Asus P5WD2-E Premium: Intel 975X for the Enthusiast
by Gary Key on January 16, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is a very good solution for the Intel Enthusiast looking for a well designed and manufactured board with numerous options. The ability to fully utilize up to three PCI based cards is definitely a plus as the current market for PCI-E based peripherals is minimal. The performance of the board was outstanding in all testing phases and stability, while very good overall, could be improved with BIOS updates.
While not completely detrimental to our overall opinion of the board, we did run into a couple of nagging issues. Our Microsoft 2000 and 4000 USB keyboards were not properly detected at post several times, which generated a keyboard error. This did not occur with an older Microsoft Digital Media keyboard or several Logitech models.
We witnessed small CPU voltage spikes when overclocking our dual core processors. As an example, the 955EE processor was set to 1.4625V for the maximum FSB overclock testing and would vary from 1.44V up to 1.49V while testing. Although our memory would run completely stable at 2.1V with the 3-2-2-8 settings at DDR2-667, we had to increase the memory voltage to 2.25V at the same range settings when overclocking the 840EE or 955EE. The 7800GTX 512MB card used in the 955EE testing phase required the use of the 12V 4-pin Ezplug in order for the card to remain stable during the 3DMark tests.
These issues did not occur on the Asus P5WDG2-WS or Gigabyte GA-G1 975X boards. We have to wonder why Asus did not include their excellent 8-phase voltage regulator power design that can significantly lower operating temperatures while reducing input ripple current and output ripple voltages. In fact, both of our Intel EE processors ran on average about 6 degrees C higher than on the Asus P5WDG2-WS and 3 degrees C higher than on the Gigabyte board. We believe that the 8-phase solution would have addressed some of the voltage and temperature issues that we witnessed while improving its overclocking performance even further. While the board's overall stability is very good, we feel like Asus has some minor work to do on the BIOS at this time.
With that said, let's move on to our performance opinions regarding this board.
In the video area, the inclusion of two physical PCI Express x16 slots that fully supports x8 bandwidth operation for two graphics cards is an important step for Intel with this chipset. The board fully supports ATI CrossFire mode in our internal testing. We are still waiting on the X1800XT MasterCard to arrive for further CrossFire testing, but we did not notice any issues with the X850XT CrossFire solution and 5.13 driver set.
In the on-board audio area, this board has an excellent implementation of the Realtek ALC882M High Definition Audio Codec. The software provided has Jack-Sensing, S/PDIF Out support, interrupt capability, and Dolby Master Studio support. The ALC882M will encode digital audio contents to real-time Dolby Digital streams for pass through via the S/PDIF ports to an AC-3 decoder for playback. The audio output of this codec in the music, video, and gaming areas is very good while performance in certain games has improved tremendously with the R1.29 driver release. If you plan on playing on-line action type titles, we highly suggest a dedicated sound card at this time, but the onboard capabilities of the ALC882M will satisfy the majority of users.
In the storage area, the Asus board offers a wide variety of storage options with additional SATA RAID ports. The board fully offers Intel's excellent Matrix RAID system and offers Hot Swap, NCQ, and 3Gb/s capability. Asus supplements the Intel SATA II capability with the Marvell 88SE6141 SATA II chipset featuring support for Hot Swap, NCQ, and 3Gb/s operation along with an external SATA II port. The board offers the standard eight Intel USB ports and two IEEE 1394a ports utilizing the TI TSB43AB22A chipset. However, we still believe that Firewire 800 should have been offered on the Asus P5WD2-E board, since it is their premium offering.
In the performance area, the Asus P5WD2-E consistently offered excellent performance while exceeding the other solutions at various times. Asus offers their HyperPath3 BIOS option that effectively reduces memory latencies even further on the Intel 975X chipset. The board's performance with the 955EE CPU was excellent and is an indication of a well engineered solution. While we are very satisfied with the overall performance of the board, we feel like it is not as polished as the P5WDG2-WS or as stable at the extreme edge as the Gigabyte GA-G1 975X.
The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is a very good board that could have been excellent with the inclusion of their 8-phase voltage regulator solution and some further BIOS improvements. While we are very confident that Asus will address the BIOS issues, we are left wondering what could have been with this board. We will hold our final opinion on this board until we complete testing on other 975X based solutions. In the meantime, the game is definitely afoot.
