Asus P5K Premium -OR- Abit IP35 Pro

[Nelly]

Ooh just found something interesting in this thread:- ***OFFICIAL Asus P5K-E/WiFi Thread in regards to the latest bios 903 which gives wolfdale compatability & various other bios features at the expense of v droop.

I haven't tried max fsb. I only wanted to see if it has the same huge vdrop issue. I kept it like half an hour or so and flashed back to 603 using some old version of Asus Update 6xx. The link is somewhere in this thread.
I don't know how Asus could screw things up with the new bios versions regardind vdrop.

 

[Big.Wayne]

Abit NF7-S

Legendary mobo there, I was very impressed at what nVidia did here. I had only used INTEL motherboards mainly up to this point, did try a VIA chipset but that was a load of ****.

I started using ABIT back in the BE6-II says (PIII-Slot 1) and found them to be very good and that was my first taste of using a forum which happened to be an ABIt forum so I got locked in for a few years. There was always a lot of talk about ASUS and some rivalry between ABIt fanboys and ASUS fanboys was evident.

I think my first ASUS mobo was a P4C800-E which I bought from overclockers B-grade for £35, arrived barebones with a few packing foam cubes and just worked, in fact its still working today four years later. Think that was it really and like yourself when I finally upgraded from P4 (after a few years) I went straight to an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium and Opteron 146.

So heading back to topic somewhat when I bought my P35 mobo I was very tempted by ABITs offering but I was able to pickup the ASUS P5K-E WIFI-AP for about £30 less than the ABIT, if they had been the same price the choice would have been tougher, I do like tha layout on the ABIt mobo but the real clincher for getting the ASUS was the improved 8-Phase power design.

It seems we are the same except you support ABIT and I support ASUS, neither of us is likely to backdown lol!

 

[Devious]

5 - 2 - 1
6 - 4 - 3

It says in the manual a boot disk has to be attached to one of the red ports, in the picture above thats SATA 1, 2, 5, 6 while the two black ports (3, 4) are for non boot devices. So which ports have you tried to connect your Caviar to with no joy?

I have tried it in 1,2,5,6 it will not boot if i have my Caviar connected to 2,5 or 6. I don't think I ever tried the black ports.

I boot from a Raptor which is currently in 2 and my Caviar is in 1 and its happy.

 

[Big.Wayne]

I have tried it in 1,2,5,6 it will not boot if i have my Caviar connected to 2,5 or 6. I don't think I ever tried the black ports.

I boot from a Raptor which is currently in 2 and my Caviar is in 1 and its happy.

When you say 'it' do you mean the PC or your Raptor?

And when you say it won't boot, what happens exactly? just a blank screen?

 

[Devious]

If I have my Caviar in any Sata except one ... when I post it hangs detecting drives when it comes to the Caviar, it will hand for a few minutes then skip it and detect the other drives ok and boot off the Raptor but the Caviar will not be seen in windows.

 

[Bald-Eagle22]

I have 2 W/D cavier in Raid 0 runnig Vista 64 bit fine . Bios 0404 shows 5.9In Vista score .

 

[Nelly]

Legendary mobo there, I was very impressed at what nVidia did here. I had only used INTEL motherboards mainly up to this point, did try a VIA chipset but that was a load of ****.

Yeah your not kidding there, I owned a KR7-A Raid - I think it was the 1st motherboard to run officially at UDMA133 but the Via chipset was pants especially with the latency hassle at 1st when using a Soundblaster Live.

I started using ABIT back in the BE6-II says (PIII-Slot 1) and found them to be very good and that was my first taste of using a forum which happened to be an ABIt forum so I got locked in for a few years. There was always a lot of talk about ASUS and some rivalry between ABIt fanboys and ASUS fanboys was evident.

I switched back to Asus when I bought an Abit AV8 but it was dead on arrival, got another & that was so bought a Asus A8V-Deluxe - ended up selling because it had a design fault & coudnt hold an overclock & got a Revision 2 a month or so later.

So heading back to topic somewhat when I bought my P35 mobo I was very tempted by ABITs offering but I was able to pickup the ASUS P5K-E WIFI-AP for about £30 less than the ABIT, if they had been the same price the choice would have been tougher, I do like tha layout on the ABIt mobo but the real clincher for getting the ASUS was the improved 8-Phase power design.

It seems we are the same except you support ABIT and I support ASUS, neither of us is likely to backdown lol!

lol aye, I woudnt mind knowing how hot the PWM's get when running a Q6600 on the P5K-E WIFI-AP - I'm just wondering if the 8 Phase (if it isnt Asus bullcraping & is really 4 phase) helps reduce temps in comparison to the 4 Phases of the Abit IP35 PRO.

