Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP

"Both boards offer very good performance, very high overclocking capabilities with no major problems. While we expected that the Intel P35 chipset would offer significant improvements, it didn't, at least not with DDR2 memory installed, since Asus also ships the P5K3 Deluxe with DDR3 memory support."

The P5K Deluxe Wi-Fi AP Edition board is an excellent example of the P35 chipset with enough features to suit the enthusiast and enough expansion room to grow for even the hardest core enthusiast.

"Great overclocking, great stability, and great overall build quality have become common ASUS motherboard features. Now if they can just get their terribly slow driver and BIOS download website fixed all will be well for ASUS owners."

"Instead of trying to outdo its competitors with increasingly lavish motherboards, ASUS stuck to a winning formula, perfecting the design with improvements developed over time such as solid capacitors and a tweaked PWM. All in all, the ASUS P5K Deluxe is an excellent motherboard worthy of the P5B legacy. At US$247 though, the ASUS P5K Deluxe will be around US$17 more expensive than the P5B Deluxe when it was launched nearly a year ago, but it still isn't one of the most expensive P35 boards that have been launched."

If you are looking for a full-featured Intel motherboard, you won't do much better than the Asus P5K Deluxe WiFi-AP. The latest BIOS provided the maturity and overclocking features that this P35 board needed, and it may very well now be one of the best P35 overclockers out there. The heatpipe cooling not only provides total silence, it cools as well or better than most chipset coolers with fans. For someone wanting to build an upper-end rig with DDR2 memory, this may be the motherboard that fits the bill. There were very few negatives with this board, the main one being the bundle, which we found uncharacteristic for a high end motherboard. We also bemoan the CMOS jumper placement, though this negative is rendered almost moot thanks to the JumperFree BIOS. And while we've yet to be blown away by DDR3, those looking down the road will want to stock up on DDR2 while you still can, as this is a DDR2-only motherboard.