The global financial crisis spared no one, including overclockers. In many countries, there is a process of depreciation of national currencies against the US dollar, which in most cases is the main means of settlement with suppliers of computer components, which leads to a proportional increase in prices for them. In the current situation, store customers are forced to make a difficult choice - either buy goods that have become significantly more expensive, or look for an alternative to them in cheaper sectors. If with the first option everything is more or less clear, then with the second it is not so clear. As a rule, when agreeing to cheaper copies, consumers have to sacrifice certain parameters, such as an effective cooling system and higher frequencies for video cards and RAM, noise level or hard drive speed, processor frequency or the presence of a multiplier unlocked for increase or something else .

We decided to examine two motherboards: Asus P5Q and Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L, based on two very similar chipsets (P45 and P43, respectively). The difference in price for these products is about $50, which, given the current economic situation, makes the product from Gigabyte a tempting offer. The purpose of this article is to answer the question of whether it is possible to save money by choosing a cheaper solution, and what concessions will have to be made.

Before reviewing the boards, we present the main characteristics of the north bridges used, as well as their predecessors.

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	Intel® P45 Express Chipset	Intel® P43 Express Chipset	Intel® P35 Express Chipset	Intel® P31 Express Chipset
Host	P45 Chipset	P43 Chipset	P35 Chipset	P31 Chipset
Target Segment	Performance PC, Mainstream PC	Mainstream PC	Performance PC, Mainstream PC	Mainstream PC
Processor Positioned	Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor	Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor	Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor, Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor	Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor
Processor	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775	LGA775
Hyper Threading Technology	Optimized for HT Technology	Optimized for HT Technology	Optimized for HT Technology	Optimized for HT Technology
System Bus	1333/1066/800 MHz	1333/1066/800 MHz	1333/1066/800 MHz	1333/1066/800 MHz
Max Memory	16 GB	16 GB	8 GB	4 GB
Memory Type	DDR3 and DDR2 no ECC	DDR3 and DDR2 no ECC	DDR3 and DDR2	DDR2
FSB/Memory Configurations	1066/DDR2-667, 800/DDR2-667, 1333/DDR3-1066, 1333/DDR3-800, 1066/DDR3-1066, 1066/DDR3-800, 800/DDR3-800, 1333/DDR2-800, 1333/DDR2-667, 1066/DDR2-800, 800/DDR2-800	1066/DDR2-667, 800/DDR2-667, 1333/DDR3-1066, 1333/DDR3-800, 1066/DDR3-1066, 1066/DDR3-800, 800/DDR3-800, 1333/DDR2-800, 1333/DDR2-667, 1066/DDR2-800, 800/DDR2-800	82P35 MCH	82P31 MCH
Integrated Graphics Type	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
External Graphics Interface	PCI Express x16	PCI Express x16	PCI Express x16	PCI Express x16
PCI Support	(1) x16 Gen2 or (2) x8 Gen2	(1) x16 Gen2	PCI Express X 1 (6)	PCI Express X 1 (4-6)
Storage Interface/ Ports	Serial ATA (3 Gbps/AHCI) 6 Ports eSATA Port Disable	Serial ATA (3 Gbps/AHCI) 6 Ports eSATA Port Disable	4-6 Serial ATA (3 Gbps/AHCI), eSATA	SATA (3 Gbps)/ 4 PATA/1
Storage Technology	Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (ICH10R only; RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) Intel® Rapid Recovery Technology (ICH10R only)	Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (ICH10R only; RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) Intel® Rapid Recovery Technology (ICH10R only)	Intel® Matrix Storage Technology with ICH9R; (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) Command based port multiplier, Intel® Rapid Recover Technology, Intel® Turbo Memory	Intel® Matrix Storage Technology (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) with ICH7R
Memory Controller Hub	82P45 MCH	82P43 MCH	82P35 MCH	82P31 MCH
Supported Intel I/O Controller	Intel® ICH10 Family: ICH10, ICH10R	Intel® ICH10 Family: ICH10, ICH10R	Intel® ICH9 Family: ICH9, ICH9DH, ICH9R	Intel® ICH7 Family: ICH7, ICH7R
PCI Masters	4	4	4	6
USB Ports/ Controllers	12 USB Ports 2 EHCI Controllers Port Disable	12 USB Ports 2 EHCI Controllers Port Disable	12 USB Ports (Dual AHCI, port Disable)/eSATA	8 ports, USB 2.0
Audio	Intel® High Definition Audio	Intel® High Definition Audio	Intel® High Definition Audio	Intel® High Definition Audio, AC'97/20-bit audio

