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sacha35
06-12-2007, 02:04 PM
Date: 5th December 2007
Category: Motherboard
Manufacturers: ASUS
Author: sacha35
Asus P5E3 Deluxe
Rating:
Speed: 95-100
Features: 98-100

Introduction

ASUS is one of the best known and respected top tier computing vendors in the industry. They continue to produce top quality high end performance products without falter, giving them one up on most of the competition in consumer, enthusiast circles and Design-wise, their products come second to none. Their latest Intel based X38 chipset P5E3 motherboard is a testament to this trend.





What's in the Box?
Asus did not skimp on accessories as you would expect.
Quick start guide
Motherboard manual
Remote control manual,
Driver CD
Software library (AV, media player etc)
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0016%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


A multitude of goodies
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0015%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


The Motherboard.
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0018%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


The P5E3 Deluxe is the newest member of the ASUS motherboard line-up, based on the newly released latest Intel X38 Express chipset. This chipset boasts full support for all LGA 775 type processors, DDR3 DRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to 1600MHz officially, and dual card ATI Cross-Fire support with matching ATI graphics cards installed.

The board itself is a feature complete solution, requiring only the addition of an Intel LGA 775 processor, DDR3 memory, hard drive, and a PSU for an operational system.

ASUS chose to integrate the following features in to the P5E3 Deluxe’s design: 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel ICH9R controller; 1 ATA-133 IDE port and 2 eSATA ports (RAID 0 and 1 capable) on the JMicron controller; 12 USB 2.0 capable ports (6 in rear panel and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel and 1 onboard header); a Realtek GigE Ethernet port and a Marvell Yukon GigE Ethernet port, both in the rear panel; ASUS 802.11n wireless Ethernet port 2-in-1 solution in the rear panel; ADI 8-channel HD audio codec featuring an S/PDIF RCA component and optical output ports; and PS/2 keyboard port support in the rear panel.

Setup is so easy, thanks to a full set of cables, excellent documentation, and well-labelled connectors, including the Q-Connector adapter, which simplifies power and LED connections to the case. As usual, Asus has loaded the BIOS with over clocking options that let you adjust just about every possible setting.

If you're not a tweaker, the AI Gear3 software does a great job of automatically throttling up to mildly over clocked speeds when you need extra horsepower and slowing down at other times to save energy.

The new X38 chipset is a step up from the P35. Why? The P35 could run a second video card only in slower x4 mode—which makes it almost pointless to add another card, whereas the P5E3 Deluxe's X38 chipset can run both cards at full x16 speed. (The board also includes a third x16 slot that runs at x4 speeds, plus an x1 slot and a pair of PCI slots.)

Continued.

sacha35
06-12-2007, 02:16 PM
FSB Frequency 200-800
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0012%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg

Vcore: 0.850V-1.70V
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0009%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


CPU PLL: Voltage 1.50V-2.78V
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0010%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


Primary/Secondary Memory settings.
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0013%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg

Extreme Memory: 1.5V – 2.78V
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/PICT0010%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


Test setup using Intel E6850 CPU on a stock air cooler

CPUz 4104 MHz, FSB 513MHz
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/P5E3%20cpuz%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg


Continued.

sacha35
06-12-2007, 02:19 PM
Supper PI 1M at 4000MHz
http://www.benchtec.co.uk/images/paul/P5E3%20SPI%20Cropped%204x3%20%20.jpg




Final thoughts
The ASUS P5E3 Deluxe is a most impressive specimen, one of the most promising of the X38 chipset based boards I’ve seen to date.

The board layout and overall design were well thought out, keeping with ASUS’ stellar reputation, with no real tight areas on the board. The onboard cooling system is massive to say the least, and seems to provide more than adequate cooling given sufficient airflow over the sinks themselves.

If you are in the market for an X38 based board (or a DDR3 capable board for that matter), put this one on the short list. You won’t be disappointed at all.

Further testing will be carried out once this motherboard has had some vcore modds done and will then be put thought is paces on some LN2.

