Another day another Asus product in my lab (or as one of my friends calls it Aladdin’s Cave). This time we have the P5Q Deluxe up on the grill, this DDR2 P45 based offering from Asus has the looks and specifications of a winner. But how well will it take the heat? Let’s turn up the gas and see if it cooks evenly on both sides.
Product: Asus P5Q Deluxe
Author: Sean Kalinich
Reviewed on: August 30th 2008
Product cost: $199.99 (at Newegg.com)
Manufacturer: Asus
Spelling and Grammatical editor: Planetx64 Staff
{mospagebreak title=Packaging and Accessories}
Packaging and Accessories:
I am glad to see that Asus is working on their packaging, lately the boxes that come out of Asus are much more subdued and less like gaudy. This is a good trend and (to me at least) lends a level of class to their products as gaudy packaging tends to give the impression of a cheap product.
The front of the box proclaims three of the major features of the P5Q and indeed these three are major features for Asus as a whole. Express Gate, 16 Phase Power and EPU 6 Engine; I will cover each of these features in detail later. Opening the flap there are more features to be shown off. Flipping the box over, yep you guessed it, another group of features.
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Opening up the box gives us a view of the usual jumble of cables, underneath all of this sits the prize.
After digging the P5Q Deluxe out of the box and removing the static bag, a thought struck me… when did it become ok for manufactures to put stickers all over our mainboards? We are subjected to their “adds” on the box but after we have bought the product do we really need to be reminded with stickers covering components on the boards? I hope that this trend goes away, as I think it is a waste of time and money. Well that little rant out of the way let’s take a look at the goodies and specifications you get when you pick up the P5Q Deluxe.
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CPU |
LGA775 socket for Intel® Core™2 Extreme/Core™2 Quad/Core™2 Duo/Pentium® dual-core/Celeron® dual-core/Celeron® Processors |
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Chipset |
Intel P45/ICH10R with Intel® Fast Memory Access(FMA) support. |
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Front Side Bus |
1600/1333/1066/800 MHz |
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Memory |
4 x DIMM, max. 16GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory |
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Expansion Slots |
2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, support ATI CrossFireX™ technology at x8 link |
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CrossFire |
Support ATI CrossFireX™ technology, up to Quad CrossFireX |
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Storage |
Southbridge |
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LAN |
Dual Gigabit LAN controllers |
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Audio |
ADI® AD2000B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC |
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IEEE 1394 |
LSI®L-FW3227 controller supports 2 x IEEE 1394a ports(one at mid-board; one at back panel) |
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USB |
Max. 10 USB2.0/1.1 ports(4 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) |
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ASUS AI Lifestyle Features |
ASUS Exclusive Features: |
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Overclocking Features |
ASUS AI Booster |
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Special Features |
ASUS MyLogo 3 |
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Back Panel I/O Ports |
1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse combo port |
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Internal I/O Connectors |
2 x USB connectors support additional 4 USB ports |
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BIOS |
16MB AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.4 |
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Manageability |
WOL by PME, WOR by PME, WOR by Ring, Chasis Intrusion, PXE |
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Accessories |
1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable |
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Support Disc |
ASUS PC Probe II |
That is quite a list.
{mospagebreak title=Features}
Features:
If I were to list everything that Asus lists as a feature on the P5Q Deluxe this would be a very long article.
Instead I will cover the ones that offer the consumer and enthusiast the most or are the most interesting.
Express Gate:
This is an interesting feature and has great merit. I am not sure how much use it would be put to though. It is really nothing more than a stripped down version of Linux shoved into a small SSD. This OS has the ability to mount the OS drive and to access data (pictures and video only.) that is stored there. Asus claims this is an “Instant Gateway to Fun”, but to be honest after playing around with it a few times the novelty wore off and I actually disabled it so that I did not see the screen each time I booted the system. I usually have a laptop on so I do not need a 5 Second boot and the OS was too limited to be of much use to me. It cannot even be used as a built in diagnostic or recovery device. If your system crashes and you are unable to restore the OS you would only have access to your picture and video files for backup and recovery. There is no CLI that can be readily access. Granted there are a couple of hacked versions out on the net but they should be approached with caution.
