Hello people!
Well, in the middle of all the drama that’s going on in the Graphics industry, we bring you a motherboard performance review for a change.
We take a close look at the latest offering of Intel P45 chipset from the ASUS, the ASUS P5Q Deluxe motherboard. Today, the chipset scene is very confusing for the buyer. Intel’s own P35 chipset is being replaced here by P45. And mind you P35 is not that old or bad in the first place. P45 is the second chipset in the 4 series by the Intel following the release of X48 few months ago.
Lets have a quick look at the chipset first.
[BREAK=The Chipset]
This is the first chipset that debuted with 65nm fabrication. All previous chipsets were 90nm. But what does P45 offer? And is it revolutionary chipset?
The answer to above questions are not simple. Is it revolutionary? Well yes and no. Its more of an evolutionary upgrade from the P35. Few things that should have been there in the P35 in the first place are now fixed by Intel here.
P45 has PCI Express 2.0 bus. The x16 bus is not split into x8 – x8 for the crossfire. This is what P35 lacked and it was the cause of the poor crossfire implementation in the P35 motherboards.
With that taken care off, this chipset does sound more promising for the enthusiasts who don’t want to spend insane money on X48 chipset motherboards.
The next change you will see on the P45 series boards is that they are coupled with ICH10 series southbridge. This is the new sourthbridge from Intel, and as per the Intel tradition the P series gets the first taste of this over X series. The ICH10 brings the end of LPT support from Intel. ( Had to happen sooner or later ). Other than this, there is nothing remarkable to tell about this chipset.
So lets have the look at the board itself now.
[BREAK=The packaging and contents]
The packaging.
The P5Q deluxe comes in the glossy blue board advertising all its features. Shiny!!!
And here is whats bundled with the board. Usual manual, cd, sata and ide cables, USB bracket and fan for mosfer sinks is provided.
Lets move on to important stuff.
[BREAK=Specifications]
Specifications.
CPU: Supports all Quad/Dual Core Intel LGA775 Processors till date.
NorthBridge: Intel P45 Express w/ PCI-E 2.0 support
SouthBridge: ICH10R
RAM Support: 667/800/1066/1200 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM. Supports 8GB maximum in 4 slots.
Storage Solution: 6x SATA 3.0Gbps via ICH10R, 2x SATA 3.0Gbps via Silicon Image SIL3752 controller, 1x UDMA133 & 1x eSATA 3.0Gbps via Marvell 88SE6121 controller
Sound / Audio: Analog Devices ADI2000B 8 channel High Definition Audio Codec with Optical and Coaxial SPDIF
Networking: 1x Marvell 88E8001 PCI Controller, 1x Marvell 88E8056 PCIe Controller
Firewire Port: LSI Firewire 400 dual port controller
Expansion Slots: 3x PCIe x16 slots, (x16x4x4 or x8x8), 2x PCIe x1 slots, 2x PCI 32bit PCI2.3 compliant slot
[BREAK=Board Layout]
The Board Layout.
Let’s first take a look at the board design and layout.
On the first look, the board looks clean. Typical ASUS layout. The CPU socket area is clean. No major obstacles. So even big coolers like TRUE and Xigmatek HDT series can easily fit this board.
As usual, plenty of copper dumped on the board by ASUS to cool the mosfets, North bridge and southbridge. All Passive cooling. Asus did provide the fan one can attach on the mosfet sinks for better cooling. But to be honest, its not needed.
The board is equipped with 16 phase power supply for the CPU. Which is first from ASUS. It also provides 2 phase power for the memory and chipset.
Asus has also provided users with the onboard Power and Reset buttons.
The backplate contains 2 LAN ports, 6 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 eSATA, HD audio, SPDIF and Optical out. Only 1 PS2 port is there and it can be either used for mouse or keyboard.
The only thing I hate about the layout of this board layout is the placement of one of the SATA ports.
This board ships with 6 SATA ports through ICH10R and 2 more through Silicon image 3752 chip.
Now the problem lies with one of the 6 ICH10R ports. Asus has placed this port in the board in a way that it will be useless when you install cards like 8800GT/ GTX/ GT200 series / Radeon HD 38xx/ 48xx series. So basically if you install any decent GPU, you will loose 1 SATA port. This is a big blow for person like me who does use 6 SATA devices.
If it was one of the silicon image port, it wouldn’t have mattered as much. But its one of the native ICH10R port that is rendered useless by this placement.
