Review: Asus P5Q Deluxe and Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n

Today’s review is brought to you under the motto:

We have seen the capabilities of the new Intel P45 Express Chipset. Asus introduced its P5Q Series almost instantaneously. In fact, Asus was the first one to implement the Intel P45 Chipset.

Moreover, since the P45 chipset has its Northbridge and Southbridge shrunk to 65nm, Asus went one-step ahead… leap… one leap ahead and attempted to redefine Captain Planet. This board even though claims ultimate overclocking also claims ultimate efficiency. In addition, we all know very well you cannot have ultimate overclocking and ultimate efficiency at the same time.

From my usage experience, there is a bit of hype surrounding these boards. Nevertheless, since the P5Q series was the first one on the scene, I guess it was fair to boast a bit. What Asus has done here is that not only Asus was the first one to launch a whole series based on only the P45 chipset, but also launched their next generation EPU: The Six Engine EPU. This certainly creates the climax right here!

Since this is a review of both motherboards, I will just post the whole-series-in-a-nut-shell here:

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Visuals

This has to be the oddest packing I have seen done by Asus. At first sight, the P5Q Series package seemed very girly. However, it was nice to see a change in the color scheme as there was simply too much black in the recent motherboard line-up from Asus. The deep-blue package is very sturdy and with its flip open, reveals all the good stuff about these boards.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - Box Shot

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Box Shot

Once opened, you will see everything nicely and tightly packed in both boxes. The P5Q Deluxe has a bit harshly packing for all the accessories and the motherboard itself. The P5Q3 Deluxe on the other hand has a smaller accessory box inside it and hence it is neatly packed.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - Box Shot

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Box Shot

Board Design

All the motherboards in the P5Q series are almost similar at first sight. Upon closer look, one can differentiate among them. Asus did some re-engineering in the design department here as these motherboards seem more like new design testing templates rather than mature motherboards like the P5E and P5K series. Most of this design testing is positive but there are some hiccups too. We will go through all of them now.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - Board Shot

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Board Shot

The CPU area is not very crowded this time around. Almost any cooling solution will fit without causing much fuss. In fact, the heatsinks are quite basic and slim on both the P5Q Deluxe and P5Q3 Deluxe. The usual heat pipe runs between the Northbridge and Southbridge and terminates around the CPU for heat dissipation. You will need a good rear casing fan for proper heat dispatching.

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - CPU Area Shot

Clean and simple is the key focus for P5Q Deluxe and P5Q3 Deluxe… or is it? Seems a part of the motherboard surface is built with great care but there are some mistakes too. However, overall, P5Q Deluxe and P5Q3 Deluxe represent the finest in quality build.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - A great common layout

For the juice: Primary and auxiliary power plugs are located along the edges of the board. The 24-Pin connector is at the usual spot along the floppy connector and the 8-Pin power connector is located at the upper left corner. Such placement reduces the cable havoc for the CPU cooler especially if it is a huge one. If your PSU sit on the bottom of the case instead of the usual spot, you might have a problem as the power cable from the PSU will be flying over the whole system and might be a bit stretched while at it.

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - 8-Pin Power Connector Shot

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - 24-Pin Power Connector Shot

ASUStek’s trademark 8-phase design has been replaced by a newer next generation 16-Phase design. There is a bit of contradiction here as many claim that underneath the 16-Phase design sticker is the same 8-Phase design. Only testing will reveal if it is actually doing something new or not.

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - 16 Phase Design

Instead of the ICH9R we love so much, there is now an ICH10R south bridge. It is 65nm fabrication instead of the usual 90nm so it is more power friendly and produces less heat. The six regular SATA ports working at 300MB/s are arranged in a weird manner this time. Instead of the very successful side-faced two by six SATA stack, P5Q/P5Q3 Deluxe engineers placed the SATA ports more like a comprise while trying to get out of the GFX card’s way. Even then, they failed to protect the sixth port. It might be is an issue when trying to use that port if there is a big GFX Card sitting in the primary PCIe slot.

