Intel P35 / X38 Motherboards Roundup
ASUS P5K3 Premium/Deluxe (Intel P35; DDR3)
ASUS has released P5K3 Premium with the DDR3 memory modules deadly welded on board. It that good or not? If that model were the only one to support DDR3 in ASUS' assortment, such an approach would have been definitely faulty: the user can't raise the memory capacity, and once it fails, you would have to completely dismantle the PC and carry the whole motherboard over to the service center. However, ASUS is offering the same motherboard (P5K3 Deluxe) but without memory modules, however, with customary DIMM slots (4 pcs). In the end, the customer has the choice: buy a motherboard with memory or without it. If the choice falls on P5K3 Premium (i.e. with memory), this case gives positive sides as well. First, ASUS guarantees 100% compatibility of memory to the motherboard. Moreover, BIOS optimization for the same type of modules delivers a substantial saving of engineering resources and allows attaining better results. Which in fact proved that way: ASUS declares a high overclocking capability of these modules (up to DDR3-1600; the nominal DDR3 frequency is 1333 MHz). Secondly, the user gets a problem less because you don't have to match the modules. And thirdly, welded modules use a proprietary cooling system which looks quite impressive and is integrated into the system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module.
Both the motherboards offer a massive cooling system: along with the huge radiators on the chipset and the power supply module, there have been added two memory modules equipped with own massive radiators. And of course all the radiators are interlinked with heat pipes. On the reverse side of the board, there is a couple of radiators.
Let's list the expansion options: two Gigabit LAN controllers, two Firewire ports, an additional Serial ATAII/ParallelATA/RAID controller, 10 USB 2.0 ports, 8-channel audio,
two PCI Express x16, two PCI Express x1, and three PCI slots.
I'd like to point your attention to the fact that the boards use only 10 USB 2.0 ports (of 12 supported by ICH9R). The reduction in the number of USB ports is related to the installation of a Wi-Fi module.
As we can see, engineers at ASUS have completely given up support for the LPT port and COM ports (one COM port is implemented with a plate 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.
Asus P5K3 boards use a great number of proprietary functions and technologies such as Q-Fan, MyLogo 3, EZ-Flash 2, CrashFree BIOS 3, MultiLanguages BIOS, C.P.R, and AI Net. We have already covered them in detail - it makes sense dwelling only on the CrashFree BIOS 3. The third version of the feature allows restoring the damaged BIOS not only from a diskette and a CD, but also from a flash disk.
Besides, we note the OC Profile technology which allows saving all the BIOS settings into memory and loading them on demand. The boards support two independent profiles:
As for the board's BIOS, it is based on the AMI BIOS version.
The kit of memory settings is vast indeed. The system monitoring section has nothing to complain about:
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.
The powerful overclocking tools will certainly appeal to overclockers:
Therefore, 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, on the south bridge - to 1.2V, and on the FSB bus - to 1.5V. During the practical overclocking, we were able to attain a stable operation at FSB = 560 MHz on the Premium version and 564 MHz on the Deluxe version.
Let me bring in a photo of noiseless system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module:
Note that on both the boards part of the power components of the power supply module are installed on the reverse side. Another trait: the user can raise the cooling efficiency through installing an additional fan which is available in the package bundle (there are 2 fans in the Premium version!).
Pros of all the boards:
- High stability and performance;
- 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 (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.);
- Passive/active system for cooling the chipset and the power supply module;
Cons:
The boards' specific features:
- Superb CPU overclocking results;
- 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.
- Premium model: Advanced power supply module and 10-layered PCB;
- Premium model: On the board, there are two DDR3-1333 modules with a cooling system;
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