EDIT : A member have reported that he was able to fit the L shaped sata connector into that connector. I did try with one of the L shaped connector which I have with me and it was too wide to fit in properly. Its still inconvenience to the users. I have ordered 2-3 different L shaped connectors of different make to check the compatibility. If any update, it will be added here.
[BREAK=Board Features]
Board features.
This board does feature some rather interesting new feature. It comes with the onboard SSD which basically carries an entire linux based os. It lets you browse the internet, use VOIP, and do basic computing functions without booting your PC into windows.
A splash screen pops up at the boot and user can choose to enter the OS or bios or use any of the given features on screen which does not need booting into windows.
Really handy for some people, but honestly, I could care less about all this. Nobody is going to buy this board for this feature. But its really innovative stuff and would be welcomed by many if it becomes a standard offering.
[BREAK=Board Features continued]
There is 1 more things I didn’t really like about this board.
Only one of the two LAN ports is PCI express gigabit lan provided by Marvell 88E8056.
The second one however is PCI gigabit LAN provided by Marvell 88E8001. Why on this planet ASUS did that? I simply cant grasp the logic behind this. Its not a cheap mainstream board that they can justify cost cutting like this on a board which is targeted towards enthusiast.
I agree that this wont be a major issue for many people, but it’s a bad thing and needs to be pointed out.
Other than this, the board is absolutely flawless in design.
Few more pictures of the board components.
The Clock Generator IC
Silicon Image Controller chip.
Express Gate SSD.
ADI2000BX audio codec chip.
[BREAK=The Bios]
The bios.
The board has American Megatrends bios. It ships with all the options you will ever need for overclocking. I will go though the pictures of the bios screens first.
[BREAK=Voltage Options in Bios]
Voltage options in bios.
Well, there are plenty to play with. All options you need are here and voltage ranges are extensive. vCore can go all the way upto 1.7v.
Hold on, this is not it. It can further go up to chip killing 2.1v. To get this range, you have to access a jumper located on the motherboard. This is good thing as it will prevent a newbie from screwing his chip accidentally. But the DICE / LN2 benchers will have access to all the voltage they need to feed without vmods.
CPU PLL goes all the way upto 2.78v. GTL voltage range can be set up and down in percentage of VTT voltage and its not restricted like most other boards.
FSB Termination voltage can be upped to 1.9v
vDIMM can go upto monstrous 3.08v. With another jumper on board, Northbridge voltage can be upped to massive 2.06v.
So if you feel like killing your chip, this board will do the job for sure
The entire range of options and voltage range can be mind boggling for a person who is new to overclocking or even for a person who is relatively experienced. Its can get confusing at times. But this is good thing for hardcore overclockers who are given absolute control over all the voltages.
Two thumbs up to ASUS for this. This is not typical ASUS thing. So this came as nice surprise. This board feels more like DFI than ASUS.
Enough of these talks. Let’s move onto test setup and benchmarks.
[BREAK=Test Setup & How we tested.]
Test setup
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E7200
Mortherboards : ASUS P5Q Deluxe , Gigabyte X48 DQ6
RAM : OCZ Platinum DDR2 1000 2x2GB kit
PSU : Tagan BZ 800
Graphics Card : Sapphire HD4870 512MB GDDR5
Hard Drive : 4x Seagate ST3750330AS, 1 x Seagate ST3500630AS
Optical Drive : Samsung SH-S223F
Operating System : Windows Vista Ultimate Retail X64 edition with SP1.
For the entire performance review, the FSB was bumped to 415Mhz with Ram running at 1040Mhz @ 5-5-5-20 on both the boards. Both boards required 1.344vcore to achieve this result. So all the results are with overclocked E7200. The CPU basically runs at 3.94Mhz.
I did try to get settings exactly same on both the boards, but as many of you must be aware, it does not happen too often. I experienced similar issue here as well. I could not get the P5Q deluxe to be stable with RAM PERFORMANCE LEVEL of 7. It simply wont get stable no matter what voltage or other timings I set. The Orthos blend test will fail after 7-8 minutes.
And as I had limited time to play with the board, I had to leave it to auto ( this sets the performance level at 8 ) and continue with the review. This should cause significant impact on the memory performance level. Specially memory read figures as we will see later on in the review.
Latest version of Intel INF update utility, Microsoft Direct X, OpenAL and latest ATI CCC 8.7 beta was used for graphic card.
All gaming results are with the card at stock speed of 750/900.
