Asus P5Q-E (P45) Motherboard Review

Cob · 16 Jul 2008 at 14:08

Yip I'm using virtual machines for my Folding.

Someone else had an issue installing linux natively on their P45 board and they were told that the linux kernal hadn't been updated for P45 yet. Not sure if that's still the case.

ChrissyT88 · 16 Jul 2008 at 16:57

Cheers - i was having a problem getting the cd to even run - it would report PIC: BIOS BUG #0, then enter a 'busybox' shell... Someone else mentioned this on the asus forums, and said enabling ahci mode cured the problem. I changed it all over, the installation still gave the same bug error, but then loaded anyway?? Still, problem solved.

Nelly · 16 Jul 2008 at 17:26

Maybe tempted to purchase an Asus P5Q-Deluxe, anyone using the 300GB VelociRaptor or 150GB Raptors with this motherboard?

Just making sure no issues like the P5K-Premium fiasco.

Cob · 16 Jul 2008 at 17:38

There's been sporadic reports of some Raptors not working. But everytime it's mentioned other people pop up to say that theirs are working fine.

Better asking in the thread over at XS.

Nelly · 16 Jul 2008 at 17:57

Cob said:
There's been sporadic reports of some Raptors not working. But everytime it's mentioned other people pop up to say that theirs are working fine.

Better asking in the thread over at XS.

Did a few searches but like you said the info was somewhat too vague on XS, I'll re-ask the question over there & hopefully a few people here can clarify also.

Nelly · 16 Jul 2008 at 20:29

Anvil @ XS said:
I have used the following hdd's without any issues.
- Hitachi T7K250
- Raptor 74GB (ADFD)
- WD 640GB (WD6400AAKS)
- Samsung F1 1TB
- VelociRaptor (WD3000GLFS)

I used AHCI/RAID mode for all the disks on XP Pro x32 SP3, Vista Ultimate x64 SP1, Server 2008 x64.

bilston · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:14

Big.Wayne said:

Is it safe to assume those readings will be fairly similar on all P5Q boards? I have the P5Q-E and stuck 2.2v (in bios) through my mem. No wonder one set broke

Tuvoc · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:18

For vdimm I would say it is highly probable. My memory is rated at 2.1v and I set it at 2.02v on my Deluxe and it is memtest stable. Now I know why.... Maybe I can reduce it a little further

Big.Wayne · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:23

Ask Cob as I'm still a P5Q-DLX nOOb!

I think in general it's never safe to assume anything with computer hardware although the above chart has been compiled and verified by several users over at XS forums.

I'm wondering why the voltages are so high when the system is running on auto? Another thing to consider is this *EPU* feature which is meant to adjust voltages and makes the system uses less juice? It seems the EPU feature is disabled once you start manually tweaking things so I am thinking most people at XS don't use this feature?

Maybe the P5Q-DLX is more tweaked by ASUS engineers atm for having EPU enabled and once you go to manual override you encounter a side of the boards BIOS that is rather unpolished and still needing work?

bilston · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:28

Hmm, Cob?

Suppose a better way would be to measure the points myself. Is there a pic of the points I need to measure? XS is down at the moment I think

setter · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:35

Tuvoc said:
For vdimm I would say it is highly probable. My memory is rated at 2.1v and I set it at 2.02v on my Deluxe and it is memtest stable. Now I know why.... Maybe I can reduce it a little further

Had to do the same with my memory. on the p5q dlx. the ram i have is rated at 2.0-2.2v@4 4 4 12 but it will boot ok @1.8v@5 5 5 18.

Cob · 17 Jul 2008 at 14:57

bilston said:
Is it safe to assume those readings will be fairly similar on all P5Q boards? I have the P5Q-E and stuck 2.2v (in bios) through my mem. No wonder one set broke

No idea tbh. Haven't really been paying attention to the other boards. But personally I'd work on the assumption that all the P5Q range overvolt the same way.

Plasmoid · 18 Jul 2008 at 10:05

Yeah this definitly confirms what i've been seeing. No wonder my 2.1v memory was happy at 1.8v

Big.Wayne · 22 Jul 2008 at 13:45

Alright lads, starting fitting the ASUS P5Q-Deluxe into my ANTEC P182 last night and hit one or two snags and they both seem related to an increased motherboard height?

The first thing I noticed (and something I read about before) is that the rear I/O plate didn't seem to match up with the mobo neatly and I can't access all the rear ports, it's like 1-2mm too high?

Had a bit of a wiggle and stuff but still can't access all the ports?

