New Support SLI ASUS WorkStation Nvidia Chipset Motherboard , P5NT WS

[AndreYang]

Looks like a nice board...solid and good performance.

AndreYang have you noticed any oddities with voltages, such as fluctations e.t.c ..?


Looks like Asus has done it again...cooked something up. It has the exakt same chipset configuration as P5N32-E SLI Plus...alot more info HERE

It still has vdroop problems. Bios 1.5V drop to windows 1.45V, but 1.45V is very stable, not any fluctuant.

[Ace-a-Rue]

aaaaah but that droop is manageable...once you find the actual difference, it is easy to adjust upwards...right?!

[AndreYang]

Here is FSB 500 Test, but it's only for E6300 and E6400. E6600 is hard to oc FSB500.

[hyde211]

cool
nice board

thanks for share

[Ace-a-Rue]

ZipZoomFly shows this board on backorder $399 http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=247139

tha is a HIDEOUS price!

[Raja@ASUS]

I recieved mine yesterday from a uk retailer, only running pclinuxos atm so no real tests. Seems to boot with ram better than the striker, I guess we'll find out when more real users have the board for sure (defaults to 1.82vdimm still).

I will stick it under phase this weekend, I like the board thus far. With EPP board ill default to 1T, so you need to up vdimm etc, or manually select 2t asap to prevent xp installation issues like bsods etc..

The heatpipe situation is not great, the nb runs hot (already known) as does the southbridge combo, as they are interconnected the whole array of gets hot. Using water cooling will mean hacking/removing the heatpipe connected sinks.

Separating the Trio sink from the pipe will mean using a plate to cover the large trio bridge area and placing a thru hole mounting cooler over the top, it runs hot so I would not be comforatble leaving it passive. The lack of any fins on the Trio sink, means the heat will not dissipate well without the heatpipe to carry the heat away..

regards
Raja

[socheat]

Any update to this Mobo?
I am going to get this board soon.

[caboob]

nice board. I wish I saw this thread 3 days ago. I already have the P5WDG2-WS pro on the way. At least my PCI-X RAID card now has a proper home.

[Metroid]

It's not 680i or 650i. This mobo chip combines with 680i and 650i.

680i = C55XE + MCP55PXE
650i = C55 + MCP51

P5NT WS= C55 + MCP55PXE

Also P5N32 SLI Plus has the same southbridge and northbridge as P5NT WS.

Impressive board

[mofoman]

Since no one seems to be bothered about updating about this board, or have chosen other boards to go with, I have the lowdown on the latest bios etc..

I was using the bios 702, which sorted out all the v droop problems as well, as allowing you to use high spec ram with the board, and get higher overclocks. I am now using the new beta bios 901 and WOW!!! WHAT a difference.

First of all I am now able to overclock my q6600 to 3.9 ghZ on AIR!!! with the now absolutely stable voltage , and cooling the northbridge with just a standard Asus mni fan that comes with the striker extreme, yes they are noisy but the performance I get with using them on the northbridge and cooling fins is incredible.

Ram now stable at 1200 MHZ, I think I could go higher, but I don't want to suffer instability for little gains especially with the FSB, and cores running so fast now.

Also, the SLI performance with the new beta bios is just incredible, was able to overclock further, and remain stable, as well as getting an increase of up to ten fps in some games.

Also Dualnet working much better with vista with new bios.

Performance increase with everything really, cannot wait to bench the new final 902 bios due next week, as my Asus tech guy says I will get even more improvements!!

Only downside on this board is you need to cool the northbridge with a fan for good results, I chose the Asus mini fan, but my cpu cooler has an internal fan with a block on that side, so I can use this fan with no air flow problems.

That is the only problem with this board, apart from that I cannot reccomend it enough, excellent for workstation multitaskers for me, who need a PCI-X slot, and great as a gaming rig with the tri SLI option.

My next project is to get another one of these for workstation use, and get a maximus as well maybe. Going to drop a penryn in the new p5NT Ws, and water cool the whole thing, the northbridge cpu, gpu's, and south bridge.

So as I say, this is an absolutely outstanding board, great for gaming, great for overcloking with the right cooling, great for multitasking, great for external option's, great all round stability and no v droop problems. I wish Asus would make a deluxe version of the board with the 780 i chipset, and the cooling needed for that, DDr2,DDR3 dual support too.

But to sum this up, it's helluva board and better than the p5N32 e SLI if you are looking for a workstation/gaming rig with great overclocking potential. Cooling of the northbridge is easily solved, via an asus mini fan, or just a mini fan, with a fan power slot handily next to the northbridge, a nice little akasa would do the job just fine.

Christ my Quad Fx rig pales in comparison to this beast, and I thought that would be great for workstation and multitasking with vista Ultimate, but it's a bag of e until AMD can get their arses in gear and give us some decent CPU's for the rig. After outlaying a fortune on the Quad FX rig with the l1n64 w SLI mobo, and pair of FX 70 processors, and three HD2900 XT's, it just pales in comparisoon to this rig, which was extremely cheap to build .

Got the mobo for 110 pounds, and the q6600 at 130 for the b stepping of course, sure the gpu's were dear, but I wanted the best gaming looking ahead to DX10 gaming. Overall, I would have been better just buying this workstation instead of my blind faith in ATI to outperform Intel and Nvidia eventually, the GPU front is already lost, and their upcoming cpu's look poor too, and no mention of quad fx support for them yet. Seems like I invested in dead duck there. That's fanboyism for you, it blinds you to the truth.

Anyway scores as follows:

ASUS P5NT WS: Overclocking (outstanding seven!!)seven out of ten( it's incredible with four cores, but not so good with dual for some reason, and can't give higher mark after playing around with maximus.)
Stabilty: Eight out of Ten, shaky start with poor initial bios, but newer bios have made it as stable as a rock, only points deducted due to needing some sort of cooling for the northbridge.Newest Bios has outstanding stability on all fronts.
SLI performance: Nine out of Ten, it's peerfect and the best SLI performer out there until 780i comes along, the difference between this hybrid and the striker is non existant as far as I can tell, sure it's there with more headroom, but this has triple Sli and identical SLi performance in my opinion.

CPU performance/compatibility: Nine out of Ten, Supports Penryn, and can overclock with amazing result's and voltage managable and stable, only the mighty boards can create better performance due to better ram etc.., but this review is based on this board and it's practically budget compared to the better performers,outstanding!!

Overall: A Solid Nine out of Ten!! A complete winner from Asus, bypasses all their other workstation boards by a coubtry mile in this price range in my opinion and a great overclocker, and gaming mobo to boot.

This is an outstanding board, glad I bought it, as I still use PCI-X equipment.

[spajdr]

thanks for tip mofoman. You talking about nforce 680i version of mobo, right?