Legit Motherboard Reviews

ASUS P5WD2 Premium 955X Motherboard Review

Manufacturer: ASUS
Product: ASUS P5WD2-Premium
Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2005 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Rich Caporali
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Introduction

ASUS P5WD2 Premium

Today, Legit Reviews takes a look the latest high performance board from ASUS, the P5WD2 Premium. Featuring a wide variety of benefits including support for dual core processors, Native DDR2 800, Intel's Memory Pipeline Technology, HD Audio, as well as ASUS' proprietary Stack Cool 2 and AI Quiet, the ASUS P5WD2 Premium promises to be a popular choice for those wanting to take advantage of Intel's dual core processors.

Retail Box

CPU Support

  •  LGA775 Support for
  • Celeron D
  • 5XX Series
  • 6XX Series
  • Intel® Pentium D 820, 830, 840,
  • Pentium Extreme Edition 840 with Hyper-Threading

Chipset

  • Intel 955X  
  • Intel ICH7R

Front Side Bus 

  • 1066/ 800/ 533 MHz

Memory

  • Dual channel memory architecture
  • 4 x 240-pin DIMM sockets support max. 8GB DDR2 800/ 667/ 533 ECC and non-ECC memory
  • Native DDR2 800 Support
  • Intel MPT (Intel Memory Pipeline Technology)

Expansion Slots

  • 1 x PCI Express x16 slot for discrete graphics card
  • 1 x Universal PCI-E Slot ( x4 mode)
  • 1 x PCI Express x1
  • 3 x PCI

Storage

  • Intel ICH7R South Bridge:
    1 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
    4 x Serial ATA I/II 3.0Gb/s with Intel Matrix Storage Technology with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
  • Silicon Image 3132 SATA controller:
    1 x Internal Serial ATA I/II
    1 x External Serial ATA
  • ITE IDE controller:
     2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66

Audio

  • Realtek ALC882D High Definition Audio 8-channel CODEC
  • Support Multi-streaming, Jack-sensing and Jack-retasking functions
  • Coaxial, Optical S/PDIF out on back I/O port
  • Features Dolby Digital Live technology LAN Dual Gigabit LAN controllers
  • 1 x Intel PCIe Gigabit LAN Controller
  • 1 x Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN Controller, featuring AI NET2

ASUS AI Life & Overclocking Features

  • Stack Cool 2 patented fanless cooling system
  • "SATA on the Go" External SATA connector
  • AI Quiet
  • AI NOS? (Non-delay Overclocking System)
  • ASUS CPU Lock Free
  • Precision Tweaker:
    - vDIMM: 8-step DRAM voltage control
    - vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125 increment
    - SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection): allowing FSB tuning from 100MHz up to 450MHz at 1MHz increment
    - PCIe x16 Frequency: allowing PCIe x16 frequency from 100MHz up to 200MHz at 1MHz increment
  • AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
  • Adjustable FSB/DDR ratio. Fixed PCI/PCIe frequencies
  • ASUS AI Booster utility
  • ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Back Panel I/O Ports

  • 1 x Parallel
  • 1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
  • 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
  • 1 x PS/2 Mouse
  • 2 x RJ45
  • 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
  • 1 x IEEE1394a
  • 1 x External SATA port
  • 8-Channel Audio I/O Accessories 1 x IEEE1394 port module
  • 5 x SATA cables
  • SATA power cable for 5 devices
  • 1 x 2-port USB2.0 / Game module
  • 1 x COM Port module
  • 1 x GT Soft Bridge for future upgrade
  • 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
  • 1 x IDE cable
  • 1 x FDD cable
  • 1 x I/O Shield
  • User's manual

Form Factor

  • ATX Form Factor, 12?x 9.6?(30.5cm x 24.5cm)

Warranty

  • 3Years through the manufacturer

Next Page - Board Layout


Review Index
Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - Board Layout
Page 3 - Board Layout continued
Page 4 - BIOS
Page 5 - Software and Testing
Page 6 - CPU Testing
Page 7 - Memory Testing
Page 8 - Graphics Testing
Page 9 - Final Thoughts