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Drive Expert:
This is a nice feature that finally puts real hardware based RAID onto a consumer board, granted you are only getting RAID 0 and 1, but it is a start. Powered by a Silicone Image SIL5723 users are able to choose between Easy Backup (RAID 1) and Super Speed (RAID 0). You can enable this feature either through the BIOS or using the Drive Expert utility. After tinkering with this I would recommend (as Does Asus) three drives for this; one for the OS and two for the Drive Expert Storage. Drive Expert is also available inside the Express Gate OS.
Overclocking:
While not technically a feature, Asus does make their boards with tweaking and overclocking in mind. Only DFI puts more effort into designing their boards for the overclocker. With tools such as AI Booster, Fan Expert, AI Suite and Asus PC Probe II you are offered a wealth of resources right out of the box for your overclocking desires. But it is not just software gimmicks; Asus has fine tuned the BIOS to help you as well. By allowing for adjustment of FSB and PCI-e frequencies in 1MHz steps you get great control over your clocks. Voltages are stepped in .00625v increments for precise voltage control. There are also a larger number of steps for RAM, Northbridge, CPU PLL, and Hyper Transport (VTT CPU) than most other boards. These, when rolled together, make overclocking on an Asus board a feature all its own.
16-Phase Power:
Doubling the old 8-Phase setups on older Asus mainboards, the new 16-Phase design offers increased power stability, lower heat, longer component life, lower power loss, and of course better overclocking.
To enhance this feature Asus is using high quality components such as Japanese conductive polymer capacitors, ferrite core chokes, and RDS (on) MOSFETs.
EPU-6 Engine:
EPU-6 Engine is a new variant on the EPU system that allows for real time voltage control over all parts of the system. Yep that is what it says on paper, but I found out that while this is a very good product you have to make sure that you have compatible products. For example, in my test system I used a 4850 from GIGABYTE. The EPU-6 would not control the voltage or even give me a reading on it, all the system said was that my GPU was not supported. I also had issues with Kingston RAM and I ended up using the Mushkin XP 8500 which worked without a problem. Other than the issue with the GPU I found the software side to be very easy to use and interesting to watch. The read out gives you information on current CPU voltage, overall power savings and an estimated amount of the reduction in CO2 emissions your system is putting out. I let the system run for 12 hours to see what my CO2 reduction would be and was surprised by the amount it claimed I was saving. EPU-6 also controls the phases, increasing or reducing them as needed.
I tested the power consumption of the P5Q Deluxe at Stock Speeds and while Overclocked.
| Power -stock | Watts | |
| Idle | 159 | |
| Load | High | Low |
| Gaming | 238 | 222 |
| Render | 244 | 220 |
| HyperPi | 249 | 232 |
| Power – OC | ||
| Idle | 257 | |
| Load | High | Low |
| Gaming | 349 | 333 |
| Render | 358 | 345 |
| HyperPi | 360 | 343 |
These numbers represent power draw from the wall as read by a P3 Kill A Watt.
At stock the P5Q does not do badly at all with the high-end hardware I have in it. Overclocking is another matter entirely, if you plan to max out the P5Q like I did you may want to turn everything else in the house off.
CrossfireX:
While the P5Q Deluxe does have three PCI-e x16 Physical slots they do not all run at x16. The Primary (Blue) slot is full x16, the first black slot maxes out at x8 and the final slot is only x4. Bear this in mind as the reduction in lanes will impact your Crossfire performance.
For more information on the P5Q Deluxe’s features take a look here
{mospagebreak title=Board Layout}
Board Layout:
The P5Q Deluxe is a good looking board and does have a fairly decent layout, but there are some glaring issues with it as well.
One of the first to hit me is the placement of the SATA ports. For some reason Asus chose to put them in line with the PCI-e slot and right next to the memory slots. And while they did rotate 2 SATA ports by 90 degrees the remaining four are the regular orientation. SATA 6 is not usable if you have a larger GPU in the system SATA 1-3 are usable but not in the best place. SATA 4 and 5 are rotated and are the two that are the most likely to be used. Asus did rotate the PATA port which helps maintain a lower profile for the board. The next issue with the layout is again related to the primary PCI-e slot. It is in line with the lower ends of the RAM slots. Again this placement causes more problems making it very hard to get RAM in or out of these slots while a GPU is installed.