 

[Big.Wayne]

I'm just wondering if the 8 Phase (if it isnt Asus bullcraping & is really 4 phase) helps reduce temps in comparison to the 4 Phases of the Abit IP35 PRO.

I'm not 100% what a 'phase' looks like but I think its the area I have marked with a green outline. . .

8-Phase vs 4-Phase Power Design

I woudnt mind knowing how hot the PWM's get when running a Q6600 on the P5K-E WIFI-AP

Hopefully someone else can let you know but it stands to reason the ASUS may well run cooler because the load is spread across a greater number of phases? I can't really comment further because I am not a scientist/engineer!

Whats your particular interest in how hot the PWMs run anyhow?

 

[BUFF]

it's quite common for the PWM to be the hottest item on a mobo especially when running a quad core.

No. of phases alone isn't necessarily an indicator of design quality though & I'm told that it's cheaper to make an indifferent one with more phases than a good 1 with fewer.
Certainly a lot of it is marketing driven though because people assume that more phases is automatically better & it isn't.
I don't know about current Asus designs but previously they have had "8-phase" that were in fact 2 4-phase running in parallel & Gigabyte's "12-phase" is 2 parallel 6-phase.

 

[InfoTech]

LOL and there i was thinking that my post would just die out like the rest, when i pleasently return to find 2 pages extra than when i left it lol.......... and some very handy info i might add. Couple of quick Q'?s guys..............

1: Do they solder all of the bios onto the mobo with asus or just the P5k range ?

I'v been looking at options and money..........now i know this is the wrong section of this forum for this kind of Q? but thought i'd give it a shot anyway and see what the intial response was

2: As i understand it this board has 1 (16X) and 1 (4X) PCI-E slots, now if we were talking about another mobo with 2 (16X) PCI-E slots for example.......... What would be better for overclocking, performance, money etc overall.

*Would it be better 2 have top of the range (ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4) in crossfire? (£320 for 2)

*OR would it be better to have a (GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3) obviously in single mode ?? (£360 for 1)



This might sound like a bit of a funny question but i think that there is a reasonable amount of logic behind it, has anyone tested this or know of a review which does test and compare the 2 combinations and what the outcomes are for things such as:

-Power consumption
-FPS
-overclocking
-Reliability
-Temperatures
-Money/value

Any info would be much appreciated! No i'v not checked the graphics section yet i just thought i would post it off the top of my head on my way now!

 

[InfoTech]

From what i'v been reading the 3870 in xfire does better than ultra in lower resolutions.

I got this link from a smililar post (not the same though)

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/610/10/

 

[InfoTech]

LOL and there i was thinking that my post would just die out like the rest, when i pleasently return to find 2 pages extra than when i left it lol.......... and some very handy info i might add. Couple of quick Q'?s guys..............

1: Do they solder all of the bios onto the mobo with asus or just the P5k range ?

 

[Nelly]

To be honest with you, your not buying till march? I woudnt even bother with this post till then, as new Penryn CPU's should be released by then I would be more inclined to go with a Q9460 for quadcore.

Also your using a 19" TFT? why would you need SLI or Crossfire? an 8800GTX woudnt even get its full benefit from an inferior sized screen.

Also we may have new chipset motherboards out by March/April - I do know a P45 chipset is on the cards.

LOL and there i was thinking that my post would just die out like the rest, when i pleasently return to find 2 pages extra than when i left it lol.......... and some very handy info i might add. Couple of quick Q'?s guys..............

1: Do they solder all of the bios onto the mobo with asus or just the P5k range ?

Asus P35 & X38 chipset motherboards as well as the new 780i ALL have soldered on bios chips, I think all of the new MSI motherboards do also - makes no logical sense apart from the manufacturer saving money by soldering them via the manufacture process probally because its cheaper at the expense of the consumer i.e. having to replace the full motherboard instead of a socketed bios chip - its absolutly riddiculous. DFI & Abit still used Socketed bios chips.

2: As i understand it this board has 1 (16X) and 1 (4X) PCI-E slots, now if we were talking about another mobo with 2 (16X) PCI-E slots for example.......... What would be better for overclocking, performance, money etc overall.

*Would it be better 2 have top of the range (ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4) in crossfire? (£320 for 2)

*OR would it be better to have a (GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3) obviously in single mode ?? (£360 for 1)[/U]

It's a matter of opinion but overall I think value for money is the main thing, the P35 chipset fits into this scenario.

You say your not buying till March anyway, I would wait till we see more evidence of how the 3870X2's run especially with AA/AF turned on because drivers may improve by then etc.

