Asus P5K P35 Socket 775 Motherboard
Introduction & Specifcations
Published: 4th June 2007 | Source: Asus | Price: |
Only back at the beginning of May we were given information that Intel had pushed forward the release date of their latest chipset. Codenamed 'Bearlake', the P35 chipset is the first of Intel's chipsets to support the recently released DDR3 spec (while still maintaining support for DDR2) and upcoming 45nm CPU's along with the ICH9 southbridge and a native 1333Mhz front-side bus. Asus have always been pretty quick to the market with motherboards based on Intel's latest chipsets, and it's no surprise to see the rather prompt arrival of their P5K and P5K3 Bearlake-Based contenders.
With the P5K still being based around the DDR2 platform (where as the P5K3 is DDR3 ready), users are offered the chance to upgrade to the latest 45nm processors while still utilising their "old" DDR2 memory. In fact, in its current state, DDR3 actually offers very little performance benefits over DDR2 due to it's extremely loose latencies. Much the same phenomenom was seen when DDR2 entered the market, with the original DDR modules outperforming DDR2 in most benchmarks.
Asus do have a bit of an issue on their hands however: The P5B and 'Commando' P965 based boards are well known for being champion overclockers and the motherboard of choice for many benchmarkers and enthusiasts. Will the P5K be able to continue the legacy of its elder brother? Today I'll be finding out by pitting them head-to-head.
Specifications
With the Bearlake P35 chipset being such a new arrival to the scene, let's first take a look at how it's features compare to some of its predecessors:
| P35 Chipset | P965 Chipset | 975X Chipset | |
| Supported CPU's | Pentium 4 Pentium D Core 2 Duo Core 2 Quad Core 2 Extreme *Upcoming 45nm CPU's* | Pentium 4 Pentium D Core 2 Duo Core 2 Quad Core 2 Extreme | Pentium 4 Pentium D Core 2 Duo Core 2 Quad Core 2 Extreme |
| Official FSB Speed | Up to 1333mhz | Up to 1066mhz | Up to 1066mhz |
| PCI-E/GPU Support | 16x / 4x | 16x / 4x | 8x / 8x |
| Memory Support | DDR2 & DDR3 | DDR2 | DDR2 |
| SATA Drive Support | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| IDE Drive Support | 0 (3rd party controller often used) | 0 (3rd party controller often used) | 1 |
As we've already discussed, the P35 builds on the features of the P965 chipset by adding DDR3 support, 45nm CPU compatibility and an increased "official" FSB speed. In terms of motherboard features, the following chart has been extracted from Asus' website:
CPU | 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 Support Intel® next generation 45nm multi-core CPU *This motherboard supports FSB 1333/1066/800 |
Chipset | Intel® P35 / ICH9R with Intel® Fast Memory Access Technology |
Front Side Bus | 1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz |
Memory | 4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 1066*/800 / 667 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory Dual channel memory architecture * The chipset officially supports the memory frequency up to DDR2 800MHz. Tuned by ASUS Super Memspeed Technology, this motherboard natively supports up to DDR2 1066MHz Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL. |
Expansion Slots | 2 x PCI-E x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x4 or x1 mode) supports CrossFire Technology 2 x PCI-E x1 3 x PCI |
Storage | Southbridge - 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports - Supports RAID 0 and 1 JMicron® JMB363 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 and JBOD |
LAN | Dual Gigabit LAN controllers, featuring AI NET2 Marvell88E8056® PCI-E Gigabit LAN controllers RealtekRTL8110SC® PCI Gigabit LAN controller |
Wireless LAN | ASUS WiFi-AP Solo 54 Mbps IEEE 802.11g and backwards compatible with 11 Mbps IEEE 802.11b - Software Access Point mode - Station mode : Infrastruceure mode and Ad-Hoc mode |
Audio | ADI® AD1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC - Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O - ASUS Noise Filter |
IEEE 1394 | Agere® FW322 1394a controller supports 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at midboard; one at back panel) |
USB | 10 x USB 2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 6ports at back panel) |
ASUS AI Lifestyle Features | ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution: - ASUS AI Gear2 - ASUS AI Nap - ASUS 8-Phase Power Design - ASUS Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution - ASUS Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2 - ASUS Q-Fan 2 ASUS Crystal Sound: - ASUS Noise Filter ASUS EZ DIY: - ASUS Q-Connector - ASUS O.C. Profile - ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 - ASUS EZ Flash 2 - ASUS AI Slot Detector ASUS WiFi@Home: - ASUS WiFi-AP Solo |
