Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi Review - PAGE 1William Henning - Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Asus has a reputation of producing fine high-end motherboards. Today we look at their X38 based offering, the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi.
The motherboard comes in a low-key black motherboard box with a simple plastic handle. No money is wasted on a fancy, fold-out windowed packaging, and no holographrams adorn the box - Asus is betting that people will seek out the board based on its reputation and model number, instead of being taken in by fancy packaging.
Gamers are an obvious target for the board as it supports dual PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, offering increased bandwidth for future PCIe 2.0 x16 CrossFire graphics cards.
The P5E3 supports a plethora of features, here are some of the highlights:
- supports current 65nm and upcoming 45nm dual and quad core processors as well as older processors
- X38 chipset with 1333/1600MHz FSB and 1333MHz DDR3 (as well as support for 1600MHz DDR3 when OC'd)
- two PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, one x16 (electrically x4) slot, two x1 slots, two PCI slots
- six SATAII ports, two eSATA ports, IDE support
- dual Gigabit Ethernet, 8 channel high definition audio
- two FireWire and twelve USB 2.0 ports
- extensive overclocking features
- SplashTop BIOS based web browsing and Skype capability
Just in case you want more details, here are the spec's straight from Asus' site:
| Specifications from www.asus.com |
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CPU
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LGA775 socket for Intel® Core™2 Quad / Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors
Compatible with Intel® 05B/05A/06 processors
Supports Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-Core CPU
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Chipset
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Intel® X38 / ICH9R with Intel® Fast Memory Access Technology
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Front Side Bus
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1600/1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz
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Memory
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4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR3 1800(O.C.)/1600(O.C.)/1333/1066/800 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Dual channel memory architecture
*Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts). |
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Expansion Slots
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3 x PCIe x16 (blue @PCIe2.0 x16 mode, black @PCIe x4 or x1 mode) supports CrossFire Technology
2 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI
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Storage
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Southbridge
- 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
- Intel Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10
JMicron® JMB363(JMB368) PATA and SATA controller
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
- 2 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
- Supports SATA RAID 0,1,JBOD
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LAN
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Dual Gigabit LAN controllers
Marvell88E8056® PCIe Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2
RealtekRTL8110SC® PCI Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2
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Audio
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ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming
- Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
- AI Audio 2
- ASUS Noise Filter
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IEEE 1394
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Agere® L-FW3227 1394a controller supports 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel)
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USB
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12 x USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6ports at back panel)
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ASUS AI Lifestyle Features
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ASUS Power Saving Solution
- ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
- ASUS 3rd Generation 8-phase Power Design
- ASUS AI Nap
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features:
- ASUS AI Direct Link
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution:
- ASUS Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution
- ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
- ASUS Q-Fan 2
- ASUS Optional Fan for Water-cooling or Passive-Cooling only
ASUS Crystal Sound:
- ASUS Noise Filter
ASUS EZ DIY:
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS Q-Connector
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS AI Slot Detector
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Special Features
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ASUS MyLogo 3
Multi-language BIOS
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Overclocking Features
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ASUS AI Booster utility
Precision Tweaker 2:
- vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
- vDIMM: 64-step DRAM voltage control
- vChipset (N.B.): 33-step DRAM voltage control
- vFSB Termination: 15-step reference voltage control
- vCPU PLL: 64-step CPU PLL voltage control
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 800MHz at 1MHz increment
- Memory tuning from 800MHz up to 3200MHz
- PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to150MHz at 1MHz increment
Overclocking Protection:
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
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Back Panel I/O Ports
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1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical)
2 x External SATA
1 x IEEE1394a
2 x RJ45 port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1
8-channel Audio I/O
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Internal I/O Connectors
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3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
1 x COM connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x CPU Fan connector
4 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x IEEE1394a connector
Front panel audio connector
1 x S/PDIF Out Header
Chassis Intrusion connector
CD audio in
24-pin ATX Power connector
2 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
System Panel(Q-Connector)
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BIOS
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16 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
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Manageability
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WfM 2.0, DMI 2.0, WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE
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Accessories
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UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
FDD cable
6 x Serial ATA cables
1 x 2-port Serial ATA power cable
ASUS Q-Shield
User's manual
3 in 1 Q-connector
1 x 2-port USB2.0 / 1-port IEEE1394 module
2 x Optional Fan for Water-Cooling or Passive-Cooling only
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Support CD
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Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS Update
ASUS AI Suite
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
Image-Editing Suite
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Form Factor
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ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.4cm)
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