VR-Zone.com — ASUS P5WD2-E Premium i975X Review
| Filed Under: | Archives, Motherboards, Reviews |
| Posted By: | VRArchiver |
| Date Posted: | Sun January 8 2006 4:00 pm |
Introduction
Introduction
The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is the latest introduction into the enthusiast market featuring the latest Glenwood 975X chipset. Like it's 955X and 945P predecessors, the P5WD2-E Premium continue to follow Asus' Ai-Life theme which promises silent operation. the P5WD2-E Premium no longer comes with the option of a Wifi-TV card bundle unlike the boards from the previous generation.
The P5WD2-E Premium has a similar feature set when compared to its counterpart, the P5WD2 Premium that's based on the older Glenwood 955X., Here, we'll be looking at an impressive combination, such as Dual Gigabit LAN, Dual PCI-E slots for graphics, external SATA port and more. We will be discussing the various improvements that Intel has made on the 975X chipset and the changes in feature set that Asus has implemented, but first, as usual, let's take a look at the basic specifications of the P5WD2-E Premium.
Specifications
| CPU Support | LGA775 socket for Intel?Pentium 4/Celeron CPU Support Intel Pentium?Processor Extreme Edition & Intel Pentium?D Processor Support Intel next generation 65nm CPU Compatible with Intel?05B/ 05A and 04B/04A processors Intel? Hyper-Threading Technology ready |
| Memory Support | 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) ASUS Hyper Path3 |
| Chipset | Intel 975X, ICH7R |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCI Express x 16 slot for discrete graphics card (Auto switch to 8x8 mode with 2 graphics card) |
| Audio | 8 Channel Intel Azalia High-Definition Audio via Realtek ALC882M |
| IDE | 1 x ATA100 via ICH7R 1 x ATA133 via Marvell?88SE6141 SATA/ATA controller |
| SATA | 4 x SATA II 3.0Gb/s via Intel ICH7R southbridge 4 x SATA II 3.0Gb/s via Marvell?88SE6141 SATA/ATA controller 1 x E-SATA-II 3.0Gb/s (cannot be used concurrently with SATA_RAID4 connector simultaneously) |
| Networking | 2 x Marvell 88E8053 PCI-Express Gigabit Controller, both featuring AI NET2 |
| RAID |
RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 10 and Intel Matrix Storage technology via ICH7R |
| Firewire | TI 1394 controller with 2 1394a ports |
| USB 2.0 | 4 on rear panel, 4via onboard headers, 8 in total |
| Power Connector | 24pin+8pin EATX supported |
| Form Factor | ATX, 12" x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm) |
| BIOS | 8 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 |
The Intel Glenwood 975X Chipset
The Intel 975X Chipset
Crossfire enabled Intel Chipset: The 82975X MCH
The Intel 975X Chipset is codenamed Glenwood, which is similar to the 955X. The two chipsets are pretty similar, the most significant change being the implementation of 2 x PCI Express x16 Graphics on the 975X, and at the same time, the 975X Chipset is also Crossfire-Ready. This might seem like a weird move to some, as ATI has decided to enable other chipsets other from the RD480 to accept their Crossfire cards, but to others, this might be taken as a measure by ATI to expand their market share against Nvidia. Upon insertion of the 2nd PCI-E graphics card, the PCI-Express lanes will auto-switch to 8x8 mode.
NVIDIA has issued an official statement stating the non-support of SLI on chipsets other than their own nForce chipsets. It's only with a specially configured and non-certified Forceware 78.01 that Anandtech has successfully managed to enable and run SLI on the 975X platform.
8GB DDR-II Memory Support
Another change that Intel has brought into the 975X chipset is the support for DDR-II 2GB Memory Modules. That essentially means that the 82975XMCH will be able to support up to 8GB of Memory with 4 slots. This should not affect the general user or gamer too much, as Windows under normal conditions will not be able address more than 4GB of memory, unless that particular x86 platform executes in PAE (Physical Address Extension Mode). More information can be obtained via some googling.
Presler Support and Optimizations to Intel MPT Technology
Other optimizations brought about by the 82975X MCH includes the support for the upcoming Dual Core processors that's based on the 1066Mhz front side bus. The first of these processors that will be introduced into the market will be the Intel Pentium XE 955 processor. Based on the Presler core, the Pentium XE 955 will be based on the 1066mhz core and clocked at 3.46Ghz, with a multiplier of x13. In this very review of the P5WD2-E Premium, we will be pitting it against the Intel 975XBX Reference board using the XE 955.
