ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe: An Early Preview of P45 Express Performance
by Kris Boughton on May 13, 2008 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Initial Thoughts and Recommendations
The ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe definitely has all the makings of one of our favorite boards: a quality design with quality components, an elegant layout with plenty of room for two full-sized graphics cards, DDR3 memory for maximum performance, a robust stock cooling system, and enough onboard features to choke a horse. Although it certainly does not look like it will be our top pick for absolute maximum overclocking or benching, we can hardly fault ASUS. After all, the P5Q3 Deluxe screams mainstream value. ASUS could have a real winner on their hands here as long as they are smart about it and price this board appropriately.
We're not going to lie, though. If you already own an X38 or X48 motherboard there is not much point in moving over to a P45 board. For those of you out there that are still running on last year's P35 and looking for something new, look no further. A move to P45 should be simple and graphics performance should improve thanks to support for the PCIe 2.0 specification and the new 2x8 lane configuration mode. Also, unlike P35, P45 has been tuned with 45nm CPU performance in mind.
Not to rain on Intel's parade, but it's also important to look at the bigger picture. Many users are already running P35 or X38/X48 motherboards, and outside of bragging rights or for new system builds, there's no reason for such users to look at P45 boards right now. We do know that Nehalem will completely change the Intel platform in the next 6-8 months, and if you're already running a quad-core CPU you can almost certainly stave off upgrading motherboards and memory for a while longer. Also keep in mind that SLI support remains exclusive to NVIDIA chipsets (or boards with NVIDIA nForce 100/200 chips like Skulltrail); P45 looks to be a great option for affordable CrossFire systems, but users that prefer SLI are left with the choice of running a GX2 or using an NVIDIA chipset motherboard.
For those of you that are still hesitant to make the move to DDR3, have no fear. ASUS also plans to introduce a DDR2-variant dubbed the P5Q Deluxe that promises to bring nearly all of the same features save support for DDR3 system memory. We plan on bringing you an early look at this board as well so keep your eyes peeled for even more P45 lovin'.
We also expect to have more boards from GIGABYTE, abit, DFI, MSI, and Foxconn in our hands before the end of the month. With many new motherboards due to arrive in the coming months there's sure to be fierce competition for your hard-earned money. Without a doubt, these companies will be working harder than ever to convince you why their product is the very best. In the end, the consumer will be the winner.
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dingetje - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
a p45 shootout article would be awesome.i won't buy asus anymore because of their EPU scam, but am very interested in the gigabyte and msi p45 offerings
Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
Asus = EPU scam, Gigabyte = dynamic energy saver scam. Unless your running your system at stock speeds, these features are useless, which brings out the following question? why are these 2 embedded in high end motherboards?Hulk - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
I've written this before but a lot of people (like myself) might be considering this board as a big upgrade from an older board, like my current P5B Deluxe rig. Please include some "legacy" benchmarks so we can see if the performance improvements are worth the dimes.hansmuff - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Certainly the P35 is mature by now and will be eclipsed, but I'd like to see a consideration of performance/$.A good P35 board is $120, 4GB of name brand DDR2-800 with an 8GB option (2x2GB) is $85. I can't even buy this P45 for those two combined, so DDR3 cost really comes into play.
Frumious1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Well, you can't even buy any P45 boards right now, so it's a bit premature to discuss retail prices. This particular board is DDR3, so for budget-conscious buyers it would probably be a poor choice. ASUS will have a DDR2 model as well, and so will other companies. How much will those boards cost and how will they perform relative to, say, X38 DDR2 boards? Or P965, 975X, and P35 DDR2 boards? Those are all things we will hopefully examine in a future article. (Not being the motherboard reviewer, I can't make any promises. :))Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
This board doesn't look "mainstream" to me for a 250 dollar board. I know that intel boards can go as high as 500 bucks a piece but a mainstream board is a stripped down of all the features such as dual ethernet, wireless build in, etc, and this board has it all, except maybe watercooling blocks. But anyway, just like the author stated, a major shift to a different socket type and processing power si drawing near, hopefully by the end of this year aka nehalem, which will pretty much make the x38/48 and p35/45 series become obsolete. So this board is definitely not futureproof. Having said that, most enthusiast/mainstream users will skip this product and look further ahead to the coming up nehalem processors. As for people looking to upgrade or building a new system, P35 can be had for less than $100 without sacrificing too much performance, or x38 for under 200 for crossfire purposes.P45 will only increase Intel's revenues without bringing anything new or worthy of attention to us, the consumers.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
$249 as an estimated price prior to launch is not indicative of the market as a whole. I imagine we'll see P45 boards at much more reasonable prices - they should only carry a small premium over P35 boards really.You can also see updated results with P35 performance in the charts now, and from that it's quite clear that P45 isn't a major leap forward. We'll have to wait for further tests on stuff like CrossFire, as that might show more of an advantage, but unless P45 comes in at a price lower than X38 it won't really be a huge chipset launch. Luckily, I expect we will see $150 and lower priced P45 boards - just probably not from ASUS. ;-)
Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
Wow, performance difference between p45 and p35 is so small it's scary. One might state that P45 is just a refresh of its older brother, which is not.Frumious1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Edit: *they* will hopefully examine. Whatever. I know that's what I want to see benchmarked.goosemilk - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Does this board support Crossfire and SLi?