[BREAK=SuperPi Mod 1.5]
SuperPI Mod 1.5
A very popular benchmark used these days. No special explanation needed for this. Directly to the results.
As expected the X48 is considerably faster in 8M and its faster in 1M as well. This is similar situation to P35 vs X38. Tighter internal timings gives X48 the edge.
[BREAK=Cinebench R10 x64]
Cinebench R10 X64
Cinebench over years has become a standard for CPU subsystem benchmarking. The latest Cinebench R10 X64 uses Cinema4D to test the processor.
Here are the numbers.
Here the P5Q deluxe is slightly lagging behind the X48 DQ6.
[BREAK=HD Tach]
HD Tach 3.0.4.0
HD Tach is the hard drive benchmarking utility. It can measure the CPU usage while using the HDD, Burst speed and average read speed of the hard drive.
Lets have a look.
Some weird results here. I did not expect P5Q deluxe to do as bad in burst speed test. Specially with the ICH10R. So I re ran the tests multiple time but the results with same. I am not sure if this is issue with the board bios or compatibility issue with HD Tach. But these are the numbers I got.
The average read speed and access times were close. CPU usage on both the boards was same at 2%
[BREAK=Everest Ultimate]
Everest Ultimate Edition
Everest Ultimate is ultimate benchmarking, system information and hardware monitoring suit. Very popular with overclockers and it provides wide variety of benchmarks and hardware monitoring options.
We will be using this to test the memory and cpu performance on boat the boards.
As expected, the P5Q is lagging behind the x48. More so in the memory read tests. This is mainly because of the different performance level setting on the two boards.
In the CPU benchmarks, the P5Q is very competitive. It almost matches the x48 DQ6.
Now let’s move onto gaming tests.
[BREAK=How we tested the games.]
How we tested the games.
Testing method for games has changed this time around. Unlike past reviews, I have now completely switched over to the Windows Vista Ultimate X64. This means the DX10 games will now be benched in DX10 render path mode.
Both Crysis and World In conflict were benched in DX10 render path mode. All in games options were maxed out as we were using the shiny new ATI Radeon HD4870 for this review.
[BREAK=Crysis]
Crysis.
Oh yes, the ever so debated game out there. Many people call it badly coded game, many curse it for being just a technological demonstration. But surely, no review will can ignore or eliminate this game from their gaming tests
So let’s have a look.
As you can see, the game results are almost identical. X48 is marginally faster at 1680x1050. But difference is inconclusive.
[BREAK=World In Conflict]
World In Conflict
World in conflict is one of the best strategy games that came out recently. The graphics and gameplay both are absolutely stunning, and its one of the games that is really CPU and GPU intensive.
We used game’s in build benchmark system. For this test, the graphics setting were set to very high in the game. This enables DX10 render path and also enables 4x AA.
As you can see, the results are almost identical. Nothing to choose between two boards here.
[BREAK=Race Driver Grid]
Race Driver Grid
One of the new racing game that came out from the codemasters. Codemasters in past had a reputation of churning out outstanding racing simulation games. Grid is no exception to that. Beautiful game with some great cars and circuits.
This game is very hard to benchmark. There is no built in benchmark system. And races are fully dynamic. So you have to drive through circuit and measure fps using fraps. And to add to that, I am not a pro. So I usually spin out atleast once in this game. Making it almost impossible to do identical run. I tried my best to drive as carefully and uniformly. This game was not that hard on the HD4870. So I directly benched the 1680x1050. All in game settings were maxed out.
Again results are very close. With dynamic nature of this game, the difference in FPS might be down to my spin which put my car and me in cloud of smoke
[BREAK=Mass Effect]
Mass Effect.
This game uses the Unreal Engine 3. This is the reason we dropped the bioshock and UT3 from out benchmark suit. The game graphics are typical of UT3 engine. But the facial expressions and details are extremely accurate in this game. Some stunning graphics effects. The gameplay does require some time getting used to but overall this game is great benchmark.
Again in this game we directly jumped to 1680x1050 resolution as this game was easily handled by HD4870. Fraps was used to benchmark the game.
Again as you can see, results are very close.
[BREAK=3DMark Vantage]
3DMark Vantage
This is the latest 3d benchmark from FutureMark. Its first DX10 benchmark. A set of synthetic CPU and GPU tests to evaluate system performance. Though its synthetic in nature, its good benchmark for relative comparison.
Here are the results. As you can see, again the results are very close.
