[H]ard|OCP

Navigation

• [H] Forums
• Archives
• Search
• [H] Folding

ASUS P5WD2 Premium

Based on a tried and true design, ASUS delivers a winner with this i955X-based motherboard. Read on to find out just how much this board may change the current motherboard landscape.

Introduction

ASUS remains a solid industry leader, with their well established brand name and heavy enthusiast focus. They continue to deliver high quality and high performance solutions to cater to the dynamic and demanding enthusiast crowd. Their latest product remains true to this, with a feature packed and innovative yet stable motherboard solution.

The P5WD2 Premium is ASUS’ latest motherboard for use with the Intel LGA775 CPU. ASUS chose to design the board around the Intel 955X chipset, boasting support for all LGA775-based processors including those with 1066MHz FSB and Dual Core support, DDR2 RAM modules operating in Dual Channel modes up to speeds of 800MHz officially, and PCI Express x16 type video cards. The P5WD2 itself is a feature complete solution, requiring the addition of an LGA775 CPU, DDR2 memory, a PCI Express x16 video card, drives, and PSU for a complete system. ASUS included the following integrated components when they produced the P5WD2: 1 IDE ATA-100 port; 2 IDE ATA-133 ports; 1 floppy port; 4 SATA2 ports (RAID 0, 1, and 5 capable); 1 SATA2 port and 1 external SATA port (RAID 0 and 1 capable); 8 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 2 onboard headers supporting 2 port each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, 1 onboard header supporting 1 port); dual Gigabit Ethernet ports in rear panel; Realtek High Definition 8-channel audio codec featuring S/PDIF optical and RCA output ports; and parallel and PS/2 port support.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

Although ASUS went with a very sterile and plain look with the P5WD2 box art, the supported CPU and memory are prominently displayed in the lower right corner of the box. ASUS includes the following with the P5WD2: 3 ATA-133 IDE cables; 1 floppy cable; 5 SATA cables and power connectors; rear panel brackets containing 2 USB ports, an IEEE 1394 port, a serial port and a game port; rear panel shield; a dual video card connecting bridge; and the standard complement of manuals, driver CDs, and floppy disks.

Board Layout

While the P5WD2 does include an immense amount of integrated hardware, the overall board layout was well thought out and not overly crowded. The only real shortcoming with the board was the lack of active cooling of the Northbridge chipset. However, this omission did not seem to impair the board’s overall overclocking capability. The board tested was a version 1.02 board, with the serial number on a sticker just below the floppy connector along the lower edge of the board. ASUS chose to use capacitors from the following manufacturers: Rubycon (Japan) and United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan) marked as KMG and KZG. The capacitors marked with an F type symbol come from an unknown source.

While the area around the CPU socket looks deceptively tight with the number of capacitors surrounding it and the large MOSFET heatsink directly above it, you will have no mounting related issues with larger heatsinks and waterblocks. ASUS implemented the standard 4 hole LGA775 mounting design to attach the heatsink to the CPU. The passively cooled Northbridge chipset is located to the left of the CPU socket. The Northbridge heatsink is held to the chipset through 4 top mounted wire loops on the board itself. The PWR_FAN header and the Silicon Image SATA2 port are located directly above the Northbridge chipset, with the CHA_FAN1 header to the right of the SATA2 port. Between the MOSFET heatsink and the right edge of the board is an 8 pin ATX12V power connector. Note that Intel recently introduced the 8-pin power specification to not only deliver more power to the CPU and board components, but to also remain backwards compatible with the 4-pin ATX12V type connectors.

The 4 onboard DDR2 DIMM slots are located directly below the CPU socket and Northbridge chipset. The DIMM slots are arranged in a 2 by 2 configuration, with the slots color coded between sets to ease in enabling Dual Channel memory mode. Directly below the DIMM slots are the 24-pin ATX power connector, a 4-pin MOLEX connector, and the floppy port. Note that the ATX connector supports both the 24-pin and 20-pin male ATX power connectors. The onboard MOLEX connector is used to supply more consistent power to the PCI-Express x16 slot. To the right of the uppermost DIMM slot is the CPU_FAN header.

The ICH7R Southbridge is passively cooled, and it is located directly below the PCI-Express x4 slot. The Southbridge heatsink is held to the chipset via pushpins. The chipset’s 4 RAID capable SATA 2 and IDE ATA-100 ports are located directly below the Southbridge. Notice that the chipset-based IDE port along the bottom edge of the board has been rotated 90 degrees so that the cable is parallel to the plane of the board when engaged. To the left of the Southbridge are the ITE-based RAID capable ATA-133 ports, with the BIOS chip and BIOS reset jumper between the SATA2 and ATA-133 ports. The CHA2_FAN2 header is located directly below the ATA-133 ports. The standby power LED, the chassis intrusion header, and the front panel header are located in the lower left corner of the board. The COM1 header, the game port header, 2 USB 2.0 headers, and IEEE 1394 header are located along the left side of the board.

The P5WD2 comes standard with 1 blue PCI-Express x16 slot, a black PCI-Express x4 slot, a PCI-Express x1 slot, and 3 PCI slots. The CMOS battery is located just below the top of the PCI-Express x1 slot, while the CD_IN header is located just above it. The front panel audio header is located between the bottom of PCI slot 3 and the edge of the board.

ASUS integrated the following ports into the P5WD2’s rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; a parallel port; RCA and optical S/PDIF output ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 1 Marvel Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 1 Intel Gigabit LAN Ethernet port; 1 external SATA connector; and 6 analog audio ports.

AiBooster

ASUS chose to include their AiBooster Windows-based overclocking utility with the board drivers. The version of AiBooster shown is 2.00.62. The AiBooster software supports a variety of functions including real time display of system voltages, fan speeds, temperatures, CPU FSB and speed, and a choice of multiple overclocking methods. The NOS button allows you to activate the dynamic overclocking technology, which will manipulate system voltages and FSB speeds in order to push the system to the desired overclocking level when needed. The Performance Mode option allows you to pick a static overclocking level based on either percentages or a combination of memory and CPU FSB speeds. The Tuning menu allows for manual control of CPU FSB and voltage.