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - SATA Ports

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - SATA Ports - The sixth one

The Intel ICH10R does not support old PATA interface anymore. Asus used the PATA interface from Marvell. There is a Silicon Image chip present here too. So, what does that mean? Well, let us look at the storage section from the features list. Both P5Q Deluxe and P5Q3 Deluxe share the storage specifications:

• 1 channel ATA/133 via Marvell 88SE6121
• 6 channels 300MB/s Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1, 10, 5 support
• 2 channels 300MB/s Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1 support via Silicon Image SiI 5723

So many SATA ports… and all of them can be a part of a RAID(s)! Furthermore, the Silicon Image Chip does a hardware management of RAID created under Silicon RAID Management and you will not need any kind of floppy with driver to access/use such RAID hard drives. They will be visible as simple ATA devices without any drivers loaded.

Next, we run the Expansion Slots and to begin, following is the configuration:

• PCI-E x1
• PCI
• PCI-E x16
• PCI-E x1
• PCI
• PCI-E x16
• PCI-E x16

These new breed of motherboards with PCIe slots get a lot of mouth-bash. Reason being that there are not many old PCI slot left for all that hardware we already own. In addition, with three PCIe slots, most of us have just one GFX card and no other next-gen hardware to fit there.

Therefore, there are three PCIe slot and that mean should one wants to, he/she can have a CrossFire Triple play. No. The black PCIe slots pair is just too close to each other. One can only enjoy two ATI cards at maximum.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - Expansion Slots

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Expansion Slots

Another design fault I spotted here was the presence of two very annoying capacitors in front of the primary PCIe slot. Who placed them there? What was he thinking? My Asus EN7600GT Silent/2DHT/256M card DID NOT fit because of these two capacitors! In addition, I believe all 7XXX series cards with dual DVI output will not fit in the primary PCIe slot.

The DIMM slots as always have their channels color-coded. There is no restriction on the memory size so two modules in dual channel configuration will work even if one is of 1GB and the other 512MB. The DDR3 DIMM slots of P5Q3 Deluxe are colored Orange-Black and P5Q Deluxe Yellow-Black.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - DDR2 DIMMs

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - DDR3 DIMMs

Let turn out attention to the Back Panel now. We find the following common I/O ports configuration in both Asus P5Q Deluxe and Asus P5Q3 Deluxe:

• PS2 Keyboard+Mouse Port
• 6 x USB ports
• SPDIF Coaxial (out)
• SPDIF Optical
• Dual GB LAN
• Firewire
• External SATA
• On-board audio Input and Outputs

Asus P5Q Deluxe - Back Panel

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Back Panel

In the P5Q3 Deluxe, you can see the two Wi-Fi ports as well. The back panel provides direct connectivity to six USB ports and one Fire-wire port. There are two Gigabit LAN controllers and they both feature the AI NET 2 Supports Teaming Technology. Take a good look at that PS2 Port. Asus has created a combo PS2 port this time. You can use either a PS2 mouse or a PS2 Keyboard instead of just a Purple PS2 Keyboard support we see nowadays. Therefore, if you have a good PS2 mouse you can use it through this port with a USB keyboard.

Another innovation you will find welcomed warmly is the continuation of including the Power and Reset buttons. I thought these two buttons were reserved for the elite ROG boards but Asus was almost generous to have them included on the P5Q series.

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Power and Reset Buttons

Moreover, let us not forget the new and improved EPU that is the main feature of this series. “The new ASUS EPU - the world´s first power saving engine, has been upgraded to a new 6 engine version, which provides total system power savings by detecting current PC loadings and intelligently moderating power in real-time. With auto phase switching for components (which includes the CPU, VGA card, memory, chipset, hard drives and CPU cooler/system fans), the EPU automatically provides the most appropriate power usage via intelligent acceleration and overclocking - helping save power and money”, said Asus. You can watch a cool movie showing some interesting facts about EPU and environment.