[BREAK=Overclocking.]
Overclocking.
Now this is where the P5Q deluxe is supposed to shine. The voltage options are there. The chipset has created a reputation for itself over past few weeks.
The vdroop is almost nil on this board. Voltage levels were stable. Setting 1.35vcore gets me 1.344 under load conditions with loadline calibration enabled in the bios. And it stays there and does not fluctuate.
So what were the results?
Sadly, we were stuck with Intel C2D E7200 and A 4 GB Ram kit which wont do mad 1200Mhz. Though a great overclocking combo, I was limited to 520 – 530 Mhz FSB on X48 DQ6. And it was mainly down to the RAM. I do have very fast 2 GB kit, but I was not able to do a detailed benchmark session with this board.
After putting the multiplier down to 6 and upping the northbridge voltage to 1.3v, I tried to boot at 500Mhz. It wont boot. So I played with FSB termination voltage and with GTL ratio ( I went down from 0.630 to 0.60 ). This allowed me to boot and bench at 510. But the board again refused to boot at 520. After bumping the vdimm to 2.15 and upping the PLL and VTT voltages and also upping NB GTL voltages, it gave stable 527Mhz.
It wont go any higher than this on this CPU. Its down to CPU and RAM limitations. With capable CPU, and some good cooling I am sure it will do lot more. But even this is very impressive. X48 DQ6 has proven to be exceptional overclocker in the first place. And any motherboard which can match it must be equally good if not better.
This motherboard has 3 FSB straps. FSB to memory ratio in the end depends on the strap you select. And chip and ram behaves differently with each strap.
As a final comment on the overclocking, I would like to say that this is more than capable board. It went to 425Mhz without touching anything except vcore and ram speed manually and bumping the Northbridge to 1.25v. So it can be a noob’s board. And if you want to go more, it has all the options you will need.
But…………………….
Ahh, this but grabs attention. Its not as easy to overclock if you want to get the best out of your system. It took me hours and hours of trial and error to get to 527Mhz FSB. On X48 DQ6 I was able to reach there within 15 minutes on the first day I got this board. P5Q deluxe shows its raw nature here. It’s not the easiest board to get the work done. But it can do amazing things if pushed.
Some people will avoid this board for the same reason they want to avoid DFI. It can be a mad mad board and can frustrate you at times with too many options.
I can’t really blame ASUS for that. And honestly I love this board. It has personality. In fact I love this board so much that I have almost decided to buy this as my benchmark board with X48 remaining in main system for daily usage.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion.
There are plenty of things to say about this board.
It’s not perfect. It has its share of flaws. Its has that raw feel to its bios. Plenty of good things like Express Gate SSD, great voltage options, great performance. I can go on forever.
Quiet frankly, I love this board. It’s the first ASUS I liked in long long time. This reminds me of the P5B days. The board which still today holds its own. And I expect this board to leave behind similar legacy.
Yes, there are some flaws which is stopping me from putting it in my main system. It lacks flawless ness of Gigabyte. Gigabyte X48 DQ6 is clean board with a layout that’s just perfect. P5Q still sports age old PCI Gigabit LAN. I still can’t figure out why ASUS decided to go for 1 PCI express and one PCI gigabit LAN.
But even with all its flaws, its mad side is what draws my attention. Yes it sounds weird, but it’s the truth. An enthusiast overclocker who is ready to tweak his system and spend time with it while doing so will adore this board. Asus has managed to achieve something remarkable with this board. It’s a first ASUS I have ever used which brings back the memories of DFI madness. And this is complement to ASUS.
The Rashi has recently announced off the shelf replacement for ASUS motherboards. This means the after sales repair support will be a lot tension free for the customers. You basically get the new board if this goes bust.
This board retails at around Rs.12,000 locally in Mumbai all inclusive. Might be cheaper at other places. This means, its not exactly cheap. But its well worth the price for what it offers.
If you want to buy a great overclocking board in this budget, look no further. This is the board to get.
Pros
* Features
* Impressive performance
* Voltage Options
* Bios
Cons
* Bios can confuse people. Not easy to push board to its potential because of this.
* SATA connector issue.
If and when I do get my hands on another 4870, I will bring the crossfire results for you guys.
Special thanks to Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd and ASUS for providing the P5Q deluxe for the review.
Thanks you for reading. Shripad signing out.
Digg The review Here : Digg - Asus P5Q Deluxe Performance Review
Well, in the middle of all the drama that’s going on in the Graphics industry, we bring you a motherboard performance review for a change.
