Intel P35 Motherboards Roundup Review
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Date: 27.12.2007 |
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ASUS P5K Premium, P5K Deluxe, P5K-E/WiFi
Let's examine another three ASUS motherboards which make up the backbone of the P5K series: P5K Premium, P5K Deluxe, and P5K-E/WiFi. They are all based on the same PCB design, but the most surprising thing is that they have have incredibly similar technical specifications. In particular, the Premium and Deluxe models differ in only the package bundle and the voltage adjustment range on the chipset. All the remaining, including the retail price (~220~230$; on the beginning of December 2007) is absolutely identical! Does it turn out that it is more advantageous to buy the Premium version? Wrong you are - the best "price/attraction" ratio is with the P5K-E/WiFi which costs merely ~160~170$. That is, we save 60$ and lose a couple of additional fans, get the maximum Vdd=1.7V (instead of 1.95V in the Premium version) and get not two network controllers but merely one. Saving is evident: to this board (or near to the board) you can fasten one 120-mm quiet fan priced at 4$ and buy one external Gigabit network card at 10-14$. As our overclocking experiments showed, such a high voltage as 1.95V won't be of use for most overclockers.
However, the most inquisitive computer enthusiasts will certainly find a way to update the BIOS of the P5K-E/WiFi with that of the Premium version and thus get the cherished Vdd= 1.95V!
It turns out that even without going deep into the details we can conclude that there is absolutely no sense in purchasing P5K Premium and P5K Deluxe motherboards: we'll get the same specifications through buying a P5K-E/WiFi.
However, we we have no assumptions regarding how the retail price for boards of the P5K series may change in the nearest future. Therefore, we'll examine all the three boards in detail:
P5K Premium
P5K Deluxe
P5K-E/WiFi
To start with, the cooling system of Premium and Deluxe versions is fully identical, whereas the -E version is well behind them at that. In particular, there is no heat heat pipe to transfer heat from the south bridge, nor there is an additional heat pipe between the north bridge and the radiator of the power converter, and there is no radiator on half the components.
Now on to the expansion options. All the three boards have an additional SerialATA II/ParallelATA RAID JMB363 controller (2 SerialATA ports are brought over to the rear panel of the board), 2 Firewire, 10 USB2.0, a WiFi module, and 8-channel integrated audio.
Besides, the Premium and Deluxe versions have two high-speed network controllers, whereas the -E version - only one.
The board also uses two PCI Express x16, three PCI, and two PCI Express x1 slots:
The rear panel is specific in that it completely lacks any LPT and COM ports (one COM port is implemented with a bracket but it is missing in the bundle). Missing is also a PS/2 connector to plug in a mouse. On the other hand, USB 2.0 ports are in abundance; there are two SerialATA II and one Firewire, as well as an optical and coaxial SP-DIF output.
All the three boards showed a superb compatibility to various RAM modules.
The system monitoring settings are also identical:
Both the motherboards display current temperatures of the CPU and the system, voltages, and the rotational speed of all the four fans (of five), and offer the feature (Q-Fan2) for adjusting the rotational speed of the CPU cooler depending on the CPU temperature. For the processor cooler, there is a separate kit of Q-FAN 2 settings, and for the coolers plugged in to CHA_FAN1 - CHA_FAN3 there is one kit of common settings.
Implemented is also the OC Profile technology which allows saving all the BIOS settings into memory and loading them on demand. The P5K series boards support two independent profiles:
Nor there are any claims to the overclocking tools.
In particular, the boards allow adjusting the FSB within 200 to 800 MHz, raising the CPU voltage to 1.7V, on the memory - to 2.55V, on the north bridge - to 1.7V (up to 1.95V on the Premium version), on the south bridge - to 1.2V, and on the FSB bus - to 1.5V. In real overclocking, all the three boards showed superb results - a stable operation at FSB=558 MHz.
Pros of all these boards:
- High stability and performance;
- 8-phase power scheme;
- Two PCI Express x16 slots;
- Support for SerialATA II/RAID ( 8 lines; ICH8R + JMB363);
- Support for one P-ATA link (JMB363);
- Integrated 8-channel audio;
- Support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire, 2 ports);
- Support for WiFi;
- A wide selection of ASUS' proprietary technologies (PC Probe II, EZ Flash 2, CrashFree BIOS 3, MyLogo2, Q-Fan 2, etc.);
- Additional set of AI Proactive features (AI Overclock, N.O.S., AI Net 2, etc.);
The boards' specific features:
- Excellent results of overclocking the processor and memory;
- On the rear panel, there are two SerialATA II and 6 USB 2.0 ports; no LPT and COM ports, no PS/2 for the mouse.
Now, conclusions regarding each of the boards.
Pros of P5K Premium:
- Advanced power supply module;
- Two Integrated LAN controllers (Gigabit Ethernet);
- Passive/active system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
Cons of P5K Premium:
Detailed overview of the board
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Pros of P5K Deluxe:
- Two Integrated LAN controllers (Gigabit Ethernet);
- Passive system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
Cons of P5K Deluxe:
Detailed overview of the board
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Pros of P5K-E/WiFi:
- One LAN controller Gigabit Ethernet;
- Reasonable price;
Cons of P5K-E/WiFi:
Detailed overview of the board
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