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Asus P5WD2 Premium Review - PAGE 1
William Henning - Monday, August 29th, 2005


Today we look at a high end Intel 955 chipset based board from Asus, the P5WD2 Premium. Asus is obviously targeting the emerging Media PC / HTPC market with this motherboard. You need not look any further than the inclusion of a TV tuner card with some HD support and WiFi 802.11a. Asus also emphasizes their "Stack Cool 2" passive cooling, which basically transfers heat to the back of the motherboard where it has a larger surface area for the heat to radiate away.

The 955 chipset fully supports dual core Intel processors, and implements Intel's "Memory Pipeline Technology" to optimize memory bandwidth. DDR2 800 is natively supported; and besides the ever ubiquitous PCIe 16x slot, there is an additional PCIe 4x slot for SLI operation (once nVidia's drivers support the 955) - Asus even includes a flexible SLI cable.

The BIOS supports enthusiasts by providing for extensive overclocking oriented adjustable parameters; and it also offers the ability to unlock the multiplier of those P4 processors that support clock throttling. This is a useful function even if you don't want to overclock the core, as you can lower the multiplier and boost the FSB for greater memory bandwidth.

Dual Gigabit ethernet, dual Raid, 7.1 audio with SPDIF and optical out, 1394 support, and WinDVD software suite round out the motherboard.

Specifications

CPU- LGA775 socket for Intel® Pentium 4/Celeron CPU
- Intel Pentium® Processor Extreme Edition & Intel
Pentium® D Processor ready
- Compatible with Intel® 05B/ 05A and 04B/04A processors
- Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology ready
ChipsetIntel 955X
Intel ICH7R
Front Side Bus1066/ 800/ 533 MHz
MemoryDual channel memory architecture
4 x 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. 8GB DDR2 800/ 667/ 533 ECC and non-ECC memory
Native DDR2 800 Support
Intel MPT (Intel Memory Pipeline Technology)
Expansion Slots1 x PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics card
1 x Universal PCI-E Slot ( x4 mode)
1 x PCI Express x1
3 x PCI
Storage/ RAIDIntel ICH7R South Bridge:
*1 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
*4 x Serial ATA I/II 3.0Gb/s with Intel Matrix Storage Technology with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support

Silicon Image 3132 SATA controller:
*1 x Internal Serial ATA I/II
*1 x External Serial ATA

ITE IDE controller:
* 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66
LANDual Gigabit LAN controllers:
*1 x Intel PCIe Gigabit LAN Controller
*1 x Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN Controller, featuring AI NET2
AudioRealtek ALC882D High Definition Audio 8-channel CODEC
Support Multi-streaming, Jack-sensing and Jack-retasking functions
Coaxial, Optical S/PDIF out on back I/O port
Features Dolby Digital Live technology
IEEE 1394aTI 1394a controller supports 2 x 1394a ports
USBMax. 8 USB2.0/1.1 ports
ASUS AI Life FeaturesWiFi-TV PCI card (Optional, for WiFi-TV Edition only))
-Digital TV(DVB-T only), Analog TV, FM
-WiFi@home 802.11a/b/g
Stack Cool 2 patented fanless cooling system
"SATA on the Go" External SATA connector
AI Quiet
Overclocking featuresAI NOSTM (Non-delay Overclocking System)
ASUS CPU Lock Free
Precision Tweaker:
- vDIMM: 8-step DRAM voltage control
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125 increment
- SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection): allowing FSB tuning from 100MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increment
- PCIe x16 Frequency: allowing PCIe x16 frequency from 90MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
Adjustable FSB/DDR ratio. Fixed PCI/PCIe frequencies.
ASUS AI Booster utility
ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Other ASUS Special FeaturesCrashFree BIOS 2
Q-Fan2
Multi-language BIOS
MyLogo2
BIOS8 Mb Flash ROM,AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3
ManageabilityWOL by PME,WOR by PME, Chassis Intrusion
Back Panel I/O Ports1 x Parallel
1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
2 x RJ45
4 x USB 2.0/1.1
1 x IEEE1394a
1 x External SATA port
8-Channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors2 x USB 2.0 connectors supports additional 4 USB 2.0 ports
1 x IEEE1394a connectors
1 x COM connector
1 x GAME/MIDI connector
CPU / 2 x Chassis / Power Fan connectors
Front panel High Definition Audio connector
Chassis Intrusion connector
CD audio-in connector
24-pin ATX Power connector
4-pin ASUS EZ Plug connector
8-pin EATX 12V Power connector
Support CDDrivers
ASUS PC Probe 2
ASUS LiveUpdate Utility
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
AccessoriesInterVideo WinDVD Suite (OEM version)
1 x IEEE1394a port module
5 x SATA cables
SATA power cable for 5 devices
1 x 2-port USB2.0 / Game module
1 x COM Port module
1 x GT Soft Bridge for future upgrade
2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
1 x IDE cable
1 x FDD cable
1 x I/O Shield
User' s manual
WiFi-TV Accessories (bundle version only):CyberLink PowerCinema (OEM version)
PAL to NTSC Adapter
1 x Omnidirectional dual-band wireless antenna
1 x FM Antenna
1 x Remote control + USB Receiver
WiFi-TV User's Manual
Form FactorATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.5cm)
next: The Bundle »

Article Index

1.Introduction
2.The Bundle
3.The BIOS
4.Hardware and Test Setup
5.Business Winstone and Multimedia Content Creation
6.HDTach and SiSoft Sandra
7.MP3, XviD, and MPEG2 Encoding
8.Call of Duty and Comanche 4
9.Doom 3 and Half-Life 2
10.Halo and Jedi Knight 2
11.Unreal Tournament 2004 and X2 Rolling Demo
12.Overclocking and Conclusion

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