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- Date:
- Wednesday, May 28, 2008
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P5N-T Deluxe
Our last 780i NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI chipset review, seems to hold a lot of promise with its solid design and with the features that the NVIDIA chipset brings to the table. Just how well does this board compare with the rest of the Intel board, or even the other NVIDIA based boards?
Introduction
ASUS is a well established Tier 1 component manufacturer, known for their stable and high performance products. With every new product release, ASUS strives to push the technological limits in order to remain ahead of the marketplace in product design and overall performance. ASUS’ latest motherboard appears to be yet another design win for them.
The ASUS P5N-T Deluxe is the newest of ASUS’ Intel based motherboard lineup. The board is based on the NVIDIA nForce 780 SLI chipset, which supports all current Intel LGA 775 processors, DDR2 memory operating in Dual Channel mode up to 800MHz officially, and dual or tri-card SLI graphics mode using matched NVIDA graphics cards.
The P5N-T Deluxe board is feature complete, requiring only the following components for a working system: an Intel LGA 775 processor, DDR2 memory, a video card, drives, and a PSU. ASUS chose to include the following ports in to the P5N-T Deluxe’ design: 1 ATA-133 IDE port and 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the 780i SLI SPP controller; 1 eSATA port on the Marvell controller; 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header); 1 x NVIDIA GigE Ethernet port in the rear panel; ADI 8-channel HD audio codec featuring an S/PDIF RCA and optical output ports; and PS/2 keyboard and mouse port support in the rear panel.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Mainboard Specification List:
Packaging
ASUS used their standard Ai Lifestyle design for the P5N-T Deluxe’ box art, with the Ai Lifestyle logo prominently featured on the box front, as well as the supported CPU, memory and chipset technologies. The following components are bundled in with the P5N-T Deluxe board: ATA-133 and floppy rounded cables; SATA drive and dual ended power cables; the rear panel shield; a rear bracket for USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 ports; a clip-on cooling fan for the integrated heat pipe cooling solution; the Q-Connector modules; and the normal complement of manuals and drivers discs. Note that the included driver disk is a DVD-ROM disk, not a CD-ROM disk. The Q-Connector modules allow for an easy interface for connecting in to the motherboard headers. You simply plug in your front panel jumpers in to the white connector and the USB 2.0 jumpers in to the blue connector block, and then plug both blocks in to the motherboard headers. It makes for a much easier install for those typically hard to reach header areas.
Board Layout
ASUS definitely knows how to design motherboards, with the P5N-T Deluxe being another of their well designed products. The board has adequate room around components with no real tight spots present, even with the elaborate heat pipe cooling system. The board used in testing was a revision 1.02G, which is silk-screened on the board’s surface between the Northbridge chipset and the DIMM slots. The board’s serial number is on a white sticker located to the lower outer edge of the tertiary PCI Express x16 slot. As is common with their enthusiast board lines, ASUS chose use all metal solid-state capacitors for the P5N-T Deluxe.
ASUS implemented the area around the CPU socket with minimal obstructions, using low profile components that should not obstruct installation of even larger CPU coolers. The CPU cooler itself is held to the board using the standard 4-hole LGA775 style mechanism. The NVIDIA Northbridge chipset is located to the CPU socket’s left, covered by a thin finned large copper heat sink, which also serves as the middle to the board’s heat pipe cooling loop. Just above the Northbridge is a smaller heat sink, which acts as a termination point for the heat pipe. The large heat sink unit above the CPU socket covers the CPU power circuitry, acting as the heat dissipation termination point for the heat pipe cooler. The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is to the upper right of the CPU socket.
The onboard memory slots, which support DDR2 style memory modules, are located below the CPU socket and Northbridge chipset. The slots are arranged in a bi-colored, 2-by-2 set configuration, with Dual Channel memory mode activated by placing like DIMM modules the same colored slots across the sets. Note that ASUS designed the heat pipe interconnect between the Northbridge and Southbridge chipsets in a low profile manner along the board’s surface in order to minimize component contention. Directly below the lower set of DIMM slots are the ATA-133 IDE port, the 24-pin ATX power connector, the floppy port, the PWR_FAN header, and the COM1 port header. The CPU_FAN header is located to the right of the DIMM slots, along the board’s edge.
The NVIDIA Southbridge chipset is located below the second and third PCI Express x16 slots. The chipset is cooled by a low profile copper heat sink which acts as a termination point for the heat pipe cooler. The board’s 6 onboard SATA 2 ports are located directly below the chipset, and have been rotated 90 degrees to make cable placement and removal easier. To the left of the SATA 2 ports are the CHA_FAN2 header, the CMOS reset jumper, the chassis intrusion header, the standby power LCD, and the front panel header. The standby power LCD illuminates when an active power source is connected to the board. The CMOS battery and the 3 onboard USB 2.0 headers are located to the left of the Southbridge chipset.
The board is design with a total of 3 PCI Express x16 ports, 2 PCI Express x1 ports, and 1 PCI port. The IEEE 1394 header, as well as the CD_IN and front panel audio headers, are located along the outside edge of the secondary PCI Express x1 slot. The CHA_FAN1 header is located along the upper right edge of the primary PCI Express x16 slot.
The P5N-T Deluxe contains the following ports integrated in to its rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 eSATA port; 1 NVIDIA GigE Ethernet port; and 6 analogue audio and S/PDIF RCA and optical output audio ports.
AiSuite
ASUS chose to include their newly redesigned AiSuite Windows based monitoring utility in with the board drivers. The version of AiSuite shown is 1.03.13. The AiSuite utility supports a variety of monitoring and configuration settings including real time display of system voltages, fan speeds, temperatures, CPU FSB and speed, as well as multiple supported overclocking methods.
The AiBooster button gives access to the AiBooster interface, allowing for automated or full manual control of CPU FSB and multiplier, and system voltages.
The Performance screen allows for selection of a preconfigured overclocking level, where the system controls the voltages and various FSB settings, while the Advanced screen allows for full manual control. Note that for all voltage and bus speed manipulation, supported options can be selected from a pull down master list.
Note that the AiBooster interface allows for selection and saving of pre-configured user profiles as well.
The Q-Fan button within the main AiSuite window allows for operational configuration of all fan headers through preset options.