I just did a test fit of my Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme to make sure it didn't clash with any heatsinks on the board and no trouble . . . however the height is now to great and I can't fit the case side panel back as its hitting the very top of the TRUE?

I had been using an ASUS P5K-E before this and that didn't have a I/O shield issue and allowed the TRUE to *just* fit?

It seems the ASUS P5Q-Dlx is 1mm-2mm taller than my previous board (as in its raised higher from the mobos stand-offs), any ideas whats going on?

will post pics later . . .

Tuvoc · 22 Jul 2008 at 13:49

The backplate on my Deluxe is slightly out, but not enought to make the ports unusable. It just looks unprofessional... No problems with the TRUE 120 with my Lian-Li PC7.

Cob · 22 Jul 2008 at 14:04

Big.Wayne said:
Alright lads, starting fitting the ASUS P5Q-Deluxe into my ANTEC P182 last night and hit one or two snags and they both seem related to an increased motherboard height?

There's been a few reports of the board sitting too high for the IO shield in the P182. There's some pics earlier in this thread. Haven't seen the TRUE problem mentioned tho.

Big.Wayne · 22 Jul 2008 at 15:54

Steve09 said:
Here is a picture...

As you can see from the SPDIF OUT connector how far the holes are to the left, resulting in not being able to use the 2 USB ports and the PS/2 port.

I also can't use the eSATA port, which I'm not too bothered about but still, I expected to be able to use it if needed.
I can use the 4 USB ports below though.

What do you think I should do, ask for another I/O plate? Also are there problems with them as from Maddness' post?

Thanks

Steve09 said:
Heres a couple more pictures just showing, the eSATA is actually behind the plate...

Its an Antec P182 and I only fitted everything in yesterday!

1mm-2mm

I can confirm what's already been reported by Steve09, it seems there is an issue when combining the P5Q-Dlx with a ANTEC P182 case.

Initially I thought the backplate was badly cut because as you can see in Steve09 pictures the ports on the board don't match up with the holes in the backplate however after seeing whats happened to my TRUE I can now safely summise that the P5Q-Dlx either has a thicker PCB that my previous board or there is some other reason it is sitting higher.

The I/O shield isn't a show stopper by any means as I can just use all the ports except firewire which is well and truely blocked but not being able to re-fit the cases side panel is a real humdinger.

As previously mentioned I was able to put the P182 case panel on when using the ASUS P5K-E WIFI/AP + TRUE combo but it was a close fit (but it did fit just!) but now the board is sitting 1mm-2mm higher the cases panel actually sits on top of the little heatpipe ends that protude from the top of The TRUE?

Hmm not sure what to do or whether to approach ASUS or ANTEC for a fix?

The standoffs are built in to the P182 so I'm not sure what I can do there (will have to have a closer look) but I am not sure why this board is *thicker* than normal, haha can't believe such a small thing has caused me a big problem!

I can't think of an easy solution apart from

Changing heatsink (I/P ports will still be blocked?)
Changing Case (spent £90 and a lot of time modding my P182)
Changing Mobo (Only unwrapped the P5Q-Dlx last night!!!!)

thoughts or advice welcomed, I dare say I will push on with the build as is and just lose a few I/O ports and leave the case cover off, not ideal but I'm at a loss?? :confused:

Cob · 22 Jul 2008 at 16:59

Nightmare.

I would leave the side off the case and play with the board for a few days to see whether you like it. If you fall in love with the board then you can worry about the cooler. If you hate the board then return it under the distance selling law and get something that fits.

Big.Wayne · 22 Jul 2008 at 17:15

Thanks Cob!

Any idea why the board is thicker? I just re-read this thread and it seems most people have a slight mismatch with the I/O ports so It seems likely that all boards are thicker?

Isn't there a commond standard for these things? Like doesn't the ATX spec state the board has to be certain dimensions (including height?).

I believe this is down to ASUS and not ANTEC and I would have thought the backplate was badly cut if it wasn't for the fact my heatsink is now taller in the case than on my previous board.

I just removed the mobo for a snoop, it's not the copper stack n cool 2backplate that is causing the issue as I placed a normal inverted brass standoff next to it and the copper backplate is thinner.

Thick PCB?

Cob · 22 Jul 2008 at 17:22

Yeah my IO ports are offset a little, but not enough to cause problems in my Akasa Eclipse 62.

I would expect ASUS to adhere to the ATX spec, but I haven't a clue if it describes a maximum thickness. Could be a mixture of the board being too thick and the cases stand-offs being too high, neither of which would cause a problem on their own, but together they have the effect you're experiencing.

Certainly would be worth asking Antec if they've heard about the problem.