We take a close look at the latest offering of Intel P45 chipset from the ASUS, the ASUS P5Q Deluxe motherboard. Today, the chipset scene is very confusing for the buyer. Intel’s own P35 chipset is being replaced here by P45. And mind you P35 is not that old or bad in the first place. P45 is the second chipset in the 4 series by the Intel following the release of X48 few months ago.
Lets have a quick look at the chipset first.
[BREAK=The Chipset]
This is the first chipset that debuted with 65nm fabrication. All previous chipsets were 90nm. But what does P45 offer? And is it revolutionary chipset?
The answer to above questions are not simple. Is it revolutionary? Well yes and no. Its more of an evolutionary upgrade from the P35. Few things that should have been there in the P35 in the first place are now fixed by Intel here.
P45 has PCI Express 2.0 bus. The x16 bus is not split into x8 – x8 for the crossfire. This is what P35 lacked and it was the cause of the poor crossfire implementation in the P35 motherboards.
With that taken care off, this chipset does sound more promising for the enthusiasts who don’t want to spend insane money on X48 chipset motherboards.
The next change you will see on the P45 series boards is that they are coupled with ICH10 series southbridge. This is the new sourthbridge from Intel, and as per the Intel tradition the P series gets the first taste of this over X series. The ICH10 brings the end of LPT support from Intel. ( Had to happen sooner or later ). Other than this, there is nothing remarkable to tell about this chipset.
So lets have the look at the board itself now.
[BREAK=The packaging and contents]
The packaging.
The P5Q deluxe comes in the glossy blue board advertising all its features. Shiny!!!
And here is whats bundled with the board. Usual manual, cd, sata and ide cables, USB bracket and fan for mosfer sinks is provided.
Lets move on to important stuff.
[BREAK=Specifications]
Specifications.
CPU: Supports all Quad/Dual Core Intel LGA775 Processors till date.
NorthBridge: Intel P45 Express w/ PCI-E 2.0 support
SouthBridge: ICH10R
RAM Support: 667/800/1066/1200 1.8v DDR2 SDRAM. Supports 8GB maximum in 4 slots.
Storage Solution: 6x SATA 3.0Gbps via ICH10R, 2x SATA 3.0Gbps via Silicon Image SIL3752 controller, 1x UDMA133 & 1x eSATA 3.0Gbps via Marvell 88SE6121 controller
Sound / Audio: Analog Devices ADI2000B 8 channel High Definition Audio Codec with Optical and Coaxial SPDIF
Networking: 1x Marvell 88E8001 PCI Controller, 1x Marvell 88E8056 PCIe Controller
Firewire Port: LSI Firewire 400 dual port controller
Expansion Slots: 3x PCIe x16 slots, (x16x4x4 or x8x8), 2x PCIe x1 slots, 2x PCI 32bit PCI2.3 compliant slot
[BREAK=Board Layout]
The Board Layout.
Let’s first take a look at the board design and layout.
On the first look, the board looks clean. Typical ASUS layout. The CPU socket area is clean. No major obstacles. So even big coolers like TRUE and Xigmatek HDT series can easily fit this board.
As usual, plenty of copper dumped on the board by ASUS to cool the mosfets, North bridge and southbridge. All Passive cooling. Asus did provide the fan one can attach on the mosfet sinks for better cooling. But to be honest, its not needed.
The board is equipped with 16 phase power supply for the CPU. Which is first from ASUS. It also provides 2 phase power for the memory and chipset.
Asus has also provided users with the onboard Power and Reset buttons.
The backplate contains 2 LAN ports, 6 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 eSATA, HD audio, SPDIF and Optical out. Only 1 PS2 port is there and it can be either used for mouse or keyboard.
The only thing I hate about the layout of this board layout is the placement of one of the SATA ports.
This board ships with 6 SATA ports through ICH10R and 2 more through Silicon image 3752 chip.
Now the problem lies with one of the 6 ICH10R ports. Asus has placed this port in the board in a way that it will be useless when you install cards like 8800GT/ GTX/ GT200 series / Radeon HD 38xx/ 48xx series. So basically if you install any decent GPU, you will loose 1 SATA port. This is a big blow for person like me who does use 6 SATA devices.
If it was one of the silicon image port, it wouldn’t have mattered as much. But its one of the native ICH10R port that is rendered useless by this placement.
