- The Package

The Asus P5W64WS Pro package is big and costs around US$290~324, making it an expensive solution. Of course, its unique features make it an appealing choice for many users.

The package includes all required information and details of its special features. Below is a list of what's included in the retail package:

• 1x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
• 1x FDD cable
• 4x SATA cables
• 4x SATA power cables
• 1x I/O Shield
• 1x printed user's manual
• 1x USB2.0 port module
• 1x 3in1 Q-connector
• 1x IEEE1394a port module
• 1x Serial port module
• 1x CD-ROM with InterVideo® Media Launcher (WinDVD Creator 2, InterVideo PhotoAlbum, DiscMaster 2.5 Platinum, DVD Copy 2.5 Platinum)
  A flyer with installation and motherboard information
• 1x CD-ROM with drivers

The board, as with most motherboards is densely packed with components but the layout is clean and all parts can be identified easily:

Below, the CPU region.

Note the passive cooling solution for the northbridge. As Asus comments "...The Heat Pipe design effectively directs the heat generated by the chipsets to the heatsink near the back IO ports, where it can be carried away by existing airflow from CPU fan or bundled optional fan...". Any nearby capacitors are low profile so there shouldn't be any problem installing any of the larger, 3rd party CPU cooling solutions. The Asus P5W64 WS Pro has four memory banks. There is also an extra power input for higher system stability in case you install multiple VGA cards:

A passive heatsink is also used on the Southbridge as shown below.

The Asus P5W64 WS Pro supports ATI Crossfire, although the official specs don't mention it. There are 4x PCI-E x16 slots. If you install four VGA cards, each slot works at x8 (x8, x8, x4, x8). If you install two VGA, cards at x16 ( x16, x0, x4, x0). The downside is that the slots are placed very close to each other so you may have trouble fitting in any of the larger sized cards which tend to overlap onto the next PCI-E slot. Between the last PCI-E and PCI slots, there is a green led that shows the operating status of the board:

There are several extra connections for USB, Front Panel Audio, COM2 and Firewire. Asus has activated all port available on the motherboard and included all cables in the retail package. The back I/O panel has the usual connections:

• 1x Parallel port
• 1x PS/2 Keyboard
• 1x PS/2 Mouse
• 2 x RJ45 port (1GBit LAN)
• 1x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical)
• 4x USB
• 1x eSATA
• 8-Channel Audio I/O