ASUS P5E3 Deluxe: X38 and DDR3 arrives... almost
by Gary Key on September 18, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe: Board Layout and Features
ASUS has designed a board that reminds us of cars from yesteryear: large, solid, and seemingly engineered as if it's a tank ready for the front lines. The board easily installs into a variety of cases from Antec and Cooler Master. The majority of connections are easily reached within a full size ATX case. The board features an eight-phase voltage regulator system that contributes to the excellent stability we experienced throughout testing. The P5E3 Deluxe uses 100% Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors. ASUS installs a total of six fan headers (1 x 4-pin, 5 x 3-pin) which is an excellent decision in our opinion. The CPU and four of the five system fan headers can be controlled via the BIOS and the ASUS AI Suite program within Windows.
Around the CPU socket area, we find an ample amount of room for the majority of cooling solutions. We utilize the stock heatsink/fan in our base testing but also verify the ability to install several aftermarket socket 775 cooling solutions such as the Tuniq 120 and Thermalright Ultra-120 during our overclocking tests. The 8-pin EPS12V power connector is located on the edge of the board behind the PS/2 keyboard port and does not interfere with our various cooling units. However, based upon our preliminary overclocking tests, if a vertical mounted fan in an air cooling unit such as the Tuniq 120 or water cooling is utilized then additional cooling will be required on the MCH and PWM areas.
The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup based upon the premise of installing DIMMs in the same colored slots for dual-channel operation. The black and orange slot colors (Ed: Happy Halloween?) look out of place on this board, but then again we do not express any love for several board manufacturers who tend to use the entire Crayola color palette on their boards. Installing memory modules will be a slightly difficult affair with a full size video card placed in the first PCI-E x16 slot.
The 24-pin ATX power connector is properly located on the edge of the board along with the floppy drive connector. The CPU fan header is located on the far right edge of the board and works well with our test fans. Two additional fan headers are located on either side of the floppy and power connectors.
The positioning of the six red ICH9R SATA ports is excellent when utilizing the expansion slots. The ICH9R chipset is passively cooled and remained fairly cool to the touch throughout testing... well, at least until we installed our CrossFire setup and then it became quite toasty to the touch. The IDE connector is at a right angle next to the SATA ports and generally is easy to reach in our case. The chassis panel is located on the bottom left edge of the board along with the number three fan header. Right above those two items is a green LED power-on indicator, the battery, and the number four fan header. The two blue connectors are for the additional USB ports and the red connector is for the extra IEEE-1394 connector.
The board comes with three physical PCI-E x16 connectors (2 x16, 1 x8 electrical), two PCI-E x1 connectors, and two PCI 2.2 connectors. The second PCI-E x1 and PCI slots will be blocked by dual slot graphics cards. Several cards we tried in the first PCI-E x1 slot were a very tight fit if a full size card was used in the first PCI slot. Due to the location of the two x16 capable PCI-E slots, there is not much room for custom cooling solutions on the video cards. ASUS has informed us the Republic of Gamers board will have a different layout that will be conducive to custom cooling solutions. We also tried a TriFire setup on this board (three HD 2900 XT cards), but we did not have proper driver support for that to work at present - although we expect it soon.
The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 keyboard port along with several other connectors. The panel also includes dual RJ-45 LAN ports with activity indicator lights, six USB ports, and optical/coaxial S/PDIF out ports. The audio panel consists of six ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections for the ADI 1988B HD codec. The board contains an 802.11n specification WiFi card that worked flawlessly with several different Draft N routers. Finally, there are two eSATA ports along with an IEEE-1394 port which completes a back panel that pretty much covers a wide array of options designed with the home user in mind.
ASUS will utilize the ICS 9LPRS918HKL clock control chipset on this board.
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| Click to enlarge |
ASUS has designed a board that reminds us of cars from yesteryear: large, solid, and seemingly engineered as if it's a tank ready for the front lines. The board easily installs into a variety of cases from Antec and Cooler Master. The majority of connections are easily reached within a full size ATX case. The board features an eight-phase voltage regulator system that contributes to the excellent stability we experienced throughout testing. The P5E3 Deluxe uses 100% Conductive Polymer Aluminum Solid Capacitors. ASUS installs a total of six fan headers (1 x 4-pin, 5 x 3-pin) which is an excellent decision in our opinion. The CPU and four of the five system fan headers can be controlled via the BIOS and the ASUS AI Suite program within Windows.
Around the CPU socket area, we find an ample amount of room for the majority of cooling solutions. We utilize the stock heatsink/fan in our base testing but also verify the ability to install several aftermarket socket 775 cooling solutions such as the Tuniq 120 and Thermalright Ultra-120 during our overclocking tests. The 8-pin EPS12V power connector is located on the edge of the board behind the PS/2 keyboard port and does not interfere with our various cooling units. However, based upon our preliminary overclocking tests, if a vertical mounted fan in an air cooling unit such as the Tuniq 120 or water cooling is utilized then additional cooling will be required on the MCH and PWM areas.