As you can see, there are no fundamental differences, other than the possibility of having two PCI-E x16 slots instead of one, between the P43 and P45 chipsets.

Asus P5Q motherboard

Equipment and capabilities

It was decided to start testing motherboards with the more expensive Asus P5Q, which at the time of writing cost about $150-160. The motherboard comes in a blue box. The front side provides information about the main advantages of the board:

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The back of the package provides a summary of the product's capabilities.

The delivery package does not look rich and consists of:

• user instructions in English;
• DVD with drivers and software;
• two SATA cables (one of which is angled), IDE and FDD cables, power adapter;
• Asus Q-Connector adapter kit;
• bracket plugs with one eSATA and FireWire connector (4pin);
• stickers on the case with the Asus logo;
• plugs for the rear panel (I/O Shield).

The motherboard is made on black PCB and is slightly smaller in width than most standard ATX boards.

The processor power subsystem, consisting of eight phases, uses solid capacitors (as well as on the entire board). The power connector is eight-pin.

The MOSFET transistors, as well as the north and south bridges, are covered with intricately shaped aluminum heatsinks painted gold. Apparently, Asus engineers assumed that a boxed cooler would cool the processor. During testing, the temperature of the northbridge heatsink was significant, and additional cooling was required.

The ICH10R south bridge supports twelve USB2.0 ports (half of them on the rear panel) and six SATAII connectors with the ability to combine into RAID 0, 1, 5, 10. Two additional SATAII connectors are provided by the Silicon Image Sil5723 controller.

Support for devices with an IDE connector is provided by the Marvell 88SE6111 controller.

Not long ago, in our article about ASUS Maximus II Formula , we wrote that motherboards from ASUS based on the Intel P45 Express chipset have spread to all price segments of the market. And then it seemed to us that all he had left to do was win the hearts of gamers and enthusiasts with the help of the same ASUS Maximus II Formula .

But, as it turns out, Taiwanese engineers don’t think so, and they created a cheaper version of the ASUS P5Q board, giving it the name ASUS P5Q SE. Thus, the expansion of the most popular Intel P45 Express logic set in our time has spread to very economical users whose budget for a motherboard does not exceed $120.

Let us recall that until this moment, the price range “up to $120” was dominated by motherboards based on Intel P35 Express and P43 Express chipsets. Well, let's see how the lightest motherboard based on Intel P45 Express can compete with them. And it will help us with this ASUSP5QS.E. .

Appearance, specification, equipment

The motherboard is delivered in the already “painfully” familiar blue box, like the rest of the ASUS P5Q series.

On the back of the box are the main characteristics of the board and its features. In the upper right corner there is a visual image of the board - this is very convenient.

The kit contains:

power adapter for SATA devices with two connectors; 2 SATA cables; 1 IDE cable; 1 FDD cable; branded plug for the rear panel of the case (with a dielectric soft coating); a set of proprietary Q-Connectors that facilitate the connection of internal connectors; instructions and DVD with drivers and software.

We didn’t expect rich equipment, but everything necessary is present, there’s nothing to complain about.

