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| ASUS P5W64 Wall Street Qartet Professional We Avoid Temptation | |
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(Review by MS, November 16, 2006) |
Integrated Peripherals
Audio
The P5W64 WS features the Azalia compliant AD1988B HighDefinition AudioCODEC with all bells and whistles. Overall, the audio quality is excellent by integrated Audio CODEC standards. Compared to some earlier solutions we have seen from ASUS, there has been major progress with respect to noise shielding etc. In fact, there were no stray pickup noises from mouse clicks or hard disc drive accesses. The subjective impression was that the sound is very crisp with good positional representation in e.g. gaming applications. Definitely not the AC'97 solution from only 2 years ago.
8.1 Analog Surround Sound, Optical and Coax S/PDIF Out, Parallel Port, 4 x USB 2.0, Dual Ethernet and eSATA
Firewire, eSATA, USB and Ethernet
Texas Instruments and VIA Technologies are currently the biggest suppliers for IEEE 1394 firewire, in the case of the P5W64 WS Pro, the TI TSB43AB22A Open Host controller interface with physical layer is on duty to supply two channels of IEEE 1394a (400 MB/sec) connectivity. eSata is enabled via Marvell's 88E614X controller, which further enables three additional (external) SATA ports on the motherboard. USB is supported galore by the ICH7R already and does not need any extra control logic.
In terms of Ethernet connectivity, the PW564 WS Pro is equipped with two Marvell controllers, namely the 88E801 Yukon controller and the 88E8052 PCIe-ASF Yukon controller. Unfortunately, Marvell has pulled all datasheets from their website, so we cannot talk about the technical differences between the two ICs.
BIOS
ASUS has abandoned the PhoenixAward BIOS awhile ago to go with AmericanMegatrends Inc (AMI). AMI BIOS had the reputation of being the scaled-down version with limited checking on power-up and even less possibilities for tweaking. The current generation, though has about everything on the wish list of the hardcore overclocker.
As always, the manual is organized into the six main sections, that is: Main, Advanced, Power, Boot, Tools and Exit. The sections of interest are essentially Advanced, Power and Tools, wherein Tools comprises the embedded software for a BIOS Flash (ASUS EZ Flash 2) and the ASUS O.C. Profile.
The Power section contains the usual selection of suspend modes and ACPI APIC settings along with the hardware monitor including the ASUS AI Quiet Fan mode to allow smart management of the fan. The Advanced section features the overclocking tools, including a selection of 37 different CPU core voltages from 1.25 V to 1.7V in 25 mV steps plus the "auto setting". Memory voltages are selectable from 1.85 to 2.4V. The host bus interface frequency can be configured from 100 - 550 MHz, likewise, the memory frequency is selectable from seven settings between 400 MHz and 1067 MHz. The "oddball" frequencies are 711 and 889MHz. Keep in mind that the memory frequencies scale with the host bus frequencies, however, in this case this is a no-brainer because the memory frequency display automatically trails with the new selection of the processor bus frequency.
One setting that is a bit confusing at first glance is the "High Priority Port Select" that allows prioritizing the ICH7 peripherals to either the Marvell Ethernet controller or else to the third x16 slot. In most cases the best bet will be to disable the priority of a single device and allow unconditional sharing of resources.
next page: => Installation / Overclocking =>
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