The End User Pays: 13 Boards With Intel 845GE/PE

The Boards

Asus P4PE/ GE: Now Fully Equipped At The Old Price

The Asus P4PE's retail packaging.

Compared with the boards in previous tests, the current batch leads you to the realization that this time producers have gone all out - and then some - with their equipment. Not too long ago, a few IDE cables were thrown in as a bonus and the user had to cough up yet again in the store. Now, equipment is almost complete at the old (albeit high) price. The first thing to point out, though, is that Asus has based both its chipset versions - the P4PE and the P4GE - on one board layout. The P4GE is missing the FireWire and RAID controllers that are installed on the P4PE.

A first for Asus: complete equipment with many features.

Unusual: the producer includes all necessary cables and the customer is saved a trip to the store.