Manufacturer ASUStek
Retail Price $320 

Expansion Slot : 4/2/1 
Extra's : SCSI 2

The other member of the ASUS P2B family in this roundup is the big, bold ASUS P2B-S, and I mean that "big" quite literally. It is also the other SCSI motherboard mentioned in this roundup (together with the AOpen AX6B Plus…you haven’t forgotten, have you? It was only a few pages ago), and also uses an Adaptec SCSI chipset. While the AOpen SCSI board used the Adaptec 7880 chipset (which supports UltraWide devices), the ASUS P2B-S has the Adaptec 7890 chipset and supports Ultra2Wide devices. You could say it’s the higher-end of the two SCSI boards being reviewed here today. 
 

Before we get to the SCSI part of it, let’s cover the usual ground. The P2B-S has 4 PCI slots, 2 ISA slots and 1 AGP slot, as well as 4 DIMM slots. The only difference with the P2B-F here is that the P2B-S has one less PCI slot (Well, I guess something’s gotta give). Also featured is a very good hardware monitoring system. The case temperature sensor comes installed- you have to go and get the CPU and power supply heat sensors. There are case, power supply and CPU fans that you can buy, and the speed of which will be controlled by the motherboard when installed. That is, say temperatures are low, then there’s no point in having your fans spinning away at top speed- so the motherboard will slow ‘em down and conserve power.

As for the other stuff, you get no less than three SCSI ports; the 50-pin SCSI-2 connector, the 68-pin UltraWide connector and the new 68-pin Ultra2Wide connector. The BIOS gives you the option to boot from an external PCI SCSI controller or the integrated SCSI controller itself. All cables come with the board, documentation is extensive (and comprehensive) and all the ports are labelled so they won’t get lost. ASUS mobos are known for quality and this one is no exception. Like it’s cousin the P2B-F, the P2B-S has no truck with this modern notion of jumperless setups. Again like the former board, the P2B-S is relentlessly stable and performance is definitely above-average, even if (I’m sure you know this one by heart now, so repeat after me) the performance differences in BX boards are virtually negligible. All in all, a solid board and an extremely attractive choice if you’re in the market for a SCSI board.
 

The price is reasonable considering that it would cost you quite a bit more to buy a board of this quality and an external SCSI controller. Now, I know I didn’t sound exactly thrilled with the notions of integrated audio and video in the opening preamble, but don’t think that same reasoning applies to integrated SCSI. It doesn’t.  This is not an area of technology evolving at the same frantic pace as the graphics industry, and opting for integrated SCSI is a very good way of saving your money. Think about it. But what if you’re not into SCSI? Ah, well then, just keep reading, we’ve got heaps of motherboards lined up waiting  for you.