Asus P5E3 Premium X48 DDR3 Motherboard
Test Setup & Overclocking
Published: 8th March 2008 | Source: Asus | Price: £TBA |
Test Setup & Overclocking
To ensure that all reviews on Overclock3D are fair, consistent and unbiased, a standard set of hardware and software is used whenever possible during the comparative testing of two or more products. The configuration used in this review can be seen below:
DDR2 Motherboard(s)
• DFI LANPARTY UT X38-T2R (X38)
• XFX nForce 780i SLI (780i)
• Asus Maximus Formula (X38)
• Asus Striker II Formula (780i)
• DFI LANPARTY UT P35-T2R (P35)
DDR3 Motherboard(s)
• Asus P5E3 Premium (X48)
• Asus Maximus Extreme (X38)
• Asus P5E3 Premium (X48)
• Asus Maximus Extreme (X38)
Processor
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 "G0" 2.4GHz 2x4MB
Memory Modules
• Cellshock PC2-6400 @ DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12)
• Cellshock PC3-14400 @ DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20)
• Cellshock PC3-14400 @ DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20)
Graphics Card
• Sapphire Ultimate X1950 Pro 256mb PCI-E
Hard Disk
• Hitachi Deskstar 80GB 7K80 SATA2 7200RPM 8mb
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (Latest Updates)
During the testing of the boards above, special care was taken to ensure that the BIOS settings used matched whenever possible. A fresh install of Windows Vista was also used between switching boards, preventing any possible performance issues due to left-over drivers from the previous motherboard install.
To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities were used:
To guarantee a broad range of results, the following benchmark utilities were used:
Synthetic CPU & Memory Subsystem
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
• Lavalys Everest 4.0
File Compression & Encoding
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark05
• 3DMark06
3D Games
• Quake 4
• Bioshock
• F.E.A.R
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
• Lavalys Everest 4.0
File Compression & Encoding
• 7-Zip File Compression
• River Past ViMark
Disk I/O Performance
• HDTach 3.0.4.0
• Sisoft Sandra XII 2008c
3D / Rendering Benchmarks
• Cinebench 10
• 3DMark05
• 3DMark06
3D Games
• Quake 4
• Bioshock
• F.E.A.R
Overclocking
With the P5E3 Premium having probably the most advanced power delivery system of any board we've tested to date and a BIOS with more options than you can shake a very large stick at, the board certainly looks like a good candidate for being a top overclocker. So without further ado, let's see what its capable of...
The Asus Maximus and DFI Lanparty boards have always been favourites of mine for for their ability to take a CPU to its overclocking limits. However, the P5E3 Premium totally blows them out of the water, managing to squeeze an extra 100mhz out of our Q6600 CPU with 1.5vcore. Similarly the board also beats out its elder X38 based "Deluxe" brother by 60mhz.
With many of the lower-end Intel processors showing great overclock potential but often being crippled by low multipliers, having a motherboard that can obtain high-FSB speeds is a must. By reducing the multiplier of our Q6600 test CPU down to x6, the maximum FSB speed we was able to obtain from the Premium was 491mhz.
While 491mhz may not seem a great achievement where FSB speeds are concerned, the average Q6600 chip tops out at around 500fsb regardless. With this in mind we also tested a QX9650 ES chip we happened to have in the office at the time and managed a slightly more respectable 527mhz FSB.
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.
Quote:
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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