ASUS P5K Deluxe

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: Butterbean
I liked thsi review over at [Hard]Forum:

"The Bottom Line

Don?t take this as ?anti-Intel,? it is just that the P965 chipset that I have in my own system right now is a great product and the P35 seems to be doing little to surpass it even if it is as good a product as the P965 is. The P35 is little more than a P965 with a DDR3 memory controller thrown into the mix that many of us are not going to give a damn about considering how much money we have tied up in DDR2 that performs as good as DDR3 if not better when overclocked. The P35 is currently for system integrators, not for computer enthusiasts.

If you roll your own systems and have rolled in the last year, it is highly likely that X38 will be the next Intel chipset offering to get your attention so save your pennies till then. Considering it will be months before you can affordably purchase DDR3, saving up will likely not be a problem'
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTM0MywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

That statement only makes sense when directed to P965 owners, such as myself, basically saying there is no reason to upgrade from P965 to P35 which is fine. It doesn't make sense to people who are considering upgrading from something older (Pentium, Athlon etc) to C2D/C2Q, why wouldn't you go P35 for an extra $20?

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: 1ManArmY
sounds good. I am trying to find out from ASUS the height/depth of those 2 copper pipes on the DLX board. NObody knows at this point.

The NB and Mosfet heatpipe coolers are 1.375 inches tall. The mosfet coolers are 1 inch away from the CPU socket. The NB cooler is 1.25 inches away at it's closest point from the CPU socket.

NB Cooler dimensions (1.375"T X 1.25"W X 1.5"D)
Mosfet Cooler w/ HP dimensions (1.375"T X 3.0"W X 0.5"D)
Mosfet Cooler HS only dimensions (1.375"T X 3.0"W X 0.625"D)

edit: added dimensions of each HS

 

[Zardnok]

A couple of random notes while I am doing this build...

The Mosfet coolers make tightening down my cooler (Titan Amanda TEC) difficult. Scuffed up my knuckles...

The memory is MUCH easier to swap out with the cooler mounted than it was on my DS3.

The black motherboard looks super sharp, but it shows fingerprints easily.

I had read reports elsewhere that there was a problem with all 8800 cards blocking two of the SATA ports, this is incorrect. An 8800gtX would likely block, but I can still plug in all of my SATA plugs with a gtS card installed.

There is a TON of fan headers on this board! I am not even going to worry with my Sunbeam Theta yet and just use the board headers. Once I make sure everything is as needed, I can add in my thermal probes and swap out TIM on the stock heatpipe cooling system.

 

[orion23]

So far, the easiest HSF that I have installed (and I've done many) is my Thermalright Ultra 120. It is such a beauty to work with.

The worst, has to be the Tuniq Tower 120 with those stupid THUMB screws. It's impossible to install a new CPU without taking the motherbard out (unless the case has a tray).


And about the 8800GTX and the SATA ports. Not all cards are equal. Some use a different housing or cooler. I have a reference desing card and it allows all 6 SATA ports to be used. With other cards (AS3) you might need to use the "Angle" SATA cables, if possible.

Originally posted by: Zardnok
A couple of random notes while I am doing this build...

The Mosfet coolers make tightening down my cooler (Titan Amanda TEC) difficult. Scuffed up my knuckles...

The memory is MUCH easier to swap out with the cooler mounted than it was on my DS3.

The black motherboard looks super sharp, but it shows fingerprints easily.

I had read reports elsewhere that there was a problem with all 8800 cards blocking two of the SATA ports, this is incorrect. An 8800gtX would likely block, but I can still plug in all of my SATA plugs with a gtS card installed.

There is a TON of fan headers on this board! I am not even going to worry with my Sunbeam Theta yet and just use the board headers. Once I make sure everything is as needed, I can add in my thermal probes and swap out TIM on the stock heatpipe cooling system.

 

[1ManArmY]

Originally posted by: Zardnok

Originally posted by: 1ManArmY
sounds good. I am trying to find out from ASUS the height/depth of those 2 copper pipes on the DLX board. NObody knows at this point.

The NB and Mosfet heatpipe coolers are 1.375 inches tall. The mosfet coolers are 1 inch away from the CPU socket. The NB cooler is 1.25 inches away at it's closest point from the CPU socket.

