Why did I choose this motherboard for evaluation? Because it is based on VIA KT266A chipset, which is the most productive and up-to-date one for AMD processors.

Let’s go on.

We start our evaluation from the box. It is important that the box attracts attention and its package is complete.

I must say that the box is colorful and staring. Also Asus recently started making individual design of boxes, i.e. printing name and complete specification of the particular board. So we can feel that we are getting not only a board from an assembly line, but we are buying a diligent product.

There is also a photograph of the motherboard on the box. It is good for a customer because he can see what he is purchasing. Some manufacturers achieve the same result by making transparent plastic windows in boxes. O.K., it’s a matter of habit.

Now let’s see what’s inside the package.

I’d like to note 2 points.
Firstly, instead of an ordinary link with external USB ports, we have a extra bracket, which is installed instead of the one of expansion cards. I can’t explain why, but I find such solution more elegant than traditional one.

Secondly, besides the user manual we get a quick setup guide. It looks rather thick, because the same information is presented in different languages there. The package also contains a CD with drivers and utilities, an ATA100 cable and an FDD cable.

It must be noted that if the ASUS A7V266-E is equipped with an onboard RAID controller, the package contains an extra IDE cable.

Also I’d like to note that Asus usually puts various knick-knacks in packages, such as stickers for cases etc. So there is a sticker (actually I had to return the motherboard and that’s why couldn’t try it :) ). Unfortunately there was no a bag with spare jumpers.

Now I’ll describe the user manual. It is made well. All numerous jumpers, dip-switches and connectors are described in detail. The section, where BIOS setup procedure is described does not have any drawbacks.

The CD contains many useful things. Besides standard VIA 4-1 drivers and Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0, we have some more programs. These are PC-Cillin2000 v7.0 and the following players: CyberLink, PowerDVD and Power Player SE.

There are also habitual Asus utilities such as ASUS PCProbe monitoring utility, BIOS ASUS Update and a screensaver.

The access to all CD contents is very convenient thanks to a special shell.

In order to bate my curiosity, I have installed several programs from the package and I have found some of them very nice.

• Page1 - Introduction
• Page2 - Layout
• Page3 - Testing Setup
• Page4 - Benchmarks
• Page5 - Overclocking
• Page6 - Conclusions