Front of the box
ASUS have opted for a vibrant sky blue cardboard packaging for the Xtreme Design motherboard. The front of the packaging is attractive and details the main aspects of the motherboard. The logo immediately give users an idea of the three key principles ASUS aim to deliver with the P6X58D-E. Performance comes with the SLI/CrossFireX support while reliability is through the 16+2 phase power design. Evidently, two of the selling points for this motherboard is support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s with RAID capability as shown as the front of the box. With the motherboard being based on Intel's flagship X58 chipset, it supports all LGA1366 processors including the latest 6 core i7 980x. On the whole, it's a nicely designed package that contrasts to the minimalistic approach taken with the Rampage III Extreme.
Back of the box
Onto the back, ASUS provide a lot more in depth information about the features shown on the front of the packaging. Conveniently, there's a labelled diagram of the motherboard detailing the location of all the onboard connectors and modules. There are four other aspects of the P6X58D-E motherboard that ASUS also boast about on the back, including the 100% long life solid capacitors, Stack Cool 3+ cooling design, its unique layout for dual or even triple GPU configuration and the Precision Tweaker 2 feature for superior overclocking. Typical to most hardware packaging, the details are repeated in 12 other languages.
Front flap opening
As with the Rampage III Extreme, the packaging has a front flap which reveals what seems to be the motherboard's never ending list of features. Displayed around the Xtreme Design logos are the various features with small illustrations of their applications. All of them have already been covered on the last page so I won't go into further details here. What's striking about the packaging is the range of colours ASUS have opted for. In my opinion, it lacks the professional finish of their ROG line of motherboards but it is certainly very informative, sometimes overly so.
Inside the box
The box itself, which houses the bundle and motherboard, slides out of the outer cardboard frame. Opening it reveals the user guide and the bundle. A cardboard divider separates the bundle from the motherboard below. On initial impressions, the box looks quite bare and doesn't have the same rich bundle we previously saw with the ROG motherboards but for the price point, all you really need are the essentials and ASUS don't disappoint on that front.
The bundle
A closer look at the bundle and we see it comes with:
- 1 x User Guide
- 1 x Support DVD
- 2 X Serial ATA 6Gb/s cables
- 4 x Serial ATA 3Gb/s cables
- 1 x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector kit
- 1 x ASUS Q-Shield
- 1 x ASUS 3-Way SLI bridge connector
- 1 x ASUS SLI bridge cable
Strangely no Crossfire bridge cables are provided but those may come bundled with ATI graphics cards. Each SATA cable packs contain two cables, one with a right angled end connector and the other with straight end connectors. A complimentary ASUS sticker is also bundled in the DVD sleeve.
The anti-static bag...
And finally, once we go to the lower compartment, we get to the motherboard itself. The P6X58D-E comes packaged in a large anti static bag labelled ASUS in bold print.