With that, Intel also did optimize the Intel Memory Pipeline Technology that enhances memory bandwidth.
Next, let's take a look at the feature set of the P5WD2-E Premium.
Storage and Network Connectivity
Storage Technology: Intel ICH7R and Marvell?88SE6141
The Marvell 88SE6141 Storage Host Controller
On the P5WD2-E Premium, we'll see the Intel ICH7R Southbridge that will provides 4 SATA 3.0Gb/s ports and 1 ATA100 port. the Intel ICH7R southbridge is capable of Intel's very own Matrix Storage Technology, which enables users to actually perform different RAID functions across different drives at the same time, i.e. on 2 80GB hard drive, you'll be able to split the two drives up into 2 parts of 40GB, performing RAID 0 on the first 40GB of both drives and RAID 1 on the later 40GB part of the 2 drives. performance isn't fantastic but this is definitely an innovation by Intel on te ICH7R silicon.
Apart from ICH7R, Asus took a twist away from the dual 3rd party storage controller that we saw in the P5WD2 Premium mainboard. Instead , Asus implemented an ATA/SATA Capable Marvell 88SE6141 Controller onto the P5WD2-E Premium, bringing a total of 8 SATA-II ports and 2 ATA ports as opposed to the 5 SATA ports and 3 ATA ports found on the P5WD2 Premium, increasing the total number of storage devices supported internally from 11 to 12.
The Storage ports found on the P5WD2-E Premium, top 4 SATA and ATA port provided by the ICH7R Silicon, and the bottom 4 SATA ports and 1 ATA port provided by the Marvell Host Controller
The Marvell 88SE6141 is an ATA/SATA hybrid controller that is capable of supporting up to 4 SATA 3.0Gb/s ports and a single IDE port that is able to take up to 2 IDE devices. Asus has also implemented an E-SATA port that's capable of a 3.0Gb/s transfer rate as opposed to the e-SATA 1.5Gb/s port found on the P5WD2 Premium provided by the Silicon Image 3132 SATA-II Host Controller. The 88SE6141 is also capable of RAID 0,1, 10 and JBOD.
Do take note that the 4th port on the Marvell controller cannot be used simultaneously with the External SATA port, either will be disabled when the other is used. This is illustrated in the picture above, notice the single black SATA port as opposed to the 3 others on top of the ATA port, all provided by the Marvell host controller. This is definitely good news for storage-crazed users, as the implementation on both the P5LD2-Deluxe (945P Express) and the P5WD2 Premium(955X) of the SIL3132 Controller is such that only 1 port is available for use internally, and the other can only be used for e-SATA devices and cannot be used internally at all.
Network Connectivity: Marvell 88E8053 Gigabit PCI-E LAN x2
A couple of Gigabit NICs onboard by Marvell
The P5WD2-E Premium comes with a couple of Gigabit Network Interface Controllers (NICs) supplied by Marvell once again. The Marvell 88E8053 silicon is a common sight onboard Asus boards, sitting on the PCI-Express bus, This little monsters are provides Gigabit connectivity as well as featuring Asus' exclusive AiNet2 technology, a feature that will allow users to detect anamolies within the network should any problems surface in regards to connectivity with the network.
This implementation is a slight improvement over the Network Connectivity options in the P5WD2 Premium, where Asus chose to place a Intel PCI-E GBe and Marvell GBe PCI Controller onboard. Asus has effectively removed the Marvell GBe PCI Controller, replacing it with a PCI-E one, removing the issue of bandwidth saturation on the 32bit PCI-bus.
Next, in the following page, we will be taking a look at the other connectivity options available onboard.
Firewire, Sound, PCI and PCI-E Connectivity
Firewire 400 Connectivity: Texas Instruments IEEE1394a Controller
One of the main disappointments that surfaced on the P5WD2-E Premium is the firewire connectivity options found onboard. Unlike the recent likes from other manufacturers like Gigabyte and Abit, Asus has decided to place justa Firewire400 chip supplied by Texas Instruments onboard. With the up and coming Firewire800 standard and the >USD$ 250 price tag slapped onto the P5WD2-E Premium, we would have appreciated the fact if Asus has placed a Firewire800 capable chip onboard instead of keeping the old Firewire400 solution as we have seen on the P5WD2-3 Premium.
