‘uni24, 10:52 Pee ‘Asus PSWDG2.WS and PSWD2-E Premium -975X Motherboard Showease | HotHardware P5WDG2WS: Intro, Specs. & Bundle a Intel's current line-up of desktop processors based on the company's aging Netburst micro-architecture may not have the allure it once did with power users, thanks in no small part to fierce competition from arch-rival AMD, but their core logic chipsets have always been held in high regard. Intel puts an immense amount of resources into designing and qualifying their chipsets. And over the years they've built and solidified a reputation for performance, features, and rock-solid stability. Another company with a solid reputation for building high performance, feature-rich and stable products is Asus. Over the years, we've tested and burned in a multitude of Asus-bullt products, and in the vast majority of circumstances, we've found them to be amongst the best in their class. Today at HotHardware.com, we're going to be shining the spotlight on two new Asus motherboards built using Intel's current flagship desktop chipset, the 975X Express. The Asus P5WD2-E Premium is targeted squarely at performance hungry enthusiasts, but the other board we'll be looking at here, the PSWDG2- WS, was built with professional workstation users in mind. Let's kick things off with a detailed look at the PSWDG2-WS. And later on, welll shift the focus to the more mainstream PSWD2-E Premium. ‘The PSWDG2-WS' Box -- Notice the RoHS Compliance Jy Asus P5WDG2-WS Specifications & Features Geared for High-Powered Workstations cpu Back Panel 1/0 Ports ‘© Socket 775 for Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition Parallel / Pentium D / Pentium 4 / Celeron CPU 55/2 Keyboard intel EM64T / EIST / Hyper-Threading Technology © P5/2 Mouse intel Hyper-Threading technology © aes, © S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical) Chipset ‘ © 4xuss ‘© North Bridge: Intel 975X (support ATI Crossfire dual Gfx IEEE 13948 technology) Audio vO © South Bridge: Intel ICH7R ‘© WLAN antenna jack (Optional) PCI-X Bridge: 6702 PXH uss. Front Side Bus © 8x USB 2.0 pors © 1066/800 MHz Internal 1/0 Connectors Memory © 4xuse hntps:otnardware.comeviewsiasus-pSwdg2ws-and-pSud2e-premium-975x-matherboard-showease 18.‘uni24, 10:52 Pee © 4x DIMM, max. 86B, DDR2 667/533, ECC and non-ECC un-bu‘fered memory ‘© Dual channel architecture © Native DDR2 800 Support Expansion Slots © 2x PCE x 16 slots © 2x PCEX © 2xpci22 Storage/RAID Intel ICH7R controlle! © 4 x SATA 150/300 (RAID 0, © Kata 10,5) Ext RAID: © 4x SATA 150/300 (RAID 0, the later driver release) JBOD, RAID 10 support in Audio ‘© Realtek ALC882, 8 channels +2 Channel High Definition ‘Audio codecs Multi-Streaming Jack Sensing and Enumeration Jack Retasking 5/PDIF Out interface ‘© Marvell 88£8066/8062 PCI-E Dual Gb LAN controller © WiFi AP module (Optional) Special Features ASUS AI NET 2 ASUS Al Overclocking [ASUS MyLogo2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2 ASUS C.PR, ASUS CPU Lock Free ASUS Hyper Path 3 AL Quiet EZ Flash PEG Link: Precision Tweaker SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) from 133MHz up to 400MHz at IMKz increment (CPU, memory, PCI-expressx16 voltage acjustable © ASUS Q-Fan2 (2 thermal sensor control: CPU + Chassist) © stack Cool 2 © 8-Phase Power Design ‘© TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 1.2 ‘Asus PSWOG2.WS and PSWO2- Premium - 975K Motherboard Showcase | HotHardware B-pin ATX+12V power 24-pin ATX Power connector 4-pin £2 Plug Chassis intrusion CPU fan with PWM control Chassis fant with Q-fan control Chassis fan2 with on/off control PWR fan IDE connector Floppy disk drive connector Serial ATA connectors € audio in GAME/MIDT connector IEEE 1394a port Front panel audio connector Bros ‘© 8Mb flash ROM, AMI BIOS, Green, PrP, DMI, Wim2.0, ACPI v2.02, SMBIOS v 2.3, EZ flash, CrashFree BIOS? Manageability © WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE, AI NET, Chassis Intrusion ‘Support cD Drivers BIOS flash utilty under DOS Al Booster ASUS PC Probe II RAID utility Symantec NIS 2005 Adobe Acrobat Reader ver 7.0 Microsoft Direct X ver 9.0 Accessories User's manual UltraDMA cable FD cable 2-port USBY Game port module 1 port 1394a module YO shield SATA cable SATA power cable winpvo WiFi Antenna (Optional) Form Factor © ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6°(30.5em x 24.5em) htps:otnardware.comfeviewslasus-pSwdgws-and-pSud2e-premium-B75x-matherboard-showease 28‘Asus PSWDG2.WS and PSWD2-E Premium -975X Motherboard Showease | HotHardware ‘ures, 10:52 Pm P5WDG2-WS - Accessory Bundle: Asus included a well-balanced assortment of software and accessories with the PSWDG2-WS. Included with the board itself, we found a very complete user's manual, an easy to use driver CD, and an additional CD loaded with Intervideo's WinDVD Multimedia Ensemble, which includes WinDVD, DVDCopy 2.5, PhotoAlbum 1.0, Disc Copy 2.5, and Creator 2.0. There were also @ total of eight SATA cables thrown in, along with four Molex-to-SATA power adapters, an 80-wire IDE cable, a standard floppy cable, a custom 1/0 shield, and a trio of expansion brackets. One bracket housed a single Firewire connector, the other a single 9-pin serial port, and the last a pair of USB ports and a 15-pin MIDI / Game port. nips: hothardware.conreviewslasus-p5wag2ws-and-pSwd2e-premium-975x-natherboard-showease 33