Different things come to mind for everyone when mentioning certain motherboard manufacturers, some good, some bad. When are mentioned, I think of a manufacturer that not only provides the end user with a robust solution, but offers a common sense approach to delivery the extras other manufacturers overlook.

Today I have an motherboard, sporting Intel's new 975x chipset and the Asus AiLife silent computing solution. Among some of the features built into this main board are 7.1 (8ch) surround sound audio, dual 10/100/1000Base-Tx not to mention Crossfire™ support. Lets look over all of the specifications.

Specifications

While I know there has been a lot of talk to ATI farming out Crossfire to Intel, to me it makes perfect sense. When considering a motherboard, the chipset is an important factor, and to be blunt, even if I had to have Crossfire, I would still be 2nd guessing a purchase of an ATI chipset for an Intel based motherboard, not a great history in robustness there. By having Intel produce a chipset that supports Crossfire ATI, IMHO, has made an extremely intelligent marketing move, and when you are behind SLI as much as Crossfire is, you need every advantage you can, to gain back that market share.

A point of interest in the specifications is that the maximum RAM for the P5WD2-E Premium is 8GB. Thus, this motherboard can support 2GB DDR2 modules, not that the average user or even heavy gamer would use such vast amounts of RAM, but it's nice to know someday you can. Also noteworthy is that Asus used the Marvell SATA-II chipset in lieu of the Silicon Image 3132 Intel spec'd out. Lets see what Intel had in mind for the 975X architecture:

As you can see, Asus opted out of the Intel Pro 1000 for Marvell (actually 2 of them) but kept the dual x8 PCIe graphics (for Crossfire). You can look here for VL's in depth look at the Intel 975x architecture.

Opening the package lets take stock of what comes as “extra” with the motherboard itself:

3 Red SATA cables (with included Molex to SATA power converter)
1 LPT / USB Riser cable w/rear Bracket
1 FireWire cable w/rear bracket.
2 IDE Ribbon cables
1 Floppy ribbon cable
1 RS-232 Riser Cable w/rear Bracket
1 Driver CD
1 Software Application CD
1 Manual

For an “Extreme” motherboard, a somewhat disappointing list of goodies, but then, is that why we purchase this particular board?.

Looking over the included software, the Motherboard Support CD has the Intel / Realtek / Marvell drivers as well as a few utilities. These include:

Marvell Yukon Virtual Cable Tester
Asus PC-Probe II
Asus AI Booster (In Windows OC utility
Asus Update (Windows BIOS Flash utility)
Adobe Reader 7.0
DirectX 9.0c

The WinDVD Suite CD includes:

WinDVD Creator
PhotoAlbum 1.0
DVD Copy 2.5
Disc Master 2.5

The manual suppled with the P5WD2-E Premium is similar to other manuals I have from Asus. Well thought out and easy to follow. There is no color once you flip the cover, something that is gaining popularity in other manuals I have seen. It would be nice to at least have the motherboard view in color (when denoting where everything is) so you can easily locate connectors or risers etc (they are color coded on the motherboard), at least have the Front Panel IO connector in color for quick reference.

The socket used on the Asus P5WD2-E Premium is of course of the LGA775 format and is located on the right rear quadrant as with most solutions today. There appears to be ample room surrounding the socket retention mechanism for most HS/Fan combinations. You can note here the fan less cooling solution employed by Asus, also in this area is the 4/8 pin 12V-Aux power connector. The 12V-Aux connector, when used in 8 pin mode, utilizes both 12V rails of dual rail PSU's.

Moving to the rear left of the motherboard we see the dual x16 (x8 when both are utilized) graphics slots, an x1, x4 and 3 PCI slots. When using both PCIe graphics slots for Crossfire, the blue slot is where the Master Crossfire card needs to be inserted. As you can imagine, the x1 and x4 slots are unusable (unless you have a card 1/4” high) in the scenario where you are using 2 graphics cards. In the far left corner are the two IEEE-1394 risers, Asus has decided to not include any IEEE-1394 on the rear IO by default.

Moving to the Front Left section of the motherboard we see our Front Panel connector, USB risers and even a game port for good measure (for those out there that still require it). Also in this section are your 8 SATA-II connectors and 2 IDE (one edge mounted), this should give you ample disk connectivity (12 Drives). One note here, Asus, by implementing the Marvell 88SE6141, has given us an eSATA-II port, thus when using the eSATA port, the 4th SATA port is disabled.

Finally the Front Right section of the board where we connect our 24 pin main power, and conveniently, our additional molex power connector. Nice to see that extra power connection not interfering with the graphics cards or HS/Fan like in so many other solutions I have seen. We also have the Floppy connector located at the edge, where it allows for proper cable management. The memory slots are colored properly in that for Dual DDR2 functionality, you simply plug each module into the same color (one of my main beefs currently with the nF4 lineup).

The Rear I/O Panel for the Asus P5WD2-E Premium features (from left to right) 2 PS2 ports for your mouse and keyboard, LPT, S/PDIF for sound, eSATA-II, 4 USB slots, 2x 10/100/1000 RJ45’s and the 6 connector Audio panel.

Installing the P5WD2-E Premium, like many motherboards, is only an issue of something is amiss, that being said, the Asus installed without issue. With the chipset's being cooled without the use of fans, there is little concern to the size of the graphics card(s) you install, as they will not be blocking airflow to a fan. As mentioned earlier, memory is inserted in either the yellow or black slots if you want to run them in Dual DDR2 mode. Asus has supplied plenty of fan risers allowing you to power those air movers directly from the motherboard, one reason its nice to have those extra connectors plugged in from the start. As is Asus standard fare, everything is labeled well on the board itself, only having to open the manual to find which jumper controls what.

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