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ASUS P6T Deluxe

There’s a new kid on the block, and he’s out for blood. The ASUS P6T Deluxe comes out of the gate swinging, sporting the newly release Intel X58 chipset and setting new performance standards across the board.

Introduction

ASUS is among the few computer component companies revered world-wide by enthusiasts and mainstream users alike. This reputation comes from ASUS’ ongoing dedication to delivering the highest performance and most stable products to their loyal customers. The company sustains their technological prowess through the use of cutting edge hardware and software driver innovations. Their latest motherboard innovation amply demonstrates their innovative design prowess nicely.

The ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard is ASUS’s premier motherboard supporting the newly released Intel Core i7 processor line. The board itself is built around the Intel X58 Northbridge chipset, which supports the following technologies: Intel LGA1366 Core i7 processors, DDR3 memory operating in Triple Channel memory mode up to 1333MHz officially, and either NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX graphics mode using matched graphics cards.

The P6T Deluxe is a feature complete solution, requiring the following set of minimal components for a working system: an Intel LGA1366 Core i7 processor, DDR3 memory, a video card, drives, and a PSU. ASUS chose to include the following integrated devices in to the P6T Deluxe’s design: 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel ICH10R controller; 1 ATA-133 IDE port and 1 eSATA port on the Marvell controller; 2 SATA II ports (RAID 0 and 1 equivalent capable) on the Marvell SAS controller; 14 USB 2.0 capable ports (8 in rear panel, and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header); 2 x Marvell Yukon GigE Ethernet ports in the rear panel; ADI 8-channel HD audio codec with S/PDIF optical and component output ports; onboard power and reset buttons; and a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

Since this board was not a retail board sample, ASUS did not include the finalized retail box with the board nor all of the accessories that will ship with the final retail product. However, as you can see from the photo, the following accessories were included with our test sample: all-in-one SATA cables, where the power and data ports are integrated in to a single mega-connector; driver disc; rear panel shield; and the ASUS OC Palm display with USB cable. The OC Palm device allows for viewing manipulation for various hardware settings while in your OS of choice. Note that in order the OC Palm device, you must have the proper device drivers installed on the system.

Board Layout

In line with ASUS’ reputation, the P6T Deluxe’ layout and overall design was well thought out with no real tight spots on the board. To make room for all six DIMM slots required for triple channel memory mode, the LGA 1366 socket was rotated ninety degrees compared to LGA 775. In addition, all power and chipset related components have been covered by thin finned heat sinks, linked together by a low profile heat pipe cooling solution. The board’s revision, shown to be 1.02G, is silk-screened to the board’s surface in between the primary PCI-Express x16 slot and PCI slot 1. The board’s serial number is located on a green sticker just above the upper set of DIMM slots. As far as capacitors go, ASUS chose to go with Japanese made aluminum based solid-state capacitors throughout the board.

Due to the daunting visual of six DIMM slots, the CPU socket area looks a bit squished, with the socket itself being surrounding by an assortment of power components and large copper heat sinks. However, there is more than adequate room around the socket for even large CPU cooling solutions, due to ASUS’ use of small-profile components in the direct vicinity of the socket. The CPU socket itself uses a 4-hole hold-down mechanism, similar in appearance to the LGA775 mechanism, but just a bit larger and more spread out. The Intel X58 Northbridge chipset is located to the left of the CPU socket, covered by a large copper heat sink, which happens to sit in the middle of the board heat pipe solution. The Northbridge heat sink itself has a series of thick veins cut in to its surface, in order to better direct heat away from the CPU socket area. Directly above the Northbridge heat sink is the CHA_FAN2 header. The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is located to the upper right of the CPU socket, with the 4-pin CPU_FAN header located directly to the right of the socket.

The P6T Deluxe board comes standard with a total of 6 DDR3 DIMM slots, with the slots organized in to a series of 3 colored pairs. Triple Channel memory mode is enabled by placing like DIMMs modules in to similar colored slots across the sets. Directly below the DIMM slots are the 24-pin ATX power connector, the PWR_FAN and CHA_FAN1 headers, and the OV_CPU jumper. When enabled, the OV_CPU jumper allows for additional voltage settings to be visible for the CPU Vcore voltage option in the BIOS.

The ICH10R Southbridge chipset is located directly below the board’s 2 PCI slots, covered by a low-profile copper cooler. This cooler also acts as a terminating end of the onboard heat pipe chipset cooling solution. The CHA_FAN3 header and ICH10R controlled SATA 2 ports are located directly below the chipset, with the port connectors themselves colored red. To the right of the SATA 2 ports is the ATA-133 IDE port, with the orange connector colored Marvell SAS controlled SATA 2 ports to their left. In the bottom left of the board is the front panel header, with the CMOS reset jumper directly to its right. Next to the CMOS reset jumper are the OV_DRAM_BUS and OV_QPI_DRAM jumpers, which control enhanced BIOS based voltage settings for the DRAM and QPI voltage settings when enabled. Just above the jumper set are the TPM and chassis intrusion headers. Just above the front panel header are the onboard reset and power buttons, as well as the onboard USB 2.0 headers.

The P6T Deluxe has a total of 3 PCI-Express x16 slots, 1 PCI-Express x4 slot, and 2 PCI slots. The onboard IEEE 1394 header, the floppy port, the CD-in header, S/PDIF header, and front panel audio header are all located along the outer edge of the tertiary PCI-Express x16.

The board’s rear panel contains the following integrated ports: a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 8 USB 2.0 ports; 2 Marvel Yukon GigE Ethernet ports; an eSATA device port; and 6 analogue and S/PDIF optical and component audio output ports.

TurboV

Included on the installation DVD is an ASUS designed overclocking applet named TurboV. From the main screen, you have the ability to manually control board voltage setting and the speed setting of the BCLK bus. The CPU Ratio tab allows for direct control of the CPU multiplier settings on a per core basis. Note that this functionality is available only when the CPU ratio setting in the BIOS is set to Auto.

OC Palm

The OC Palm driver software allows you to configure the OC Palm display device, as well as use the installed applets. Note that the OC Palm device itself does not have an external power source, and must be connected to a system USB port in order to operate correctly. The OC Palm main screen is divided in to several sections – Gadgets and Preferences. The Gadgets screen determines which programs are currently loaded and active on the OC Palm device, with each program individually configurable via the Settings button. The Preferences screen is used to configure the OC Palm device behavior. The devices buttons can be customized with via the Hot-Key Setting submenu for a multitude of functions. You also can control the devices in-built screen saver activation schedule through the ScreenSaver submenu.

The OC Palm however has one real purpose in mind, and that is being above to change overclocked bus parameters at any time. You can change voltages as well on the fly. The OC Palm is a bit redundant and gimmicky. I asked ASUS engineers that designed the P6T directly what the real purpose of the thing was. Besides the obvious controls, which are already apparent on the desktop, is the ability to change your overclock settings while in a application that may not allow you the ability to do so while running. The example given was for benchmarking monkeys to be able to slow an OC down in a benchmark in a section that the system was not stable in, and then be able to clock the system back up after completing that section. You likely know whether or not this is of interest to you. The OC Palm is fun to play with, but quickly became useless in my testing.