Asus P5WDG2-WS: Intel 975X goes to Work
by Gary Key on December 6, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
The Intel 975X chipset fully supports the 820, 830, and 840 dual core Pentium D processors in both stock and overclocked conditions. This chipset also supports the upcoming Presler and Cedar Mill processor range. Dual core really makes a difference in certain multi-tasking scenarios, as was demonstrated in the dual core performance preview. If you are interested in how the various chipsets perform in a real world multitasking setup, please take another look at that review.
NVIDIA SLI Performance
Although the performance does not match the newer 81.xx series of drivers, the 975X boards are still competitive with the nForce4 Intel Edition SLI setup considering the beta condition of the non-certified drivers used. We noticed some graphic anomalies with the Asus P5WDG2-WS in the benchmarks that explains the lower scores compared to the Gigabyte board.
The ability of the 975X based boards to run both ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI setups is definitely a marketing plus, but until Intel licenses and NVIDIA fully certifies and sanctions SLI on the Intel platform, we can only wonder what the impact would be in the market.
Overclocking Performance
The overclocking performance graphs have been added to the standard benchmark test suite and should allow for a better comparison on the overclocking capabilities of tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of this board, please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test section in the Basic Features section.
The Intel 975X chipset fully supports the 820, 830, and 840 dual core Pentium D processors in both stock and overclocked conditions. This chipset also supports the upcoming Presler and Cedar Mill processor range. Dual core really makes a difference in certain multi-tasking scenarios, as was demonstrated in the dual core performance preview. If you are interested in how the various chipsets perform in a real world multitasking setup, please take another look at that review.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 840EE (3.2GHz, 800FSB, Dual-Core, 2x1MB L2, HT) utilized for all tests |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL revision 1.3 Settings- DDR2-667 as noted at (CL3-2-2-8) |
| Hard Drive(s): | 2 x Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 300GB 7200 RPM SATA (16MB Buffer), 1 x Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300R0 300GB 7200 RPM IDE (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers: | Intel Chipset Software - 7.2.2.1006 |
| Video Cards: | 1 x XFX 7800GTX OC (PCI Express) for standard tests 2 x MSI 7800GTX (PCI Express) for SLI test |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA nForce 81.95 WHQL NVIDIA nForce 78.01 Modified for SLI test |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe Gigabyte GA-G1 975X Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal |
NVIDIA SLI Performance
Although the performance does not match the newer 81.xx series of drivers, the 975X boards are still competitive with the nForce4 Intel Edition SLI setup considering the beta condition of the non-certified drivers used. We noticed some graphic anomalies with the Asus P5WDG2-WS in the benchmarks that explains the lower scores compared to the Gigabyte board.
The ability of the 975X based boards to run both ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI setups is definitely a marketing plus, but until Intel licenses and NVIDIA fully certifies and sanctions SLI on the Intel platform, we can only wonder what the impact would be in the market.
Overclocking Performance
The overclocking performance graphs have been added to the standard benchmark test suite and should allow for a better comparison on the overclocking capabilities of tested boards. For more details on the specific overclocking abilities of this board, please refer to the Overclocking and Memory Stress Test section in the Basic Features section.
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Pirks - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
So data centers are built with floppies, COM mice and LPT printers. Great! Very nice that I don't run one, thank you for enlightening me.
FYI I've got ABIT AT7 mobo (the _ONLY_ legacy free mobo ever created) very cheap a couple of years ago and it was running all my 4-5 year old hardware like cheap USB kbd and old second hand USB mouse. And I still DON'T even consider wasting my money on Athlon 64 or any fancy PCIe stuff, and with all this I still sound Bleeding Edge Hardware Freak for you? Are you from a PC museum or what? Can you even find COM mice these days? I'm not buying anything that's above lower 30% of price range, so I won't even consider mainstream stuff these days. You seriously overestimate my financial abilities and more important my will to upgrade (I won't fix my PC unless it's broken)
XP SP2 here :P
I'd do that by patching my XP install CD or by using USB floppy (if it works, not sure about this), or if it doesn't work I'd replace my boot HDD with PATA one, given that it's not any slower than SATA these days :P So floppy is still not necessary WHILE every mobo out there includes PATA, and please note that I didn't include PATA in my Stupid Obsolete Interfaces list :) PATA is obsolete, yes, but it's still widely used everywhere (in almost every DVD burner, jeez, that's what I call LONGEVITY!) unlike LPT and COM and floppy and other museum stuff.
I'd say stick those LPT plugs onto the cheap "business" mobos, but please let us breathe fresher air with the "advanced", overclocker or whatever you call 'em mobos. There is a place for the old mobos with legacy stuff, but including them on those ubercool silver/gold advanced P4 975X or nForce4 SLI Ultra Extra boards? Do you seriously think the guy with dual 7800GTX setup uses COM mouse, LPT printer and other "data center" accessories? Hahahahahaaaa
Never tried that. I only run XP SP2 and never ever run into issues with its bootloader and my USB kbd, maybe 98/95 one has issues, dunno. Anyway, if you still use 95/98 then ok, you need COM and LPT as well.
It would be hard to persuade me someone still uses COM mice, their mechanics must be ground into dust by now :) And even if there are some ancient PDAs that don't have USB 1.x then there are USB-COM adapters, so COM is not needed too (btw there are USB-LPT adapters as well, for your data centers :P)
New computers are only 5% of the market? All these Dells, Compacs, HPs and many more, they are only 5%? OK, so 95% of the market are what? Retrofitted IBM PC XTs? Hahahahaaa...
Man you have no idea about my budget, really really! I run ABIT KW7, and looks like Socket A is my choice for at least 12 months from now if not more, depending on how things will turn out with Vista. You wanna know my top list of mobos I'd buy right now if I had the money? Number one - Chaintech S1689, dirt cheap 939 mobo, only 50 bucks or so, just stick cheapest Venice 3000 in there and fly away. Number two - ABIT AN8-V. Expensive bad boy, whole 80 bucks!... but it's from ABIT and so it's again ALMOST legacy free (damn I hate you floppy and PS/2!) so this one I'd take if I had BIG money to swap my old AGP video with some cheap PCIe 6600GT or somethin'... and you call me a Big Budget Guy. Hahahaaa... can't stop laughing, sorry :)
OK, if you really insist, I'd agree that legacy stuff has its place in PCs and will have place for many many years to come, but including these 20-year old COM and LPT plugs on the so called "advanced" nForce4 SLI Ultra Extra whatever boards? Hahahahahaaaa.... sorry again, just can't stop laughing...