The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is a very good solution for the Intel Enthusiast looking for a well designed and manufactured board with numerous options. The ability to fully utilize up to three PCI based cards is definitely a plus as the current market for PCI-E based peripherals is minimal. The performance of the board was outstanding in all testing phases and stability, while very good overall, could be improved with BIOS updates.
While not completely detrimental to our overall opinion of the board, we did run into a couple of nagging issues. Our Microsoft 2000 and 4000 USB keyboards were not properly detected at post several times, which generated a keyboard error. This did not occur with an older Microsoft Digital Media keyboard or several Logitech models.
We witnessed small CPU voltage spikes when overclocking our dual core processors. As an example, the 955EE processor was set to 1.4625V for the maximum FSB overclock testing and would vary from 1.44V up to 1.49V while testing. Although our memory would run completely stable at 2.1V with the 3-2-2-8 settings at DDR2-667, we had to increase the memory voltage to 2.25V at the same range settings when overclocking the 840EE or 955EE. The 7800GTX 512MB card used in the 955EE testing phase required the use of the 12V 4-pin Ezplug in order for the card to remain stable during the 3DMark tests.
These issues did not occur on the Asus P5WDG2-WS or Gigabyte GA-G1 975X boards. We have to wonder why Asus did not include their excellent 8-phase voltage regulator power design that can significantly lower operating temperatures while reducing input ripple current and output ripple voltages. In fact, both of our Intel EE processors ran on average about 6 degrees C higher than on the Asus P5WDG2-WS and 3 degrees C higher than on the Gigabyte board. We believe that the 8-phase solution would have addressed some of the voltage and temperature issues that we witnessed while improving its overclocking performance even further. While the board's overall stability is very good, we feel like Asus has some minor work to do on the BIOS at this time.
With that said, let's move on to our performance opinions regarding this board.
In the video area, the inclusion of two physical PCI Express x16 slots that fully supports x8 bandwidth operation for two graphics cards is an important step for Intel with this chipset. The board fully supports ATI CrossFire mode in our internal testing. We are still waiting on the X1800XT MasterCard to arrive for further CrossFire testing, but we did not notice any issues with the X850XT CrossFire solution and 5.13 driver set.
In the on-board audio area, this board has an excellent implementation of the Realtek ALC882M High Definition Audio Codec. The software provided has Jack-Sensing, S/PDIF Out support, interrupt capability, and Dolby Master Studio support. The ALC882M will encode digital audio contents to real-time Dolby Digital streams for pass through via the S/PDIF ports to an AC-3 decoder for playback. The audio output of this codec in the music, video, and gaming areas is very good while performance in certain games has improved tremendously with the R1.29 driver release. If you plan on playing on-line action type titles, we highly suggest a dedicated sound card at this time, but the onboard capabilities of the ALC882M will satisfy the majority of users.
In the storage area, the Asus board offers a wide variety of storage options with additional SATA RAID ports. The board fully offers Intel's excellent Matrix RAID system and offers Hot Swap, NCQ, and 3Gb/s capability. Asus supplements the Intel SATA II capability with the Marvell 88SE6141 SATA II chipset featuring support for Hot Swap, NCQ, and 3Gb/s operation along with an external SATA II port. The board offers the standard eight Intel USB ports and two IEEE 1394a ports utilizing the TI TSB43AB22A chipset. However, we still believe that Firewire 800 should have been offered on the Asus P5WD2-E board, since it is their premium offering.
In the performance area, the Asus P5WD2-E consistently offered excellent performance while exceeding the other solutions at various times. Asus offers their HyperPath3 BIOS option that effectively reduces memory latencies even further on the Intel 975X chipset. The board's performance with the 955EE CPU was excellent and is an indication of a well engineered solution. While we are very satisfied with the overall performance of the board, we feel like it is not as polished as the P5WDG2-WS or as stable at the extreme edge as the Gigabyte GA-G1 975X.
The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is a very good board that could have been excellent with the inclusion of their 8-phase voltage regulator solution and some further BIOS improvements. While we are very confident that Asus will address the BIOS issues, we are left wondering what could have been with this board. We will hold our final opinion on this board until we complete testing on other 975X based solutions. In the meantime, the game is definitely afoot.