Asus P5Q Deluxe - EPU - Energy Processing Unit

Asus Six Engine EPU - Main Control

Asus Six Engine EPU - Rating

Probably the one of the best feature present on both P5Q Deluxe and P5Q3 Deluxe is the ASUS Express Gate SSD. An on-board chip holds a Linux OS with very basic features Internet Browser, Picture Viewer, All-in-One Chat Client, Skype, and a basic file browser with CD/DVD/USB drive support. Once you power up these two boards, the first thing you encounter is the Express Gate screen for 10 seconds. If you select any of the four icons, you will be in the Linux OS within 5 seconds.

Asus Express Gate - The Screen

Asus Express Gate - The Chip

One last thing I want to go over is the BIOS. Asus has so many tweaks unlocked that it is impossible to cover all. Half of them are relatively new to me! Here are screen from the main page of interest: AI Tweaker and I have set everything to max to show the limitless limits.

BIOS - AI Tweaker Page

BIOS - AI Tweaker Page (continued…)

BIOS - AI Tweaker Page (continued…)

BIOS - AI Tweaker Page (continued…)

You must take into account that to unlock such voltages for the Northbridge and Southbridge, I have to short two jumpers on-board or else the BIOS will not allow red voltages. Of course, these setting were never saved or applied. I just want to show the maximum potential here. I do overclocking but most settings are set Auto. These small increments for voltages and complete control on almost every aspect is for the professional overclock as they will keep him engaged and allow fine tunings to his heart desire. Asus comes clean first when it comes to the BIOS.

The P5Q Series is not focused on accessories and goodies. In fact, most of the stuff supplied is more of a necessity rather than an accessory.

The common stuff:

• ASUS Optional Fan
• ASUS Q-Connector Kit
• UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
• Floppy disk drive cable
• 8 x SATA cables
• 2 x 2-Port-SATA power cables
• 2-port USB2.0 module + One IEEE1394a module (Expansion Slot)
• I/O Shield
• User’s manual
• Driver DVD

The P5Q3 Deluxe contains a pair of WiFi-AP @n antenna Omni-directional antennae as it has a pair of Wi-Fi built on-board. In addition, you will find ASUS WiFi-AP @n manual to complete the combo.

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Asus P5Q Deluxe - Accessories

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Elegantly Packed Accessories

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Asus P5Q3 Deluxe - Accessories

Test Bed

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Memory DDR3: Samsung PC3-8500U 1GB DDR3 RAM x 2
Memory DDR2: Kingston KVR 1GB DDR2 RAM x 2

Motherboard: Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n (DVD Drivers + BIOS updated to 0704)
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe (DVD Drivers + BIOS updated to 0803)

Graphic Card: ASUS EAX1900

Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition SP1
Direct X: DirectX 9
Catalyst: v8.7 Beta

Overclocking:
I changed my overclocking methods here and started by dropping the CPU multiplier to 6X. I had to drop the memory bus speed so that DIMMs operate within the limits. Now, all there that was left to do was to move the FSB slider up and up.

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe reached the sparkling 500 MHz FSB barrier with all-Auto. I do not really know for sure if I could get more out of it. Any further attempt was hindered as the Northbridge started to hit 52 °C and I was not happy with it. I had to apply external cooling and my aim was to counter the Asus P5K’s “500 MHz FSB with great ease” record set earlier in its review and I did.

CPU-Z v1.45 – Asus P5Q3 Deluxe

On the Asus P5Q Deluxe, I could get into windows @ 518 MHz FSB but the system froze or re-booted a lot. The external cooling or more voltages to the NB did not help. I moved back to the perfect 500 MHz FSB.

CPU-Z v1.45 – Asus P5Q Deluxe

So, what was this excursive then? Simple, I am not going to overclock during the upcoming testing. I just wanted to show that the potential is there: Being able to reach 500 MHz FSB without tweaking voltages and still staying at default every day cooling is indeed a great achievement. Something that the Blitz and Maximus could not achieve!