You say your going to use a Samsung 931B? isn't that a 19" TFT? even 1 x 8800GTX is more than enough for that TFT. . . if I was you just buy 1 graphics card an 8800GTX & treat yourself to a 24" TFT.

This might sound like a bit of a funny question but i think that there is a reasonable amount of logic behind it, has anyone tested this or know of a review which does test and compare the 2 combinations and what the outcomes are for things such as:

-Power consumption
-FPS
-overclocking
-Reliability
-Temperatures
-Money/value

Any info would be much appreciated! No i'v not checked the graphics section yet i just thought i would post it off the top of my head on my way now!

Well using 1 graphics card will save on electricity as well as not having to use as powerful PSU, you could easily get away with say a Corsair 620W as an example.

 

[InfoTech]

To be honest with you, your not buying till march? I woudnt even bother with this post till then, as new Penryn CPU's should be released by then I would be more inclined to go with a Q9460 for quadcore.

Also your using a 19" TFT? why would you need SLI or Crossfire? an 8800GTX woudnt even get its full benefit from an inferior sized screen.

Also we may have new chipset motherboards out by March/April - I do know a P45 chipset is on the cards.

Lol just pwn me why not hehe, the monitor i have is actually fairly new and im really happy with it apart from the fact i was expecting it to be a little taller lol, i didnt want the crossfire for the better performance on high res, its more for higher FPS in lower res's.
Hence why im not going to be going with SLI.... i was really just wondering weather i should go with the 2x 3870's in xfire cos they have better FPS than a single ultra in lower res's. (though they will take more power)

Thanks for letting me know about the new chip, as i was thinking that there might be some new releases b4 i purchased. Im posting to get more of an idea of where peoples hearts lay with what products (getting back in touch really)

Asus P35 & X38 chipset motherboards as well as the new 780i ALL have soldered on bios chips, I think all of the new MSI motherboards do also - makes no logical sense apart from the manufacturer saving money by soldering them via the manufacture process probally because its cheaper at the expense of the consumer i.e. having to replace the full motherboard instead of a socketed bios chip - its absolutly riddiculous. DFI & Abit still used Socketed bios chips.

Completely agree, its one of the most stupid modifications i'v seen them make to mobo's over the years, hopefully it wont come back to bite them in the ass.

You say your going to use a Samsung 931B? isn't that a 19" TFT? even 1 x 8800GTX is more than enough for that TFT. . . if I was you just buy 1 graphics card an 8800GTX & treat yourself to a 24" TFT.

yep 19" ..........would i not get some further improvement from the ultra to
to my graphics/FPS than if i went for the GTX? Or more to the point 2x 3870's? This is the impression im under atm. Would be nice to have a 24" monitor but i can see the use for buying another 1 so soon just for a few more inches.
(though i could sell my current 1)

Thanks for the help nelly, keep it coming

 

[Nelly]

yep 19" ..........would i not get some further improvement from the ultra to
to my graphics/FPS than if i went for the GTX? Or more to the point 2x 3870's? This is the impression im under atm. Would be nice to have a 24" monitor but i can see the use for buying another 1 so soon just for a few more inches.
(though i could sell my current 1)

Thanks for the help nelly, keep it coming

Well I switched from a 19" normal to a 24" widescreen in comparison in height I only gained 1 inch but to be honest your screen is going to be with you a long time so it's a worthy investment - mines got 4 years guarantee anyway & I expect to keep it that long.

I would sell your 19" & get a 24" lol.

I'm only running one 8800GTX at the moment as soon as a superior single card is released I will purchase - I think the whole idea of Crossfire & SLI is total crap - at the end of the day graphics cards loose a lot of face value anyway so stick to one card.

 

[InfoTech]

Ye i agree with what your say nelly, its just i'll be buying a 30" LCD TV at somepoint this year, and so at the moment i mostly use my monitor for gaming, as i probly will in the future. Im going to be linking my TV to the VGA so i can watch all my movies off the comp straight onto my TV so size isnt really an issue.

Also about the de-appreciation of the VGA's i agree, but il probly keep this build for 5-6 years as i have done with my current one, minus the mobo replacement cos it blew. So the Xfire could be useful to me in that respect.

I guess im doing more of a future build, rather than a power NOW build. Want do you think, towards what im thinking of doing i mean.....?

Thanks fella, cheers guys

 

[Nelly]

Well each to their own . . . if you can afford it then go for it.

Only reason I didnt buy a larger tft was because of the cost of graphics cards - 24" does me fine.

I'm going to invest in a large tv at a later date somewhere around 42", prices are dropping all the time.