Asus P5WD2 Premium: DDR2-1066 and the Promise of 955x SLI

Final Words

Sitting at the top of the Asus motherboard product line, the P5WD2 Premium and the P5ND2-SLI Deluxe must be considered the "crème-de-la-crème" of the extensive Asus product line. Either board will satisfy the computer enthusiast looking for the best home for their new Intel processor. Both boards fully support Pentium D dual-core processors; in fact, both boards handle any currently available Socket 775 processor from Intel. Both boards handle DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 at the fastest timings that we have tested at these memory speeds. The performance of both boards at these 2 memory speeds is also so close that it is hard to pick a performance champion between the two boards.

From these important shared capabilities, however, the two chipsets and boards do provide different solutions for the high-end shopper. If you're a gamer looking for SLI, then the P5ND2-SLI Deluxe uses the only current chipset that will meet your needs. It fully supports NVIDIA SLI with two NVIDIA video cards. For the future, however, the 955X-based P5WD2 provides two video slots with dual video card capabilities for 4 monitors, a limited "semi-SLI" mode, and the potential for support of other "SLI-type" video displays in the future.

For those looking for top-notch on-board audio, the 955X-based P5WD2 is the clear winner with full support for High Definition Azalia audio. The nF4-SLI Intel by comparison relies on a much more limited AC '97 codec.

In the storage area, both boards offer outstanding capabilities with SATA II, flexible RAID options and NCQ support. Here, the excellent Intel Matrix RAID is countered by the NVIDIA "any-drive" RAID. In tests of the NCQ performance of both drives in the dual-core shootout, the NVIDIA chipset performed a bit better than the Intel 955x. So, that tilts the storage scales a bit toward the P5ND2-SLI Deluxe if storage is your primary concern.

Memory performance at the top is also a concern for many users, and in that arena, the Intel 955x-based Asus P5WD2 Premium is the clear winner. The P5WD2 is the first production board that we have tested to offer a DDR1066 ratio, which will work at standard stock speeds. As we saw in this review, the P5WD2 also managed to reach 1066 memory speed at stock CPU speed on a 1066FSB CPU with Corsair DDR2-667 low latency memory (CM2X512A-5400UL). This is the first time that any memory has ever performed at DDR2-1066 in our motherboard or memory testing. OCZ also reached similar bandwidth levels at DDR2-1000 at tighter memory timings, but the 1066 crown belongs to Corsair and Asus for now .

The important point is that DDR2-1066 is reachable on the Asus P5WD2 at stock speeds if the memory is capable of running at DDR2-1066. The available ratios on the Asus P5WD2 ensure that whatever memory capabilities you have can be reached on this board. The Corsair is the first 1066 performance that we have tested, but it is not likely the last. In the future, we will likely see memory with even greater stability and better timings at 1066 and we are confident that the Asus P5WD2 Premium will be able to handle that memory at 1066 speed.

This is not to take anything away from the fact that both Asus boards performed very well at both DDR2-667 and DDR2-800. For most, that will be plenty fast, but if you want the fastest memory performance on an Intel that is currently available, the Asus P5WD2 will deliver. Frankly, if your computing is the Office Suite and Content Creation, DDR2-667 or DDR2-800 will be plenty for you, and you'll see little if any difference between current DDR2-533 and DDR2-800/667. However, if you're a gamer, the 955x or nForce4-SLI Intel will give you a 5% to 8% performance boost over the 925X at DDR2-800. And if you want even greater memory performance, the P5WD2 can take you all the way to DDR2-1066. For some gamers, this will be reason enough to buy an Asus P5WD2. For enthusiasts looking for bragging rights, the fastest memory speed that we have tested will be a compelling reason to choose the Asus P5WD2 Premium.