Hopefully, this article will spare others at least some of the headaches that I had building my computer around this board. This elite (read: expensive) family of Asus boards gets the highest praise from AnandTech. AnandTech’s Gold Editors Choice went to the Asus P5GD2 Premium. And they note that the Deluxe has almost the same features as the Premium, except it costs fifty dollars less.
Pricey? Yes. But if you factor in the high-definition sound and the onboard wireless then it is not a bad buy if you have a need for these features. Especially the Deluxe, which is what I bought. And the board
is loaded with more: Dynamic software overclocking that really works, silly talking BIOS, extra passive cooling for the CPU, PCI Express, SATA support, SATA RAID support, IDE RAID support — you name it.
The ASUS P5GD2 Deluxe is an LGA775 motherboard. So beware of special requirements. Although a lot of fun was to be had putting together a computer around this mobo, it was for me by no means a trouble-free
build — to say the least. The new technology held some unpleasant surprises. And, as is only to be expected with technology this fresh, not all of the potential problems were systematically covered in the current DIY literature or forum posts. There is an excellent LGA775 guide on the Hardware Zone, of which, more later. Unfortunately for me I didn’t find it until my box was all bolted together and I was having problems. I am an expert by no means. Just an old PC nut with a fifteen year history of doing my own upgrading and tinkering and, lately, case modding. Don’t get me wrong, nothing went irreversibly to hell, but there were a few nasty moments when I thought a thousand dollars worth of hardware was going to get respawned as a toaster oven. It didn’t and I love the final result.
So, read on, Grasshopper. It is the wise pilgrim who learns from the mistakes of others.
Choosing a case for an LGA775 motherboard and CPU is the first place to screw up. Given this chance, I did, but only halfway. This CPU runs hot and Intel freely admits it. The chip maker has designed a ‘thermally
advantaged’ case for manufacturers to build for its toasty new baby.
Intel’s specification calls for an air duct that runs to the outside of the case with a flange that hovers over the intake of the CPU heat sink and fan. This way the fan is drawing the coolest air directly from the outside rather than sucking re-circulated warmer air from inside the case. My Antec case is not thermally advantaged to the Intel spec, but it is very well ventilated. And it seems to be holding the processor at a warm, but serviceable 38 degrees centigrade at idle. It is running at 48 degrees under stress. (Okay, it’s overclocked, but just a little. Really.) My 3 GB P4 has a maximum temperature of 67 degrees centigrade and will thermtrip (cut itself off) at 87 degrees centigrade. Hopefully, over time, it will anneal and begin to run a little cooler… Hopefully.
The motherboard itself has a proprietary passive heat sink under the CPU called Stack Cool. Even with that we are poaching eggs. By the way, after I flashed the latest BIOS my temperature readings went up by 20 degrees; that is, to the levels I just reported. I assume now that the original BIOS simply under reported. I never really believed that my processor was idling at 20 degrees. However, for reasons I won’t go into here, I think this newest BIOS is actually over reporting slightly. I am cool with it. The performance is great. And the multitasking that hyper threading technology allows is astonishing. I’m using the computer to dictate this. All is well. The system is as stable as Alan Greenspan.
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