NB Cooler dimensions (1.375"T X 1.25"W X 1.5"D)
Mosfet Cooler w/ HP dimensions (1.375"T X 3.0"W X 0.5"D)
Mosfet Cooler HS only dimensions (1.375"T X 3.0"W X 0.625"D)

edit: added dimensions of each HS

Thanks for the measurements, should be up and running shortly. I will report back soon. I will have to keep an eye on the 8800 GPU problem as I plan to upgrade later when a DX10 worthy game comes out later this year.

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: orion23
And about the 8800GTX and the SATA ports. Not all cards are equal. Some use a different housing or cooler. I have a reference desing card and it allows all 6 SATA ports to be used. With other cards (AS3) you might need to use the "Angle" SATA cables, if possible.

For what it is worth, Asus did include some right angle SATA cables in the box that could be used if you have a GTX card.

Another thing I have discovered so far, do not download the drivers from Asus.com website; they are CORRUPTED. Use the driver CD that comes with the board. All versions are the same.

Also, eva2000 posted an updated 0304 bios in the first post of THIS THREAD . It is more stable than the 0307 bios floating around.

 

[gorka]

was about to get the DeLuxe when I realized the P5K-E was just listed on the Asus USA site. Hope its priced between the vanilla and the deluxe and out in a week.

...OK....maybe I'm expecting too much.

 

[bigsnyder]

Check out the P5K-WS. I have seen a lot of folks asking about PCI-X support.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Mansizetissue

Originally posted by: lopri
As far as motherboards are concerned, I'd wait at least 2~3 months after launch. NO MATTER WHO SAYS WHAT.

So if you had to buy a motherboard this week, you'd get something other than a P35 board?

If I had to, surely I'd avoid P35 like plague this week.

2~3 months from now, that's a different story.

 

[Mansizetissue]

Originally posted by: lopri
If I had to, surely I'd avoid P35 like plague this week.

Really? If you were me, and chosing between the eVGA 680i and ASUS P5K Deluxe, would you go for the former, then?

 

[gramboh]

What does the 680i board have that the P35 doesn't, besides SLI? So far people are reporting awesome OC's on the P5K-D/P5K3-D and it's a bit cheaper too. Also the NB doesn't run as hot from what I've read.

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: lopri

Originally posted by: Mansizetissue

Originally posted by: lopri
As far as motherboards are concerned, I'd wait at least 2~3 months after launch. NO MATTER WHO SAYS WHAT.

So if you had to buy a motherboard this week, you'd get something other than a P35 board?

If I had to, surely I'd avoid P35 like plague this week.

2~3 months from now, that's a different story.

I am glad I am not you. I love mine. So far with 15 minutes of bios tweaking and a tad more Vcore (1.45) and I am sitting at 3.6 with going on 10 hours Orthos stable. Temps are at 45 and 39 on the cores. I have a Panaflo 80mm L1 fan blowing across my RAM and NB and both are cool to the touch, not even warm!

Compared to the hours of tweaking on my DS3 to get 3.2 out of my old 6400 chip, I am happy!

Perhaps tonight I see if I can get up to 4.0!

 

[Mansizetissue]

Originally posted by: Zardnok
So far with 15 minutes of bios tweaking and a tad more Vcore (1.45) and I am sitting at 3.6 with going on 10 hours Orthos stable.

God, i can't wait until i get this board. I just don't want to miss out on SLI. By the time Crisis is out, and other games released this year and next, i'm probably going to want to buy another 8800GTX cheap and stick it in there. I hope i won't regret this.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Mansizetissue

Originally posted by: lopri
If I had to, surely I'd avoid P35 like plague this week.

Really? If you were me, and chosing between the eVGA 680i and ASUS P5K Deluxe, would you go for the former, then?

Not sure if you're asking this to make your own choice, but if so you're asking a wrong person. I've got a 680i board when it came out, and I hated it to death for a couple months, and abandoned it for quite a while, and got back to it after they fixed the things. Now it's working great and stability is to my expectation. I actually picked 680i over 975X (BadAxe 2). It's more configurable, and with a quad-core and lots of things heating up CPU socket area, I have a flexibility with PEG slots. For instance, I'm using a 8600 GT with a Q6600, and I put the 8600 GT in the bottom PEG slot. The performace loss is 1~2% but as a return I get a better air flow.