The DIMM module slots' color coordination is correct for dual channel setup based upon the premise of installing DIMMs in the same colored slots for dual-channel operation. The black and orange slot colors (Ed: Happy Halloween?) look out of place on this board, but then again we do not express any love for several board manufacturers who tend to use the entire Crayola color palette on their boards. Installing memory modules will be a slightly difficult affair with a full size video card placed in the first PCI-E x16 slot.
The 24-pin ATX power connector is properly located on the edge of the board along with the floppy drive connector. The CPU fan header is located on the far right edge of the board and works well with our test fans. Two additional fan headers are located on either side of the floppy and power connectors.
The positioning of the six red ICH9R SATA ports is excellent when utilizing the expansion slots. The ICH9R chipset is passively cooled and remained fairly cool to the touch throughout testing... well, at least until we installed our CrossFire setup and then it became quite toasty to the touch. The IDE connector is at a right angle next to the SATA ports and generally is easy to reach in our case. The chassis panel is located on the bottom left edge of the board along with the number three fan header. Right above those two items is a green LED power-on indicator, the battery, and the number four fan header. The two blue connectors are for the additional USB ports and the red connector is for the extra IEEE-1394 connector.
The board comes with three physical PCI-E x16 connectors (2 x16, 1 x8 electrical), two PCI-E x1 connectors, and two PCI 2.2 connectors. The second PCI-E x1 and PCI slots will be blocked by dual slot graphics cards. Several cards we tried in the first PCI-E x1 slot were a very tight fit if a full size card was used in the first PCI slot. Due to the location of the two x16 capable PCI-E slots, there is not much room for custom cooling solutions on the video cards. ASUS has informed us the Republic of Gamers board will have a different layout that will be conducive to custom cooling solutions. We also tried a TriFire setup on this board (three HD 2900 XT cards), but we did not have proper driver support for that to work at present - although we expect it soon.
The rear panel contains the standard PS/2 keyboard port along with several other connectors. The panel also includes dual RJ-45 LAN ports with activity indicator lights, six USB ports, and optical/coaxial S/PDIF out ports. The audio panel consists of six ports that can be configured for 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel audio connections for the ADI 1988B HD codec. The board contains an 802.11n specification WiFi card that worked flawlessly with several different Draft N routers. Finally, there are two eSATA ports along with an IEEE-1394 port which completes a back panel that pretty much covers a wide array of options designed with the home user in mind.
ASUS will utilize the ICS 9LPRS918HKL clock control chipset on this board.
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Gary Key - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - link
It is scheduled in late October now. However, we do have the NV MCP73 launching next week and it looks like a very interesting part at this time. The big issue with G35 at this time is the driver situation. Intel is just now getting the G965 operating correctly under XP and the latest Vista drivers are still a joke. We were hoping to have a G35 preview with the G33 roundup and MCP73 release next week but that has been called off until drivers are in better shape.
SunAngel - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
What are you referring too? The Hardware and Lighting. It was out last month. We have to wait until SP1 for microsoft to fix some issues. Other than that, the G965 drivers are operating flawlessly.
Gary Key - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
Actually, the beta drivers and the first 14.31 release still had issues with Vertex Shaders along with HW Lighting hiccups. 14.31.1 has corrected about 98% of the problems under XP and there should be a follow-up release shortly to correct corruption issues in BF2 terrain along with flashing in several games and hopefully Alpha Blend, Tiled Alpha, and Tiled4 Alpha blends will work correctly 100% of the time. However, under Vista with the 15.6 drivers, there are still numerous problems from HDMI not working to OpenGL failing to Hardware Lighting not working at all in many cases.SunAngel - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - link
Add another who is dying for the G35, although it doesn't add much over G965 other and DX10 and port multipliers.This X35 board is hot. Look at all that connectivity on the back panel. If I were not in bed with Intel Viiv at the moment, this would be the board for me. I know never to expect something like this from Intel, but it would be nice if Asus made this G35 board a Digital Home board supporting Viiv.
I'm also going to be sorely disappointed if G35 don't come in DDR2 flavor. I refuse to blow my 4GB of DDR2 800 on a slight chipset revision. But then again, to me upgrading has lost its aura. It used to be fun witnessing speed increasing, but it seems of the late increase are getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - link
Warcraft III can be played with the earlier IGP with 1600x1200 full. I reach frame rate limits of 60 fps with my E6600+G965 combo as it fluctuates between 59-60. G35 is supposed to be coming in October, it doesn't seem like its coming soon looking at the lack of news updates.Old strategy game playability is not impressive when it wasn't the most demanding one back 3-4 years ago, even on an IGP. Playbility on the later games like BF2/Supreme Commander is impressive. We'll see how much better G35 is over G965.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - link
G35 has been pushed out several times already, just like X38. Currently it's scheduled for release in October. (Originally, it was supposed to be out a lot closer to the P35 launch.)Gary Key - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
As of today, X38 has been moved to October 11th. G35 will probably go to November and to top it off, the DX10 capable drivers will be sometime next year.Nickel020 - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
Does this mean you can't publish full reviews as planned on the 24th?Gary Key - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - link
Working with Intel on that question right now.....GeorgeP.gr - Thursday, March 25, 2021 - link
Is there any way to use the sdd Toshiba OCZ TR20240G01 with this motherboard (REV.1.02G No deluxe No pro) ?