These Asus P5Qs support a feature called Memory OC Charger. Asus says that Memory OC Charger improve DRAM signal quality to enable higher memory bus speeds. Both DIMMs types (DDR2 and DDR3) I am using for the review are not on the compatibility list from Asus so I am not going to mess with the memory. However, while poking around on the net, I have seen people (and by people I mean professional companies/websites who have reviewed either of these boards) claiming to see very impressive memory overclocking capabilities. For example, DDR3 DIMMs operate at/up to 1600 MHz, but Asus P5Q3 Deluxe managed a massive 1840 MHz. Similarly, DDR2 DIMMs are usually rated at ~1111 MHz but Asus P5Q Deluxe took that limit to 1200 MHz. I wish I could verify all that but none of the boards I have reviewed before could achieve all of this unless there is a liquid cooling, Aux fan, or divine intervention.

And now, we do a quick benchmark against whatever I have at hand.

CPU-Z Latency

The latency rundown - Lower is better!

Memory Bandwidth - SiSoft Sandra

The memory bandwidth - Higher is better!

The memory results are not very promising. The P5Q pair is lagging when it comes to memory performance and latency.

Now, I’m going to use WorldBench on these motherboard to broaden the spectrum.

WorldBench is an applications-based benchmark that automatically installs a series of programs on your computer and then runs various tests to see how those apps perform on your system. The individual times for each test are used to create a composite score that indicates your system’s overall performance relative to other systems that have also run WorldBench. –PC World Test Center

WorldBench

These are satisfying numbers. The P5Q pair is going head-on against bigger beasts here.

Let us shift towards a few good games:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Crysis

Hellgate: London

World In Conflict

The real potential of the Asus P5Q Deluxe and Asus P5Q3 Deluxe can be clearly seen during the game testing and WorldBench. Even though they took some hammering when only memory related tests were run but the P5Qs managed to overcome all that smoothly in the practical sector.

Now all that remains to be checked is the EPU power saving claims and fot that, i had to go a little old-school. I sliced open the power cord and used a needle clamp meter to measure AMPs. During this test the voltage I was getting was 216 Volts and here are my findings:

Power Consumption: Idle

Power Consumption: Load

Turning the EPU On or Off is not going to make any difference as this performance by the 6-Engine EPU was disappointing. With that said, I must add that though EPU did not performed as excepted, the 16 Phase power design was actually doing a lot better! The CPU area was relatively cooler. And even when overclocked, the power consumption for CPU was far lesser then that of the Asus Maximus or P5K/P5E.

To be honest, there is nothing hardcore about these two boards. However, with massive overclocking capability, cooler and power saving 65nm bridges… this is how the Intel P45 was meant to be implemented.

The Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n particularly is the most feature packed of the whole series. The Express Gate is an extremely welcomed feature and makes the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n and Asus P5Q Deluxe very rare.

At the same time, both these boards have issues in the memory department. But they still managed to pull it off against other however, if they performed well in memory section too, there is no telling what big positive step could be taken in the benchmark section. The 6 Engine EPU was a bit disappointing. EPU is also dragging the overclocking potential as I believe it was one of the reason I couldn’t go beyond 500 MHz and I know this board can co the distance.

If you want an upgrade and cannot go for the extreme motherboards, this P5Q series is the board for you. I’m really happy with what Asus has achieved here. The Asus P5Q Deluxe is going to cost around 14,800 PKR while the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n will be tagged at 16,300 PKR. Of course there will be cheaper variants available but the killer features easily justify the seemingly hefty price tag.

Scorecard

Performance: 9.3/10
Stability: 9.5/10
Innovation: 8.5/10

Overall: 9.1/10

The Asus P5Q Deluxe and Asus P5Q3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP @n receives the WCCFTech Extreme Performance Award

The Asus P5Q Deluxe also get the rare WCCFTech Best Bang for the Buck

I would like to thank Asus for providing us with the motherboards on behalf of WCCFTech (Pvt.) Ltd.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.