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Follow UsThe P4 processor seems to perform better with RDRAM than DDR-RAM. However, the relatively higher cost of RDRAM makes people hesitate to go for that option or use small amounts of it, thus slowing down their system. For them, Asus has their latest offering, the P4B533-E. This motherboard can accommodate the latest Socket 478 P4 and Celeron processors and runs on DDR-RAM thanks to the Intel 845E chipset. But that’s not all. This motherboard is absolutely loaded with features. Worth mentioning are: USB 2.0, IDE RAID 0/RAID 1, 6-channel digital audio, IEEE 1394 (FireWire) and onboard LAN. This motherboard, like most new Asus boards can voice its POST report through the computer speaker as well.
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This board can voice its POST request through the speakers |
| Snapshot |
| ASUS P4B533-E MOTHERBOARD |
| Price: |
| Rs 13,500 |
| Meant for: |
| Those who want a high performance P4 PC |
| Feature: |
| Socket 478, DDR-RAM, USB 2.0, Firewire, IDE RAID capability, 6-channel on-board sound, AGP 4x, 6 PCI, 1 CNR slots |
| Pros: |
| Very feature rich, well worth the price |
| Cons: |
| RAID detection takes time during boot-up |
| Contact: |
| Aditya Infotech, New Delhi |
| Tel: |
| 011-6223810/11, 6452211/12 |
| E-mail: |
| navinder_chauhan@adityagroup.com |
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We tested the motherboard with a P4 2.53 GHz, Seagate Barracuda ATA II HDD, a GeForce2 GTS AGP card, and 128 MB DDR-RAM. The motherboard put up good performance, scoring 51.4 and 55.9 in Business and Content Creation Winstone 2001 respectively. In gaming, the frame rates we obtained were 278.8 and 133.6 at 640x480x16 and 1024x768x32 respectively.
The board has a neat feature where one can customize the picture that is displayed during boot-up time. Most motherboards just display their model number etc, but this one can display any image. It also has connectors that can be used to attach smart card, Secure Digital (SD) and Memory Stick (MS) readers. These can be used for authenticating online transactions, editing
IC-based information etc. A feature called Asus Q-Fan smartly adjusts the fan speeds for quite and efficient operation.
Perhaps the only con we could up with is that in case one is not using RAID, the motherboard will take anywhere up to 15 seconds to try and detect the RAID configuration during boot-up, which is a little irritating. This cannot be disabled through the BIOS either. There are 4 USB ports already available on the motherboard, and two more can be attached using a USB header. 6 PCI and 1 CNR slots give ample room for expansion as well.
The Bottom Line: Considering its rich set of features the board’s price of Rs 13,500 is quite good. So, if you are on the lookout for a P4 motherboard, the Asus P4B533-E
will definitely be on our list of recommendations.
Anuj Jain at PCQ Labs