Overclocking and Conclusion
Overclocking
As this is one of the first motherboards on the market to support Core 2 Duo, we were eager to test the overclocking features by using a new E6700 (2.67GHz) processor. The E6700 has a default multiplier of 10, and the front side bus is 266MHz (1066MHz).
The BIOS offers many options for controlling different voltages. We concentrated on the cpu vcore, vmch (chipset voltage) and memory voltage. We found that by increasing chipset voltage to 1.65v we could easily achieve a 400MHz front side bus. Our particular board topped out at 412MHz, though forums have shown that almost all boards hit 390-450MHz depending on the configuration and of course luck. Our top speed was achieved with our test CPU’s multiplier reduced to 6. The BIOS allows for many different memory speeds depending on what the front side bus is set at. For instance, at stock settings we could run our DDR2 all the way up to DDR2-1000 just by changing the memory divider. Unfortunately some of these dividers didn’t work too well when overclocking, so as always your mileage may vary!
We did notice that even when not overclocking the heatsink on the mosfets and the heatsink on the chipset ran very hot. Performance may be improved by using the small fan which Asus provides in the box.
Conclusion
Asus has once again produced an excellent enthusiast motherboard that's great for overclocking Intel's latest and greatest. While we don't have much here to make a comparison with, we're confident that the Asus should be on your short list if you're intending to upgrade to Conroe. The board layout is good if not perfect, the overclocking features are plenty and the package is full of nice surprises such as the remote control. Our only real gripe is the price, at £150+ (at time of writing) this is one expensive desktop motherboard, however in this instance we believe you get what you pay for! Highly recommended. *NB* one thing to note is that the release BIOS of the P5WDH is NOT Core 2 Duo supporting, so be sure to insist on a model with the newer BIOS.
Click for an explanation of our awards.
Buy the P5W DH Deluxe from Chillblast pre-flashed with the latest 0701 BIOS.
Pros
- Superb performance
- Generally excellent layout
- Great overclocking options
- Good bundle of software and hardware
- Media remote control
- The best Core 2 Duo motherboard available
Cons
- Secondary IDE port in awkward position
- Mosfets get very hot even at stock speed
- BIOS could still be improved somewhat
|