Specification:

Supported processors	LGA 775 Intel Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Dual-Core/Celeron Dual-Core/Celeron
	Intel P45/ICH10 with Intel Fast Memory Access (FMA) support
System bus frequency (FSB), MHz	1600/1333/1066/800
Supported memory type	4 x DIMM, up to 16 GB DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 MHz
Expansion slots	1 PCI Express 2.0 x16 port 2 PCI Express x1 ports 3 PCI ports
CrossFire technology	Not supported
Disk subsystem	South Bridge: - 6 x SATA 3Gb/s Marvell 88SE6121: - 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 up to 2 PATA devices
LAN support	Atheros L1E Gigabit LAN controller with AI NET 2 support
Sound subsystem	Realtek ALC1200 8-Channel High Definition Audio Codec Support S/PDIF input/output - ASUS Noise-Filtering
	12 USB2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the rear panel)
External I/O ports	1 x PS/2 keyboard port 1 x PS/2 mouse port 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF output 1 x LAN (RJ45) ports 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 8 channel audio port
Internal I/O ports	3 x USB plugs to support 6 USB ports 1 x FDD connector 1 x IDE connector 1 x COM connector 6 x SATA ports 1 x CPU cooler connector 1 x Case Cooler Connector 1 x PSU cooler connector System panel connector Front panel audio connector
	8Mb AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.4
Dimensions, mm	305 x 193 (ATX)
Products webpage	http://www. asus. com/ The new version of BIOS and drivers can be downloaded from the support site.

All prices for ASUS P5Q SE

Well, the characteristics are quite decent, but I would like to note a couple of disadvantages: the lack of the ability to build RAID arrays, either using the south bridge or additional chips; lack of support for CrossFire technology, a very promising feature of the Intel P45 Express.

Despite the fact that this model is as lightweight as possible, it still has a number of features and special functions typical of ASUS motherboards.

ASUS EPU-4 Engine

The energy saving function is already well known to us. However, in this board it has the number 4 in its name, not 6. As can be seen from the diagram, 2 elements have disappeared: the chipset and RAM. We don’t know what made the engineers cut these functions, but they would be very useful in an economical version of the board, because economical users also save on electricity.

As a result of this simplification, we, like ASUS marketers, no longer undertake to claim 80% energy savings.

ASUS Express Gate

There is also a function we have already discussed more than once that allows you to load a mini operating system before loading the main one. This makes it possible to access Internet browsing, sending email, listening to music, viewing photos in no more than 5 seconds after turning on the computer.

100% High-quality Japan-made Conductive Polymer Capacitors!

ASUS assures us that it uses only high-quality solid-state capacitors made in Japan and provides a guarantee of 5000 hours of continuous operation of the VRM (processor power supply unit). Well, this is an interesting positive quality of an inexpensive board, although 5000 hours is only 208 days of round-the-clock operation.

ASUS Crystal Sound

Like all P5Q series boards, this board also has a special sound filter that allows you to get clearer sound.

Let's consider Board structure in details.

But here a surprise awaited us. Apparently, ASUS engineers still wanted to “go further into the forest, but at the same time break as little wood as possible” and, therefore, installed a more powerful set of logic in the tested motherboard. In this magical way, ASUS P5QL PRO became the heroine of our ASUS P5Q SE review. Well, we will still have time to check what new this transformation has brought us, other than an increase in price by $10.

The layout of the boards is similar with all the ensuing advantages and disadvantages. The arrangement of the main elements is done quite well, but there are two serious criticisms: first, the FDD connector is located in the lower left corner and if there is a need to connect a 3.5” drive, you will have to pull a wide and inconvenient cable through the entire case. Although today FDD is used less and less, so it may not be necessary. The second note is the location of the board's 24-pin power connector. It is located in a bad place and when installing a large cooler on a processor, the power cable can interfere with the air flow, or even completely prevent the cooler from being installed.

However, unlike ASUS P5Q, its younger sister has only a 4-phase processor power regulator, and is not covered with a radiator. The relationship with the ASUS P5QL PRO board on Intel P43 Express is evident.

At the same time, the small radiators on the north and south bridges leave much to be desired. Therefore, we will have to make a verdict - cooling is the weak side of the ASUS P5Q SE motherboard.

