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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-SE – Features

The ASUS P5K-SE could be considered the runt of this pack featuring a less appealing design, a more limited list of features, while measuring just 19.3 centimeters wide. Priced at around $120 the ASUS P5K-SE looks a little overpriced sitting next to the Abit IP35-E. So what does the budget P5K-SE motherboard have for us? Well, other than the small and unusual board design, ASUS has managed to include a reasonable amount of features such as a single Gigabit LAN controller, 8-channel audio and eSATA. Interestingly while the board does only feature a 4-phase power design, ASUS has gone with high-quality conductive polymer capacitors.

Although the P5K-SE might not look the part it is a very well put together motherboard featuring a number of quality components. Audio is delivered by a Realtek ALC883 controller which is a budget option offering 8-channel support. So, the Abit IP35-E is equipped with a slightly better audio controller then. What the IP35-E does not have is eSATA support which can be found on the P5K-SE thanks to the inclusion of a Marvell 88SE6111 controller supporting a single SATA port.

The storage abilities of the P5K-SE have been compromised when compared to the P5K-E and P5K Deluxe boards as support for just four SATA ports exist without the option of RAID. This is due to the use of the ICH9 southbridge which is quite featureless when it comes to storage as Intel's Matrix storage technology is not included.

The ASUS P5K-SE features a 24-pin power connector along with a 4-pin 12v power connector and four DDR2 DIMM slots supporting up to 8GB of either DDR2-667 or DDR2-800 memory in dual-channel mode. For expansion the P5K-SE includes a single PCI Express x16 port along with three PCIe x1 ports and two standard PCI ports. This means Crossfire is not supported on this motherboard which shouldn't be an issue. Given how much it costs to purchase two Radeon graphics cards I am sure anyone considering this option will be prepared to spend more on the motherboard.

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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.