ASUS P5AD2 Premium Wireless Edition Review :: Setup and Software

Wiring Connections

The clearly detailed manual make installing the board a much easier task as does the legible writing on the boards PCB, which enables you to hook up your various systems wiring to the case. The silkscreen lettering is boldly colored on the board's entirety and anyone who has installed a few will find this a very ergonomic product. Installing the board was an easy to accomplish goal that left little doubt in my mind as to its ease of use to the end-user. If you are just starting out, read the manual from cover to cover, that way your covered and you will be much more familiar with the board you are working with and where everything should be connected. This will really only save you time in the long run.

LGA775 Socket

Let me just say that actually getting everything to run completely stable was a major chore, but not because of the board, but because the Intel Fan and heatsink combo was reporting the CPU temps at over 200 Degrees Fahrenheit. The new four-pin design connection of the Intel retail heatsink has a wire that reports CPU temperatures to the BIOS, and after days and days of fighting with the damn thing I just gave up and called my friends at Swiftech to get some better insight as to the why of this thing malfunctions. Bill Adams really pulled through (Dude Thanks A Million) for me and luckily for me had a extra LGA775 cooler on hand that as soon as I hooked it up reported correct temperatures and allowed me to complete my tests. The really strange thing is that when we first tested the boards for the platform review it functioned just fine, but when I started to do the intense stress testing and compatibility tests it just failed repeatedly to my dismay.

Before

After

Another thing you really need to pay attention to is the memory settings as one wrong setting can result in various blue screen errors due to erratic memory timings. The SPD function was reporting my memory at CAS setting of 4-4-4, which was correct but the refresh rate was set to 15 causing the Windows installation to fail, heck I did not even take a hard look at the setting until multiple Windows installations failed. In most cases the SPD detection of the memory sets it at the factory default and supposedly most stable setting. Not in this case though, the memory's SPD settings reported a refresh rate of 15 instead of the 10 that the memory actually runs at. Beyond those two things I was able to finally get the board up and going in a solid and stable environment. The Marvell LAN driver installs two LAN ports although there is only one RJ45 connector on the rear I/O and this may cause new users a bit of confusion when configuring their LAN settings so pay close attention when setting up your network.

The entire Intel LGA775 platform has a new 24-pin power connector that is supposedly required for future VGA cards that have high power consumption, but do not be mislead by this. In actuality any good 400W or better power supply will function adequately and the only hurdle may be finding the adapter that goes from the power lead to the 6-pin VGA connector that most of the high-end PCIX VGA cards require. The sound was the most interesting thing to play around with as it offers the user a multitude of options that are fairly straightforward and easy to manage properly. The new Intel HAD offers the user an advanced Smart Jack for auto-sensing where your various audio cables go. You can select speaker support from the standard 2.1 all the way to the latest 7.1 environments depending on your speakers. The ten-band EQ offers the user a few preset sound environments as well as the ability to custom shape your sound and save your own presets for future use if you so desire. The Digital decoder can be turned on or off when using the SPDIF function so you can connect directly to your home theatre receiver and use its own decoding capabilities. Setting up the wireless LAN connection is easy to configure and use and in actuality is a great start for a simple wireless home network.

C-Media Screens

Info

Device Settings

Effect and EQ

Mixer

Main Settings

System Hardware

• Motherboard: ASUS P5DA2 Premium
• CPU: LGA 775: 3.4GHz Extreme Edition
• Cooling: Malico LGA775 Heatsink/Fan combo
• DDR2 Memory: 2x512MB Crucial (Ballistix) PC2-5300 DDR2 533, CL=4-4-4-10
• PCIX VGA Card: NVIDIA 6800GT 256MB
• Hard Drives: Dual WD Raptor 36GB 10,000 RPM SATA150 drives in MODE 0 ARRAY
• Power: Epower 450W

Test Software

• SYSmark 2004
• PCmark 2004
• 3Dmark 2001
• 3Dmark 2003
• Quake 3 (Time Demo 1)
• UT2003 (Botmatch/Flyby)
• DIVX (Encoding)