But there are no complaints about the location of the SATA connectors and the PCI-e X16 slot for the video card. Everything is organized very competently and conveniently. Nothing will interfere with the installation of a video card with a large cooling system and it will not block access to anything.

There is nothing unusual on the back panel:

1 x PS/2 port keyboard 1 x PS/2 port mouse 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF output 1 x LAN (RJ45) port 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 8-channel audio port.

We're done with the hardware review, let's take a look at the settings BIOS.

Upon pressing the treasured Del button, a typical BIOS from Amerecan Megatrends Inc. awaited us.

The menu for overclocking Ai Tweaker is quite standard, we note only limited voltage control - only for the main elements.

The BIOS settings were discussed in the ASUS P5QL PRO review, and we will not dwell on them again, since nothing special was noticed. But, nevertheless, let us recall all the BIOS settings intended for overclocking and fine-tuning the ASUS P5Q SE:

Parameter	Menu name	Range
Processor technologies	C1E, TM2, EIST, Virtualization Technology, XD bit, C4-state (for 45nm processors)
CPU multiplier	CPU Ratio Settings		1 and 0.5 for 45 nm models
System bus frequency
PCI-e bus frequency
Set of FSB settings	FSB Strap to North Bridge
Memory frequency			Depending on FSB Strap
Timings		A complete set of basic and additional
Technologies for improving the performance of the memory subsystem	DRAM Static Read Control	Auto, Enable, Disable.
	DRAM Read Training	Auto, Enable, Disable.
		Auto, Enable, Disable.
	AI Clock Twister	Auto, Lighter, Light, Moderate, Strong, Stronger
	AI transaction booster
CPU voltage
FSB bus voltage	FSB Termination Voltage
Memory voltage
Northbridge voltage
Southbridge voltage
Supply line calibration	Load Line Calibration	Auto, Enable, Disable.
CPU clock signal		-100 to -700
Northbridge clock signal		-100 to -700

Despite the fact that the board provides for the installation of only one case fan, the ability to regulate its speed is retained.

Testing

The following equipment was used to test the capabilities of motherboards.

We tested the board in various popular test packages. Take a look at the results.

As you can see from the diagrams, there are no performance dips in all tests. The board holds up confidently and demonstrates stable high results. This indicates a well-debugged BIOS firmware.

TestingsoundcodecRealtek ALC1200

Overall results (RightMark Audio Analyzer)

But we were not pleased with the results of testing the audio path - all previous boards of the P5Q series received an overall rating of “very good”.

Overclocking potential

Yes, we still decided to test such a budget motherboard for overclocking potential. And, as the results show, it’s not in vain. Take a look for yourself.

The test dual-core Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 successfully worked at a system bus frequency of 525 MHz. Intel P45 Express, you know, is no joke - it makes itself felt, even in difficult (or rather, lighter) conditions. As for the quad-core processor, the results are as follows:

System bus frequency 500 MHz – bravo! Even more “advanced” boards could not always reach the 500 MHz mark. So, as mentioned above, it was not in vain that we tested the board for overclocking - it showed truly outstanding results for its price category.

But we hasten to disappoint you, since along with excellent overclocking potential, the board also has excellent “cooking” potential. During tests, you could safely fry eggs or boil a kettle on the northbridge radiator. And this is with additional blowing by a fan.

conclusions

The release of ASUS P5Q SE marked the arrival of the popular Intel P45 Express chipset in the budget sector. However, how justified is such an action? Yes, we got a board with excellent overclocking potential, but that’s where its advantages end. After all, the price reduction (we apologize for the pun) turned out to be almost everything - from RAID and CrossFire support to radiators for the cooling system. In this context, the ASUS P5QL-E board based on the Intel P43 Express chipset is more preferable to purchase. At the same cost, it supports the creation of RAID arrays, energy saving EPU-6 and has a more efficient cooling system. Therefore, it becomes obvious that ASUS has made a mess of itself, trying to offer the cheapest motherboard based on the Intel P45 Express.

