ASUS P5B Deluxe

Board Layout:

The ASUS P5B Deluxe is an ATX solution for Intel's LGA-775 platform. Starting in the upper right hand corner of the motherboard we have two pairs of DDR2 slots. Supported by the P965 Chipset are DDR2-800/667/533 and a maximum memory capacity of 8GB. ASUS does publish a memory qualify vendor list for recommended memory modules to use for optimal performance. Next to the DDR2 slots on the edge of the PCB is a 24-pin ATX power supply connector as well as the floppy disk drive connector. The I/O controller used on the P5B Deluxe motherboard is a Winbond W83627DHG.

Approaching the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard is the CMOS battery, CMOS jumper, three 3-pin fan headers, six SATA 2.0 ports, one IDE connector, two USB 2.0 headers, and one IEEE-1394a FIrewire header. The Southbridge used on this motherboard is the Intel ICH8R. The ICH8R Southbridge supports ten USB 2.0 ports, six PCI Express x1, Intel Gigabit LAN, Intel AMT, Intel High-Definition Audio, six Serial ATA 2.0 ports, and Intel Matrix Storage technology. Cooling the Southbridge is a small passive heatsink that is secured via pushpins in opposing corners.

Moving onto the expansion slots are two PCI Express x16, three PCI, and one PCI Express x1. The primary PCI Express x16 is able to run at full PCI-E x16 speeds; however, the secondary slot only provides a PCI Express x4 signal. NVIDIA has yet to officially support Scalable Link Interface on any non-NVIDIA Chipsets, so at this time the P5B Deluxe does not officially support SLI. However, the P5B Deluxe does support ATI's CrossFire MultiGPU technology. For optimal cooling with MultiGPU usage, positioned between the two PCI Express x16 slots are two of the PCI slots. Some of the ASICs we see in this area of the motherboard are a Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN, ADI SoundMAX ADI1998B, JMicron JMB363, Texas Instruments IEEE-1394a Firewire, and Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit LAN. On top of the six SATA ports provided by the ICH8R, the JMicron controller provides an additional SATA port at the rear of the motherboard PCB as well as one at the I/O panel for external eSATA.

Concealing the Intel P965 Express Chipset is ASUS' fan-less cooling solution. There is a copper heatsink covering the Northbridge itself, and then protruding from that is a copper heatpipe, which channels the heat to a series of copper fins behind the LGA-775 CPU socket. The second heatsink also covers some of the voltage regulation circuitry. This cooling design is similar to Abit's Silent Q-OTES technology. Like the Southbridge, this cooling contraption is secured via pushpins. ASUS advertises this motherboard and being a fan-less solution, but that is only the case if you are using an active air-cooled heatsink. The ASUS Chipset heatsink requires some airflow, but if no active CPU fan heatsink is used (e.g. passive heatsink or water block) ASUS has included a small fan. For some time now ASUS has been experimenting with integrating WiFi onto the motherboard PCB itself. This 802.11g adapter does not use the PCI or PCI Express bus, but actually occupies two USB ports. The omni-directional antenna connects to the motherboard at the I/O panel.

Surrounding the LGA-775 CPU socket are some low-profile solid-state capacitors which should be free from obstructing any CPU heatsinks or water blocks. In the upper left hand corner of the motherboard is a 4/8-pin power connector. At the rear of the P5B Deluxe motherboard are two Gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0, 802.11g WiFi antenna connector, eight audio, one eSATA 2.0, one IEEE-1394a Firewire, one COM, and two PS/2 ports. This ASUS motherboard also supports Stack Cool 2, AI Gear, and AI Nap.