Hardware Secrets takes a further look at the ASUS P5B Motherboard which is targeted to new Core 2 Duo family, as it is based on the new Intel P965 chipset. One of the main advantages of this new chipset is its unofficial support for DDR2-1066/PC2-8500 memories, feature present on this motherboard from ASUS. Let's see how this motherboard from ASUS performed against competitors from Gigabyte and MSI:

ASUS P5B is a good choice for the mainstream user building a Core 2 Duo-based system willing to achieve the best performance at the lowest price point possible. In other words, this motherboard is targeted to users that want a high-end performance but don't want to spend a lot of money on a high-end motherboard.

This motherboard is faster than boards based on Intel 975X chipset, which is great. It also supports DDR2-1066/PC2-8500 memories and has a good overclocking potential for its market segment, features that will surely attract users wanting to pump the maximum performance possible from their systems. It also features SPDIF optical and coaxial outputs soldered on the board, allowing you to connect its on-board audio to digital speakers or to your home theater receiver. This board provides a better on-board audio than the one provided by MSI P965 Platinum and Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (90 dB vs 85 dB input signal-to-noise ratio and 192 KHz vs 96 KHz maximum input sampling rate). We, however, still recommend a minimum 95 dB SNR ADC (i.e. for the audio inputs) if you want to use your PC to capture analog audio and edit it professionally. This motherboard uses only Japanese electrolytic capacitors, which is great, as this prevents you from suffering from the infamous capacitor leakage problem.

The problem, however, is that MSI P965 Platinum has more features and costs the same thing or less than this motherboard from ASUS (even worse, you can get a USD 15 mail-in rebate at Newegg.com and this board from MSI will cost you only USD 120). MSI P965 Platinum uses ICH8R chip instead of the plain ICH8 used by ASUS P5B and Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, supporting six SATA-300 ports with RAID0, 1, 10 and 5, plus one extra SATA-300 port. It also has Firewire ports and a second x16 PCI Express slot (working at x4 though), allowing you to connect a second video card for attaching three or four video monitors to your system.

In other news, APH Networks posted a review on the Asus P5W64-WS Professional i975X Motherboard:

Incorporating Asus' unique design and technology implementation, the Asus P5W64-WS Professional is quite a workstation motherboard. Even with hordes of features and a variety of components to physically put onto the PCB itself, the layout is really, really excellent with one very minor flaw that isn't much of a complaint. Board is excellent in terms of aesthetics, performance is decent and if stability is your concern, the Asus P5W64-WS Professional will not disappoint you. If only the four PCI Express x16 slots would each run at a faster speed, and... and... really, there's nothing much to complain about. If you have the cash, this workstation motherboard is for you.