Intel: ASUS P5K-SE – Design

As mentioned before, there are a number of Intel P35 motherboards that offer support for DDR3 memory, and while we have a few of these boards on hand, such as the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe/Premium and the Gigabyte P35T-DQ6, we are deliberately excluding them from the comparison. At the moment just 2GBs of DDR3 memory will set you back around $400 which is quite ridiculous, making it pointless (for the time being) to buy a DDR3-capable motherboard given the price premium. That leaves us with the nine motherboards we are testing today that support DDR2 memory exclusively.

For this P35 round-up we have tried to include a high-end version and a budget version motherboard from each manufacturer. The boards will be put through the usual batch of tests, while we will also compare their overclocking abilities side by side. Before jumping into the benchmarks we will briefly list the features and go over the layout and design of each motherboard.

Initially we had planned to include a few MSI motherboards that were going to be supplied by the manufacturer itself. Unfortunately once we explained our plan for a comparison against competing boards, they got cold feet and pulled out. Not sure exactly what we should make of this, so make of it what you will. Because the news came somewhat last minute we did not have time to purchase these motherboards without delaying the article further, we apologize for the omission.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

ASUS P5K-SE – Design

The P5K-SE is more of a system builder’s board and while it does feature quality components, it doesn't carry the same look and feel of the previous ASUS boards we looked at. With a similar price to that of the Abit IP35-E, the P5K-SE doesn’t stand much of a chance as it looks far from impressive sitting next to the Abit.

The thin & light brown PCB looks average while the cooling design is nothing to write home about. The northbridge chip features a small silver aluminum heatsink while the southbridge is cooled via a small black aluminum heatsink. The board layout is fairly crammed though everything is relatively easy to access due to excellent component placement.

There are really no design flaws to be found on the P5K-SE, but at the same time there is nothing exceptional about it either. The I/O panel features six of the ten USB 2.0 ports while there is a single PS/2 port, coaxial audio port, six audio jacks, a single eSATA port and one LAN port. There is more connectivity featured on the P5K-SE I/O panel when compared to the Abit IP35-E.

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9-way Intel P35 motherboard round-up

Anyone looking at building a new desktop system should not look any further than Intel Core 2 processors, and when time comes to pick a platform you should have Intel's own P35 chipset in mind as it officially offers 1333MHz FSB support and will be compatible with upcoming 45nm processors. This translates in a fairly 'future-proof' platform, with some models currently available supporting DDR3 memory already.

But as new as this chipset is, deciding that you want a P35-based motherboard is not enough. Most major manufacturers have already launched several different models powered by the chipset, to give an example, ASUS currently offers a dozen motherboards models all based on the Intel P35.

We have rounded up some of the better examples available for one big article where we shall compare them side by side. Although we have nine motherboards to compare, they come from just four different manufacturers: Abit, ASUS, ECS and Gigabyte. These boards range from $90, all the way up to $230.