Asus P5E Living Review

[k3vst3r]

As some of you may know my last motherboard died . So today i start off with a new motherboard from Asus based on the Maximus Formula, basically same board layout just few things missing mainly the Voltiminder LED, LCD Poster. Other than that the Asus P5E incorporates intel X38 chipset twin PCI-E slots rated at 16x for Crossfire action.

0502 Bios Settings 3.6Ghz E6600 Dual Core Raid Enabled For use with USB Pen drives or floppy.
Asus Download page
Fixing Vdroop Problem
Bios Settings Explained

Full Specifications below
CPU Intel Socket 775 Core™2 Quad/Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Duo/Pentium® Extreme/Pentium® D/Pentium® 4/ Processors
Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors
Support Intel® next generation 45nm CPU

Chipset Intel X38
Intel ICH9R
Intel Fast Memory Access Technology

Front Side Bus 1600/1333/1066/800/ MHz
Memory 4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667/ Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
*DDR2 1200 is O.C. speed
*Refer to ASUSTeK Computer or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts).
Expansion Slots 2 x PCIe x16 (both @ x16 mode) supports CrossFire Technology
3 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI

Storage Southbridge
1 xUltraDMA
6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports
Support RAID 0,1,5,10,
JMicron® PATA and SATA controller
1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66/ up to 2 PATA devices

LAN Marvell88E8056® PCIe Gigabit/ LAN controller featuring AI NET2
Audio SupremeFX II Audio Card
ADI® AD1988B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports
ASUS Noise Filter
Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming
AI Audio 2

IEEE 1394 VIA VT6308P controller supports 2 x 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel)
USB 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6ports at back panel)
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features ASUS Power Saving Solution
- ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
- ASUS 3rd Generation 8-phase Power
- ASUS AI Nap
ASUS AI Lifestyle
- ASUS AI Direct Link
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution
- ASUS Fanless Design: Pure Copper Heat-pipe solution
- ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
- ASUS Q-Fan 2 - ASUS Optional Fan for Water-cooling or Passive-Cooling only

ASUS EZ DIY
- ASUS Q-Connector
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2

Special Features Multi-language BIOS
ASUS MyLogo 3

Overclocking Features Intelligent overclocking tools
- ASUS AI Booster Utility
- 2-Phase DDR2
Precision Tweaker 2
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
- vChipset (N.B.) 25-step voltage control
- vFSB Termination: 15-step voltage control
- vCPU PLL: 64-step voltage control
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 800MHz at 1MHz increment
- Memory tuning from 667MHz up to 3200MHz
- PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 150MHz at 1MHz increment
Overclocking Protection
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x S/PDIF Out
1 x IEEE 1394a
1 x LAN(RJ45) port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1
8 -Channel Audio I/O

Internal I/O Connectors 3 x USB connectors
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
2 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
2 x4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
24-pin -pin ATX Power connector
Front panel audio connector
Chassis Intrusion connector
CD/AUX audio in
System Panel Connector

BIOS 16 Mb Flash ROM
Multi-language BIOS
DMI 2.0
AMI BIOS
PnP
WfM 2.0
SM BIOS 2.3
ACPI 2.0a
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
Manageability WfM 2.0,DMI 2.0,WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE,
Accessories User's manual
USB2.0 module
x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cables
x Floppy disk drive cables
x SATA cables
SATA power cables
3 in 1 Q-connector
ASUS Q-shield
1 x Optional Fan for Water-Cooling or Passive-Cooling only
SupremeFX II Audio card
Support Disc Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS AI Suite
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
ASUS Update
Image-Editing Suite

Form Factor ATX Form Factor
12 inch x9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x24.4 cm )

P5E Box Nice & Black Pretty Cool looking in my opinion


Another Pic of the Box this one showing off features


Box showing off the EPU, Friends Unite to save the planet


This board is just full of marketing but don't we just love it


Motherboard contents must say theirs alot with this board, nice to see 6 full amount of sata cables


Nice little inclusion for watercooling/passive users they give you a nice little fan to use on the cooling system


Very impressive showing from Asus

[k3vst3r]

Opens the box to find this lovely looking anti static bag


Quick pic of the back panel 6usb and lan port pretty much standard these days


Board is so heavy thanks to this heatpipe cooling system


The 8pin power connector with black cap so only 4pin show


The Southbridge nice and small looks so cute, also the cmos switch is visible for resetting the board


The EPU so small good job they labelled it


Cpu socket nice and clean big heatsinks should fit nicely


Board Rev 1.03G

[k3vst3r]

Good Points
Installation is a breeze
Loads of Bios options
Nice bundle of cables,accessories
Vdroop pretty easy to fix with pencil (See 1st Post for link)
Board does 530 FSB will update as i push higher


The Ugly
Vdroop issues
Memory slightly overvolts DMM reading says 0.07v to 0.08v over bios setting
Cmos switch is located badly use of dual cooling solution on graphics card blocks the switch from easy access
I found board sometimes takes a while to recovery from bad overclock
Picky over ram used

[k3vst3r]

Main Bios Page 1


Main Bios Page 2


Main Bios Page 3


Ai Tweaker Page 1


Ai Tweaker Page 2

[k3vst3r]

reserved....

[GSte]

So it's a switch rather than a jumper? Can't understand why ASUS place them where they do, most enthusiasts will have a double slot cooler GFX card I would have thought. Nice review so far mate, looking forward to seeing what you can get out of the E6600... what is your max OC with it on other boards?

[Colossous]

Sweet - got me one of these on the way with some Cell Shock 1800mhz next week !

[death]

looking good m8 nice work hope we see some good overclocking m8

[k3vst3r]

It's great overclocking board main problem at minute down to single channel again due to my crucial ballistix bricking it again...would seem memory is holding me back with this board, RMA is under way for the memory.

To answer some other posts Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R E6600 maximum was around 3.9Ghz to a one off 4019Mhz superpi 1m run clocking in at 12.7s for 1M

So far i've hit 4050Mhz with this board feeling memory is causing problems, memory controller is so much better on this board too.

[GSte]

4050 on air or water?