Final thoughts, HEXUS awards, HEXUS where2buy, HEXUS.right2reply, further reading
The ASUS P5K64 WS is a very interesting board. It neatly fits a niche in the market for users who need to be able to run four or more monitors and does so without sacrificing performance compared to the P5K3 Deluxe.
Pricing is also very close to that of the P5K3 Deluxe and that's impressive considering the extra expense involved in integrating the PCIe switch.
So would we make the P5K64 WS our first choice of P35-based motherboards? No, not even given its impressive showing here - because it is near impossible to presently recommend any board that uses DDR3 RAM. The performance benefits over DDR2 are practically non-existent and, although the price premium has dropped for compatible motherboards, the memory modules themselves still carry hefty price-tags.
But if we had to have DDR3, would we opt for the P5K64 WS over the P5K3 Deluxe? Once again probably not. While the P5K64 WS offers near identical performance to the P5K3 Deluxe, it doesn't come with such a comprehensive bundle, doesn't have such a good integrated audio CODEC and probably doesn't have as much overclocking headroom.
So, unless you need to be able to run with three or more graphics cards, ASUS or another maker can sell you a more well-rounded P35 board. If, though, you're a quad-monitor person and can live with the additional cost of DDR3, the P5K64 WS might be a perfect choice.
HEXUS Awards
The ASUS P5K64 WS earns a HEXUS Executive Innovation award for offering a well thought-out niche product at a competitive price-point.
ASUS P5K64 WS
HEXUS Where2Buy
At the time of writing, the ASUS P5K64 WS was available from Scan for £148.04 inc VAT (with free delivery to HEXUS.community members - check out the details).
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any of ASUS's representatives choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
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