Asus P5E3 Premium X48 DDR3 Motherboard
Conclusion
Published: 8th March 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £TBA |
Conclusion
Up until today there has always been a clear line between the two types of Asus motherboards. The P5* Deluxe/Premium series has always been for those who want a good board at a reasonable price with some mediocre overclocking options and on-board extra's such as WiFi. While the Republic of Gamers series has always been aimed squarely at overclockers.
However, with the release of the P5E3 Premium Asus have closed the gap. Not only does the P5E3 Premium feature a BIOS that allows you to fine tune the most intricate of MCH, NB and CPU settings, but the range of voltage options and the ability to simply key in your desired setting gives the P5E3 Premium possibly the best BIOS that Asus have released to date. This has certainly paid off too, with the P5E3 Premium being able to take our stubborn Intel Q6600 chip all the way up to 3.75ghz and effortlessly hit 520FSB on a QX9650.
To put it simply, the Asus P5E3 Premium is a Maximus killer. Sure it doesn't have some of the fancy bells and whistles of the Asus Republic of Gamers line-up, but if Asus were to slap a couple of power buttons, a CMOS reset switch and a blue & white colour scheme on the P5E3, it could easily pass as the best ROG board they have ever released.
Unfortunately availability of the board at the moment is extremely limited. Searching Google, I was able to find only one website selling it for around £230. However, with none of our recommended retailers or other preferred retailers showing stock, I can only assume that the board is still on pre-order. For this reason, I will reserve opinion and pricing of the board until concrete figures are available.
The Good
- Extensive BIOS options with ability to manually enter voltage selection.
- Managed 490FSB on our Q6600 chip and 520FSB on a QX9650.
- 3-phase power delivery to DDR3 slots.
- Simple but innovative features such as the Q-Shield
- Good overall layout.
- Motherboard jumper to unleash insane voltage options.
The Mediocre
- Still not a fan of heatpipes and copper-look aluminium heatsinks
- Motherboard colour scheme a tad ugly.
- Express Gate could have been put to much better use.
The Bad
- Nowt!
Most Recent Comments
Wow nice overclocking, i read somewhere that x48 is just a die shrink of x38, is that true?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='teknokid'
Wow nice overclocking, i read somewhere that x48 is just a die shrink of x38, is that true?
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yeah, thats pretty good as my x38 gets real toasty, i guess thats what aids overclocking the fact it runs cooler, as 680i boards were awful with stock but under water really rocked most of the time..
Nice review btw
i look forward to a proper read later
Nice review btw
i look forward to a proper read laterlooks nice
performs well
asus have been listening to people and implimenting some good ideas into their motherboards it seems...
performs well
asus have been listening to people and implimenting some good ideas into their motherboards it seems...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='teknokid'
yeah, thats pretty good as my x38 gets real toasty, i guess thats what aids overclocking the fact it runs cooler, as 680i boards were awful with stock but under water really rocked most of the time..
Nice review btw i look forward to a proper read later |
Apparently the 790i is a lot cooler than the 680/708i (according to the marketing dudes), but I'll be able to say for sure in a week or so
Are OC3D getting one in? theyve been on show on cebit, which i spotted one in a hexus article, it looks like a heatsink about the same size as that on 780i, but hopefully your right and it is a lot cooler.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='teknokid'
Are OC3D getting one in? theyve been on show on cebit, which i spotted one in a hexus article, it looks like a heatsink about the same size as that on 780i, but hopefully your right and it is a lot cooler.
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It IS better than the 780i tho....
Well this is what nvidia have been working on am i right? then they realised ppl still wanted ddr2 so mashed up a 680i with the pci-e 2 chip...
w00t! looking forward to that 
i'm guessing you've got the review done, and will post it at 00:01 on the 18'th?
i'm guessing you've got the review done, and will post it at 00:01 on the 18'th?
I am sorely tempted to get one of these. Either the P5E3 or the DFI x48lt...hmmmm.
Great review once again Jim.
Great review once again Jim.
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Originally Posted by name='webbo'
I am sorely tempted to get one of these. Either the P5E3 or the DFI x48lt...hmmmm.
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mm. and not that your subzero, but it has a very good coldbug (as in you can get to -100 i believe before it wont post..)
It's been booted at -140 degrees C....
For all you LN2 Junkies out there!
For all you LN2 Junkies out there!
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Asus P5E3 Premium review