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In terms of connectivity, the ASUS P4S533 offers about anything one could ever imagine. To start with the on-board sound, based on the CMedia CMI8738 6-channel sound chip, we have audio Line-In and Line-Out in addition to the standard CD, modem and Aux input headers and the SPDIF interface. Since the CMedia 8738 support 6-channel sound, there is the possibility to select the Bass/Center via jumpers. If that is not yet enough, there is the Audio front panel header (IAPanel), which needs to be enabled by removing the jumpers that otherwise reroute the audio signals to the ATX back panel sound port.

ATX I/O connector block featuring the integrated LAN RJ-45 connector on top of the USB 1.1 ports.

We further have the on-board LAN, two USB ports in the back-panel and two USB 1.1 headers with the necessary bracket to support the additional 4 USB channels. Additional interfaces include the infrared header, Smart Card reader header, Secure Digital and Memory Stick interfaces and the AFPanel better known as iPanel which, strangely enough is not mentioned with a single word in the manual. Last not least, we have the chassis intrusion and the temperature sensor header to activate / shut down the power supply fan if the case temperatures require it.

Fan Headers

As for fan headers, we are looking at a total of three but be aware that the CPU and the PWR header operate in different manners, so make sure that the CPU fan is connected to the CPU fan header and nothing else. In case the CPU fan header is not connected to a fan with a sensor, the boot process will stop with a message regarding a wrong configuration in the Power section of the CMOS setup, so this is relatively safe. The drawback is that some heat sink fans (including some supplied by Intel) do not feature an rpm sensor meaning that the boot process has to be manually ok'd every time. Keep this in mind when selecting a heat sink / fan combo or hook up a case fan / sensor in case water cooling is used.

Jumpers / Dip Switch

She's got L'Eggs, and she knows how to use them. Actually, it should read: the P4S533 has a ton of jumpers just like any other ASUS board and if you know what to do with them or, by extension, the dip switch, you qualify for the next King of the Hill. Aside from the standard jumpers to clear CMOS and to enable wake-up by USB, keyboard etc, we once again have the infamous JEN jumper needed to enable / disable jumpered / jumperless mode.

Welcome to Jumperland. What, at first glance, looks confusing are just the jumpers to reroute the signal to the back panel and those for setting the bass / center configuration. Nothing really to worry about.

For the overclocking community, the most important jumper, at least according to the common grain of wisdom is the VEN1 or overvoltage enable jumper that directly shorts the necessary pins on the STMicro power controller to change the VID and enable 0.2V above the standard voltage range for any given CPU. Personally, I have never found much benefit in over voltages, this particular CPU will die at 2850 MHz regardless of voltage, air or water cooling but it is the faith that moves mountains.

The DIP switch allows a variety of combinations of FSB and memory bus frequencies, yet, there is no mentioning of frequency changes for the MuTIOL connection between the SIS645DX and the SIS961 North and South Bridge as what we found in the case of the Soyo Dragon Ultra. Since it is a 5 switch block, a total of 32 settings should be supported, listed in the manual are only 11. This is ok but may be selling short since some of the most important settings are missing, that is, for example 133 / 200 MHz (FSB / Memory), which is not documented.

Finally, the DDR voltage can be adjusted via jumpers. The default is 2.5V but it is worth checking the jumper position before powering up, marching orders can change rather fast at ASUS. In any event, the possible jumper settings are 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 V and the measured voltages roughly correspond to the manual.

I already mentioned the VEN1 jumper, and the Center / Bass jumpers, in addition there is an AEN1 (audio Enable) jumper that can be used to enable the onboard audio at the hardware level.

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