Other Features | ASUS MyLogo 3 Multi-language BIOS |
Overclocking Features | Intelligent overclocking tools: - AI NOS™ (Non-delay Overclocking System) - ASUS AI Booster utility Precision Tweaker: - vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.0125V increment - vDIMM: 16-step DRAM voltage control - vChipset: 4-step Chipset voltage control SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) - FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 800MHz at 1MHz increment - Memory tuning from 667MHz up to 1333MHz for DDR2 - PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to150MHz at 1MHz increment Overclocking Protection: - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall) |
Back Panel I/O Ports | 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 1 x WiFi-AP Solo antenna jack 8-channel Audio I/O |
Internal I/O Connectors | 2 x USB connectors support additional 4 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) |
BIOS | 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 |
Manageability | WfM 2.0, DMI 2.0, WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE |
Accessories | UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable FDD cable 4 x Serial ATA cables 1 x 2-port Serial ATA power cable I/O Shield User's manual ASUS WiFi-AP Solo manual 3 in 1 Q-connector 1 x 2-port USB2.0 / 1-port IEEE1394 module ASUS WiFi-AP Solo omni-directional antenna |
Support CD | Drivers ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update ASUS AI Suite ASUS WiFi-AP Solo Wizard Anti-virus software (OEM version) Image-Editing Suite |
Form Factor | ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
The P5K Deluxe comes with all the features we've come to expect from Asus' Deluxe line of motherboards. As with the previous P5B line, the P5K uses JMicron's JMB363 controller to make up for the lack of PATA functionality on the southbridge and the use of 8-Phase power along with a black PCB is still one of the defining features between the Deluxe and standard models.
Most Recent Comments
Great review Jim, article linked @ XS!
Nice review, god things are moving on so fast, soon DDR3 and heres me just upgraded and still on DDR1 lol.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='FragTek'
Great review Jim, article linked @ XS!
|
looks awsome 
cool review
cool review
Great review jimbo
Think I'll wait a while to upgrade tho
Think I'll wait a while to upgrade tho
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='Kempez'
Think I'll wait a while to upgrade tho |
Good review though Jim, most helpful
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='dave87'
If you had to buy now, P35 or P965 based board?
Good review though Jim, most helpful |
If not P965 tbh
EDIT: Am I right in saying 680i supports the new Intel CPU's? If so I'll have an IN9
Quote:
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Originally Posted by name='dave87'
If you had to buy now, P35 or P965 based board?
Good review though Jim, most helpful |
However, if you're thinking of going 45nm, then it's got to be P35. Just beware that afaik the P5K isn't 100% guaranteed to support Penryn when it comes out - much the same situation as the early Asus boards that supported Conroe....but didn't.
great review, love the little bit of overclocking done to a good-ish CPU too.
as i have just purchased one of these, i intend on posting my results too.
however, i think if you (like me) are moving to c2d for the first time, or are just making a new build with some amount of overclocking in mind, then the p5k dlx is just for you.
i think especially with current ddr2 prices, that it would be silly to move upto ddr3 so soon (remember how ddr2 rolled out, ddr1 was still king for many months until faster and tighter ddr2 came out) as you can probably buy 8gb of decent ddr2 for the same price (obviously for 4x2gb kits) as a single 1gb or 2gb kit of ddr3.
just my 2p worth...
as i have just purchased one of these, i intend on posting my results too.
however, i think if you (like me) are moving to c2d for the first time, or are just making a new build with some amount of overclocking in mind, then the p5k dlx is just for you.
i think especially with current ddr2 prices, that it would be silly to move upto ddr3 so soon (remember how ddr2 rolled out, ddr1 was still king for many months until faster and tighter ddr2 came out) as you can probably buy 8gb of decent ddr2 for the same price (obviously for 4x2gb kits) as a single 1gb or 2gb kit of ddr3.
just my 2p worth...
Was walking home today and guess what was @ my door step!
A P5K
A P5K
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