I recently built a Core i7 computer, and my motherboard of choice was the Asus P6T Deluxe. This is my first Asus motherboard, however they are a pillar in the computer hardware industry and have been making top notch motherboards and other hardware for years upon years. Clocking in at a hot 299.99, this is definitely an expensive motherboard, and I didn't even get the "ultimate" version. You can step up to the OC/Palm edition, which has some kind of funky external LCD display that will tell you volatages, temps, and other such things. I didn't feel this was necessary, so I stuck with the deluxe version.
Installation was a snap. My Antec Twelve Hundred case gave me plenty of room to get this sucker installed in no time. Oh, and for those reading, that case I mentioned is FANTASTIC. I'll get to that review later. Anyway, the board is laid out very nicely and offers a ton of connectivity. Although 3-way SLI is not going to happen on this board, that is pretty much a non-issue for everyone but .000000001 percent of the computer gaming population. You also get 8 SATA ports, so you can really load up the hard drives if that's your thing. It's also a nice looking board. For those of you with see through cases, this board is certainly a looker. Also, the power and reset buttons on the board itself will be handy for extreme overclockers or system builders who prefer to have the guts of their computer just hanging out on a table somewhere. That's not my thing, but overall I was impressed by the look and build quality of this board.
Normally when I build a computer, the first time I hit the power button nothing happens. Not this time baby! Everything worked perfect from the first push. After installing my OS, I proceeded to begin overclocking this beastly system I made. This board makes overclocking a cakewalk. In 10 minutes I went from 2.66Ghz to 3.62GHz and even as high as 3.9GHz (with Hyperthreading enabled). I ended up scaling it back to 3.63 in the end as this was the sweet spot of temps/performance. Under full load (8 instances of Prime 95) my temps were in the 65-67 range.
I've now been running this setup for over a month without a single problem. I love this motherboard, and the Intel Core i7 processor just destroys every other processor on the market. I couldn't be happier with this system. It's expensive, but well worth every penny.
ASUS has a real winner on their hands with the P6T Deluxe motherboard. It's rock stable and even a novice overclocker will have his/her (I'm betting his) system overclocked in no time at all. The version I have is being phased out for a slightly cheaper (10 dollars) version that removes a 3rd party SATA controller (and I think 2 of the SATA ports) but everything else remains exactly the same.
This is a great board for anyone looking to build a Core i7 system. However, there are now X58 boards on the market much cheaper than this version. If you are planning to overclock, then by all means go with this board, however if you are planning on running at stock speeds, I'd recommend looking into Gigabyte's entry level X58 motherboard. It packs a ton of features for about 100 dollars less.
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