Introduction

The term Black Pearl is not new to ASUS and followers of ASUS products will know that it's a limited edition product targeted at users who wants the best looking product from ASUS. Well, maybe not the best looking but certainly they can expect good features and a rock solid product designed for the hardcore power users.

The packaging itself is specially designed for this motherboard and it's quite unlike any of ASUS' regular motherboard packages. Well, the artwork is definitely nothing spectacular and if we have to give them a score for attractiveness, it would probably not put it anywhere near the likes of current MSI and Gigabyte's product packaging. Still, we have to give them credit for making something so out of the ordinary that it's hard not to miss if it's placed on the store shelves.

In the package, you'll find the following items :-

The motherboard

InterVideo WinDVD Suite (includes WinDVD, WinDVD Creator, WinRip and WinProducer)

User's manual and quick setup guide

I/O faceplate

Keyboard label for ASUS Instant Music

ASUS 32MB USB Flash Disk

One rounded FDD cable

One rounded HDD cable

One game port + 2x USB 2.0 port bracket

One S/PDIF output bracket

ASUS P4PE Black Pearl Technical Specifications

Processor	Socket 478 for Intel® Pentium 4 / Celeron processors Intel® Pentium 4 Processors 1.4GHz - 3.06GHz or higher (400/533MHz FSB) Intel® Celeron Processors 1.7GHz - 1.8GHz or higher (400MHz FSB) Supports processors at 400 / 533MHz front side bus Supports processors with Hyper-Threading technology
Chipset	Intel 845PE chipset AGP 4x slot (1.5V only) with 4x fast write capability Supports 100/133MHz system bus Supports 400/533MHz Intel NetBurst micro-architecture bus Supports up to 2GB of DDR333, DDR266 or DDR200 SDRAM memory Intel ICH4 chipset AC'97 2.2 interface Six USB 2.0/1.1 ports (3 UHCI Host controllers and 1 EHCI Host controller) Dual channel Ultra ATA/100 bus master IDE controller Six PCI bus masters v2.2 I/O APIC
Cache memory	CPU Built-in 256KB (Willamette) or 512KB (Northwood) L2 cache for Pentium 4 CPU Built-in 128KB L2 cache for Celeron
System memory	3 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM Supports up to two double-sided DIMMs (or total of four memory banks) Supports up to 2GB of DDR333 / DDR266 / DDR200 SDRAM memory Supports 2.5V DDR SDRAM
PCI IDE	2 x Bus Master Ultra ATA-66/100 IDE ports (up to 4 devices) Support for PIO, UDMA-33, Ultra ATA-66/100 IDE devices
I/O Interface	1x floppy port (360KB - 2.88MB) 2x serial port 1x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) PS/2 Keyboard PS/2 Mouse 6x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4x rear and 2x front by cable) Audio ports for on-board sound (Line-In, Line-Out and MIC) - based on AD1980 1x Fast Ethernet (RJ-45) LAN jack 1x SIR header (for infra-red devices) 1x Game/MIDI header
Expansion slots	6x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.2 compliant 1x CNR (Communication and Networking riser) slot 1x AGP 2x/4x slot (1.5V only)
Power Management	Supports ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) 1.0b
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor : 30.5cm x 22.9cm Fits into regular ATX case
BIOS	4Mbit (512KB) Flash EEPROM Award Flash BIOS with PnP, ACPI, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, WOL, WOR and multi-language support Multi-boot on ZIP, ATAPI CD-ROM, SCSI, IDE #1, #2, #3, #4