Intel's latest mid-range chipset might not be due out for another few weeks, but that hasn't stopped both ASUS and Gigabyte from sending out early samples. The first board to hit our labs was ASUS' P5Q Deluxe, a DDR2 offering. What is Intel's P45 all about, and should you care? As with many of Intel's products lately, P45 is more of an evolutionary upgrade rather than a revolutionary one, but the benefits it offers can be well worth getting excited over.

While P35 and X38/48 were based on a 90nm process, P45 is based on 65nm. This will equate to (hopefully) better overall efficiency, and in the tests with this board, it seems like benefits can really be seen.

Other features include the upgrade to a 1600FSB, which right now has little value, as previous generation chipsets have had no problem hitting 400MHz FSB and beyond, nor do many people want the $1,500 QX9770 which is currently the only 1600MHz FSB CPU (aside from the Skulltrail QX9775). As time rolls on, however, Intel may re-release their 45nm mid-range products to support the higher FSB, so it will make sense to have them natively supported.

Also new is the ICH10 Southbridge, but right now, not much information is given as to the changes. In our I/O tests, the performance remained the same, but rumor has it that a few insignificant features were removed to keep power consumption down. Lastly, PCI-E 2.0 has been implemented, to mimic what we've seen from the past few months with X38.

You can read the entire review at Techgage.