EDIT : A member have reported that he was able to fit the L shaped sata connector into that connector. I did try with one of the L shaped connector which I have with me and it was too wide to fit in properly. Its still inconvenience to the users. I have ordered 2-3 different L shaped connectors of different make to check the compatibility. If any update, it will be added here.
[BREAK=Board Features]
Board features.
This board does feature some rather interesting new feature. It comes with the onboard SSD which basically carries an entire linux based os. It lets you browse the internet, use VOIP, and do basic computing functions without booting your PC into windows.
A splash screen pops up at the boot and user can choose to enter the OS or bios or use any of the given features on screen which does not need booting into windows.
Really handy for some people, but honestly, I could care less about all this. Nobody is going to buy this board for this feature. But its really innovative stuff and would be welcomed by many if it becomes a standard offering.
[BREAK=Board Features continued]
There is 1 more things I didn’t really like about this board.
Only one of the two LAN ports is PCI express gigabit lan provided by Marvell 88E8056.
The second one however is PCI gigabit LAN provided by Marvell 88E8001. Why on this planet ASUS did that? I simply cant grasp the logic behind this. Its not a cheap mainstream board that they can justify cost cutting like this on a board which is targeted towards enthusiast.
I agree that this wont be a major issue for many people, but it’s a bad thing and needs to be pointed out.
Other than this, the board is absolutely flawless in design.
Few more pictures of the board components.
The Clock Generator IC
Silicon Image Controller chip.
Express Gate SSD.
ADI2000BX audio codec chip.
[BREAK=The Bios]
The bios.
The board has American Megatrends bios. It ships with all the options you will ever need for overclocking. I will go though the pictures of the bios screens first.
[BREAK=Voltage Options in Bios]
Voltage options in bios.
Well, there are plenty to play with. All options you need are here and voltage ranges are extensive. vCore can go all the way upto 1.7v.
Hold on, this is not it. It can further go up to chip killing 2.1v. To get this range, you have to access a jumper located on the motherboard. This is good thing as it will prevent a newbie from screwing his chip accidentally. But the DICE / LN2 benchers will have access to all the voltage they need to feed without vmods.
CPU PLL goes all the way upto 2.78v. GTL voltage range can be set up and down in percentage of VTT voltage and its not restricted like most other boards.
FSB Termination voltage can be upped to 1.9v
vDIMM can go upto monstrous 3.08v. With another jumper on board, Northbridge voltage can be upped to massive 2.06v.
So if you feel like killing your chip, this board will do the job for sure
The entire range of options and voltage range can be mind boggling for a person who is new to overclocking or even for a person who is relatively experienced. Its can get confusing at times. But this is good thing for hardcore overclockers who are given absolute control over all the voltages.
Two thumbs up to ASUS for this. This is not typical ASUS thing. So this came as nice surprise. This board feels more like DFI than ASUS.
Enough of these talks. Let’s move onto test setup and benchmarks.
[BREAK=Test Setup & How we tested.]
Test setup
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo E7200
Mortherboards : ASUS P5Q Deluxe , Gigabyte X48 DQ6
RAM : OCZ Platinum DDR2 1000 2x2GB kit
PSU : Tagan BZ 800
Graphics Card : Sapphire HD4870 512MB GDDR5
Hard Drive : 4x Seagate ST3750330AS, 1 x Seagate ST3500630AS
Optical Drive : Samsung SH-S223F
Operating System : Windows Vista Ultimate Retail X64 edition with SP1.
For the entire performance review, the FSB was bumped to 415Mhz with Ram running at 1040Mhz @ 5-5-5-20 on both the boards. Both boards required 1.344vcore to achieve this result. So all the results are with overclocked E7200. The CPU basically runs at 3.94Mhz.
I did try to get settings exactly same on both the boards, but as many of you must be aware, it does not happen too often. I experienced similar issue here as well. I could not get the P5Q deluxe to be stable with RAM PERFORMANCE LEVEL of 7. It simply wont get stable no matter what voltage or other timings I set. The Orthos blend test will fail after 7-8 minutes.
And as I had limited time to play with the board, I had to leave it to auto ( this sets the performance level at 8 ) and continue with the review. This should cause significant impact on the memory performance level. Specially memory read figures as we will see later on in the review.
Latest version of Intel INF update utility, Microsoft Direct X, OpenAL and latest ATI CCC 8.7 beta was used for graphic card.
All gaming results are with the card at stock speed of 750/900.