Current P35 is nice, but surely nicer boards will come out. If you do have to make a choice this week, go with the best judgment you can make with as much information possible. It'd greatly depend on your choice of CPU as well as other parts, too. Unless you're building just for overclocking.

 

[lopri]

My point is that these days, as far as motherboards are concerned, we can't expect a 'finished' and 'polished' product on launch. And they don't care, really. They just sell and expect us to deal with the bugs. ASUS is typically the worst, and they also do have a bad habit of coming out with a new product with minimal changes, instead of just revising the existing SKU. (Of course they do this to avoid potential RMAs) See how many boards with similar (same?) layout and features you'll find, if you search 'ASUS' + 'P96', or 'ASUS' + '975X'.

 

[Mansizetissue]

Thank you, lopri. I'm getting an E6600, which isn't likely to affect the decision of which board i get. I'm mainly concerned with memory compatibility with the finicky memory controller on the 680i boards. This is basically the only reason i'm getting the P35 board, that and it's likely to be more stable, being based on an Intel chipset, and allows me to upgrade to 45nm CPUs without an immediate motherboard upgrade.

 

[Mansizetissue]

Ignore; double post.

 

[orion23]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/UNO.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/DOS.jpg

 

[1ManArmY]

Originally posted by: Zardnok

Originally posted by: lopri

Originally posted by: Mansizetissue

Originally posted by: lopri
As far as motherboards are concerned, I'd wait at least 2~3 months after launch. NO MATTER WHO SAYS WHAT.

So if you had to buy a motherboard this week, you'd get something other than a P35 board?

If I had to, surely I'd avoid P35 like plague this week.

2~3 months from now, that's a different story.

I am glad I am not you. I love mine. So far with 15 minutes of bios tweaking and a tad more Vcore (1.45) and I am sitting at 3.6 with going on 10 hours Orthos stable. Temps are at 45 and 39 on the cores. I have a Panaflo 80mm L1 fan blowing across my RAM and NB and both are cool to the touch, not even warm!

Compared to the hours of tweaking on my DS3 to get 3.2 out of my old 6400 chip, I am happy!

Perhaps tonight I see if I can get up to 4.0!

Whats the difference between bios 0123 vs 0304?

 

[1ManArmY]

Originally posted by: orion23
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/UNO.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/orion23/DOS.jpg

nice photos Orion23!
What is the make and model of your keyboard and mouse set-up? I saw your additional photos over on xtremesystems.org.

Should I be running bios 0304?, still at 0123. What's the difference?

 

[lopri]

That's a beautiful cabling job there.

 

[orion23]

Originally posted by: 1ManArmY


nice photos Orion23!
What is the make and model of your keyboard and mouse set-up? I saw your additional photos over on xtremesystems.org.

Should I be running bios 0304?, still at 0123. What's the difference?

The keyboard combo is the Logitech MX-3100 set. (it uses an MX-1000 laser mouse)

I don't know about the bios. I upgraded to 0304 after rebooting (didn't even have to format mine or my brother's... Vista Ultimate / XM MCE)

 

[1ManArmY]

Originally posted by: orion23

Originally posted by: 1ManArmY


nice photos Orion23!
What is the make and model of your keyboard and mouse set-up? I saw your additional photos over on xtremesystems.org.

Should I be running bios 0304?, still at 0123. What's the difference?

The keyboard combo is the Logitech MX-3100 set. (it uses an MX-1000 laser mouse)

I don't know about the bios. I upgraded to 0304 after rebooting (didn't even have to format mine or my brother's... Vista Ultimate / XM MCE)

where did you get it?

 

[1ManArmY]

anybody home? what's the difference between bios version 0123 vs 0304?

 

[Zardnok]

Originally posted by: 1ManArmY
anybody home? what's the difference between bios version 0123 vs 0304?

I do not know the difference in the two. I did some reading around the web and most folks getting decent clocks were using the 0304 bios, so I decided to go ahead and updateee. The 0307 bios is buggy according to some things I have read, so I will wait for a better update before I change.

As for where to get the 0304 bios, I posted a link in one of my earlier posts in this thread to the XSForums thread with a bios link imbedded.