All you need to know about your products!
 |
 |
|
3DNews Vendor Reference English Resource - All you need to know about your products! |
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
||||||
MSI P45 Platinum and ASUS P5Q Deluxe (Intel P45)Author:Date: 30/07/2008
More than a month has passed since the of official announcement of Intel's new generation chipsets, and first motherboards based on P45 have already hit the retail. Among them, there are entry-level products (e.g., ECS P45T-A) as well as premium-class boards that cost over 200$. These are just the boards we are reviewing today. These are ASUS P5Q Deluxe and MSI P45 Platinum. Specifications ASUS P5Q Deluxe  MSI P45 Platinum
Packaging  The package box with the MSI board has a handle to carry it around, whereas the box with the ASUS board opens up like a cover page of a book:  Package bundle
All the drivers, utilities, and third-party software for the ASUS board are written on one DVD. The third-party software includes suites like Ulead Burn.Now, Corel MediaOne Starter, Ulead PhotoImpact 12 SE, CyberLink PowerBackup, WinZip 11, as well as Norton Internet Security. Besides, ASUS P5Q Deluxe comes bundled with quite a thick user's manual which not only discloses the aspects of system assembly and setup but also gives a description of the Express Gate shell. As regards the brief assembly guide, it is written on a disk as a *.PDF file that includes text in 18 languages.   The user's manual for MSI P45 Platinum is almost as thick and is complemented with a brief manual. All the software is written on three CDs: one for Windows XP, the second one for Vista, and the third one has a backup utility (with a separate leaflet attached). At the standard items, the ASUS board is somehow superior: it offers more SATA cables, more power supply adapters.   In all the remaining, there is an equality.   Both the boards come bundled with a bracket for two USB2.0 and one FireWire ports, as well as a kit of connectors to facilitate plugging in the board to the buttons of the housing. The package bundles differ in only one thing: the ASUS board has an additional connector, whereas the MSI board offers a bridge for the CrossFire. Considering the retail prices, we rate the package bundles as follows: ASUS P5Q Deluxe - "4.5/5", and MSI P45 Platinum - "4.5/5". Layout and FeaturesFrom the first glance it becomes clear that both the boards are aiming at the premium class - they offer massive cooling systems, more than one PCI Express x16 slot, impressive expansion options, as well as efficient power converters for the CPU, memory, and the north bridge.   With this rich PCB design, some inconveniences to the assembly operator become less important. There are almost none of these inconveniences: the main power connectors are positioned over the boards' edges. However, it is somehow inconvenient to plug in a cable to the Molex connector on the MSI board.  Besides, it is almost impossible to plug in a fan to the SYSFAN4 connector with a video card installed in the first PCI Express x16 slot. There is such an issue on the ASUS board as well, but on that board there are issues when plugging in a SerialATA cable to the SATA6 port. We also note that on the ASUS board with the first video card installed it is possible to remove or fit memory modules, which can't be done on the MSI board. Coming back to the cooling system, we note that the MSI board uses three heat pipes, and merely two on the ASUS board. At the same time, on the MSI board all the radiators are interconnected, whereas on the ASUS board one of the PWM radiators is standalone. From the viewpoint of nicety, the MSI board takes a lead:   However, the package bundle of the ASUS board includes an additional fan, so we rate the cooling systems as equal. The motherboards each have four 240-pin DIMM slots for DDR2 memory modules, with the overall supported memory capacity being 16 GB.   Now let's take a closer look at the expansion slots. The north bridge of Intel P45 allows arranging 2 PCI Express x16 ver.2.0 slots, with 8 bus lanes allocated to each.   That is just the way engineers at MSI followed, and at ASUS they went even further and installed the third PCI Express x16 slot to which 4 lanes are allocated. Besides, the developers have allocated two PCI Express x1 slots and two "regular" PCI slots on each. 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).   The MSI board uses only one Gigabit Ethernet controller - Realtek 8111? - which uses only one PCI Express bus lane.  Both the motherboards use the ICH10R south bridge with a radiator. Therefore, both the boards offer support for six SerialATA II ports located near the south bridge.   Besides, the boards use additional controllers to support ParallelATA and SerialATA II. In particular, the ASUS board uses the two chips: Marvell 88SE6121 (1 PATA; 1 SATA II - on the rear panel), and Sil 5723 made by Silicon Image (2 SATA II).   The MSI board uses one JMicron JMB363 and one JMB362 chips: 
