation by using a Communication and Network Riser card (CNR) provided that such a device can be found. For the record, Guillemot / Hercules provides these cards that, in light of current CPU power can put idle cycles to use and provide up to 8-channel sound on a shoestring or whatever it is left in the budget.

The switching of the AGP specs from 3.3V to 1.5 V initially not only caused some compatibility problems but also some fatalities when a 3.3V AGP card was plugged into a 1.5V interface slot, caused by too much current draw. With any card abiding by the layout specifications, that is, featuring the 1.5V key in the connector or rather not featuring this key if the card requires 3.3V, there should not be any possibility to mistakenly insert the 3.3V card into the AGP slot used. However, since not every manufacturer always observes the specs, ASUS added an additional warning LED which lights up in case such a 3.3V card is inserted. Chances for this are slim because the AGP slot is not the universal connector but the specific 1.5V AGP slot, meaning that most 3.3V AGP cards physically won't fit in but better safe than sorry. The drawback here is that the warning LED is hidden in the upper right corner of the PCB behind the ATX power connector, meaning that even if it lights up, chances are that it won't be visible at all since it is hidden behind ribbon and power cables.

The IDE connectors are standard and positioned at the right edge of the PCB, directly underneath the ATX power connector. The position of the latter is somewhat awkward since the bulky power tree needs to be routed into an area where it potentially obstructs access to the 5 ¼ drive bays but in all honesty, if anything, this is a beauty mark. Adjacent to the power connector is the already mentioned EZ Plug for additional board power, a handy feature for those using older power supplies, especially those over 350W but not ATX 2.03 compliant to feature the additional 12V rails.

The devil is in the detail but so are great things, an example is the floppy connector which is angled 90 degrees, meaning that the floppy cable never hangs over the mainboard. The first time we came across this feature was in the case of the FIC 2013 2.0 where we had suggested this feature to FIC and they implemented it for their IDE connectors; unfortunately, nobody ever followed up, that is, until now.

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