ASUS P5K series motherboards
While determining the starting FSB speed, it turned out that
the board overstated it by 1.3 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.
Final Words
Once again, let's look at the retail prices of the three
tested motherboards.
- ASUS P5K Premium $280-290
- ASUS P5K Deluxe $250-270
- ASUS P5K-E $200-225
If the price difference preserves onwards (all the boards are
gradually getting cheaper), the best price/quality ratio is seen in
P5K-E (in fact, the -E series is aimed at thrifty users). If the price
is higher than that, we get less and less per each dollar spent. In
particular, for the extra $50 the user of the Deluxe board gets a more
powerful system for cooling the chipset (and the power supply module),
additional Gigabit network controller, and a bit better package bundle.
If we spend extra $20-30 and buy the Premium model, we get a
motherboard with the enhanced power supply module, wider range of
adjusting voltage on the north bridge, and with two additional fans in
the bundle.
At the remaining specifications, all these boards are
identical. In particular, they offer two PCI Express x16 slots, 8
SerialATA II links (2 - on the rear panel),one ParallelATA link, two
Gigabit network controllers (P5K-E - merely only), support for 2
Firewire ports, 10 USB2.0 ports, as well as a Wi-Fi module.
The BIOS settings of all the three motherboards are 99%
identical; the overclocking results are very high but also identical.
The package bundle of all the three boards is equally scarce: with $200
we wise we got more components.
And perhaps the most important conclusion - we found no third
"redundant" motherboard. In particular, P5K-E offers the best
price/attraction ratio; in the Deluxe version, this ratio is within
reasonable limits. As regards the Premium version, then despite the
very high price these board will be in demand among extreme
overclockers and well-off users (as the Republic Of Gamers series has
shown, there are many users like these).
Anyway, if the enthusiasts find a way to program the
BIOS of the Deluxe version with that of the Deluxe version, they could
save extra 20-30$. I think to this end you should use a programmer
device or "cheat" the CrashFree BIOS feature.
 
ASUS P5K Premium, ASUS P5K Deluxe ? ASUS P5K-E
Conclusion
Pros of all these boards:
- High stability and performance;
- 8-phase power scheme;
- Two PCI Express x16 slots;
- Support for SerialATA II RAID ( 8 links; 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:
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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:
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Pros of P5K-E:
Cons of P5K-E:
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