Advantages:

excellent overclocking potential; affordable price; support for PCI-e 2.0 and the latest 45 nm processors.

Flaws:

not very ergonomic design; lack of CrossFire and RAID support; Lack of FireWire controller; Lack of eSATA port; the need to replace the standard cooling during overclocking.

2 years ago

High-quality power subsystem, solid-state capacitors, mosfets cooling, thick PCB, P45 chipset, has been steadily overclocking for almost two years now.

3 years ago

a developed processor power system - this can be seen from the number of chokes, there are 8 of them versus the usual three... great for installing 4-core xeons of the E54xx series 4 memory slots - this is also important

5 years ago

has all the necessary minimum functions

5 years ago

I built myself a home computer on this motherboard back in 2009, a Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 video card, 3GB of RAM, and I didn’t regret it, it still works flawlessly, any games, any programs, everything works!

6 years ago

high-quality components, stable operation, good overclocking potential.

7 years ago

good quality, stability, keeps overclocking

7 years ago

Famous company. External appearance. Branded gadgets from ASUS (by and large unnecessary). Stable operation in normal mode. She worked for quite a long time.

8 years ago

ASUS build quality

8 years ago

The device is good, fast, handles everything

8 years ago

Drivers are stable. Everything is there and everything works. Accelerates well.

2 years ago

No EFI, DDR2 memory

3 years ago

Unfortunately, DDR2 memory... if it were DDR3, there would be no price for it at all

5 years ago

no thunderbolt, efi, etc.

5 years ago

6 years ago

The radiators get very hot, although this does not affect the operation in any way

7 years ago

not noted

7 years ago

The price does not correspond to the quality. Problematic Marvel IDE controller. When I try to change the BIOS settings in the direction of overclocking the processor, I immediately get a beautiful blue screen. Sound noise when moving the mouse in desktop mode and in games while loading levels.

8 years ago

Strange spontaneous reboots. I looked for reasons but never found them. There is no overheating, but it reboots on some games, even not resource-demanding ones.

8 years ago

worked for 6 months, the power connector began to act up, the device was not dropped, handled with care (even very carefully) went to the store where I bought it (Eldorado) without picking it up or even touching it, the busty manager said, you kicked him, and at the end of the conversation she said, we We’ll send it to a service center 500 km away, but we can’t guarantee what condition it will be in and what you’ll get from there, in general, they tried their best to push me out. I spat and went to a familiar craftsman. They dismantled it like a jewel without scratching it anywhere. The defect was the center pin of the power connector burst. Carefully restored without leaving any traces of tampering. In addition, two racks were overtightened and fell apart, although nothing was shortened. I worked for another 2 months - again the same defect, I started calling workshops - everyone spits on this connector, it turns out that 90 percent of refusals are because of it. I started calling Asus ,for a long time

8 years ago

1. The north bridge overheats, I had to install a good radiator for 1000 rubles. 2. RAID is not stable and sometimes freezes the system. 3. Poor placement of PCI-E 1x 4. Lack of EFI

ASUS motherboards have always been popular among all categories of users. Advanced users appreciate them for their excellent overclocking potential, while casual users appreciate them for their many additional features and beautiful design. This is confirmed by statistics.

As can be seen from the diagram, ASUS controls 38% of the motherboard market.

Not long ago, we already managed to get acquainted with one of the newest boards from this company - . It is intended primarily for enthusiasts - those users who are eager to get the most out of their PC. This is confirmed by the “E” index in the marking. But there are much fewer such users than ordinary users - who just want to turn on the computer and work (play). At the same time, they crave performance from their PC no less than enthusiasts, and are willing to spend very little money on components. It is for such users that ASUS presents its product called P5Q.

It is a “standard” motherboard based on the new Intel P45 Express chipset. Why “standard”? Because it doesn’t have any “super-duper bells and whistles,” but at the same time it’s not “stripped down.” A typical quality modern desktop motherboard. We think that many have already become interested in this inexpensive, but very powerful and functional modern motherboard... But we’ll look at how well it lives up to expectations in today’s review.