[BREAK=SuperPi Mod 1.5]
SuperPI Mod 1.5
A very popular benchmark used these days. No special explanation needed for this. Directly to the results.
As expected the X48 is considerably faster in 8M and its faster in 1M as well. This is similar situation to P35 vs X38. Tighter internal timings gives X48 the edge.
[BREAK=Cinebench R10 x64]
Cinebench R10 X64
Cinebench over years has become a standard for CPU subsystem benchmarking. The latest Cinebench R10 X64 uses Cinema4D to test the processor.
Here are the numbers.
Here the P5Q deluxe is slightly lagging behind the X48 DQ6.
[BREAK=HD Tach]
HD Tach 3.0.4.0
HD Tach is the hard drive benchmarking utility. It can measure the CPU usage while using the HDD, Burst speed and average read speed of the hard drive.
Lets have a look.
Some weird results here. I did not expect P5Q deluxe to do as bad in burst speed test. Specially with the ICH10R. So I re ran the tests multiple time but the results with same. I am not sure if this is issue with the board bios or compatibility issue with HD Tach. But these are the numbers I got.
The average read speed and access times were close. CPU usage on both the boards was same at 2%
[BREAK=Everest Ultimate]
Everest Ultimate Edition
Everest Ultimate is ultimate benchmarking, system information and hardware monitoring suit. Very popular with overclockers and it provides wide variety of benchmarks and hardware monitoring options.
We will be using this to test the memory and cpu performance on boat the boards.
As expected, the P5Q is lagging behind the x48. More so in the memory read tests. This is mainly because of the different performance level setting on the two boards.
In the CPU benchmarks, the P5Q is very competitive. It almost matches the x48 DQ6.
Now let’s move onto gaming tests.
[BREAK=How we tested the games.]
How we tested the games.
Testing method for games has changed this time around. Unlike past reviews, I have now completely switched over to the Windows Vista Ultimate X64. This means the DX10 games will now be benched in DX10 render path mode.
Both Crysis and World In conflict were benched in DX10 render path mode. All in games options were maxed out as we were using the shiny new ATI Radeon HD4870 for this review.
[BREAK=Crysis]
Crysis.
Oh yes, the ever so debated game out there. Many people call it badly coded game, many curse it for being just a technological demonstration. But surely, no review will can ignore or eliminate this game from their gaming tests
So let’s have a look.
As you can see, the game results are almost identical. X48 is marginally faster at 1680x1050. But difference is inconclusive.
[BREAK=World In Conflict]
World In Conflict
World in conflict is one of the best strategy games that came out recently. The graphics and gameplay both are absolutely stunning, and its one of the games that is really CPU and GPU intensive.
We used game’s in build benchmark system. For this test, the graphics setting were set to very high in the game. This enables DX10 render path and also enables 4x AA.
As you can see, the results are almost identical. Nothing to choose between two boards here.
[BREAK=Race Driver Grid]
Race Driver Grid
One of the new racing game that came out from the codemasters. Codemasters in past had a reputation of churning out outstanding racing simulation games. Grid is no exception to that. Beautiful game with some great cars and circuits.
This game is very hard to benchmark. There is no built in benchmark system. And races are fully dynamic. So you have to drive through circuit and measure fps using fraps. And to add to that, I am not a pro. So I usually spin out atleast once in this game. Making it almost impossible to do identical run. I tried my best to drive as carefully and uniformly. This game was not that hard on the HD4870. So I directly benched the 1680x1050. All in game settings were maxed out.
Again results are very close. With dynamic nature of this game, the difference in FPS might be down to my spin which put my car and me in cloud of smoke
[BREAK=Mass Effect]
Mass Effect.
This game uses the Unreal Engine 3. This is the reason we dropped the bioshock and UT3 from out benchmark suit. The game graphics are typical of UT3 engine. But the facial expressions and details are extremely accurate in this game. Some stunning graphics effects. The gameplay does require some time getting used to but overall this game is great benchmark.
Again in this game we directly jumped to 1680x1050 resolution as this game was easily handled by HD4870. Fraps was used to benchmark the game.
Again as you can see, results are very close.
[BREAK=3DMark Vantage]
3DMark Vantage
This is the latest 3d benchmark from FutureMark. Its first DX10 benchmark. A set of synthetic CPU and GPU tests to evaluate system performance. Though its synthetic in nature, its good benchmark for relative comparison.
Here are the results. As you can see, again the results are very close.
