ASUS P5E3 Premium: One to Rule them All…
by Kris Boughton on February 20, 2008 12:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Initial Thoughts
As March approaches, the question on most enthusiasts' minds is going to be whether to go with Intel's next extreme performance desktop chipset, the X48, or NVIDIA's upcoming DDR3 chipset, the 790i. While it would be premature for us to answer this question, considering that NVIDIA has yet to send out samples for review, we can't help but be pleased by the performance increases we have seen recently with the X48 chipset. When properly paired with DDR3 memory, the X48 is capable of memory read and write speeds normally reserved for the likes of AMD with their on-die controller. All that remains is to see if NVIDIA can match these speeds and stability.
The ASUS P5E3 Premium BIOS already looks good - plus the board just works. We have exercised just about every possible combination of settings and options with a variety of hardware and have come up with no more than a few small concerns worth mentioning. Lately, ASUS has consistently led the pack when it comes to BIOS preparation, testing, and qualification, and it shows here as well. Look for "premium" performance from this truly impressive board when we pit it head-to-head next month against some of the latest X38 and X48 motherboard offerings. While we are respecting the wishes of Intel in not providing absolute benchmarks in a variety of applications, all we can say is that this board led all others overall. With the extra time afforded by the latest launch delay, we are completing further testing with our Wolfdale processors.
To be brutally honest about the current market situation, ASUS has almost entirely swept the field lately when it comes to producing high-performance motherboards based on the X38 or X48 chipset. We hope other companies like DFI, Foxconn, Gigabyte, or abit have an ace up their sleeves and are polishing the cannonball as much as they can before next month's X48 launch. If we had to speculate, we would attribute a lot of ASUS' recent success on their decision to listen - really listen - to what the typical overclocker wants to see in a motherboard. Here's to hoping they keep it up.
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ASUS has also worked hard to make owning a high-end X48 motherboard some what affordable. With an estimated retail price of around $299, there is a lot of value in the purchase of the P5E3 Premium for those looking at a high-end motherboard to use in the coming years. You get one of the best sounding audio solutions we have ever heard in an integrated chipset, plus built-in draft-N wireless connection with access point (AP) capabilities. Those two items alone account for at least $100 - provided you use them, naturally. We won't go so far as to call the P5E3 Premium inexpensive, because it's not. However, it provides an overall experience you just can't match with a $100 motherboard, and if you're planning to overclock a Penryn CPU you definitely don't want to skimp when it comes to motherboard quality. All you need to do now is wait for X48 boards to officially launch, which should thankfully occur within the next month (believe us, we are tired of the previews and constant retesting also).
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AllanLim - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
My bad...missed those.AllanLim - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
But I still maintain my position until retail samples show up...squito - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
I can still taste the RDRAM and i820 motherboards ...Orbs - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
The introduction to the article aludes to the fact that in the not-too-distant future, we may have to choose platforms at the expense of component choices such as graphics cards.I think that's already the case and has been for some time. If I want an Intel-based mobo, say goodbye to SLI. If I want SLI, I have to choose nVidia's chipset.
Unless Intel's next platform makes it impossible to choose any graphics card (not multi-card solution, but single-card) then it's no worse than what we have today.
That said, I think we would all welcome the ability to run any two (or three) add-in cards in SLI or CrossFire for graphics and/or physics on any motherboard. That would make it much easier to decide which components to buy as we could judge them on their individual merits and not on what limitations they impose on the rest of the system.
Cykoth - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
You know? This is all well and good....but Anandtech has never completed the review of the Asus Striker II Formula. Based upon the quick blog put out by them, and the feature set, I purchased one for my new build. I had NOTHING but trouble out of it. Even after BIOS updates, extra case fans, and finally an 18Inch fan stuck in the side of the case, it still wouldn't run stabily. I even had problems with the LAN adapters accepting dynamic IP's and therefore no gateway to the internet. Then, no response from ASUS tech support at all. I used to be a HUGE Asus fan....but I've RMA'ed that piece O' crap, and am waiting on my P35 chipset Gigabyte so I can have a system that doesn't REQUIRE water cooling to function.Really Anandtech.....will you EVER complete the Striker II Formula review? I'm interested to know how you got it to work.
Cyko
tmarques - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
The winbond chip is the SuperIO or hardware monitoring chip.The BIOS chip in ASUS new motherboards is, usually, a flash SPI chip, that sits next to the SPI debug connector.
The P5E3 Premium SPI BIOS chip and connector are next to the CMOS battery.
kjboughton - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
Yep, you're absolutely right. Confused the chip with something else. Thank you.RobinBee - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
I see these logos on AnandTech's pictures.These (ASUS) logos must be removed, before using a motherboard.
Does AnandTech test MBs without removing those logos?
If so, a MB's passive cooling is not optimal.
Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
The 'Ai Lifestyle' logo is glued onto the Southbridge heatsink block. Even if removed, there are no fins to take advantage of the airflow, other than the slightly reduced thermal resistance - no real gains in removal there.The blue Asus logo plate has a heatpipe passing thru it, via a hole on the left of the Nortbridge heatsink. Meaning one would have to break or cut it, to take it off the heatsink. Obviously, there would be some benefit to removal, but perhaps the benefits of an active warranty are better than 2-3 degrees of temp drop..
We tend only to remove things that are removable by design, in this case neither of those logo plates are designed to be removed.. Hence we have no issue chagning out thermal paste if we deem it necessary.
regards
supremelaw - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - link
Forgive me if this question reveals my ignoranceon this one point: I obviously need answers,
and still don't have answers ...
As someone who is responsible for keeping several
backup copies of a database up-to-date, I have
found that x4 PCI-Express lanes cause a lower
ceiling on the performance of RAID 0 storage
than x8 PCI-Express lanes in any given expansion
slot.
One of the reasons why we purchased the ASUS
P5W64 WS Professional, is the use of 4 x x16 slots
which can be assigned 8-8-4-8 PCI-Express lanes
(one option mentioned in the User Manual).
The better RAID controllers that we are considering
all require x8 PCI-Express lanes, instead of x4 lanes,
e.g. Areca, Highpoint, etc.
Someone is now going to recommend here that
we forego SLI or Crossfire and use one of the
x16 video slots for the RAID controller.
OK: I don't mind going without dual video cards,
because I don't need to live and work on the
bleeding edge of graphics technology.
BUT ... here's the rub: if you contact Tech Support
at the companies that manufacture RAID controllers,
they are typically unable to confirm if their x8 lane
controllers will work in x16 video slots.
"Try it and tell us what happens," they all say!
If that combination does NOT work, the RAID controller
must be inserted in the only remaining x16 slot,
which only gets x4 PCI-Express lanes, NOT x8!
That combination just proves that such motherboards
were the WRONG CHOICE from day one.
I thought that PCI-Express was designed to provide
greater speed for most peripheral subsystems,
NOT JUST graphics cards.
WHAT GIVES?
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library
http://www.supremelaw.org/">http://www.supremelaw.org/