ASUS P4S333 SiS 645 Based P4 Motherboard

After posting my coverage from the Rambus Developer's Forum , I got a taste of just how much the THG faithful dislike the company. Yesterday, we saw an Asus motherboard set up to use the much disdained RDRAM, but if you're in the anti-Rambus camp, you're probably looking at DDR-based solutions to accompany your P4. Asus just told us about its P4S333 socket 478 motherboard that's based on the SiS 645 chipset . It'll carry up to 3GB of high-speed DDR200/266/333 SDRAM at a claimed peak bandwidth of 2.7GB/ second. It also has on-board 6-channel 3D surround audio via the C-Media CMI8738 audio controller along with an optional SPDIF-in/out module and an optional SiS LAN controller. As expected from Asus boards, overclocking options abound, including DIP switches and JumperFree mode that lets you adjust settings either manually or from BIOS screen. 1MHz incremental settings can push system-bus settings up to 200MHz (quad-pumped to 800MHz), with CPU voltage adjustments in 0.05V increments. Memory voltage is also adjustable. An interesting addition is an overclockable AGP bus. The AGP bus on the P4S333 can be overclocked independently from the front-side-bus/memory bus, from within the BIOS. Other HAL-like features include the Asus POST Reporter, which is an onboard speech IC chip that gives you explanations of system errors (hopefully not as irritating as the Microsoft Office assistant) and Asus EZ Plug, which is a power connector that lets you use your existing power supply so that you don't have to buy a special ATX 12V power supply for your P4 CPU. Slots include 6 PCI, 1 ACR, AGP 4X slot, and up to 6 USB ports for the ATX form-factor board, which is shipping this month.