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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 Deluxe – Features

For those that want it all, we have the ASUS P5K Deluxe featuring pretty much everything with the exception of the kitchen sink! Unfortunately these don't come cheap as ASUS are asking ~$220 for this motherboard making it 30% more expensive than Abit’s top dog. The extra $35 does buy you quite a lot more in the features department and should you need them the P5K Deluxe could be a very viable solution.

When it comes to networking you get dual Gigabit LAN but unlike the IP35 Pro one of the controllers is linked to the PCI Express bus. The P5K Deluxe is equipped with a Marvell 88E8056 and a Realtek RTL8110SC controller (this last one connected to the much slower PCI bus). However, for those that fail to get excited over wired solutions might want to pay attention to the wireless access point situated on this motherboard.

The ASUS WiFi-AP Solo feature allows users to create a complete wireless home network in either AP or wireless client mode. The motherboard has the capability of providing these functions even when the PC is in sleep mode, so users could potentially use Skype as a true replacement for traditional long distance telephone service. The P5K Deluxe comes bundled with an external omni-directional antenna that can sit up on top of the computer case.

The ASUS P5K Deluxe's storage capabilities mimic those from other high-end competing products. There are six SATA ports which are connected to the ICH9R southbridge chip. This means each port is capable of AHCI & RAID modes supporting RAID 0/1/5/10.

ASUS has also included the JMicron JMB363 controller for an additional two SATA ports used to support external hard drives. These eSATA ports can be found on the I/O panel, but please note ASUS has not included any eSATA cables in the package. The JMicron JMB363 controller uses a single PCI Express x1 lane and also offers support for two PATA devices via a single IDE port.

The P5K Deluxe supports a total of ten USB 2.0 ports, eight of which are accessible right out of the box leaving the other two for front panel USB ports found on most computer cases. The board also features support for two Firewire ports using an Agere FW322 1394a controller. While one of these Firewire ports can be found on a supplied expansion bracket, the other is conveniently placed on the I/O panel. This allows the P5K Deluxe to offer a broad range of connectivity much of which is accessible from the I/O panel.

Unlike the Abit boards which used high-end Realtek audio controllers this ASUS motherboard uses an ADI AD1988B audio solution. This is the most complete solution offered by ADI featuring 10 DACs/6 ADCs, 3 stereo headphone ports, peripheral sensing, jack retasking and microphone array capture, along with S/PDIF in and out. Completing the impressive list of features found on the P5K Deluxe is an 8-phase power design.

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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.