PCI & PCI-E Slots Connectivity
Asus has re-arranged the expansion slot placement on the Asus P5WD2-E Premium. Instead of sandwiching two 32 bit PCI slots in between the two PCI-E x16 slots like it's predecessor, Asus has shifted the three PCI slots down to the bottom and the PCI-E x4 slot in between the two PCI-E x16 slot. This also effectively reduce the spacing between the two PCI-E to 1 slot instead of 2. This might prove to be a disadvantage for users running two graphic cards as ventilation between the two graphic card is affected.
Sound: Intel Azalia High-Definition Sound coupled up with Realtek ALC882M Codec
The onboard sound found on the P5WD2-E Premium is similar to the P5WD2 Premium. based on the Intel Azalia High Definition Audio standards coupled up with a Realtek ALC882 HD Codec, the P5WD2-E Premium is set to deliver Quality Audio to the masses. Unless you are a hardcore or professional Gamer, the onboard sound solution will definitely suffice.
Next, we will take a look at the cooling solutions and board layout in the following page.
Board Layout and Component Cooling
Board Layout
Asus generally did a good job here in terms of component layout throughout the board, with no major quirks or funny placing of components that might require frequent accessing. The only qualm that i have about the placing of the connectors would be the location of the COM and GAME port connectors. They're pretty far right, and fussy users who require this legacy connections might find the cables unsightly. This is definitely nothing major though.
The placement of the I/O connectors are similar to the P5WD2 Premium. Present's 2 PS/2 ports, Parallel port, Coaxial and Optical S/PDIF out, E-SATA port, Dual RJ-45 ports, 4 USB ports and sound ports.
Component Cooling onboard
Asus recognises the fact that the latest Intel Dual Core Processors has taken a toll on motherboard components in terms of heat. Asus has taken steps to integrate an additional layer at the bottom of the mainboard PCB for the purpose of dissipating heat. Asus calls this technology the Stack Cool 2, and touts that it can reduce component temperatures by up to 20 degrees Celsius. This is implemented onto enthusiast based Intel mainboards by Asus since the 945P/955X era. Asus has also based the P5WD2-E on a a workstation board design, with an 8 Pin E-ATX connector, it'll enable enthusiast to use an 8 pin pwer supply with the mainboard, thus allowing more +12v rails to be utilised, putting less stress on the Power supply unit wenever it's possible.
Unlike the original Stack Cool Technology found on previous Asus mainboards like the P5AD2-E(925X & XE), where the Stack Cool Layer only covers the area around the CPU, the Stack Cool now covers the whole underside of the mainboard, effectively dissipating heat from components throughout the mainboard.
Asus has also taken the effort to maximise cooling solutions onboard without the use of any mechanical components such as fans and blowers. As you can see in the pictures above, apart from the Stack Cool 2 technology, Asus has also taken extra efforts to place a nice heatsink on the MOSFETs in the PWM area. Asus has also improved their chipset heatsink's design and they work pretty effectively dissipating heat, the heatsinks aren't hot to touch to begin with, even after a few hours of intensive usage. This is very unlike chipset heatsinks found on mainboards from many other manufacturers, which can be really burning hot after a few hours of usage. That is impressive when all the heat generators onboard are passively cooled.
Accessories
Accessories
Asus has included a WinDVD OEM Suite along with the standard drivers and utilities included. The four software included are, namely,
- Photoalbum 1.0 Platinum
- WinDVD Creator 2 Platinum
- DVD Copy 2.5 Platinum
- Disc Master 2.5 Platinum
Asus has always included a full set of accessories together with their enthusiast mainboard and this time round, a couple of IDE Cables, a floppy cable, 6 SATA cables and 3 1 power connector to 2 SATA power connector converters were included in the package.
Connectivity brackets included in the package: COM Port, Firewire Port and a 2 USB Port with gameport bracket..
