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Asus P6T WS Professional Core i7 / Intel X58/ DDR3/ CrossFireX & SLI/ A&2GbE/ ATX Motherboard
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By HMMWV (santa clara, CA USA)
I've been building systems since the 8086, so the i7 requirements are new, but the concept is the same. case, power supply, chipset, memory, motherboard, processor, video, and aux cards. That last one is the i7 downfall. If you want a SLI video you give up one slot for every graphics card you install. Asus managed to squeeze a good mixup of sli options into this design while maintaining the price. The result is one extra slot over their other designs, which could come in handy down the road in an SLI machine. It is *THE MAIN* reason I went with this particular pcb over all the others.
On the price, they are using the expensive japonese capacitors we have been hearing about. Really they are called low ESR caps. Low ESR stands for "Low Equivalent series resistance" which we would like as low as possible, i.e. zero, but in reality there is no such thing as a perfect capacitor - all have R-leakage, ESR, and L-ESL (series inductance which limits their frequency). Keeping ESR down improves performance and efficiency, while reducing heat and extending the lifetime of the capacitor. All good things!
These babies are not cheap - but you spot them all over the board, which is nice. In my early overclocking days I would desolder low ESR caps from other pcbs that got scrapped and add them near pci sockets and around the cpu to quiet the noise on the voltage planes. Asus doubled the number of low-ESR caps on this board vs. their cheaper ones, which is a big statement.
Secondly, their SLI layout allows for many options to plug in. This is a problem with virtually every atx form factor i7 pcb on the market - if you do sli you loose sockets for raid or sound - and especially for trade specific useful cards like mixer cards for audio. In a dual SLI most boards leave you with 1 slot while this board leaves you 2 slots. My advice - buy the gtx 295 with dual sli built in and keep your slots open - all of them.
Nitpicks.
Setting up has been a problem with asus' driver server. they have gone to a torrent based system of getting drivers, bios, and manuals because their bandwidth is maxed out. Guys at asus - wake up. The internet is getting faster, and while your approaches are innovative, having to install a file sharing program to download drivers is not cool. Some companies prohibit file sharing apps alltogether.
As usual, Asus provides monitoring and configuration beyond factory spec so you can overclock if you know what you are doing. They have also made upgrades easier using usb sticks instead of bootable floopies or cds which is smart since many systems lack a floopy nowdays.
Clearance is good for adjoining cards despite their use of heatpipe technology to cool their chipsets. Anyone going liquid cooling will have to remove this and make a heatsink in the cpu's liquid line because they are relying on the airflow around the proc to cool their radiators.
I will update as I get a 2nd LCD display added - I do not expect this to be as easy as other prior products which had headers. Otherwise I am pleased with this version's PCB layout. and having run mentor graphics boardstation myself I approve of their tradeoffs.
I bought this to replace an OEM junk-level PCB so I will also show the process of upgrading an OEM system purchased for its memory (24g) and cpu (975 3.33G quad extreme) for less than their retail prices. By purchasing HP's 180 I ended up with a discount on the uP and ram, plus a free case, power supply, keyboard, mouse, video recorder (PVR) and operating system. Not bad really.
By Michael Grant (Vancouver, WA USA)
I bought this motherboard to build a workstation and I am thouroughly impressed. I have built 3 or 4 computers and specified many. It made the install of the board fun. There was no hassle integrating every feature to my Cooler Master SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Storm Sniper case seamlesly. Usually this is where it is not fun to buld computer.
Bios controls and updates are easy, the bios gives excellent control over power and features. The intel raid control worked flawlessly.
Cooler Master SGC-6000-KXN1-GP Storm Sniper ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case (Black)
By D. S. Martin (Madrid, Spain, Europe)
Nice price, nice performance. Beware of compatibility issues with "old" hardware (no IDE!!)
The express internet connection may be useful, but:
a) requires windows to be pre-installed
(therefore:
1) no linux;
2) if your hardware is composed only of IDE / SCSI devices... you're going to struggle to install windows -esp. if no floppy available))
b) has no wireless support (understable, but it would be desired :-))
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