ASUS P5E64 WS Professional vs. MSI X48 Platinum

Recently, we tested MSI X38 Platinum which won its first duel against ASUS P5E3. A few months have passed since then, the prices have gone down, and by the time the global roundup review of P35- and X38-based motherboards was published the attraction of MSI X38 Platinum somehow faded. Actually, we noted its major and unique feature: it offers four PCI Express x16 slots onboard, which allows installing four matching video cards and plugging in up to eight monitors. However, as was turned out, the feature is not so unique: ASUS P5E64 WS Professional also supports four PCI Express x16 slots. In the end, we decided to compare the ASUS' board (based on the X38 chipset) versus the latest MSI X48 Platinum which, as the name suggests, is based on the Intel X48 chipset.

It is interesting to note that engineers at MSI decided not to take trouble and use the PCB design of X38 Platinum to manufacture this model. Indeed, what's the point of reworking the circuits if X48 is a slightly modified version of X38. In the end, X48 Platinum acquired support for DDR3 memory, official support for the 1600 MHz board, and four PCI Express x16 slots. The specifications of ASUS P5E64 WS Professional are absolutely the same: DDR3, 1600 QBP, and four PCI-E x16 slots, although with one exception: support for the 1600 MHz bus is unofficial.

Specifications

Retail boxes

Package bundle:

The fact that ASUS P5E64 WS Pro is aimed at professional has introduced some amendments to the package contents. In particular, there is no additional fan nor any game. On the other hand, there is a lot of SerialATA cables and power supply adapters.

There is also a bracket for Firewire and USB 2.0 ports, a bracket for a COM port, as well as a few Q-Connectors.

Then, the user gets a detailed enough manual, a brief guide, and a DVD with drivers and utilities. There is also third-party software (on the same disk): Ulead PhotoImpact 12 SE, CyberLink PowerBackup, Corel Snapfire Plus SE, InterVideo WinDVD 8 Trial, as well as Norton Internet Security.

Finally, the box has the only nonstandard item: an additional diagnostic module with a couple of 7-stage LED indicators, as well as power-on and reset buttons.

The module is plugged in to the TMP connector on the motherboard. We also note that the user's manual gives a complete notation of all the diagnostic codes.

As regards MSI X48 Platinum, there was nothing unusual found in the package box. We found only the most needed items: cables, a bracket for USB 2.0 and Firewire ports.

The board comes bundled with two Crossfire bridges to plug in AMD video cards (which are missing on the ASUS' board).

The user guide is written distinctly and clearly. All the required drivers and utilities are written on two CDs: one for XP, the other one for Vista.

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.

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.

BIOS

The BIOS of both the motherboards is based on the AMI BIOS version.

The section in charge of memory operation settings looks like this:

The next important parameter that affects the performance is setting the memory operating frequency.

Besides, the "Command Rate = 1T" setting (which for some reason is called "1N" in the MSI's board) will help somehow improve the performance.

Now look at the system monitoring section.

Both the motherboards display the current temperatures of the CPU and the system, and offer the feature for adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler as well as additional fans, depending on the CPU and system temperatures.

Both the boards are able storing and loading the BIOS settings as profiles (two profiles altogether are supported).

To handle the BIOS, the ASUS motherboard offers the integrated EZFlash 2 utility:

Unfortunately, this feature suffers from flaws and hangs at the "A:" disk missing in the system (and we can't disable the FDD controller).

We also note the ASUS' feature for displaying the BIOS settings in multiple languages, and a section to control the features for Intel processors:

As regards the proprietary utilities, we note the updated version of ASUS AI Suite,

which offers an improved power-saving technology - Gear 3.

With this feature enabled (operates only if overclocking is switched off), the user is offered a few power consumption modes, from the minimum to the top performance (there is also the automatic mode). In the maximum saving mode, the board reduces the CPU multiplier, reduces the FSB speed and the CPU (Vcore) voltage. Result:

In so doing, the temperature of the CPU equals 22 C, which is less than the room temperature. Looking forward to the BIOS improvements.