BIOS Options - Overclocking
Next, as an integral part of our reviews, we'll be taking a look at the extensive BIOS options that's available on the Asus P5WD2-E Premium, just like any other Asus Mainboard. The P5WD2-E Premium comes with a 8Mbit BIOS chip by American Megatrends Inc, more commonly known as AMIBIOS. First, the overclocking options.
Just like it's predecessor, the P5WD2, the mainboard allows you to store an overclocked profile in the BIOS, allowing you to load it whenever necessary. Alternatively, you can make use of Asus's AI N.O.S feature to allow the mainboard to overclock the processor according to the CPU load thrown at it.
CPU Frequency of up to 450 is allowed.
Extensive memory ratio options are available for users to tweak for optimum memory bandwidth.
Performance mode options.
PCI Express Frequency of up to 150Mhz.
BIOS Options - Voltage Adjustments
Next, the voltage options
Memory Voltage (VDIMM) of up to 2.4V
CPU Voltage (VCORE) of up to 1.7V
FSB Termination Voltage up to 1.5V
MCH Voltage (VDD) of up to 1.65V
ICH Chipset Voltage of up to 1.2V
BIOS Options - Misc
Other BIOS options available onboard
Options to enable or disable various Intel CPU technologies
Memory Timings Tweaking options
PEG Link mode options
Slot Power options that'll allow you to supplie more power to the PCI-Express x16 slots.
CPU Health screen.
Benchmarking Setup
Hardware Setup
We will be comparing the Asus P5WD2-E against the Intel Reference board, The Intel "Bad Axe" 975XBX Mainboard. Let's take a look at the other standard components that we will be using throughout the review
- Cosair XMS 8000UL 512MB x2 Dual Channel kit @ 5-4-4-9 800mhz
- Nvidia Reference Geforce 7800GTX 256MB @ 430/1200Mhz
- Seagate 7200.7 80GB SATA Hard Drive
- Silverstone Zeus ST65ZF 650Watts Power Supply
- Sony 52X/16X Combo Optical Disk Drive
The Intel Reference board comes with an additional SATA 1.5Gb/s Controller based on the Silicon Image 3114 Chipset, along with a Sigmatel HD Audio Codec supporting the onboard Intel Azalia HD Audio Standards. The board is pretty standard apart from this features listed, ICH7R coupled with the 82975 MCH. The features onboard pales totally in comparison against the P5WD2-E Premium.
Next, let's take a look a the benchmarks that we will be running.
- 3DMark2001 SE
- 3DMark2003 Build 360
- 3DMark2005 Build 120
- PCMark 2005
- SiSoft Sandra 2005 Professional - CPU and Memory Bandwidth Test
- SuperPi v1.4 w/ anti hack- 1M calculation
- Sciencemark 2003 - SGEMM, DGEMM and Memory Bandwidth Tests
- Far Cry v1.33 : HardwareOC Archive Demo, Ultra Details
- Half-Life 2 : Lost Coast, HardwareOC Recorded Timedemo
- Quake 4 v1.04 : Bloodwork, High Quality
- Serious Sam II v2.064b - Custom Recorded Demo, bmk_bBenchmark = 1
- Call Of Duty 2 - FRAPs - Opening Scene
- CineBench 2003
- Kribibench v1.1 - Ultra.D Model
- Lame 3.96 - 4.42Min WAV to 128kbps MP3
- Adobe Photoshop CS2 Bench - Driverheaven Photoshop Bench V2
- SpecViewPerf 8.01
- Winrar 3.51
All gaming benchmarks are ran with AA switched off and default options at 1024x768.
Let's get down to the Benchmarks. Read on to find out more.
Benchmarking - Synthetic : Futuremark Suite, PCMark, Sisoft and Sciencemark
Futuremark's 3DMark family of synthetic benchmarks tests various gaming aspects of these graphics cards, particularly on Direct X capabilities. With all DirectX 8.1 (2001SE), DirectX 9.0 (03) and DirectX 9.0C (05) being tested in this suite of tests, 3DMark is remains as the most highly regarded 3D benchmark till date. In the following tests, the Asus P5WD2-E reigns over the Intel Bad-Axe, scoring an almost 1000 point lead in 01, a 150 point lead in 03 and and a nice 264 point lead in 05.