 The first controller supports two links, with the respective ports positioned near the south bridge. The second controller also supports two SATA links, but on our board only one is implemented, with an external eSATA on the rear panel. Originally, we even did not suspect of its existence since JMB362 is not mentioned in the documentation, and the chip itself is hidden under the radiator of the cooling system. Therefore, the user can plug 11 hard disks (9 SATA II + 2 PATA) to the MSI board, and 12 disks (10 SATA II + 2 PATA) to the ASUS board. Then, one and the same south bridge ICH10R supports 12 USB2.0 ports. On the MSI board, 6 ports are positioned on the rear panel with 6 more plugged in with brackets (there is one bracket for two ports in the bundle). The ASUS board has a different configuration of ports: 6 on the rear panel, with 4 additional (the board comes bundled with 1 bracket for 2 ports). Therefore, the ASUS board supports merely 10 ports. The thing is, the PCB design provides for installation of a WiFi module which uses two USB2.0 ports. However, it is not installed on our board. Besides, the boards support the Firewire bus. For that, there is an additional controller. On the ASUS board, that is the L-FW3227 chip made by LSI, and on the MSI board - the JMicron JMB381 chip.   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: ASUS P5Q Deluxe uses the ADI AD2000B chip, and MSI P45 Platinum - the ALC888 chip.   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. Also, on the rear panel of both the motherboards, there is a Firewire port and a SATAII port. You can also notice a complete lack of LPT and COM ports. However, each of the boards support one serial port (COM) but implemented with a bracket (missing in the bundles of both the boards). There is an interesting trait in the ASUS board - there engineers have left merely one PS/2 port, to which you can plug in either a keyboard or a mouse. About a year ago, ASUS ceased installing the PS/2 connector for plugging in a mouse, which caused complaints among some users. And only now the company has come to a compromise. As you can see, part of the rear panel on the MSI board is left to the radiator of the cooling system, and under the radiator there is a button to clear the CMOS. Besides, MSI P45 Platinum uses a couple of buttons to start up and reset the system. The same buttons are there on the ASUS board, and they are much more convenient and have an illumination.   Here is a schematical drawing of the motherboards:   There is a couple of important jumpers on the MSI board: JB1 and JB2 which are meant for forced installation of the FSB starting frequency and are located near the PCI Express x1 slots. For all the LGA775 processors, except 1600 (QPB) MHz, there is no need to touch these jumpers - the motherboard recognizes the CPU and sets the required frequency. But if you have CPU with the 1600 MHz bus, then the starting frequency can be set from within the BIOS and also without these jumpers. Now on to the BIOS settings. BIOSThe BIOS of both the motherboards is based on the AMI BIOS version.   The BIOS capacity on the MSI board is 32 Mbit, or 4 MB. Why so much? It is highly probable that engineers at MSI have reserved a space for the new BIOS graphic interface which was demonstrated at CeBIT 08 in March.   The section of memory settings in the ASUS P5Q Deluxe is on the page of overclocking tools and includes a really wide kit of timings:   As regards the MSI board, its capabilities for memory tuning are no less powerful.    At the same time, the MSI board allows adjusting the 1T and offers the Memory-Z feature.  In fact, the Memory-Z feature has nothing to do with tuning, this is a feature that displays data on the memory modules. Possible is both the short option  and the extended:   The next important parameter that affects the performance is setting the memory operating frequency.   The ASUS board declares support for the DDR2-1200 frequency, however, it is missing in the list (in using a CPU with the FSB=333 MHz). Now look at the system monitoring section.   Both the motherboards display the current temperatures for the CPU and the system, detect the current voltage levels and rotational speeds of the fans (MSI - 3, ASUS - 5). The boards also offer a feature for adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler and additional fans depending on the temperature of the CPU and the system.   ASUS has renamed Q-Fan to Fan Xpert. The new name is almost everywhere (on the web site, in the user's manual), except the BIOS. The "new" feature works the same way as Q-Fan. Both the boards are able storing and loading the BIOS settings as profiles (the ASUS board supports two profiles, MSI - four).   To handle the BIOS, the ASUS motherboard offers the integrated EZFlash 2 utility:  Unfortunately, this feature sees HDD sectors in only the NTFS format and "hangs" on the "A:" disk if it is missing. By the way, regarding the new BIOS versions. In the latest firmware version (802), there has been added support for the Drive Xpert technology which is "adapted" to the Sil5723 controller and is meant for data backup.  ASUS P5Q Deluxe uses two BIOS chips: Therefore, the CrashFree BIOS technology has given way to the DieHard BIOS technology. Look at the sector in charge of controlling the features of Intel processors:   All the features in the ASUS board are gathered on one page, and in the MSI board they are scattered around various sections. We also note the ASUS' feature to display BIOS in multiple languages:  The boards support proprietary utilities for monitoring and overclocking. These are ASUS AI Suite and MSI DualCoreCenter which we have repeatedly examined. So in this review we note innovations only. We start with MSI who has developed the Green Power Center utility  In fact, this software is part of the vast software-hardware concept Green Power which is aimed at power-saving.  