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Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi Motherboard Review
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As our quest for the perfect Core 2 Duo motherboard continues, we take a look at the Asus P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard. Stacks of great features including support for Intel Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo processors, 8 phase power, fanless heat pipe and stack cool 2 design, WiFi wireless network support and innovative overclocking combine to make the MaXit team drool in hot motherboard lust.

Can this be the Asus board to topple the mighty range from Gigabyte?


Price: £129.95 exc vat
Supplier: Asus
Manufacturer: Asus
Visit the Asus P5B Deluxe Owners thread down in the MaXit forums for overclocking tips, bios updates, motherboard advice and more.

Conroes here. Hip hip, hooray. Intel's Core 2 Duo series of processors is probably the most exciting thing since Jessica Biel's butt popped onto the big screen and for good reason. It's an overclockers dream. Puny little 1.86GHz processors can be transformed into mega gigahertz monstas with a quick bios adjustment and a few extra volts. No need for complex phase change cooling or exotic aftermarket heatsinks. Running a lower spec E6300 at speeds in excess of the Intel Core 2 DUO Extreme Edition X6800 processor is practically childs play, if you have the right system components of course.

Enter the Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 WiFi Edition Motherboard. Trying saying that after a few beers.


The features on Asus products are stuff of legends. When you see the words deluxe you are guaranteed a rich spec, superb build quality, bundles of accessories and sexy packaging. The P5B doesn't disappoint. It's clear the technical wizards at Asus R & D pull the strings and are given license to build products with no expense spared. It might cost more than your no frills budget boards but it really feels like you are getting double your moneys worth.

Lots of package might be good for the girls but us guys want the performance too. Just aswell Asus are committed to making the fastest most overclockable Conroe motherboard on the planet. Not content on breaking the 500Mhz FSB barrier, their development team continue to tweak, test, push and torture the P5B, releasing bios updates to push performance to the edge. Your not just buying a motherboard from Asus, your buying the whole development team who are with you every step of the way on your quest for the dream machine.

P5B Specifications

• LGA775 socket for Intel® Core^TM2 Extreme / Core^TM2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D Processors
• Intel® P965 / ICH8R with Intel® Fast Memory Access Technology
• Front Side Bus 1066 / 800 / 533 MHz
• 4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
• 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x2 or x4 mode)
• 1 x PCI-E x1 (x1 or diabled mode)
• 3 x PCI 2.2
• 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
• Intel Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
• JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
• 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
• 1 x Internal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port
• 1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
• Support SATA RAID 0, 1 and JBOD
• Dual Gigabit LAN controllers, both featuring AI NET2 Marvell® PCI-E and PCI Gigabit LAN controllers
• ASUS WiFi-AP Solo 54 Mbps IEEE 802.11g and backwards compatible with 11 Mbps IEEE 802.11b
• Software Access point mode
• Station mode : Infrastruceure mode and Ad-Hoc mode
• ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
• Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming and Jack-Retasking
• Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
• ASUS Noise Filter
• ASUS Array Mic
• IEEE 1394 TI® 1394a controller supports 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel)
• 8 x USB2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel
• ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution:
• ASUS 8-Phase Power Design
• ASUS Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution
• ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
• ASUS Optional Fan for Water-cooling or Passive-Cooling only
• ASUS O.C. Profile
• ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
• ASUS EZ Flash 2
• ASUS Power LED
• ASUS WiFi-AP Solo

Overclocking Features

• AI NOS^TM (Non-delay Overclocking System)
• AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
• ASUS PEG Link - Automatically performance tuning for graphics card
• ASUS AI Booster utility
• vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
• vDIMM: 13-step DRAM voltage control
• vChipset: 4-step Chipset voltage control
• FSB tuning from 100MHz up to 400MHz at 1MHz increment
• Memory tuning from 533MHz up to 1066MHz
• PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
• Overclocking Protection: ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Back Panel I/O Ports

• 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
• 1 x PS/2 Mouse
• 1 x Serial port
• 1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical)
• 1 x External SATA
• 1 x IEEE1394a
• 2 x RJ45 port
• 4 x USB 2.0/1.1
• 1 x WiFi-AP Solo antenna jack
• 8-Channel Audio I/O

Internal I/O Connectors

• 2 x USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports
• 1 x Floppy disk drive connector
• 1 x IDE connector
• 7 x SATA connectors
• 1 x CPU Fan connector
• 5 x Chassis Fan connector
• 1 x Power Fan connector
• 1 x IEEE1394a connector
• Front panel audio connector
• 1 x Azalia Digital Header
• 1 x S/PDIF Out Header
• Chassis Intrusion connector
• CD audio in
• 24-pin ATX Power connector
• 2 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
  

BIOS
   

• 8 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3

Accessories
   

• UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
• FDD cable
• SATA cables
• SATA power cables
• I/O Shield
• User's manual
• USB2.0 port module
• 3 in 1 Q-connector
• IEEE1394 port module
• InterVideo® Media Launcher (OEM version)
• Optional Fan for Water-Cooling or Passive-Cooling only
• ASUS WiFi-AP Solo omni-directional antenna
• Array Mic
• Support CD
  

   
Dimensions
   

• ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)

Phew!