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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DigitalFreak - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Didn't bother to even read the article, did you?JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
See the conclusion. As always, SLI requires an NVIDIA chipset to work. This board does support CrossFire however - in 2x8 PCIe 2.0 configuration, which matches the bandwidth of 2x16 PCIe 1.x seen on implementations like AMD's earlier Xpress 3200 chipset. I seriously doubt doubling the PCIe bandwidth will improve performance all that much, so this looks to be a very good midrange option for CF users. (Note that my personal gaming rig runs X38 and 3870 CF.)deruberhanyok - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
I've got a P965 board and was thinking of replacing it with a P35 board. I keep putting it off for one reason or another.IMO there's a handful of things about P45 that make it interesting to me and potentially worth a little extra wait, but I'm not sure how they'll pan out:
* lower power consumption - curious to see how final silicon will compare to P35
* ICH10 - I thought this is supposed to have a built in wireless-N NIC capability? If it does, hopefully someone will make use of it
* PCI Express 2.0 - whether this really makes a difference over 1st gen or not, it's a nice marketing bullet point
Also, seeing a new Analog Devices CODEC makes me smile. Looking forward to seeing info on Asus' mainstream version of this (which I'm guessing would be a P5Q-E or thereabouts), hopefully it will sit around the same price as the P5K-E.
Thanks for the article!
npp - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
The board is a very strong offering from Asus, no doubt about that. I don't see any reasons to upgrade from something like P35, though, the differences in both performance and power consumption simply aren't large enough for me to justify it. Generally speaking, buying a relatively expensive product when a major platform shift is imminent can never be easily justified - like buying a Pentium 955EE just before the Core 2 Launch :]Continuing with the obvious "Nehalem" argument - I don't find it wise to recommend DDR3 today, either, just to see it bottlenecked by the antique FSB... Correct me if I'm wrong, but FSB 400 provides theoretical bandwidth of 12800 MB/s, which is easily surpassed by even a single DDR3-1800 module. Having ~3x that bandwidth sounds like a much more convincing argument for an upgrade for me :]
Gerbilhamster - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
hard to make a comparisonAmberClad - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
My ears perked up at the supposed support for 16GB of DDR2. Granted, 4GB dimms aren't exactly commonplace yet, but the theoretical ability to have 8GB with only two slots populated is pretty intriguing. I'm just thinking of all the apps I can leave in the background with all that spare memory available o_o.Staples - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
In a few months, people will be thinking of upgrading from their P35 to the P45. I think for this reason the P35 should be included in every benchmark including the power consumption graph.DigitalFreak - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Only someone with more money than sense would upgrade from a P35 to a P45 board.Egglick - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
I agree, but for different reasons. The P35 is much less expensive, and if performance is close enough, it could be a better choice until prices on the P45 drop. I personally find $250 for a motherboard to be unacceptable.The only reason I even read the article was to see how the two compared.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
A P35 comparison is forthcoming; Kris didn't have an appropriate board on hand for this article (and he's apparently running around in Asia right now).