ASUS today introduced the Main Station Motherboard Series and the P5WDG2-WS, which is based on the Intel 975X chipset and supports the Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 dual-core processors. Based on the latest Intel 975X chipset, the P5WDG2-WS supports Intel's most powerful dual-core processors, including the Pentium Extreme Edition 955CPU, which offers two independent 2MB L2 cache, 1066MHz front-side-bus, and adopted Hyper-Threading Technology and Virtualization Technology for multi-threads operation. In addition, it offers two PCI Express x16 slots capable of ATI CrossFire dual-graphics card function and native dual-channel DDR2 800 support up to 8GB.

The P5WDG2-W2 comes equipped with two PCI-X slots, two PCI slots, two IEEE 1394a ports, eight USB 2.0 ports and eight Serial ATA-II 3Gb/s ports for establishing two sets of RAID.

Effective heat dissipation is maintained through Asus' Stack Cool 2 fan-less and noiseless cooling solution. Asus claims that its technology transfers heat generated by the critical components to the other side of the specially designed PCB (printed circuit board), resulting to a temperature decrease of up to 20 degrees Celsius.

In addition, the 8-Phase Power Design provides efficient operation to generate less heat (at least 15°C) than other conventional power solutions. It reduces input ripple current and output ripple voltage, which keeps CPU and VRM (voltage regulation modules) from suffering the risk of high power stress.

Specification summary

- Intel Pentium Processor Extreme Edition 955/Pentium D/Pentium 4/Celeron
- Intel 975X + Intel ICH7R chipsets
- Front side bus 1066/800MHz
- 4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 800/667/533, ECC and non-ECC un-buffered memory
- 2 x PCI-E x16 (Dual graphic running @ x 8 speed), 2 x PCI-X, 2 x PCI 2.2
- Dual Gigabit LAN
- 8 x Serial ATA 3 GB/s ports
- 2 x IEEE 1394a
- 8 x USB 2.0 ports