Hello all!
Just wanted to chime in and let those interested know about my initial impressions with Asus' newest mATX board. I had switched to a desktop LAN-box as my main PC ever since March now. Initially, I had been using EVGA's 630i/7150 mATX board with an E6600 Conroe quite happily. But, after going out and buying a Q9450, I found out that the 600-series chipsets from nVidia do not support the Yorkfield family processors. Doh!! So, in searching for a mATX board that can run my un-used CPU, I came back to Asus (my old favorite!) and their newest board, the PQ5-EM.
First off, this is one great little board spec-wise: Four DDR2-800 slots (supports up to 16 Gigs in dual-channel operation, which the nVidia based solutions did not), newest 45-series Intel chip set (45nm CPU and up to 1600 MHz bus support), full powered PCIe 2.0 slot, on-board HDMI and HD-Audio (really very good, no need for a seperate GPU-card in a HTPC configuration) yadda, yadda, yadda. The build-quality is typical for Asus' top notch boards, a highlight being Japanese solid-state caps all-around! Set up is straight forward, thanks to a great layout and the best driver/utility installation DVD I've ever used. As a side note, Asus throws a ton of software-based "features" in with this board, but most will not be needed (nor are desired) by many enthusiast users. For a mATX board with integrated graphics, the feel, build and pack-ins of this board make you think that Asus fully intends this to be a real alternative to a full-sized ATX enthusiast board.
In keeping with the enthusiast-class feel, the BIOS settings are very full-featured for a mATX board. But, here's the rub: it's not a very easy board to OC. As an example, I tried for a very simple OC on my Q9450. I set the Ai Tuner to manual and manally set in a FSB number of 375, which, with the stock multiplier of 8, would give me a nice even 3.0 GHz. Well, my rig would POST and get to Windows just fine, but immerdiately after log-on, the system would flash a BSOD, then immediately re-boot. After the re-boot, the standard defaults would load automatically and everything would be just fine.
I even tried to OC from Windows using the Asus AI Suite utility. Again, I entered a 375 FSB, restarted and got the BSOD immediately after logging on. I tried bumping up my CPU voltage slightly, tweaking my memory settings, etc. Still, same behavior.
For now, I have to be happy with the stock performance (See my full system specs below my sig). The system is very stable at stock speeds and settings (several hours of continuous stressing completed now, using Memtest & Prime 95) and it is faster than what my E6600-based system was. However, I am disappointed by the inability to get to a simple 3.0 GHz out of my Q9450. In researching this board further on the net, it seems many are having problems OC'ing the P5Q-EM. Flasing to the newest BIOS revision, 1406, did not improve my (or others) success rates. I know Anandtech were able to get their review sample to a 455 FSB with their Q9300...perhaps it was a "special" version?
So, for right now, Asus' PQ5-EM is a very good board in stock form and speeds. It certainly has all the bells and whistles and has the make-up to be an enthusiast-class board...in mATX form! But, right now, it just won't OC for me at all. Hopefully, as the BIOS matures, this will change. However, if you're used to getting "something for nothing" out of your hardware, your money would be best spent on something else.
Cheers,
Twitch
Just wanted to chime in and let those interested know about my initial impressions with Asus' newest mATX board. I had switched to a desktop LAN-box as my main PC ever since March now. Initially, I had been using EVGA's 630i/7150 mATX board with an E6600 Conroe quite happily. But, after going out and buying a Q9450, I found out that the 600-series chipsets from nVidia do not support the Yorkfield family processors. Doh!! So, in searching for a mATX board that can run my un-used CPU, I came back to Asus (my old favorite!) and their newest board, the PQ5-EM.
First off, this is one great little board spec-wise: Four DDR2-800 slots (supports up to 16 Gigs in dual-channel operation, which the nVidia based solutions did not), newest 45-series Intel chip set (45nm CPU and up to 1600 MHz bus support), full powered PCIe 2.0 slot, on-board HDMI and HD-Audio (really very good, no need for a seperate GPU-card in a HTPC configuration) yadda, yadda, yadda. The build-quality is typical for Asus' top notch boards, a highlight being Japanese solid-state caps all-around! Set up is straight forward, thanks to a great layout and the best driver/utility installation DVD I've ever used. As a side note, Asus throws a ton of software-based "features" in with this board, but most will not be needed (nor are desired) by many enthusiast users. For a mATX board with integrated graphics, the feel, build and pack-ins of this board make you think that Asus fully intends this to be a real alternative to a full-sized ATX enthusiast board.
In keeping with the enthusiast-class feel, the BIOS settings are very full-featured for a mATX board. But, here's the rub: it's not a very easy board to OC. As an example, I tried for a very simple OC on my Q9450. I set the Ai Tuner to manual and manally set in a FSB number of 375, which, with the stock multiplier of 8, would give me a nice even 3.0 GHz. Well, my rig would POST and get to Windows just fine, but immerdiately after log-on, the system would flash a BSOD, then immediately re-boot. After the re-boot, the standard defaults would load automatically and everything would be just fine.
I even tried to OC from Windows using the Asus AI Suite utility. Again, I entered a 375 FSB, restarted and got the BSOD immediately after logging on. I tried bumping up my CPU voltage slightly, tweaking my memory settings, etc. Still, same behavior.
For now, I have to be happy with the stock performance (See my full system specs below my sig). The system is very stable at stock speeds and settings (several hours of continuous stressing completed now, using Memtest & Prime 95) and it is faster than what my E6600-based system was. However, I am disappointed by the inability to get to a simple 3.0 GHz out of my Q9450. In researching this board further on the net, it seems many are having problems OC'ing the P5Q-EM. Flasing to the newest BIOS revision, 1406, did not improve my (or others) success rates. I know Anandtech were able to get their review sample to a 455 FSB with their Q9300...perhaps it was a "special" version?
So, for right now, Asus' PQ5-EM is a very good board in stock form and speeds. It certainly has all the bells and whistles and has the make-up to be an enthusiast-class board...in mATX form! But, right now, it just won't OC for me at all. Hopefully, as the BIOS matures, this will change. However, if you're used to getting "something for nothing" out of your hardware, your money would be best spent on something else.
Cheers,
Twitch