As is the norm with Asus boards, the A7V333 is littered with jumpers and the usual Dip-switches. With these and the BIOS, the board can be finely tuned to get the best possible performance.

As for features, it's difficult to know what else you could get on the board. The line-up includes RAID 0-1, six-channel sound, USB 2.0, ATA/133 and IEEE-1394 FireWire, not to mention the headers for Memory Stick, SD Card and Smart Card support.

Probably the most important feature of this board is what Asus calls COP; CPU Overheating Protection. This shuts down the processor should it begin to overheat, so no more fried Athlons, thank you.

Both the normal IDE channels and the RAID channels are capable of running at ATA/133; the RAID is controlled by the much used Promise 20276 chip.

Asus always includes a good software bundle with its boards. With the A7V333, along with the board drivers you get Asus PC Probe, Asus Liveupdate, Cyberlink Power Player, PC-Cillin 2000 antivirus, ITE GSM editor and the Winbond voice editor. Asus includes an excellent 118-page manual that has all the usual setup details, plus details on how to set up the RAID. A quick reference card is also included for common settings.

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If there's anything wrong with the A7V333, it's the fact that there are almost too many features and options, so it takes a careful read through the manual if you're going to get the best out of it.