PCMark04 is another popular application-based synthetic benchmark by Futuremark that uses portions of real applications to evaluate the overall performance of a PC. The Intel XBX mainboard edged the Asus out slightly in this benchmark by 16marks, which can be considered neglible. Otherwise, in 3DMark's CPU Tests, the Asus leads, especially significant in 3DMark05.
SuperPI is a number crunching benchmark that calculates the number PI to 1 Million digits. The benchmark is fairly diverse and allows the user to change the number of digits of PI that can be calculated from 16 Thousand to 32 Million. In this benchmark, we will be using the 1 Million Test that uses 19 iterations. The Asus managed to outshine the Intel XBX by a 0.14 second margin.
SiSoft Sandra is a synthetic benchmarks that is designed to test the theoretical power of a complete system and individual components. In both CPU Arithmetic and Memory Bandwidth Benchmarks, the Asus takes lead over the Intel Mainboard.
Sciencemark is a nice benchmark for use for scientific computing aspect of the system and it can support SMP and SMT. As expected, the Asus mainboard leads in both the memory bandwidth and DGEMM tests that we ran.
Benchmarking - Gaming, Rendering & Workstation
We ran a series of Directx 9-based gaming benchmarks without AA/AF as listed in the graphs above. The Asus P5WD2-E edged out the Intel XBX mainboard in every single test.
CINEBENCH 2003 is based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D R8. The tool is set to deliver accurate benchmarks by testing not only a computer's raw processing speed but also all other areas that affect system performance such as OpenGL, multithreading, multiprocessors and Intel's HT Technology. CINEBENCH 2003 includes render tasks that test the performance of up to 16 multiprocessors on the same computer. As seen here, the Asus mainboard only managed to capture top spot in 3 of the 8 tests ran, drawing one while losing out to the Intel Reference marginally in the other 4.
KribiBench 1.1 is great for testing rendering performance much affected by CPU power. This version of KribiBench is multi-threaded making it an excellent CPU to test out the Hyper-Threading aspect. Kribi is designed to handle up to 10 billion polygons and enable real-time photorealistic rendering. The Ultra City Realistic test generates 16.7 billion polygons which is extremely intensive and demanding for the processor. The P5WD2-E excels in this specific benchmark, leading the Intel reference by more than 1 FPS.
We ran the Driverheaven's Photoshop CS bench and was pretty surprised by the results, as the Asus board lost out to the Intel Reference by 5 seconds. A breakdown analysis of the Photoshop Bench as the chart above.
SPECviewperf is a benchmarking utility that has individual tests based on many popular workstation applications, and here, we will be running all the tests provided. The Asus mainboard led in every single test from Unigraphics to 3D Studio Max, with a significant 1.4fps lead over the Intel Reference board in the Solidwork benchmark.
In Winrar, Asus crushes the Intel reference mainboard.
Overclocking - 4.49Ghz without breaking a sweat!
Overclocking
We managed to push the Pentium XE 955 to an impressive 4.49Ghz, which translate to an impressive overclock of 1.03Ghz! All these were done with some "simple" air cooling, using the Thermalright XP90-C heatsink with a fairly weak 90mm fan. We firmly believe that with a better heatsink such as the Scythe Ninja that we reviewed a while back, We will definitely be able to push the the chip to greater heights on The P5WD2-E.
The above results were obtained with the following setup and BIOS configuration:
- Intel Pentium XE 955 (3.46 Ghz, 266Mhz, 13x multiplier) o/ced to 345Mhz x13
- Thermalright XP90-C with Sunon 0.23A 90mm fan
- Nvidia Reference 7800GTX 256MB@ stock, 430Mhz/1.2Ghz
- Cosair XMS 8000UL @ 875Mhz, running on 2:5 dividers, 5-4-4-9 Timings
- VCore: 1.3875v in BIOS, 1.356v actual
- VDIMM: 2.2V
- MCH Voltage: 1.2V
- VDD: 1.6V
Conclusion - In a Class of it's own
The ASUS P5WD2-E Premium is almost, drilled to perfection by Asus' brilliant engineers, With excellent gaming and workstation performance, ASUS has just brought the enthusiasts mainboard market to the next level. The only downside that I can see is perhaps the price, but hey, isn't every Intel 975X mainboard priced at a premium? Heh.
Overall Rating : 90 VRMarks!
ASUS P5WD-E Premium
was given an
Editor's Choice GOLD Award w/ Best In OC!
