Accessories

Unlike the Asus P5GD2 Premium we reviewed not long ago, the P5GDC-V is a little more sensible in the accessories bundled inside the box. There are four SATA cables, two SATA-Molex “Y�power splitters, two ATA100 cables, a floppy cable, and your IO shield.

There are three port brackets bundled with the P5GDC-V: Firewire (6-pin version), USB/Game ports, and a Serial port. Missing is that cool SATA extender/replicator that allows you to connect a SATA drive outside of your case, but it’s not really an essential feature.

Software

The Asus P5GDC-V comes with a bundle of both Asus branded programs that help you get more out of your hardware.

Asus PC Probe monitors your system health by tracking your temperatures and fan RPMs. If any monitor goes too high, your system will start beeping to warn you, but doesn’t shut-down your computer.

Asus' PC Probe software monitors your system health.

To help you overclock, Asus includes their Ai-Booster software which allows you to set voltage and frequency settings from within Windows. However, unlike similar software from ABIT, the software from Asus requires you to reboot in order to apply the settings.

Asus AiBooster software simplifies overclocking.

There is also Ai-Update which eases the pain of locating, downloading, and applying BIOS updates. The software can automatically download BIOS files and apply them for you with a single click of a button, or step-by-step if you prefer. I’ve used this software to update all Asus boards I’ve reviewed in the past few months and never had a problem. It’s very convenient and beats having to dig out a boot disc, or configuring a bootable USB drive.

Other software bundled with the P5GDC-V is InterVideo suite consisting of WinDVD, WinRIP, and WinDVD Creator.