Asus P5WD2 Premium: DDR2-1066 and the Promise of 955x SLI
by Wesley Fink on May 11, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
The new 955x fully supports dual core Pentium D processors as you would expect. So does the Asus version of the nForce4 Intel chipset. We confirmed that both boards worked as they should with an Intel 840 processor, and there were no problems with either board recognizing the two cores and four logical processors that are created with the Hyperthreading feature on this EE processor. However, dual core really makes a difference in multi-tasking, as was demonstrated in the dual core platform shootout. If you are interested in how the two chipsets perform in a multitasking set up, please take another look at that review.For this review, we were more interested in how the Asus boards compared in benchmarks of the games and applications that we have tested in other motherboard reviews. We also found memory operated at both DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 on both motherboards, so the standard single core hyperthreaded Pentium 4 that we have used in other Socket 775 reviews provided the headroom and multipliers needed for these benchmarks. The ES Pentium 4 560 runs at 3.6GHz and has the lower multipliers necessary to better test overclocking on both Asus Socket 775 motherboards.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 4 560 ES (3.6GHz, 800FSB, 1MB L2, HT) Intel 3.46EE (3.46GHz, 1066FSB, HT)-DDR2-1066 Testing Intel Pentium EE 840 (3.2GHz, 800FSB, Dual-Core, HT, 2x1MB L2)-Dual-Core Verification |
| RAM: | 2 x 512MB Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL 2 x 512MB OCZ PC2 5400 EB |
| Hard Drive(s): | Seagate 120GB 7200 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer) |
| Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers: | Intel 7.0.0.1019 (4/18/2005) NVIDIA nForce Platform Driver 6.53 |
| Video Cards: | NVIDIA 6800 Ultra (PCI Express) |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA nForce 71.89 NVIDIA nForce 66.75 (Semi-SLI Verification) |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | Asus P5WD2 Premium (Intel 955x) Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe (NVIDIA nForce4 Intel) Asus P5AD2 Premium (Intel 925x) Intel 925x Reference Board |
Tests with the new Asus boards used either of two memories based on Micron DDR2 memory chips. OCZ PC2-5400 EB and Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL are both low latency memories designed to run at DDR2-667 or higher speeds. DDR2-667 tests were run at 4-2-2-4 timings and DDR2-800 benchmarks were run with 4-3-2-4 timings.
The PCI Express 6800 Ultra was used for all video testing. Two 6800 Ultra video cards were used to verify SLI and semi-SLI performance. Resolution in all benchmarks is 1024x768x32 unless noted otherwise.
Results are color-coded for DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 for the Asus 955x and nForce4 Intel motherboards. The P5DW2 is gold for 667 and dark gold for 800, while the P5ND2-SLI is light green for 667 and dark green for DDR2-800.
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overclockingoodness - Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - link
Can someone tell me why they decided to bench both at DDR-667 and DDR-800?Wesley: are you planning on testing all Intel mobos like that with two different memory speeds?
Capt Caveman - Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - link
I actually plan on returning the P5WD2 Premium that I purchased. I bought this board for going to dual core but was really sold on the Wifi-TV card that was supposed to come with it. It's the first board in Asus's Ai Life Series and the major component of this series is the Wifi-TV Card.Well, surprise my Asus Premium doesn't come with one. It's optional. I spoke to people at Asus US in Technical Support, Customer Service, Pre-sales and RMA groups and they all confirmed to me that there was only one model and it's optional. Every retailer that carries the P5WD2 Premium has it without the Wifi-TV Card. Yet, the reviewers have them, making you think that the card comes with the board.
Also, things have been down-graded on this board from previous premium boards. The mosfet heatsink is aluminum compared to the copper heatsinks used in my P5AD2-e Premium. Contrary to what some have said, the P5WD2 Premium does not have IDE Raid when the P5AD2-e Premium did. The P5AD2-e Premium also has 1394b where the P5WD2 Premium does not. And obviously no built on Wifi.
Why did they call this board a Premium when it's missing all of the premium items that we're used to getting? Why didn't they just call it the Deluxe since this board does not have the premium features as it's other premium boards?
I believe Asus is misleading folks. I have yet to receive a reply back to several emails that I have sent also.
Sad thing is that I was a huge fan of Asus til getting this board which I must pay a 15% restocking fee to return.
elecrzy - Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - link
on page 2, you might want to add that NF4 supports SATAII, not just SATAI.RadeonGuy - Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - link
it would have been better to include a fx-55 as competition