Intel 945P Motherboards: Going from Hopeless to Enthusiastic

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe: Features

Asus designed a generally well laid out board with all major connections easily reached. The board is lacking most clearance issues and was very easy to install in a mid-size ATX case. Asus did an excellent job with the color coordination of the various peripheral slots and connectors.

The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup. The memory modules can easily be changed with a full size video card installed in the first PCI Express x16 slot. The power plug placement favors standard ATX case design and the power cable management is very good. The floppy drive port connector and 4-pin 12v EZ-Pug are conveniently located on the edge of the board along with the 24 pin ATX power connector.

The Intel ICH7R IDE port connector is located on the edge of the board and did not present any connection issues in our mid-size ATX case.

The Intel SATA II ports are conveniently located below the ICH7R chipset and above the primary IDE connector. The SATA II ports feature the new clamp and latch design. Asus did not include the new cable designs in their accessory kit, which greatly enhance the security of the SATA connections.

The ITE 8211F IDE port connectors are located to the left of BIOS chip and could create cable clutter in certain case designs and could hinder access to the Intel SATA II ports.

The Intel USB connectors, IEEE1394a connector, and Com1 serial port are located along the left edge of the board and are a tight fit when utilizing the bottom PCI slot. The CMOS reset is a traditional jumper design located next to the BIOS chip and below the ITE 8211F IDE port connectors that proved to be inconvenient at times.

The board comes with (2) physical PCI Express x16 slots, (3) 32bit PCI slots, and (1) PCI Express x1 slot. The layout of this design offers a very good balance of slots and allows for numerous add-in peripheral cards.

However, in between the two x16 PCI Express slots are two 32bit PCI slots. This configuration could potentially render the first 32bit PCI slot useless when utilizing the first x16 PCI Express slot. We did not have any issues utilizing this slot with video cards containing single slot cooling systems, but we were unable to install a sound or network card upon installation of a NVIDIA 6800 Ultra in the x16 PCI Express slot.

Returning to the CPU socket area, we find ample amount of room for alternative cooling solutions. We utilized the stock Intel heat sink, but also verified several aftermarket cooling systems that would fit in this area during our tests. However, due to the large MCH heatsink, installation of certain cooling solutions could be problematic.

The Northbridge and Southbridge chipsets are passively cooled with large heatsinks that do not interfere with any installed peripherals. In fact, this system kept the chipsets cool enough that additional chipset voltage was not a factor in our overclocking tests. Asus places the eight-pin 12V auxiliary power connector at the top of the CPU socket area, but out of the way of most aftermarket cooling solutions.

The only oddity in the area is the red Silicon Image 3132 SATA II connector located right below the I/O panel. The location of this connector is not ideal, but is required due to the second Silicon Image 3132 SATA II connector being located on the back I/O panel.

The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, parallel port, LAN port, and 4 USB ports. Located below the parallel port and to the right of the PS/2 ports are the Coaxial S/PDIF, Optical S/PDIF, and external SATA II port. Located above the first two USB ports is a 6-pin IEEE 1394a port. The LAN (RJ-45) port has two LED indicators representing Activity and Speed of the connection. The audio panel consists of 6 ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections.

The board arrived with the optional WiFi-TV card and accessories. We will be fully exploring the capabilities of this equipment in a future HTPC article.

The BIOS options are abundant on the P5LD2 Deluxe, with memory voltage to 2.3V, and an extensive range of chipset, bus, and vCore voltage adjustments. Memory ratios are limited compared to the nForce4 Intel Edition boards, but Asus did manage to offer more settings than the other two Intel 945P boards that were reviewed. The board fully supports manual memory timing adjustments or allows for an Auto setting that will set the memory to the SPD settings. This Auto setting will adjust the memory timing settings automatically when the system is overclocked. You have the ability to overclock the system utilizing the AI Overclock profiles that have preset percentages or to use the AI N.O.S. feature that will overclock the system dynamically based upon system loads.