Asus P5WDG2-WS: Intel 975X goes to Work
by Gary Key on December 6, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
The Asus P5WDG2-WS deserves serious consideration if you are an Intel user needing to build a workstation or office platform. The ability to fully utilize your existing PCI based cards is definitely a plus as the current market for PCI-E based peripherals is minimal. The performance and stability of the board was outstanding in all testing phases and should be an indicator of the quality of this board. However, we see this board having a limited market and anxiously await the arrival of the Asus P5WD2-E enthusiast board.
With that said, let's move on to our performance opinions regarding this board.
In the graphics area, the inclusion of two physical PCI Express x16 slots that fully support 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 testing and can unofficially support NVIDIA SLI with the proper BIOS and graphics driver set. However, we have our doubts that NVIDIA will license, certify, and sanction SLI operation on the Intel platform anytime soon.
In the on-board audio area, this board has an excellent implementation of the Realtek ALC882 High Definition Audio codec. 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 R1.27 driver release. If you plan on playing on-line, we highly suggest a dedicated sound card at this time, but the onboard capabilities of these chipsets 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. The board offers the standard eight Intel USB ports and two IEEE 1394a ports utilizing the TI TSB43AB22 chipset. However, we believe that Firewire 800 should have been offered on the Asus P5WDG-WS board, since it is their premium offering.
In the performance area, the Asus P5WDG-WS consistently offered excellent performance while exceeding the Gigabyte GA-G1 975x and the P5N32-SLI at 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 Presler CPU was excellent and is an indication of a well engineered solution.
We have to give Asus credit for bringing an Intel based workstation board to market at this time, considering the performance advantages that AMD holds in this area currently. The Intel 975X chipset is on a level playing field in performance with the NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition SLI in most areas based upon our current testing. The NVIDIA platform is still the preferred choice for gaming if you are interested in SLI capability. However, once ATI launches their X1800 CrossFire Edition solution, then the Intel 975X based boards will deserve a second look for those needing multi-GPU capabilities. Or, if our idea of sanctioning SLI on the Intel 975X platform comes as a revelation to NVIDIA, then we can have the best of both worlds.
The Asus P5WDG2-WS deserves serious consideration if you are an Intel user needing to build a workstation or office platform. The ability to fully utilize your existing PCI based cards is definitely a plus as the current market for PCI-E based peripherals is minimal. The performance and stability of the board was outstanding in all testing phases and should be an indicator of the quality of this board. However, we see this board having a limited market and anxiously await the arrival of the Asus P5WD2-E enthusiast board.
With that said, let's move on to our performance opinions regarding this board.
In the graphics area, the inclusion of two physical PCI Express x16 slots that fully support 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 testing and can unofficially support NVIDIA SLI with the proper BIOS and graphics driver set. However, we have our doubts that NVIDIA will license, certify, and sanction SLI operation on the Intel platform anytime soon.
In the on-board audio area, this board has an excellent implementation of the Realtek ALC882 High Definition Audio codec. 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 R1.27 driver release. If you plan on playing on-line, we highly suggest a dedicated sound card at this time, but the onboard capabilities of these chipsets 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. The board offers the standard eight Intel USB ports and two IEEE 1394a ports utilizing the TI TSB43AB22 chipset. However, we believe that Firewire 800 should have been offered on the Asus P5WDG-WS board, since it is their premium offering.
In the performance area, the Asus P5WDG-WS consistently offered excellent performance while exceeding the Gigabyte GA-G1 975x and the P5N32-SLI at 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 Presler CPU was excellent and is an indication of a well engineered solution.
We have to give Asus credit for bringing an Intel based workstation board to market at this time, considering the performance advantages that AMD holds in this area currently. The Intel 975X chipset is on a level playing field in performance with the NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition SLI in most areas based upon our current testing. The NVIDIA platform is still the preferred choice for gaming if you are interested in SLI capability. However, once ATI launches their X1800 CrossFire Edition solution, then the Intel 975X based boards will deserve a second look for those needing multi-GPU capabilities. Or, if our idea of sanctioning SLI on the Intel 975X platform comes as a revelation to NVIDIA, then we can have the best of both worlds.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
31 Comments
View All Comments
Tujan - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Can you tell us what power supply was used on this Asus multi-layered board ? What kind of power muscle did get used. ? [ ]Thanks.Didn't see it right off in table of 'Setup.
Gary Key - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
We used the OCZ Power Stream 520. It is our standard power supply for testing. I have listed in the overclocking setup but not in the regular test setup. I will add that line in the next article.Thank you.
Kensei - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Cool quote from the man often referred to as the first US psychologist. The psychology building at Harvard, where he was a professor, is also named after him. And I'm pretty sure he got that honor without giving them a ton of money.Kensei
Saist - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
just wondering how the board would compare using the Via Envy HT-S sound chip...Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Would a Chaintech AV710 satisfy your question? ;->Hikari - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
I have some horrible 945G board (don't ask, I use a 7800GT lol), and I can't even run PC2-6400 over 667, nor will the computer not crash if I put the bus over 205. :(So when are the 975x boards supposed to come out? I see some of the Intel boxes listed now in froogle (not usually in stock though), but not from Gigabyte, Asus, or anyone else yet. :) I'd be happy if it is before the 21st (my birthday). This Asus board looks like it'll be exceedingly expensive, though.
rrcn - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Boards featuring the 975X chipset should hit retail stores sometime this week. We'll see...Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
The 975x boards should be shipping in volume by the end of the year. We expect to see a small sampling of boards in the retail channel as early as next week but as always that could change.IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Right... I am gonna overclock my workstation system by 30%...."I'll overclock my server by 20% when 4 million people depend on it NOT TO CRASH!!"
Gary Key - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
:->I know the overclock testing was a bit much for a "workstation" board but it does give an indication to the quality of the components used on the board.