When it comes down to it, the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe is probably the best LGA775 motherboard money can buy, more precisely the best Core 2 Duo motherboard money can buy. That in mind the ASUS P5B Deluxe recently found its way to the Legion Labs and since its arrival there has been a lot of sibling rivalry between the P5W DH Deluxe and P5B Deluxe. The older P5W DH Deluxe is a seriously good performing motherboard that offers loads of overclocking potential. Furthermore the list of integrated features is very extensive and the board even comes with a huge range of add-in features. Unfortunately, at $250 US the P5W DH Deluxe is a little too pricey for most to appreciate.

So, when I found out that the P965 version of this motherboard was going to be just as impressive, my eyes lit up. The P5B Deluxe, which is built around the new Intel P965 chipset, also sports the new ICH8R south bridge which offers a number of new and updated features. In fact, despite the difference in chipsets, these two ASUS motherboards are very much alike. For example, they both look very much the same, they use the same cooling setup, the list of features is very similar and I suspect the performance and overclocking abilities of these motherboards will also be much the same.

Then you look at the retail price of these motherboards and unfortunately this is also much the same. So there goes any hope of this motherboard being available at an affordable price tag, as $230 US is not what I had in mind. Of course, I was being a little wishful expecting the P5B Deluxe to be much more affordable than the P5W DH Deluxe, when they are essentially the same motherboard. The question now is which motherboard is better? The $250 US P5W DH Deluxe featuring the 975X chipset or the P5B Deluxe using the newer P965 chipset?

Assuming the overclocking performance and general system performance is much the same on both motherboards, there is just one other aspect that can separate these two products. That is of course features; which board offers the best range of features? At a glance they are almost identical, though after closer inspection there are a few differences. For example, the P5W DH Deluxe has ECC memory support in its favor and CrossFire support. The P5B Deluxe on the other hand features the updated ICH8R south bridge.

This means the P5B Deluxe features better storage support for example. The board offers a total of eight Serial ATAII ports, one of which is external. Although both motherboards do support RAID modes 0, 1 and 5 the P5B Deluxe also supports RAID 10. Other than this the boards are very much the same. Finally, I should mention that the ASUS DH Remote is exclusive to the P5B Deluxe package. The question that remains now is should you go with the P965 (P5B Deluxe) or the 975X (P5W DH Deluxe) chipset?