Asus P5WD2-E Premium Motherboard Review

[gvblake22]

The latest addition to Asus's P5 series motherboards, the P5WD2-E Premium is definitetly the most popular 975X motherboard among enthusiast. With an extensive list of features, and the quality normally associated with ASUS boards, the P5WD2-E Premium looks to be a strong contender for best 975X motherboard.
Sit back and follow along as we take a long look at what the ASUS P5WD2-E Premium has to offer.

Asus P5WD2-E Premium Motherboard Review :thumleft:

[gvblake22]

Oh why on earth would Asus name the SATA ports connected to the Marvell controller SATA_RAIDX if that controller doesn't have RAID functions? Are you sure you got those two groups of SATA ports identified correctly or is Asus being very misleading?

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Oh why on earth would Asus name the SATA ports connected to the Marvell controller SATA_RAIDX if that controller doesn't have RAID functions? Are you sure you got those two groups of SATA ports identified correctly or is Asus being very misleading?

Blake: I've owned this board personally since the day it was available on ZZF. At first there wasn't even a flashrom on boot to enter to even configure drives into RAID! THEN once in XP, the drivers wouldn't stay installed, everytime you booted the MArvell 614x drivers had to be installed manually. To this day the controller still does not operate correclty. Why Asus did not jsut use the tried and true Sil 3132 baffles me. I know you're shocked, I am to.

I had to go out a buy a 150.00 PCI-E raid card!

Now on the Intel ICH7R RAID works perfectly, but there are only 4 ports to the ICH7R!
And other then the MArvell controller, the board is fantastic, the fastest intel board available today.

[gvblake22]

Hehe, I seem to have struck a sensitive cord with you there
I guess maybe my wording was a little misleading, but I wasn't doubting whether or not the Marvell controller had RAID or not. The specs don't say anything about the Marvell controller supporting RAID anyway. I was just curious why Asus labeled the SATA ports connected to the Marvell controller as "SATA_RADx". Seems very misleading and contradictory.

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Hehe, I seem to have struck a sensitive cord with you there
I guess maybe my wording was a little misleading, but I wasn't doubting whether or not the Marvell controller had RAID or not. The specs don't say anything about the Marvell controller supporting RAID anyway. I was just curious why Asus labeled the SATA ports connected to the Marvell controller as "SATA_RADx". Seems very misleading and contradictory.

Maybe sensitive in a sense that Asus has dogged me with the controller not working. :D

Now the specs, ASUS changed the specs on their website when people started to discover the problem... They also updated the user manual. But I haveth the original manual somehwere around here. I'm seriosuly considering buying a different brand MB for Conroe. That Foxconn 975X board I reviewed impressed me.

In the big picture, Asus was in a hurry to release the board, and they simply did not have the time to program the controller.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by RangerXLT8

In the big picture, Asus was in a hurry to release the board, and they simply did not have the time to program the controller.

It's extremely unfortunate when that happens :( :?