Roundup tests of motherboards aimed at Intel Core 2 Duo processors
ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi
The specifications of ASUS P5B Deluxe allow it to compete almost on par with the best high-end motherboards based on i975P. However, the differences of P965 and i975X make these boards fall within different market sectors. Therefore, we can say that this board is aimed at a powerful average computer.
ASUS P5B Deluxe looks more prestigiously due to the massive cooling system based on heat pipes:
At the expansion options, this motherboard is among the best products based on P965. It offers support for two high-speed LAN controllers, has an additional Serial ATA II/Parallel ATA RAID controller JMB363, two Firewire ports, 8 USB 2.0 ports, and 8-channel integrated audio.
Note that the number of USB 2.0 ports has been reduced from 10 to 8 at the expense of a WiFi module.
The board also uses two PCI Express x16, three PCI, and one PCI Express x1 slots.
The board's package bundle is rich enough and includes an additional fan for the power supply module, a dual microphone with the noise-suppression feature, as well as a Quick Connection Kit.
The rear panel features in that a Serial ATA II and a Firewire port have been brought over to it, with a LPT and one of the COM ports missing. The configuration of the panel is fully identical to that on ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe.
In terms of functionality, the board is rather powerful. Despite that the set of memory latency timings is practically standard, this motherboard demonstrated the best compatibility to memory modules. In particular, with Corsair Dominator modules the board was running absolutely stably at DDR2-1200 MHz memory frequency!
The system monitoring settings are standard:
The same can be said about overclocking tools.
In particular, the board allows adjusting the FSB speed within 200 to 650 MHz, raising the CPU voltage to 1.7 V , on the memory - to 2.45 V, as well as raising voltage on the north bridge to 1.65 V, on the south bridge - to 1.215 V, and on the FSB - to 1.45 V. In real overclocking, the motherboard showed the best results - a stable operation at FSB=520 MHz.
Interim conclusion: to date, ASUS P5B Deluxe is the most balanced product for Intel Core 2 Duo processors. We place a special emphasis on that at overclocking the motherboard has demonstrated the highest results!
Pros:
- High stability and good performance level;
- 8-phase power scheme;
- Two PCI Express x16 slots;
- Support for SerialATA II RAID ( 8 channels; ICH8R + JMB363);
- Support for one P-ATA link (JMB363);
- Integrated 8-channel audio and two LAN (Gigabit Ethernet) controllers;
- Support for USB2.0 (8 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire; 2 ports);
- Support for Wi-Fi;
- Superb package bundle (including a SoundMAX microphone, additional fan);
- 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.);
- Passive/active system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module.
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Excellent results of overclocking the processor and memory;
- On the rear panel, there is a SerialATA II port; missing are LPT port and one COM port.
ASUS P5B-E
ASUS P5B-E is a product of the middle pricing category (~$150). At the same time, the board offers a complete set of expansion options, supports powerful overclocking tools and offers an impressive list of ASUS' proprietary technologies. Let's dwell on the overclocking: after publication of a detailed review on this motherboard we received a lot of letters from readers who got interested in some features which lacked on the retail products. In particular: "... for instance, you can raise voltage on the memory to only 2.1 V, on the north and south bridges - you can't raise voltage at all", " On my 1.01G you can adjust voltage only on the memory, CPU, and the bus. No way to adjust voltage on the chipset! I used different BIOS but updated to version 0306 the way it was shown on your screenshot - didn't work, no voltage adjustment appeared.", "In the BIOS of my motherboard, there aren't the items NB Vcore, SB Vcore (SATA,PCIE), and ICH Chipset Voltage. But the maximum voltage on the memory is only 2.1 V."
As was promised in the conference, we came back to this motherboard, tampered with various BIOS versions, tortured ASUS support service. The final conclusion: more powerful overclocking tools are supported only by the motherboard of revision 1.02G (which we had) and higher.
I'd like to note that for the past six months this has not been the first case when motherboards of the same model strongly differ in specifications depending on the BIOS version. Most Gigabyte motherboards even include the the revision number in the names.
Unlike ASUS' high-end motherboards, this one is made on yellow textolite, has only aluminum radiators (without heat pipes), as well as have only PCI Express x16 slot.
However, at the expansion options this motherboard is far not the last. This is how all the basic features of the chipset are implemented: 6 Serial ATA links, high-speed Gigabit LAN connection, 8 USB 2.0 ports, and integrated 8-channel audio. Besides, the board uses the additional Firewire controller (2 ports), as well as the additional SerialATA II/ParallelATA RAID controller JMB363. The latter has added support for 2 SerialATA II links (one of which brought over to the rear panel), as well as one ParallelATA link.
The board uses one PCI Express x16, three PCI , and three regular PCI Express x1 slots.
The rear panel features in that a Serial ATA II and a Firewire port have been brought over to it, with an optical and coaxial SP-DIF outputs positioned instead of one of the COM ports.
In terms of functionality, the board is rather powerful. Despite that the set of memory latency timings is practically standard, this motherboard demonstrated a superb compatibility to memory modules.
The system monitoring settings are standard:
But the overclocking tools are really powerful (which holds true for revision 1.02G).
In particular, the board allows adjusting the FSB speed within 100 to 650 MHz, raising the CPU voltage to 1.7 V , on the memory - to 2.45 V, as well as raising voltage on the north bridge to 1.7 V, on the south bridge - to 1.215 V, and on the FSB - to 1.45 V. In real overclocking, the motherboard showed superb results - a stable operation at FSB=520 MHz.
Experiments with overclocking are much facilitated by the OC Profile technology which allows saving two independent kits (profiles) of BIOS settings.
Interim conclusion: to date, ASUS P5B-E is a well-balanced product of the middle pricing category.
Pros:
- High stability and good performance level;
- Support for SerialATA II RAID ( 8 channels; ICH8R + JMB363);
- Support for one P-ATA link (JMB363);
- Integrated 8-channel audio and Gigabit Ethernet LAN controller;
- Support for USB2.0 (10 ports) and IEEE-1394 (Firewire; 2 ports);
- 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.);
- Reasonable price.
Cons:
The board's specific features:
- Excellent results of overclocking the processor and memory;
- SerialATA II port on the rear panel.
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Content: |
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Page 1 - Chipsets
Page 2 - Roundup table of motherboards
Page 3 - abit AW9D-MAX, abit AB9 Pro
Page 4 - ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe, ASUS P5W64-WS Pro
Page 5 - ASUS Commando, ASUS P5B Premium Vista Edition
Page - ASUS P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi, ASUS P5B-E
Page 7 - P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe, Striker, P5N32-E SLI, and P5N32-E SLI PLUS
Page 8 - ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium, ASUS P5N-E SLI
Page 9 - Gigabyte 965P-DQ6, Gigabyte 965P-DS4
Page 10 - Gigabyte 965P-DS3, Gigabyte 965G-DS3
Page 11 - Foxconn 975X7AB, Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H
Page 12 - MSI P6N SLI Platinum, MSI P965 Platinum
Page 13 - MSI P965 Neo, MSI P965 Neo2
Page 14 - Intel D975XBX2 (i975X), Intel DG965RYCK
Page 15 - ECS NF650SLIT-A, ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A
Page 16 - ECS PN2 SLI2+, ECS P965T-A
Page 17 - Performance, conclusions
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