Optional Green Power Genie module; is not included into the package bundle of our board specimen. ASUS offers its own power-saving technology - EPU-6 Engine & AI Nap, but today we are talking about improvements of the Express Gate technology.  The idea behind this technology in brief is as follows: an additional module is installed on the board,  which offers the "cut-down" Linux version, as well as a few applications - the Splashtop browser (based on the Mozilla Firefox engine), Skype, Chat, and PhotoManager. We reported our first impressions of the browser and Skype as well as our first impressions of Express Gate in our review of ASUS P5E3 Premium. So let's talk about the newly added features. Above all, it is a messaging program (supports Google Talk, Yahoo, etc.).  Another new software is the image manager.  It is usable, but there are a few minor inconveniences or "features" of the program. It should be noted that Photo Manager has access to not only the USB and the optical drive but to hard disks as well.   Another improvement of the Express Gate is in support for the Drive Xpert technology:  We hope the quality of Photo Manager and other new programs by ASUS will improve and the operating speed will go up. Otherwise, Express Gate will turn to just another Windows. On the other hand, it is nice to see that the progress of the free shell is continuing; new programs and features are being added.  There has appeared the feature for changing the desktop themes In my view, it would be exceptionally reasonable to unify the Eee PC/BOX and Express Gate shell into a single Linux-based operating system. Therefore, it would be possible to exclude the scattering of resources among two parallel projects. Besides, an approach like that would guarantee a high speed of running applications on desktop systems. The thing is, the development of software that offers a comfortable performance level in Eee-systems based on the CPU Atom requires a high level of optimization and economy of resources (Intel Atom is quite a weak CPU as compared to desktop CPUs). If a program like that proved successful, it will run on a desktop Core 2 Duo really fast. Using an approach like that will let produce an immediate application response to a command which must have been forgotten by users thanks to Windows. Overclocking and stabilityBefore we move on to overclocking, let's look at the power converters. The PWM of the ASUS' board uses a 16-phase scheme in which there are ten 560 mkF and two 270 mkF capacitors. At the same time, we note that the power converter of the memory modules, like the PWM of the north bridge are implemented on a 2-phase scheme. The PWM of the MSI board uses a 5-phase power scheme, in which there are eleven 820 mkF and four 470 mkF capacitors. The power converter of the memory modules and the north bridge, like in the ASUS board are implemented on a 2-phase scheme.   All the power components on the boards are equipped with radiators; the ASUS board comes bundled with an additional radiator which can be installed on one of two radiators. Now on to the overclocking features. On the ASUS motherboard, all the relevant features are gathered in the "Ai Tweaker" section,   and 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%.  It should be noted that selection of voltages on the ASUS board is made either through scrolling of all the values, or through a direct input of a number. However, in the latter case, you don't have to input a decimal point. Now let's look at the practical results of overclocking. The maximum stable FSB speed in the ASUS board is 562 MHz; that for the MSI board - 552 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. Performance testsWhile determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that MSI P45 Platinum overstated it by ~1.4 MHz, and ASUS P5Q Deluxe - by 1 MHz (and in the overclocking mode it sets the speed at a high precision).   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 Kb/s, i.e. the more the better.  Final WordsFrom the functional viewpoint, ASUS P5Q Deluxe is superior over MSI P45 Platinum. In particular, it offers one PCI Express x16 slot more (to which merely 4 bus lanes are allocated), more LAN controllers (2 versus 1), and also the ASUS board offers a better package bundle and support for the Express Gate technology. The only thing at which the ASUS board loses is the number of USB2.0 ports: 10 versus 12 in the MSI board. So, is that a victory of the ASUS board? A week ago, we were not quite sure of that because the first ASUS boards sold at 290$ and the price difference versus the MSI board was almost 90$. But on the moment of publishing the review the difference in price went down to almost ~45$. And we believe this amount is justified by the better package bundle offered by the ASUS board as well as due to the third PCI Express x16 slot, the second Gigabit LAN controller, and the Express Gate technology. At the same time, the ASUS board offers a really high overclocking capability: we were able to attain FSB=562 MHz and came up against the FSB Wall which was at about 560-570 MHz for the CPU test specimen. But the MSI board lost at 550 MHz. Indeed, this frequency is a really high result, and the capability of MSI P45 Platinum is enough for the vast majority of users. However, we would recommend serious overclockers to pay some more and buy the ASUS board.   ASUS P5Q Deluxe and MSI P45 Platinum Conclusion
- Discuss the material in the conference
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||