P5W DH Deluxe landscape



Asus chose to revise their 8-phase power circuitry just slightly, to better accommodate Core 2 Duo's lower voltage requirements. Stepping Vcore down from 12V it's imperative to supply the processor with clean, uninterruptible power. Any "excess" current will be dissipated as heat, hence the elaborate mosfet cooling. In this respect Asus has done their homework and one reason the board is so stable while overclocking.



What confused me was Asus choice to use a "P4" 4-pin 12V connector to rather then an 8-pin EPS, especially given the wide-range of processors the P5W DH supports. Currently most P5W DH owners are running the Core 2 Duo which ahs a low 65W TDP, however; the official support lists includes Presler and other 130W TDP processors.



Years ago I spoke of the amount of mass required to adequately dissipate energy from what were then very high TDP based CPU's such as Presler and Smithfield. As pipe-lines deepened, transistor counts increased and all this was shrinking with each die revision temperatures climbed drastically requiring more mass to dissipate this energy. Mainboard real-estate could not expand beyond ATX limits therefore CPU heatsink architecture had only way to grow, straight up. Hence the Tower Cooler was born and some approach a kilogram, that's over 2-pounds hanging from your socket once the case is turned upright. What confounds me is that air-coolers even in the presence of the Core Duo with less then half the TDP of Presler still remain massive? Take the massive Tuniq 120 which was reviewed in our CPU Heatsink Roundup May 2006 and seen below.



Weighing in at a massive 789g without the fan, this cooler is nearly 400g beyond the recommended weight limit for Socket-T. Water blocks by comparison weigh in at about 1/8th that of these behemoths and will drop your processor temps much lower. Nonetheless Asus has provided plenty of room around the socket area for their P5W DH so you can mount just about anything your heart desires.



Onto North Bridge cooling...>>