The last issue is the spacing between PCI-e slot 3 and 4. It is very tight here and being lower in the case might cause a pocket of hot air if you are running Crossfire. Amongst the good about the layout is the amount of space around the CPU, the heat pipe system does not interfere with third party coolers. I also am glad of the fact that Asus put both a PCI and a PCI-e x1 slot above the x16 PCI-e slot. This allows for more flexibility with third party add in cards. They have also tapered the NB cooler to allow clearance by cards used in these two slots.
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{mospagebreak title=Bios}
BIOS:
Asus has always made a good BIOS, well for the most part they have always made a good BIOS. As with anything there are exceptions. The P5Q Deluxe has a well laid out BIOS with a good deal of tweaks available to the serious overclocker or for the person that just wants to max out stock performance. As I mentioned above adjustments are very granular which allow for a very good deal of control.
{mospagebreak title=Overclocking}
Overclocking:
As I mentioned above the P5Q deluxe seems to have been designed with the overclocker in mind. But it is not easy to use right out of the box. If you are used to working with the X48 or older chipsets you will find that what you have done in the past for good overclocks will probably not work. I found there are two ways to overclock the P5Q Deluxe. There is a quick and dirty way where all you need to do is set the vCore and vDIMM allowing the P5Q to set the voltages it thinks it should use for everything else and a more time consuming one where you need to set the vCore, vDIMM, CPU PLL, VTT and NB voltage very carefully to get the proper balance. This second choice is much harder as the P5Q Deluxe is very picky about voltage; too much or not enough and you have a board that wont post, but once you find the right spot you have a very clockable board. The first choice has some very large downfalls, if you allow the board to choose the other voltage settings you could end up pushing too much voltage into CPU PLL or the Northbridge. There have been reports of the P5Q pushing as much as 1.8v into the CPU! That is simply too high and more than outweighs the ease of this type of OC. In my testing I tried both methods I was able to get my QX9770 up to 490FSB with Memory at 1176MHz. For the quick and dirty method I had to push 1.5125 to get this stable and 1.5 to even boot into windows. Using the longer and more painstaking method I was able to reproduce this with as little as 1.425v (Windows and CPUz) but needed 1.45 to get the system stable. The maximum clock I was able to get a CPUz shot at was 500MHz FSB. I was also able to run HyperPi and Cinebench at 495 FSB but all other applications crashed or caused the system to reboot. Overclock settings and CPUz links below the performance numbers while at 490 FSB are in the performance section.
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{mospagebreak title=Performance Part I}
Performance:
Test system:
Intel QX9770 3.2GHz (Stepping C0)
Asus P5Q Deluxe (BIOS 0803)
4GB (2GBx2)Mushkin Ascent XP2 8500 DDR2 1066
GIGABYTE GV-R485-512H-B ATi 4850 512MB (2x for Crossfire testing)
Western Digital RaptorX 150GB 10k RPM HDD
Plextor PATA BluRay drive.
CoolerMaster 850Watt PSU (RS-850-EMBA)
Corsair Nautilus 500
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64
Catalyst 8.7 drivers
Subsystem Performance:
Drive Performance:
The drive performance on the P5Q was much better than I saw on the GIGABYTE EP45T-DSR3 and pretty much even with the performance of the Asus P5E64-WS Evolution.
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Memory:
Memory bandwidth at 1066 (Stock speed for the Mushkin XP 8500) was what you would expect and actually showed better bandwidth potential than DDR3 1600MHz.
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Audio:
The Audio provided by the ADI AD2000B was crisp and clean for an onboard CODEC. I did not notice any performance issues during gaming or A/V playback.
Performance Applications:
PCMark Vantage:
PCMark Vantage is always a good test of basic system performance under Vista and we see the P5Q Deluxe giving us some good numbers for x86 and x64 performance, at stock and while Overclocked to 3.96GHz.
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PCMark Vantage -x86 |
PCMark Vantage -x64 |
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Stock |
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490×8 OC |
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Cinebench R10:
Cinebench is from Maxon; the makers of Cinema4D and it not much more than a synthetic render test.
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Cinebench R10 x64 Stock |
Cinebench R10 x64 490×8 OC |
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Again we see good numbers from the P5Q Deluxe.
LightWave 9.3 x64:
Our Lightwave testing is a little different than Cinebench. Instead of using a synthetic test we run a real-world render on a single frame (Frame 32) of Moonbase Scene found on the LightWave 8.0 content CDs.
