Our testing methods
As you thumb through the performance data on the following pages, keep in mind that the system setup for this motherboard comparison differs significantly from that of our Core i7 processor review. Not only am I using different BIOS revisions, memory speeds and timings, and system components, I'm also running a 32-bit rather than x64 version of Windows Vista. As a result, the benchmark scores in this review should not be compared to those in our Core i7 CPU coverage.

Since 1066MHz is the fastest memory bus speed Intel officially endorses for Core i7 processors, that's what we've used for testing. We'll be pushing the memory bus a little higher with some overclocking tests in a moment, though. We also kept the Core i7's Turbo mode enabled for testing, although we did disable it when overclocking the boards.

All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.

Processor Intel Core i7-965 Extreme
System bus QPI 6.4GT/s (3.2GHz)
Motherboard Asus P6T Deluxe Intel DX58SO
Bios revision 0703 SO2624
North bridge Intel X58 Express Intel X58 Express
South bridge Intel ICH10R Intel ICH10R
Chipset drivers Chipset: 9.1.0.1007
AHCI: 8.1.5.0.1032 		Chipset: 9.1.0.1007
AHCI: 8.1.5.0.1032
Memory size 3GB (3 DIMMs) 3GB (3 DIMMs)
Memory type Qimoda PC3-8500U-7-XX-A0 DDR31066
CAS latency (CL) 7 7
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) 7 7
RAS precharge (tRP) 7 7
Cycle time (tRAS) 20 20
Command rate 1T 1T
Audio codec Analog Devices AD2000B with 6.10.1.6520 drivers Realtek ALC889 with 2.07 drivers
Graphics Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX with ForceWare 178.24 drivers
Hard drive Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA
OS Windows Vista Ultimate x86 with Service Pack 1

All of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.

Finally, we'd like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.