Introduction

For those who remember, our last look at a motherboard from ASUS was the super feature-packed P5WD2 Premium WiFi-TV Edition from their new AI Life line-up (which you can access here ). ASUS practically slapped on every possible function for home entertainment and networking that the board left nothing much else to be desired. However, if you had felt that the P5WD2 Premium's pricing was just a tad too exorbitant, we revisit ASUS' AI Life to look at another product that is just as feature-rich, but slightly more accessible to the masses. The board we are referring to is the ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe, which is based on the mainstream Intel 945P Express chipset. Similar to the P5WD2 Premium, the P5LD2 Deluxe comes in a simply designed white AI Life packaging, but its hefty weight will be an indicator of the huge accessory package that accompanies it. The board also comes in standard and WiFi-TV editions just like the P5WD2 Premium.

The ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard.

Bundled items are listed below:-

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe motherboard bundle

5 x SATA data cables

2 x SATA power converter cables (dual plugs)

1 x SATA power converter cables (single plug)

2 x 80-conductor Ultra ATA data cables

1 x 40-conductor IDE data cable

1 x floppy drive data cable

SLI high-speed digital link interface bridge

IEEE 1394a port bracket

USB 2.0 (2 ports) and Game port bracket

COM port bracket

I/O shield

Driver CD

InterVideo WinDVD Platinum Suite

User's manual


WiFi-TV optional bundle

ASUS WiFi-TV PCI card

IR Remote controller

USB IR receiver

AV cable

PAL/SECAM to NTSC RF adapter

FM antenna

Omni-directional dual-band Wireless LAN antenna

Support CD (CyberLink PowerCinema, PowerDirector and drivers)

User's guide

ASUS P5LD2 Deluxe Technical Specifications.

CPU Support	Supports 90nm LGA775 processor package Supports Intel Pentium D / Pentium Processor Extreme Edition  Supports Intel Pentium 4 / Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Intel Hyper-Threading Technology ready
Chipset	Northbridge: Intel 945P Express 533 / 800 / 1066MHz front side bus PCI Express x16 graphics Southbridge: Intel ICH7R Intel High Definition Audio Supports six PCI Express x1 lanes Supports up to eight USB 2.0 ports Supports four SATA II ports (with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities) Single-channel Ultra ATA-100 IDE port
Memory	Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM Supports 677/533/400 dual channel DDR2 memory architecture
Storage	Intel ICH7R Southbridge 1 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100 (data transfer rate up to 100MB/sec.) 4 x SATA II (Serial ATA II 3.0Gbps interface) Intel Matrix Storage Technology Supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 Silicon Image Sil3132 SATAIIRAID controller  2 x SATA II (Serial ATAII 3.0Gbps interface)  Supports RAID 0, RAID 1 ITE8211F IDE controller 2 x Ultra ATA 33/66/100/133 (data transfer rate up to 133MB/sec.)
Audio	Intel High Definition Audio (Azalia) Realtek ALC882M HD Audio CODEC Dolby Master Studio certified
Networking	Marvell 88E8053 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)	Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A IEEE 1394a host controller 2 x 1394a ports @ 400 Mbps speed
I/O Interface	1 x Floppy connector 3 x Ultra ATA IDE connectors 6 x SATA connectors (1 x eSATA) 8 x USB 2.0 ports (4 x rear, 2 x bracket, 2 x header) 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (1 x rear, 1 x bracket) 1 x RJ45 LAN port 1 x Optical S/PDIF Output 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output  8-Channel Audio I/O ports 1 x CD-IN 1 x 9-pin serial port 1 x parallel port (SPP/EPP/ECP) 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port 1 x mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
Expansion Slots	2 x PCIe x16 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 1 x PCIe x1 slots, PCI Express Bus specification v1.0a compliant 3 x 32-bit PCI slots, PCI 2.3 compliant
Special Features	WiFi-TV PCI card (WiFi-TV Edition only) Digital TV (DVB-T), Analog TV, FM Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g ASUS Stack Cool 2 ASUS Hyper Path 3
PCB	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6"(30.5cm x 24.4cm)

Complete rear panel of the P5LD2 Deluxe only lacks a standard COM port, which is provided by ASUS as a bracket.