Key Specs
ATXIntel X58
Intel LGA1366
Three PCIe x16; one PCIe x4
Two
Six (triple-channel)
12GB DDR3
None
Though the P6T Deluxe OC Palm edition is Asus’s first board supporting Intel’s new Core i7 processor, its design is anything but conservative. Where Intel’s DX58SO board supports overclocking, the P6T Deluxe invites it out for dinner and a movie. Add in tons of expandability, both SLI and CrossFireX support, and the unique OC Palm external display, and the P6T is an excellent foundation for a high-performance Core i7 system.
The P6T Deluxe is based on Intel’s X58 chipset. It uses the new LGA1366 socket, allowing you to install the standard Core i7 CPU or the Extreme Edition. Gamers will be pleased that the board supports both Nvidia's SLI and AMD's CrossFireX for using up to three graphics cards together, so they’re no longer tied to one brand or the other. (Not all X58 boards support SLI, as Nvidia requires board manufacturers to pay a licensing fee.) An unusual feature is the presence of a whopping six memory slots, allowing you to add memory in sets of three to take advantage of the Core i7’s increased bandwidth with triple-channel memory.
As you’d expect from an Asus enthusiast board, the P6T Deluxe’s BIOS has detailed overclocking features for adjusting a wide variety of CPU and memory timings and voltages. The BIOS has settings for memory speeds up to 1,600MHz with standard Core i7s, or up to 2,000MHz with the Extreme Edition. The board also includes TurboV software, which lets you adjust a number of speed and voltage settings on the fly from within Windows.
We tested the board with the entry-level Core i7 920. By pairing this $284 CPU with OCZ’s new DDR3 PC3-10666 Platinum Low-Voltage Triple Channel Memory Kit, which supports 1,333MHz speeds with low latency, we were able to match the performance of the $999 Core i7 965 Extreme Edition in most of our tests. The RAM’s extra speed headroom over 1,066MHz memory let us easily push the 2.66GHz Core i7 920 to 3.34GHz by upping the basic system bus speed from 133MHz to 166MHz. The P6T made the overclocking easy, with no need to adjust CPU voltages.
