Asus P5K review and benchmarking thread

[CyberDruid]

I received a P5K from Excaliber PC yesterday. I thought I would share some pictures and thoughts about this board.


Asus/exCaliberPC did not go overboard with the packing--the box arrived with the flap ope in a loosely packed carton so the contents had shifted.

Not many accessories on this $140 board...no PCI exapnsion ports...just the basics.


Passively cooled by pretty low profile heatpipes.

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This chipset supports DDR2 1066..which these sticks will run at...with 4 4 4 5 timings at DDR2 1000 these G Skill HZ should be potent is this board is as strong and OVerClocker as reported.

This E6300 C2D is a proven OverClocker...a good start for benchmarking this P35 LGA 775 board.



That looks tasty. This particular RAM is no longer available...I have yet to push it to the limit due to restrictions of the AW9D-Max from which it was pulled for these tests. I also have some DDR800 GSkill HZ (4 4 4 12) that will be interesting to test--it is reported to run at 1100 in reviews.


These coolers I am reviewing need a serious workout to find their limits. Although I doubt they will handle the thermal output of the C2D I won't know until I try.


For benchmarking purposes I can think of no better PSU...although it is destined for the Naked 900--I will break in the Quad on the P5K.


Ultimately the P5K will be built into a barebones rig I will offer for sale--so at this time I will use the Lian Li motherboard tray from the Extrema ITC review.

For GFX I will use a single X1950pro for the time being...I cannot afford to set any Futuremark records...and the X1950pros are not overclcokers anyway...simply to determine the functionality of the board and to see how well it overclocks.

Look for updates later tonight

CyberDruid

[CyberDruid]

Okay I screwed up and did not tell ImageShack to downsize the pictures--I will fix it.

[TwIsTeDbOi]

Could you somehow get your pictures smaller? Well back on topic, nice. That's a sexy looking board you got there.

EDIT: You figured it out.

[AKAeric]

I saw a huge finger, thats about it, =P

[Mikey122687]

anandtech (i think) shows that the P5K and any other 965 chipset performs just about the same

[CyberDruid]

Let's see--I have also seen reviews that say the board handles RAM better and has a better ability to overclock stable. I want to find out.

[MADMAX22]

you lucky bumm CD, that board got over 600fsb at XS if i remember right, and apparently all the ram dividers work to the limit of the ram which is going to be the big deal i think, like the 4:5 divider actually works on this baord apparently

[CyberDruid]

So I have read... My E6600 might be a better candidate...but it's under the phase head and slathered in dielectric grease

[Wankerfx]

I'm buying this motherboard. It can go past a 520mhz fsb and has Vdimm up to 2.55V

Amazing for a vanilla.

[CyberDruid]

At $140 it might be the equivalent of the old P4P800SE in terms of best bang for the buck in OverClocking--Kudos to Chozart for linking me