We have already talked about ASUS' proprietary utilities (like PC Probe II and ASUS Update) in the previous reviews. Now look at MSI's utilities. We have already got familiarized with part of them, and today's check concerns only the operability of utilities under MS Vista.

Note that we found no serious issues in LiveMonitor and DualCoreCenter. But it is very difficult to update the BIOS with LiveUpdate without access to Internet (even if you have the firmware file). Tests of the DualCoreCenter revealed no serious issues, except flaws in the interface.

Overclocking and stability

Before we move on to Overclocking, let's look at the power converters. The PWM of the ASUS' board uses a 8-phase scheme in which there are eleven 560 mkF and two 270 mkF capacitors. The PWM of the MSI' board uses a 8-phase power scheme, in which there are eleven 820 mkF and six 470 mkF capacitors.

On the ASUS' motherboard, all the PWM components are equipped with radiators, with only three fourths of these on the MSI board.

Now on to the overclocking features. On the ASUS motherboard, all the relevant features are gathered in the "Ai Tweaker" section,

an on the MSI board - in the "Cell Menu" section.

We note the following traits of the motherboards at overclocking. First, programmers at ASUS and MSI have added the feature for highlighting the parameters exceeding the range of safe overclocking (in their opinion) with different colors. Also, the ASUS board lacks the ASUS NOS (Non-Delay Overclocking System) technology which used to be implemented on almost all the previous models by this manufacturer. A similar feature is implemented on the MSI motherboard and is named D.O.T. It allows overclocking the system by ~73%.

Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed in the ASUS' board is 566 MHz; that for the MSI board - 554 MHz.

There are no claims to both the boards - they successfully got over the 550 MHz bar and basically are able running at higher frequencies. Despite its professional bias, the ASUS' board offers all the required overclocking tools on board, which run perfectly. The only point to complain about was the interface and the functional capabilities of the AI Suite at overclocking:

They are weak, inconvenient and suitable for beginners only. About the same can be said about the features of the MSI Dual CoreCenter utility:

Performance tests

When determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that MSI X48 Platinum overstated it by 1.5 MHz.

In our test setup, we used the following hardware:

Let's first take a look at the results of synthetic benchmarks.

Now on to the gaming benchmarks.

Tests of application software.

Video encoding (DivX, Xvid) was measured in seconds, i.e. the less the better.

Data compression (WinRAR) was measured in MB/sec, i.e. the more, the better.

Final Words

Summing it up, we note the most important point: the functionality and specifications of both the boards are practically similar, and we were unable to choose the best. In particular, the expansion options are identical: each of the boards offer four PCI Express x16 slots, two Gigabit Ethernet controllers, and support the Firewire bus. The only substantial difference is in that the ASUS' board supports ten (!) SerialATA II link, whereas the MSI board - eight links. In terms of overclocking, both the boards demonstrated a stable operation at FSB > 550 MHz, which shows their high quality.

In fact, if we recap all the differences, then the ASUS' board takes a minor lead: the package bundle is a bit better, a bit richer BIOS settings, with the overclocking results 10 MHz higher. On the other hand, the MSI's board is based on the "fresher" X48 chipset, whereas X38 on the ASUS' board. But there is no fundamental difference at real operation between these two boards.

As a result, with equal confidence we can recommend any of these boards for purchase. However, we note one point: ASUS P5E64 WS Professional and MSI X48 Platinum operate only with the rather expensive DDR3 memory whose retail price completely destroys all the advantages of these products. In fact, extra 200-300 dollars for professional users is not a fortune paid for the chance to fit four video cards within a single system.

By the way, prices for DDR3 modules have gone down essentially these days. In particular, 1 GB PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) can already be made available at ~$140, PC3-10667 (1333 MHz) - at ~$190, and PC3-12800 (1600 MHz) - at ~$270. Moreover, first PC3-14380 (1800 MHz) modules have hit the retail. And ASUS P5E64 WS Professional does support them. Needless to say, the prices for DDR3 relative to DDR2 are still very high. In particular, a single 1 GB DDR2-PC6400 module costs about $40. But this trend inspires some optimism regarding the future of DDR3 and increases the urgency of motherboards with support for this type of memory.

Conclusion