[BREAK=Overclocking.]
Overclocking.
Now this is where the P5Q deluxe is supposed to shine. The voltage options are there. The chipset has created a reputation for itself over past few weeks.
The vdroop is almost nil on this board. Voltage levels were stable. Setting 1.35vcore gets me 1.344 under load conditions with loadline calibration enabled in the bios. And it stays there and does not fluctuate.
So what were the results?
Sadly, we were stuck with Intel C2D E7200 and A 4 GB Ram kit which wont do mad 1200Mhz. Though a great overclocking combo, I was limited to 520 – 530 Mhz FSB on X48 DQ6. And it was mainly down to the RAM. I do have very fast 2 GB kit, but I was not able to do a detailed benchmark session with this board.
After putting the multiplier down to 6 and upping the northbridge voltage to 1.3v, I tried to boot at 500Mhz. It wont boot. So I played with FSB termination voltage and with GTL ratio ( I went down from 0.630 to 0.60 ). This allowed me to boot and bench at 510. But the board again refused to boot at 520. After bumping the vdimm to 2.15 and upping the PLL and VTT voltages and also upping NB GTL voltages, it gave stable 527Mhz.
It wont go any higher than this on this CPU. Its down to CPU and RAM limitations. With capable CPU, and some good cooling I am sure it will do lot more. But even this is very impressive. X48 DQ6 has proven to be exceptional overclocker in the first place. And any motherboard which can match it must be equally good if not better.
This motherboard has 3 FSB straps. FSB to memory ratio in the end depends on the strap you select. And chip and ram behaves differently with each strap.
As a final comment on the overclocking, I would like to say that this is more than capable board. It went to 425Mhz without touching anything except vcore and ram speed manually and bumping the Northbridge to 1.25v. So it can be a noob’s board. And if you want to go more, it has all the options you will need.
But…………………….
Ahh, this but grabs attention. Its not as easy to overclock if you want to get the best out of your system. It took me hours and hours of trial and error to get to 527Mhz FSB. On X48 DQ6 I was able to reach there within 15 minutes on the first day I got this board. P5Q deluxe shows its raw nature here. It’s not the easiest board to get the work done. But it can do amazing things if pushed.
Some people will avoid this board for the same reason they want to avoid DFI. It can be a mad mad board and can frustrate you at times with too many options.
I can’t really blame ASUS for that. And honestly I love this board. It has personality. In fact I love this board so much that I have almost decided to buy this as my benchmark board with X48 remaining in main system for daily usage.
[BREAK=Conclusion]
Conclusion.
There are plenty of things to say about this board.
It’s not perfect. It has its share of flaws. Its has that raw feel to its bios. Plenty of good things like Express Gate SSD, great voltage options, great performance. I can go on forever.
Quiet frankly, I love this board. It’s the first ASUS I liked in long long time. This reminds me of the P5B days. The board which still today holds its own. And I expect this board to leave behind similar legacy.
Yes, there are some flaws which is stopping me from putting it in my main system. It lacks flawless ness of Gigabyte. Gigabyte X48 DQ6 is clean board with a layout that’s just perfect. P5Q still sports age old PCI Gigabit LAN. I still can’t figure out why ASUS decided to go for 1 PCI express and one PCI gigabit LAN.
But even with all its flaws, its mad side is what draws my attention. Yes it sounds weird, but it’s the truth. An enthusiast overclocker who is ready to tweak his system and spend time with it while doing so will adore this board. Asus has managed to achieve something remarkable with this board. It’s a first ASUS I have ever used which brings back the memories of DFI madness. And this is complement to ASUS.
The Rashi has recently announced off the shelf replacement for ASUS motherboards. This means the after sales repair support will be a lot tension free for the customers. You basically get the new board if this goes bust.
This board retails at around Rs.12,000 locally in Mumbai all inclusive. Might be cheaper at other places. This means, its not exactly cheap. But its well worth the price for what it offers.
If you want to buy a great overclocking board in this budget, look no further. This is the board to get.
Pros
* Features
* Impressive performance
* Voltage Options
* Bios
Cons
* Bios can confuse people. Not easy to push board to its potential because of this.
* SATA connector issue.
If and when I do get my hands on another 4870, I will bring the crossfire results for you guys.
Special thanks to Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd and ASUS for providing the P5Q deluxe for the review.
Thanks you for reading. Shripad signing out.
Digg The review Here : Digg - Asus P5Q Deluxe Performance Review
