Asus P5WDH Deluxe
2. The Package
The Asus P5WDH Deluxe costs around US$219.99 - US$259.00 (€220~250), making it an affordable solution for medium level users. Of course, its unique features make it an appealing choice for all enthusiast users:
The package includes all the information about the board's design and special features. Below is a list of what's included at the retail package
- 1x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
- 1x FDD cable
- 2x SATA cables
- 2x SATA power cables
- 1x I/O Shield
- 1x printed user motherboard manual
- 1x printed user WiFi-AP manual
- 1x USB2.0 port module
- 1x 3in1 Q-connector
- 1 x Optional Fan
- 1x IEEE1394a port module
- 1x Serial port module
- 1x MP3-In port module
- 1x Sound-volume knob USB powered
- 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 included remote control can be used for the main functions of the PC, while the included AP antenna will improve the reception:
The board is densely packed with components but most parts can be identified easily:
Asus uses a passive cooling solution for the southbridge and northbridge chipsets. Capacitors adjacent to the CPU socket are low profile so there shouldn't be any problem with some of the larger, 3rd party cooling solutions. The board has four banks for the memory modules, colour coded for dual-channel operation:
Moving to the southbridge area of the board, we can see the passive heatsink and the five SATA2 connectors
The Asus P5W DH Deluxe supports ATI's Crossfire. There are two PCI-E x16 slots for that purpose. The two PCI-E slots have plenty of space so there shouldn't be any problem with large sized VGA cards.
There are extra connections for USB, Front Panel Audio, COM2 and Firewire. Asus has activated all ports in the retail package. The back I/O panel has the usual array of connections
- 1 x Serial Port
- 1 x Optical + 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output
- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
- 1 x PS/2 Mouse
- 2 x 1GBit LAN (RJ45)
- 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
- 1 x IEEE1394a
- 1 x External SATA port
- 1 x WiFi-AP Solo antenna jack
- 8-Channel Audio I/O