Presentation, bundle, warranty
The front of the box boasts of ASUS Super Memspeed Technology, with its claimed 75 per cent improvement to memory performance.
A rather strange graph is included to prove the point.
Thank you Mr Marketing Man but we'll be the judge of that.
Around the back, there's a lovely picture of the board along with descriptions of the various marketing terms used to make heat-sinks and SpeedStep sound exciting and unique.
Once opened up we find:
| Items | UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable FDD cable; four Serial ATA cables One two-port Serial ATA power cable I/O Shield User's manual ASUS WiFi-AP Solo manual 3 in 1 Q-connector one; two-port USB2.0/one-port IEEE1394 module ASUS WiFi-AP Solo omni-directional antenna Driver CD |
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Not the biggest bundle we've seen in a motherboard but a decent balance of useful features and cables without becoming overkill.
wireless, along with the driver CD
be positioned away from the system to improve signal strength;
and ASUS's excellent Q-connectors to ease system rebuilds
ASUS only provides four SATA cables for a total of six headers (eight if you include eSATA) and a paltry single SATA power adaptor, which is a little disappointing for a £145 motherboard but possibly not a big issue for most potential customers.
Warranty
As with all its boards, ASUS provides a three-year return-to-base-warranty from the date of purchase on the customer's receipt. This is transferable between owners as long as the original receipt is retained.
This warranty is dealt with through ASUS UK, so returns are made to a UK address. ASUS says that turnaround for hardware that's found to be faulty will be no more than 14 working days - longer than we would ideally like to see.
Summary
On the surface, the P5K Deluxe's bundle looks a little sparse for a board at this price-point but it covers all the important bases. The company might argue that it doesn't fill the box with needless clutter but some people might feel a little short changed, though this will become less of an issue as the price drops.
