Asus P5W DH Deluxe, 975X Core 2 Duo Ready Motherboard
Benchmark Wrap-up and Conclusion
Benchmark And Performance Summary:
The Asus P5W DH Deluxe showed itself to be every bit as powerful as Intel's own D975XBX "Bad Axe" motherboard throughout of entire battery of tests. In our Office, PhotoShop and Windows Media Encoders tests, the Intel board had a slight advantage, while the Asus P5W DH took the lead by a hair in our gaming and synthetic benchmark tests. All told, performance deltas, between virtually all of the 975X Express based motherboards released for the Core 2 Duo, are going to be minimal.
Where Asus and others will differentiate their offerings will be on features, stability and price. With respect to stability the P5W DH Deluxe performed admirably, overclocking our Core 2 Duo E6700 to new heights and showing rock-solid stability during several installations and heavy stress-testing. On the features side of the equation, you'd be hard-pressed to find another motherboard that provide more add-ons and additional functionality integration than the P5W DH. The P5W DH Deluxe has three SATA RAID controllers on board, integrated WiFi, HD Audio and even comes with an infrared remote control for general system and multimedia control.
Asus pulled out all the stops on this motherboard, but that also ratchets up its price point a bit ($255 currently in our HH PriceGrabber store). In the end, we struggled just a little working with the board's EZ-Backup RAID controller as well as the remote. We were left wishing these options were omitted perhaps, leaving room for one more SATA port off the ICH7 Southbridge and keeping costs in line a bit more. Maybe the addition of a standard Silicon Image software RAID controller would have been a better way to approach storage expansion, but then again, that's just our personal preference.
In the final analysis we'd say the Asus P56W DH Deluxe is a great new motherboard to base your first Core 2 Duo system build on. Its performance is first-rate, it's decked out with a multitude of trimmings and integrated features and overclocks like nobody's business. Taking the plunge on one of these new motherboards from Asus may cost you a bit more but if you want all the bells and whistles, the P5W DH Deluxe could be just what the doctor ordered.
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