P6T Deluxe V2 or P6T WS Professional

[nitromullet]

So, I'm building an X58 rig pretty soon, and I was planning on going with an Asus P6T Deluxe V2. But... then I stumbled across a local store that carries the the Asus P6T WS Pro for $250 ($275 after crazy WA sales tax) so I started checking into this board. The WS Pro usually goes for $300 or more so $275 is a pretty decent price, and the Deluxe is bouncing back and forth between $269.99 and $289.99 on newegg.

Both if these boards have a layout I can work with. The chances of me ever going 3-way way SLI or CrossfireX are very slim, but 2-way is definitely probable so I like to opt for a good 2-way PCIe X16 layout. Plus, both will allow the use of PCI and PCIe 1X even with two dual slot video cards installed.

As far as I can tell, both of these boards are pretty much functionally the same to someone like me (who won't use SAS or PCI-X), except that the WS Pro adds the option to go with a Xeon W3520 and has 6 right angled SATA ports. Honestly, in either case, I feel like I'm paying for stuff I don't need. The Deluxe V2 has Express Gate and the WS Pro has PCI-X. The vanilla P6T really has all the features I need but Asus changed the PCIe 16X slot layout on that board, and I'm really not too keen on not having any space in between the video cards in a dual card setup.

There are pretty much zero reviews out there on the WS Pro, so if anyone has any experience with one, or if anyone has any thoughts on these boards, I'd love to hear from you.

 

[jandlecack]

Both allow for two x16 lanes.

The three x16 lanes are a marketing gimmick and decrease your FPS because there's an extra SLI bridge component that introduces latency. The bottleneck is the controller at the CPU that only has two x16 lanes itself, which hasn't/can't be changed for the Core i7 platform.

Get whichever you like better, it won't make any difference whatsoever, although the P6T Deluxe could have 1 or 2 FPS more on average. They also overclock nearly the same, but if, then the P6T has the edge.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: jandlecack
Both allow for two x16 lanes.

The three x16 lanes are a marketing gimmick and decrease your FPS because there's an extra SLI bridge component that introduces latency. The bottleneck is the controller at the CPU that only has two x16 lanes itself, which hasn't/can't be changed for the Core i7 platform.

Get whichever you like better, it won't make any difference whatsoever, although the P6T Deluxe could have 1 or 2 FPS more on average. They also overclock nearly the same, but if, then the P6T has the edge.

Yep, I realize they are both about the same functionally. When I say PCIe 16X layout, I'm talking about the physical layout of the board. These two Asus boards each have two slots in between the primary PCIe 16X slots, as opposed to one like most X58 boards. Having run a number multi-video card setups on air in the past, I know the cards tend to get pretty hot. So, I want to make sure they have some room to breath. I'm not worried about the third physical PCIe 16X on the Deluxe V2, as I will never use it. If I was interested in a three way setup, I'd probably be looking into the P6T6 WS Revolution.

I'm really just wondering if anyone can offer a tangible reason to pick one over the other. Honestly, some of my issue with the Deluxe V2 is aesthetic... Asus could have removed the SAS ports from the original Deluxe, and put 6 right angle SATA ports on the board... Instead they just removed the SAS ports and left 4 right angle SATA ports and the two straight ones. Straight SATA ports are not multi-video card/cable management friendly.

 

[jandlecack]

There is no benefit, except the WS board is more expensive. It doesn't have any of the extreme OC features or goodies that come with the Rampage 2 Extreme, so it's a definite P6T Deluxe from my point of view.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: jandlecack
There is no benefit, except the WS board is more expensive. It doesn't have any of the extreme OC features or goodies that come with the Rampage 2 Extreme, so it's a definite P6T Deluxe from my point of view.

Well, that's just it. I can get the P6T WS Pro for $275 and the Deluxe V2 bounces back and forth between $270 and $290 on Newegg. I guess it will come down the price of the Deluxe V2 and/or bundles newegg is offering on the day I pull the trigger.

 

[jandlecack]

Then get whichever one is cheaper.