Asus P5Q-E (P45) Motherboard Review

1) yes, just stick the bios on the usb stick and ez flash thingy will find it

2) i have it enabled (quad), it does overvolt slightly, my 0.25v on the quad = 0.28v with the dually's it might not stress the board too much and probably wont droop as much

3) i installed it, but it complained a few times about the system being overclocked :confused:, so i removed it, didnt know what it was till i read about it the other day :p

4) it really depends on the fans your using?, ive got 9 x 120mm fans but i wired them all to 2 molex's and 5v them all (mozart tx case)
 
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Thanks for the replies guys, clears a few things up nicely. Looking forward to the build!

EDIT: What is considered to be the 'best' bios for this board - i seem to recall on XS a few weeks ago 704 was the best OCing bios - has it been bettered?
 
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Thanks for the advice guys - build is done, but wanted to run a few things by you all before i am completely satisfied (and get overclocking). First things first, main parts of build are p5q deluxe, q6600 with TRUE, corsair pc-8500 RAM.

1. Running prime 95 (all at stock), there is quite alarge temperature difference between the cores. Using core-temp, Cores #0 + #1 are roughly the same, and cores #2 and #3 are roughly the same, but there is a 5-8 C difference between them. Is this normal for a quad? I am worried that i havent seated the cooler correctly, but rnning prime temps never pass 46-48, which would lead me to believe the cooler is okay.

2. Core-temp shows the VID as 1.325, but even when running prime, the voltage is roughly 1.22 (BIOS monitor shows around 1.27 on startup). I find it hard to belive the vdrop/droopis that awful on this board, so is it likely coretemp is wrong?
 
1) Yeah it's normal. Some have more than 10c between them.

2) The Core Temp VID read-out is always correct. Dropping down to 1.22v sounds a bit much, but nothing to be woried about. Mine drops by about 0.08v under Prime95.
 
like i said earlier in the thread, 8x pci-e v2 has equal bandwidth to 16x pci-e v1.1, so there will be little to no difference between full 16x xfire and 8x when used with current gen ati cards, the provided badwidth will be more than adequate.
 
i spent the most of the evening playing with my new p5q-e and a e6550 (g0) that was in a dell. 538x7= 3.766ghz @1.496V, Low multi high fsb rocks! 42c/68c on silent air. rock solid prime95 for 3 hours while i was playing mgs4.

maximum stable fsb i got was 590 (setting multiplier to x6) but abviously i am very cpu limited.

booted into vista at 600fsb (4.2ghz!!!!) with my e6550. generally stable durring web surfing. very supprised i have a decent CPU all this time.

extremely happy with board. Would very very highly recommend.
 
Hesky82 said:
like i said earlier in the thread, 8x pci-e v2 has equal bandwidth to 16x pci-e v1.1, so there will be little to no difference between full 16x xfire and 8x when used with current gen ati cards, the provided badwidth will be more than adequate.
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Not according to this review...do a google for: crossfire 2 x 8 2 x 16 4850


"Final Thoughts

This is really a very interesting article and is something people need to be taking note of. The first thing you need to be checking is if you're reading a review where Crossfire is being tested. Make sure that the board there using is a x16 / x16 The results really do speak for themselves and it’s clear that there is a performance difference between a x16 / x16 configuration which the X48 offers, and the x8/x8 one on the P45.

If you’re really thinking about going down the Crossfire path, we would be highly recommending that you spend the extra money to go to an X38 or X48 based motherboard over the P45. Of course, if you’re not then it doesn’t really matter. With one card the P45 runs at x16, which is exactly what you want.

The thing is, the X48-DQ6 is only about 10% more expensive, so you could easily say that you should just spend the extra money and get that. You may in future go Crossfire without knowing it yet, but admittedly the P45-DQ6 does have some very cool features such as the new ICH10R controller, loads of SATA ports and just some really funky new add-ons like the power buttons on board. Of course, we will cover all these in more detail in our full motherboard review at a later date.

Before you rush out and buy that P45 board thinking that x8 / x8 will be just fine, sit back and have a think if you’re really aiming to go down the Crossfire path in the near future."



According to there tests, there are significant differences in performance between crossfired 4850's on a P45 and X48 chipset. Enough to make me buy an X48 over the P45 I was going to buy (having to RMA my current board due to USB difficulties).
 
Small update: Overclocking going well (bios 803 - i found 506 to be pretty awful) and board seems to be running fine, with one small (and VERY annoying) problem...

I have an enermax keyboard with a USB hub built in, and am also running a dell monitor with a usb hub/card reader, which i use pretty frequently. However, if i have the monitor plugged when i turn the computer on, POST gets stuck at 'Configuring USB controller' (or something similar), and upon reset reports a failed overclock. Leaving only the keyboard plugged in resolves the problem, and the USB hub on the monitor works fine once windows has loaded. I have tried fiddling with the USB settings in the bios (legacy support etc is enabled), and have flashed to 803, which i hoped may solve the problem. Not sure if anyone has a solution? Could it be that i have too many USB devices plugged in (case also has 4 USB ports, all of which are currently plugged in) and hence not enough address space for all USB ports? Any help would be appreciated...

EDIT: I have put my PCIE x1 sound card in the second black slot intended for crossfire use, mainly because it was easier to get at. I presume that this will have no effect on the speed of the first blue x16 lane?
 
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easyrider said:
Is this based on experience or a Tweaktown article? :p
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Well I said it was from a review, TT it is :)


I'm still undecided about which motherboard to get, think I'm going to buy an Asus P5Q-E and just get a 4870x2.
 
From reading around, 16 phase will not gain you any real benefits over 8 phase power.

Another factor to consider in the mobo decision, is that P45 boards seem to oc better than x48 boards... you gain some, you lose some.
 
easyrider said:
Pay the extra 20 quid for the 16 phase power.
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Theres really nothing in it, some chap on ocau compared the p5q-e and p5q deluxe and found them to perform identically when overclocking quads. 8 phase is more than enough to get the most out of current quad cores it seems :) 16 phase just looks and sounds super cool:cool:
 
Hesky82 said:
8 phase is more than enough to get the most out of current quad cores it seems :) 16 phase just looks and sounds super cool:cool:
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Yes, well 3 phase power on the P5N-E SLI is enough to get my Quad QX6700 up to 3GHz fully stable (but no more). So 8 should surely be enough. But I went for the 16 on the Deluxe becuase it does indeed sound super cool :D
 
asusp5qdeluxe3qj2.jpg


Hello lads, nice thread, good read with pics, links etc . . .very useful! :cool:

I am itching to upgrade mobo and looking closely at the ASUS P45 range. I'm not sure whether to grab a Asus P5Q-E or spend the extra and get the Asus P5Q Deluxe? From the info in this thread I am not seeing a great deal of difference between those two boards except 8-Phase vs 16-Phase and a heatpipe connected south bridge?

Is there any other differences between the two boards? Not sure if I want to spend the extra £20-£30 for the extra phases?

Any user feedback or thoughts appreciated! :)

asusp5qdeluxe4ts3.jpg
 
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