Link To asus site: http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572&l4=0&model=1875&modelmenu=1

bazx
06-12-2007, 09:31 PM
thanks paul

Thickbrit
06-12-2007, 09:50 PM
Nice one matey,did you get any more than 513 ?

sacha35
06-12-2007, 09:54 PM
Nice one matey,did you get any more than 513 ?


That was the max at the moment, as there are still a few small bugs within the beta bios, but all is looking very good for this motherboard as it has all the options of the Old dfi boards with exception to the Vcore, which was nice and refreshing to see from ASUS.

Dualist
06-12-2007, 09:54 PM
Nice looking mobo and chipset coolers, always like Asus boards but for me the vcore max at 1.7v is too light for my liking :D :waiting:

Zaltan
06-12-2007, 10:04 PM
BIOS options look nice... 2.7v for DDR3! And 800MHz FSB! Is clock for clock performance any better than 975X though? 4,1GHz on the box cooler, is nice.

Stocky
06-12-2007, 10:44 PM
An excellent write-up there. It's good to see the BIOS option shots too :)

vento1
07-12-2007, 06:20 AM
Nice review this will give me a good starting point as i have the plain P5E.:cool:

CyZMyAssBaby
08-12-2007, 06:48 PM
An excellent review and very informative.

Look forward to the Vmod update

scooter.jay
11-12-2007, 08:38 AM
just built a system for a friend (who has a lot more money than me) with drr3 1800mhz and e6850 and i must admit very impressed. The bios has more options than i could understand the ai tweaker menu is huge.:biggrin:

maverik-sg1
11-12-2007, 09:33 AM
Looks good and appears to suit the needs of an extreme overclocker.

Any vdroop? How does the actual voltages compare to those set in BIOS?

Mav's thoughts - The X38 boards are frickin expensive and multi gpu drivers are an issue - and this is the only resason why I would choose this board over an P35.

Also, I don't like the fact that multi GPU chipsets can only run one companies GPU's (in this case AMD/ATI).

Word of advise to manufacturuers that want to sell us two gpus (funnily we want to buy also) to go with our motherboards - make them universal, we can then choose what is best for our needs, don't make us choose like it is today, this will only kill our enthusiasm.

Case in point - I buy a brand new rig to be as fast as I can be, with a crsoosfire set of high end AMD cards, the following month I get a reasonable bonus and find out that nvidia SLI is the best GPU set-up to have, I dont want to have to fork out £800 for two graphics cards (in fact I think I'd be happier buying 2x£250 GPU's) and another £190 for a motherboard just to remain satisfied with teh components I just purchased.

We know it can be done, you guys just need to make it happen officially.

Stocky
11-12-2007, 11:17 AM
...you guys just need to make it happen officially.

or we'll do it unofficially with hacks :biggrin:

maverik-sg1
11-12-2007, 11:32 AM
or we'll do it unofficially with hacks :biggrin:

Of course we can do that - but its not really the answer, It's common knowledge that the best (read as easiest to set-up and most supported) multi GPU set-up currenlty is SLI and the best motehrboards out there are Intel based - however Intel chipsets align themselve to their arch nemesis AMD.


None of it makes sense - too many empire builders and not enough team effort.


It would not take much to do, they just have to do it.

scooter.jay
11-12-2007, 11:47 AM
It would be nice to see support for both but until we stop using money its not going to happen.:waiting:

r1ch
16-12-2007, 03:30 PM
Arrrgghhh!!! Mobo+Carpet!!! :no:

Looks like I'm getting similar overclocking potential on my P5K Deluxe (500-510 on the 8x multi, all the way up to 540 on the 6x). Still getting to know the board and getting used to DDR1200+ RAM :biggrin:

We're definitely spoilt with today's motherboards, especially Asus; It's just fantastic to boot stock, install windows, then run windows with 500FSB on the second boot - my jaw was on the table!

Nice review, thanks :)

Stocky
16-12-2007, 09:29 PM
Arrrgghhh!!! Mobo+Carpet!!! :no:

lol, I didn't notice that!

It's a really handy review, and would be great if we could have some more ;)