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LightWave 9.3 x64 Stock |
LightWave 9.3 x64 490×8 OC |
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The P5Q is fast but overclocked to 3.96GHz it renders our test scene in less than 4 minutes (almost a full minute faster than at stock).
HyperPi 0.99b:
One of our stock tests HyperPi runs an instance of SuperPi on each core concurrently. This is a very good test of CPU to Memory to HDD stability and performance.
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HyperPi 32M Stock |
HyperPi 32M 490×8 OC |
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Again the P5Q shows some impressive numbers at stock and manages to shave a full two minutes of off the 32M time while overclocked.
Video Transcoding with AutoGK 2.45
Video Transcoding is something just about everyone does now, whether you are backing up your DVDs or trying to put your favorite movies on your iPod or iPhone. AutoGK is an all-in-one package that uses VirtualDub and allows for ease of use and installation. It is also a great test of system performance. I used a two and one half hour video that I shot and authored in DVD Studio HD.
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AutoGK Stock |
AutoGK 490×8 OC |
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Photoshop CS3
Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard for image manipulation today. Even in the consumer segment there is Photoshop elements which is nothing more than a scaled down version of Photoshop. For testing I used DriverHeaven.net’s Photoshop test.
Below are the results
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{mospagebreak title=Performance Part II}
Performance Gaming:
3DMark Vantage:
The only synthetic gaming test we use is 3DMark Vantage, this, like PCMark Vantage, is a good test to get a general feel for how well your system is able to handle gaming in Vista under DX9 and 10.
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3DMark Vantage Single GPU |
3DMark Vantage 490×8 OC Single GPU |
3DMark Vantage CrossfireX |
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Bioshock:
Bioshock is a great game and also good for testing system performance in Vista. For testing I ran the “Welcome to Rapture” level from after you acquire the Electro Bolt Plasmid until you reach Medical. Settings are shown below.with the only difference being vertical sync was disabled.
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The P5Q had no problems with Bioshock although there was almost no performance difference while overclocked we did see good gains under Crossfire.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare:
Fast paced and nerve-wracking Call of Duty Modern Warfare is a great game and while not amazingly hard on a system can show weak spots in your gaming rig if you have any. For testing I ran the “Crew Expendable” Level from your drop onto the ship to the opening of the container.
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Assassin’s Creed (DX10):
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed is a very interesting game, not only for its story line but for the way it handles combat. I like to run the original release with the DX10.1 features still there to get the full feel of the game. My Testing level consisted of the beginning level until you are sent outside of the city on your first new mission.
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Lost Planet Extreme Condition (DX10)
Lost Planet was one of the first DX10 games and was also designed with Quad Core CPUs in mind. Unfortunately, it is also extremely hard on a system while running in DX10 mode even when using multiple GPUs. For testing I ran the beginning level until I reached the second warehouse.
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Gaming:
When I started testing the P5Q I had mixed feelings about its gaming performance. While I had no doubt it would be very quick with a single card I was concerned that Crossfire would suffer from the lack of PCI-e lanes in the 2nd PCI-e Slot. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case. The P5Q in Crossfire mode with the HD4850 performed on par with the P5E64 WS Evolution. Now that is not to say that with a more powerful card, like the 4870 or either of the X2s, you would not see a difference just that for the most part if you are running a standard GPU you will not miss the other 8 lanes.
{mospagebreak title=Value}
Price/Warranty:
The P5Q Deluxe can be had for the price of $199.99 (Newegg.com) . This is a very good price for the overclocking potential and general performance of the board and one that puts it about mid pack for other P45 based boards. Asus offers a three-year limited warranty on defects in manufacture.
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion:
I was very impressed with the P5Q Deluxe, although I am not so sure that the EPU6 is as revolutionary as Asus makes it out to be, the Full 16-Phase power does offer every bit of the stability and power they claim. I have been able to reach clocks that were simply out of range on other boards. I do wish they would change the way the Auto voltage settings work as these may cause problems for many users. Stock performance was also very quick and responsive. For the money you are not going to find a better DDR2 P45 board for your overclocking habit. Yet all was not beer and pizza as some of the features included like Express Gate and Drive Expert were pretty useless in my opinion; although I am sure that there are some that will make full use of them.
To wrap things up the P5Q Deluxe gets a high recommendation from us here. For the performance and overclocking potential it shows we are happy to award the P5Q Deluxe our Best on the Planet Award.
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