Verdict: Another great 975X-based motherboard, but it's expensive

The P5WD2-E Premium is the third Intel 975X-based motherboard we've seen, but already the chipset has made a name for itself as a great out-of-the-box performer with superb overclockability.

Thanks to its two high-speed PCI-E slots, the P5WD2-E Premium can support two graphics cards in CrossFire mode, but unfortunately, it doesn't support SLI. The Intel ICH7R only supports one EIDE channel and four S-ATA II ports, so Asus has added a Silicon Image controller to provide one further EIDE channel and four additional S-ATA II ports. However, two of the Southbridge's S-ATA II ports will be obstructed if you have two graphics cards installed, which is a basic error and something that a company of Asus' experience really should have spotted before releasing the board.

Intel HD Audio is provided through a Realtek ALC880 chip, and the board has both coaxial and optical S/PDIF outputs, alongside the usual four 3.5mm analogue jacks. There are eight USB 2 plus two FireWire ports. One 2x PCI-E and one 1x PCI-E slot are also present, if you can find cards to fit in them, plus three PCI slots. The Northbridge, Southbridge and VRMs are all passively cooled, so the P5WD2-E Premium is totally silent, which is in stark contrast to the noisy 40mm fan-equipped Gigabyte GA-G1975X.

The BIOS is a typical Asus affair and allows you to increase CPU, memory and chipset voltages. It also includes PEG Link, which can automatically overclock any Nvidia graphics card. PEG Link is enabled by default, and overclocked our GeForce 6800 GT from 350MHz/1GHz to 371MHz/1.06GHz, which gave the P5WD2-E Premium a real edge in Battlefield 2. Like the GA-G1975X, the P5WD2-E Premium was able to run stably with a 255MHz FSB, raising the frequency of our 3GHz Pentium D 830 test CPU to 3.83GHz.

If the P5WD2-E Premium and GA-G1975X are anything to go by, it isn't possible to produce a cheap 975X motherboard, which is a shame, considering the chipset's excellent performance, CrossFire support and superb overclockability. However, if you can afford it then the P5WD2-E Premium is the board to buy.

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