ASUS P5E64 WS Professional vs. MSI X48 Platinum
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Date: 27.02.2008 |
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Layout and Features
Upon the first superficial look we can see that they are of the same specifications, with the exception that the ASUS board stands out with its more massive cooling system.
In particular, the radiators are installed not only on the north and south bridges of the chipset but also on the additional PCI-E- bridge, as well as on the power components of the power supply converter. All the radiators are interlinked with heat pipes. On the MSI board, the cooling system is almost as powerful: there are radiators on the chipset and on the additional bridge. The differences are in only that not all the PWM key components are equipped radiators.
Each motherboard has four 240-pin DIMM slots each for DDR3 memory modules, with the overall supported memory capacity being 8 GB.
Now let's take a closer look at the expansion slots. Both the north bridges (Intel X48 and Intel X38) allow establishing two full-featured PCI Express x16 slots of 2.0 specifications. As we can see, that has been implemented on both the boards.
To provide support for another two PCI Express x16 slots, engineers at ASUS and MSI had to add an additional bridge. On MSI X48 Platinum - that is the IDT PES16T7 chip (the same installed on X38 Platinum), and on the ASUS P5E64 WS Pro - the PEX8518 chip made by PLX Technology. In both cases, the two additional slots run in the PCI Express x4 mode.
The engineers have disposed of the remaining vacant PCI Express slots in different ways. In particular, engineers at ASUS have installed one more "short" PCI Express x4 slot, whereas at MSI they preferred only two PCI Express x1 slots. As regards support for the "regular" PCI, on ASUS P5E64 WS Pro there are two slots, whereas only one PCI slot on MSI X48 Platinum.
Also, PCI Express lanes were used to plug in Gigabit LAN controllers. The ASUS' board uses two such controllers: Marvell 88E8056 and Marvell 88E8001, but only 88E8056 uses the PCI-E ?1 bus (88E8001 is plugged in to the PCI bus).
On the MSI's board, there are also two Gigabit Ethernet controllers: Intel 82566DC and Realtek 8111B, each using one PCI Express bus lane.
Both the motherboards use the ICH9R south bridge with a radiator. In the end, the motherboards offer support for six SerialATA II ports each. On the ASUS motherboard, all the six ports are positioned near the south bridge. On the MSI's board, the four ports are near the south bridge, with two more on the rear panel.
PEX8518 and ICH9R chips are installed under the same radiator
To the left - IDT PES16T7 chip, to the right - ICH9R
Besides, the boards use additional controllers to support ParallelATA and SerialATA II. In particular, on the ASUS' board there is one Marvell 88SE6145 chip (one PATA; four SATA II):
Two ports of this controller are positioned near the south bridge (black), with two more brought over to the board's rear panel.
On the MSI's board, there are two chips: 88SE6111, also made by Marvell, and Sil 5723 made by Silicon Image.
The chip 88SE6111 offers support for one ParallelATA and one SerialATA II link. However, engineers at MSI used only support for the PATA. To implement two additional SATA II links, the Sil 5723 is used. Therefore, to the MSI board the user can plug in 10 hard disks (eight SATA + two PATA), whereas to the ASUS' board - twelve disks (ten SATA + two PATA).
Then, one and the same south bridge ICH9R supports twelve USB 2.0 ports. On the MSI board, eight ports are positioned on the rear panel, with four more plugged in with brackets (there is one bracket for two ports). The ASUS board has a different configuration of ports: six - on the rear panel with six additional (there is also one bracket for two ports).
Besides, both boards support the Firewire. For that, there is an additional controller. On the ASUS' board, it is a VT6308S chip made by VIA, and on the MSI's board - a VT6308P chip also made by VIA.
Despite the different chips, the motherboards support two ports each, with their layout being similar: one mounted on the rear panel, with the other one connected with a bracket (available in the package bundle of both the boards).
The motherboards implement the Intel High Definition Audio subsystem: on ASUS P5E64 WS Pro, there is an AD1988B chip, and on MSI X48 Platinum - an ALC888.
The board's rear panel is of the following configuration:
The ASUS board supports optical and coaxial SP-DIF outputs, while the MSI - only optical. On the rear panels of both the motherboards, there is a Firewire and two SATAII port(s). You can also notice a complete lack of LPT and COM ports. In fact, both the boards support one serial port (COM) but implemented with a bracket (missing in the bundle of the MSI board, and available in the ASUS board's package bundle).
Here is a schematical drawing of the motherboards:
A few words on the boards' special traits. First of all, the ASUS' board implements a more or less functional system of POST diagnostics: the board comes bundled with a module having a 7-stage POST indicator, a matching chip, and a couple of "Power" and "Reset" buttons.
Therefore, this feature eliminates the lag of ASUS at that. The POST Reporter used to be there on motherboards by this manufacturer. Now all has turned simpler: we look at the code and find its description in the user's manual.
As regards the MSI X48 Platinum, it uses an additional Dual CoreCell chip meant for such tasks like dynamic overclocking, system monitoring, power management, and control over the rotational speed of the fans. It also closely interacts with the Dual CoreCenter utility that allows the user to control the mentioned features.
Besides, the board uses a 7-stage POST indicator.
The indicator is not a regular 7-stage, but more advanced. It allows the user to perform an initial fault diagnostics. Also of note are three onboard buttons: one to power-on, and one to reset the system,
and one to clear the CMOS settings (on the rear panel).
Now on to the BIOS settings.
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