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P4T533 Layout |
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A little cramped,
but overall solid |
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Whereas
many manufacturers spend time dressing motherboards up in
attractive colors and sharp looking boxes, ASUS sticks to
the basics ? catchy packaging on a standard PCB. ASUS
generally scores aces with their board layout as well, but
we do have some qualms with the P4T533. To begin with,
the auxiliary 12V connector that supplies extra power to the
Pentium 4 processor is inconveniently wedged between the
heat sink retention mechanism and the AGP Pro slot.
Once connected, the auxiliary cable drapes over the heat
sink, potentially obstructing air flow from the processor?s
fan. The actual ATX power connector is located right
where we like to see it (on the upper right-hand corner of
the board), but it is also surrounded by the floppy and IDE
connectors, not to mention ASUS? EZ-PLUG. Fully
configured, this cluster of connectors causes quite a tangle
of cables.
On the
other hand, the transition to 32-bit memory modules has
eased space constraints and provided for a few extra
features. The P4T533 includes a pair of ATA-133
connectors with RAID capabilities through the Promise
PDC20276. USB 2.0 comes courtesy of NEC?s controller
chip and six channel audio is available from the C-Media
CMI8738. With a single AGP Pro slot and six PCI slots,
the P4T533 is clearly intended for the enthusiast with no
desire for budget-oriented CNR riser cards.
Three fan
headers provide the ability to monitor fan RPMs. All
three headers can be configured to adjust fan speeds and
response times in order to decrease overall system noise and
cooling efficiency. Custom warning messages can be
vocalized with POST Reporter, should you encounter a problem
setting up the motherboard. Finally, ASUS has included
the headers necessary to connect a game port, extra USB 2.0
ports, a smart card reader, ASUS? own iPanel and a front
panel audio connector.
The BIOS of the
ASUS P4T533
Motherboard:
The P4T533
houses two blocks of DIP-switches for configuring both the
processor ratio and front side bus frequencies, though we
prefer to use ASUS? jumperless mode, that manipulates the
same settings within the BIOS. Although Intel hasn?t
yet validated the i850E chipset to operate with PC1066
memory, ASUS has enabled the necessary 4x bus ratio for
proper PC1066 operation. Both the AGP and PCI busses
can be locked at their default frequencies or sped up for
additional performance. This feature is particularly
useful for overclocking enthusiasts that may want to
increase the front side bus frequency without running their
AGP and PCI devices beyond their specifications.
Processor voltage settings can either be set automatically
or changed manually. A quick jumper change adds
voltage settings between 1.85 and 1.95V for the Willamette
and 1.7 and 1.8V for the Northwood, to the available list
for more aggressive overclocking attempts.
The most
notable omission from the included Award BIOS is the AGP and
RAM voltage setting, which often helps coax stubborn
hardware into successfully overclocking.
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Overclocking
the
P4T533
Motherboard |
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The Fastest Gets
Faster |
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Considering
that Intel decided not to validate the i850E chipset for use
with PC1066 memory, we had our doubts about the P4T533?s
headroom. Nevertheless, we were able to increment the
front side bus until resting at 150MHz as the most stable
overclocked setting. Of course this resulted in an
equivalent 600MHz system bus and PC1200 memory speeds.
Our 2.4GHz Pentium 4 rested comfortably at 2.7GHz, though we
suspect the memory modules limited our overclocking
attempts, since extra CPU voltage had no effect on system
stability above the 150MHz bus setting.
It?s no
secret that the Pentium 4 thrives on memory bandwidth, so
exactly how much bandwidth would PC1200 memory provide if it
were available? Using SiSoft Sandra 2002, we measured
more than 3.6GB per second of sustained data transfer,
compared to more than 3.3GB per second for PC1066 and 2.5GB
per second for PC800. A quick calculation reveals that
the Pentium 4 is capable of utilizing 78 percent of PC800?s
theoretical peak bandwidth, 78 percent of PC1066 and 76
percent of PC1200. In short, the Pentium 4, at least
for the time being, will make the most of the bandwidth
provided to it. DDR memory fares much better, with
over 90 percent utilization between the PC2100 and PC2700
standards, but DDR is simply not able to provide the same
level of bandwidth. The situation may change when the
transition is made to a dual-channel DDR platform, but we?ll
save you the speculation for now.
Overall, we
drove our P4T533 Quake III score from 232.6 frames per
second up to 255.8 frames per second. That's a nine
percent improvement gained by running a 600MHz front side
bus and a 2.7GHz processor!
Sandra 2002, SysMark 2002 and Comanche 4
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