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kilkennycat - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
If the board is not 100% compatible, both physically and electrically with the upcoming Conroe family of processors, I suggest that everybody take a pass. It would be just another case of Intel screwing us again with fast-track (deliberately-?)planned obsolescence ---- just as they did on the LGA775 family when the earlier boards and chipsets were (er...) "found" not to be compatible with their dual-core offerings ---which of course nicely inflates demand for Intel chipsets. And again where Yonah has exactly the same pin-count as the Pentium-M, but deliberately physically incompatible such that even the latest Pentium-M motherboards will not work with Yonah. After all, Intel needs to recoup its recent $350million investment in expanding its chip-set fabrication capability and as fast as possible. Would not like to disappoint the stockholders.Also a corollary question --- is the 975X chip-set itself fully compatible with Conroe, or is it going to have a short and unhappy life like the 915/925 chipset ??
Gotta really admire Intel in the past couple of years. While their processor engineering lost its way, their marketing gurus have become geniuses at finding all sorts of neat ways of lubricating the screw and keeping the cash rolling in.
danidentity - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
Besides price, what is the advantage of this board over the P5WDG2-WS? Is the P5WD2-E a better overclocker than the P5WDG2-WS? Would you recommend the P5WD2-E over the P5WDG2-WS, price aside?Gary Key - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
The P5WD2-E is targeted towards the overclocking market and for mainstream use as it should come to market about $35~$50 less than the P5WDG2-WS. The other advantage it holds is the additional PCI-E slots and one additional PCI slot if you need them, otherwise the PCI-X slots on the G2-WS will certainly hold an advantage for the workstation crowd.
I personally think the G2-WS is a better board at this point in the release cycle mainly due to a more mature bios and the 8-phase power solution. However, we have several more 975X boards to review and will hold final judgement until that testing is completed.
mostlyprudent - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
In the initial 955EE review, there was a claim that the high heat levels might be related to the Intel supplied motherboard. Was there any difference with this ASUS board?Gary Key - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
We did not notice the same thermal issues the first set of the Intel D975XBX boards had with the 955EE. In fact, our replacement D975XBX solved the initial thermal issues we noticed. However, the 955EE still runs very warm, we noticed 49c at idle and up to 68c under load on the Asus board with either the Gigabyte G-Power or Thermaltake Big Typhoon coolers. The provided Intel heatsink (840EE) ran at 55c idle and up to 73c under load but we understand this might not be the heatsink shipped in the retail kit. We are trying to procure one at this time to test it.
Marlin1975 - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
You say there is a problem with the 882 chips? Can you run the same test on boards that used the same south bridge with a Cmedia sound chip. I know a lot of boards used the c-media at first and am whondering if this is maybe a south bridge problem or just another sign of the low quality items/drivers that realtek seems to make.Never been a realtek fan. Weather it be their low quality sound chips or their drivers.
Gary Key - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
The 882 family of codecs is very good for an on-board solution. I believe there is still a lot of work to be done in the drivers. However, the improvements made between the R1.20 release up to the R1.29 release have been significant. We actually could watch our BF2 benchmark come to a stop during the aircraft flyovers up until the R1.27 release. There is still some stuttering and frame rates drop into the teens but overall the CPU hit rate is around 9% compared to a 67% CPU hit in drivers up to R1.26. The overall sound quality has improved in games like Serious Sam II and F.E.A.R. also. We have not tested a 975X board with the CMedia solution but have just finished testing one with the Sigmatel solution (next article).ProviaFan - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
The review states that with two ATI cards inserted, the other PCI-E slots are not usable. Is this due to a real hardware limitation, or is it only because the ATI cards' coolers are too big? An example of a usage scenario that prompted this question: could I put a graphics card in one 16x slot running at 8x, an 8x PCI-E SCSI adapter in the other physical 16x slot, and then perhaps a 1x card in one of the remaining slots?Gary Key - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
The slots are physically not available due to the two slot cooling solutions used on the cards. This would hold true for the 6800 Ultra or 7800GTX 512mb edition cards.
Your scenario about the slot assignments would work.
coldpower27 - Monday, January 16, 2006 - link
Interesting on the voltage for the CPU though having only 1.200V as the bottom limit seems a little bit limiting from my persepctive, good gaming performance though as it typically runs only 2nd to the Intel Nforce 4 SLI.I also agree that 8 Phase Power would be nice, maybe in a future revision that is made to support Intel's NGMA processors.