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With Intel's relative lack of fanfare upon the release of a chipset series, it's not difficult to forget that the world of chipsets is not limited to just NVIDIA/VIA. While Intel may not be too humble about new processors, their chipsets are usually released very quietly alongside a new processor, with no more talk about them beyond the initial reviewer's kits.

Such was the case with the i945/i955 chipsets. The true purpose of the i945/i955 chipsets is to provide Intel with a stepping stone on to greater things, all the while adding support for Intel's latest creation -- the dual-core "Pentium D". These two chipsets also add official support for 1066 MHz FSBs, as well as DDR2-667 memory. The come bundled with Intel's ICH7R south bridge, which packs a very nice feature punch.

The feature list of Intel's ICH7R includes:

• Up to six PCI-Express x1 slots
• Up to six PCI slots
• Up to two ATA100 devices (only one IDE channel)
• Up to four Serial ATA ports
• SATA II, supporting 300 Mbps, AHCI, NCQ, and RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 (Intel Matrix Storage Technology)
• Up to eight USB 2.0 devices
• High Definition or AC'97 audio (7.1) and MC'97 modem
• Optional Intel PRO/1000 Ethernet and Active Management Technology

Today we look at ASUS' high-end Intel 945-based motherboard, the P5LD2 Deluxe. You may recall our review of the ASUS P5WD2 from around two weeks ago, and you should not be surprised to learn that these two motherboards are close to identical in every aspect but chipset used. While the P5WD2 utilized Intel's highest-end enthusiast-oriented Pentium 4 chipset, the 955, the P5LD2 Deluxe makes use of Intel's "mainstream" 945P. In practice, these chipsets are identical to each other, with only an artificial limitation built into the 945: It does not support Extreme Edition dual-core Pentium 4s.

In either case, both of these motherboards are targeted at Media Center PC/HTPC/multimedia types. As if the included Media Center PC remote was not enough of an indication, the P5LD2 Deluxe ships with ASUS' Wifi-TV add-in card, which provides both 802.11b/g wireless and a TV tuner.

ASUS' raw specifications list for the P5LD2 is as follows:

I have no doubt in my mind that most of you skip over that specifications section, but this time around I urge you to take a look. I'd like to point out three features of the P5LD2 that I find particularly interesting - the first of which is the Wifi-TV card.

Rarely have I seen a multi-function PCI card, and even rarer is the bundling of such a card with a motherboard. The Wifi and TV tuner components of the card also have one unexpected feature each. The Wifi portion supports 802.11a as well as the more common 802.11b/g, while the TV tuner portion supports digital TV. I'm not much of an HTPC/TV kind of guy, but this added feature could be of some use to readers out there. As I mentioned above, this motherboard package is definitely being targeted at the HTPC crowd. The motto here seems to be "Buy a motherboard, get Wifi and a TV/radio tuner too". I can't complain.

The other two features that I found intriguing were the external SATA port and ASUS' "Stack Cool 2" passive cooling solution. The ability to connect a SATA hard drive to this motherboard without having to fiddle around in your chassis is a definite plus to anyone who runs around swapping hard drives between machines. Of course, this feature really is of use only if your power supply also features an external Molex connector - something which I'm seeing more of lately.

Finally, ASUS' "Stack Cool 2" is a method of cooling that I have yet to see on any other competitor's motherboard. What ASUS has done with Stack Cool 2 is covered the entire motherboard's PCB with an additional layer of metal which aids in dissipation of heat. Such a uniform, board-wide system ought to help every heat-generating component on the board. Keep in mind, though, that recent Intel chipsets are notorious for running scorchingly hot, as well the fact that LGA775 motherboards are responsible for delivering copious amounts of power to the equally-notorious-for-consuming-lots-of-power Pentium 4s. An all-passive (and silent) design is much-appreciated, but could lead to some very high temperatures in an enclosed chassis.

With that, let's open the book and see what the P5LD2 Deluxe has in store for us.