Appearance, specification, equipment

The board comes in the same colorful blue box as the older P5Q-E and P5Q Deluxe models, which gives the board, or rather its owner, a sense of belonging to a premium product. Traditionally for ASUS motherboards, we have no complaints about the design - the main functions, additional functions are described, and there is a photo of the board.

Included with the board inside the box are:

rear panel bracket with eSATA and 1394 ports;

power adapter for SATA devices with two connectors;

4 SATA cables;

1 IDE UDMA 66/100/133 cable;

1 FDD cable;

branded plug for the rear panel of the case (with a dielectric soft coating);

a set of proprietary Q-Connectors that facilitate the connection of internal connectors;

instructions and DVD with drivers and software.

Specification:

Supported processors	LGA 775 Intel Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo/Pentium dual-core/Celeron dual-core/Celeron
	Intel P45/ICH10R with Intel Fast Memory Access (FMA) support
System bus frequency (FSB), MHz	1600/1333/1066/800
Supported memory type	4 x DIMM, up to 16GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 MHz
Expansion slots	1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 2 x PCI Express x1 3 x PCI
CrossFire technology	not supported
Disk subsystem	South Bridge: - 6 x SATA 3 Gb/s - Intel Matrix Storage Technology for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 Marvell 88SE6121: - 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 up to 2 PATA devices Silicon Image Sil5723 (Drive Xpert Technology): - 2 x SATA 3 Gb/s - Supports EZ Backup and Super Speed ​​functions
LAN support	Gigabit LAN controller with AI NET2 support
Sound subsystem	Realtek ALC1200 8-Channel High Definition Audio Codec
	LSI L-FW3227 two IEEE 1394a ports
	12 USB2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the rear panel)
External I/O ports	1 x PS/2 port keyboard 1 x PS/2 port mouse 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF outputs 1 x IEEE1394a port 1 x LAN (RJ45) ports 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 8 channel audio port
Internal I/O ports	3 x USB plugs to support 6 USB ports 1 x FDD connector 1 x IDE connector 1 x COM connector 1 x TPM connector 6 x SATA ports (red) 2 x Drive Xpert SATA ports (orange) 1 x CPU cooler connector 2 x case cooler connectors 1 x PSU cooler connector 1 x IEEE1394a connector System panel connector Front panel audio connector
	8 Mb AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI 2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI 3.0
Dimensions, mm	305 x 244 (ATX)
Products webpage	The new version of BIOS and drivers can be downloaded from the official page.

Let's look at the main features of the board that ASUS loves to please us with:

• PCIe 2.0 – as with the P5Q-E, this is the most significant innovation. One cannot but be pleased with the recent advancement of the elite standard for video card connectors into the most mass segment of the market.

Any user will be glad that the latest and most powerful 2- or 4-core processor can be installed on his board...

• ... and the 8-phase system will provide it with stable power.

It's nice to know that in your motherboard such important elements as capacitors are made in Japan, have a solid-state structure and are 100% guaranteed to be of high quality.

• Pleasant appearance and efficient cooling of the main board elements

Why pay extra money for electricity? With ASUS EPU-6 Engine you will reduce your computer's energy consumption by up to 80%!

This list can be continued, but the conclusion can be made now - this motherboard looks decent in terms of the number of proprietary technologies, even in comparison with its older sisters.

Let's look at the structure of the board in more detail.

The board is laid out quite well, but there are two serious caveats: first, the FDD connector is located in the lower left corner and if there is a need to connect a 3.5” drive, you will have to pull a wide and inconvenient cable through the entire case. Although today FDD is used less and less, so it may not be necessary. The second note is the location of the board's 24-pin power connector. It is located in a bad place and when installing a large cooler on a processor, the power cable can interfere with the air flow, or even completely prevent the cooler from being installed. But unlike the P5Q-E, this board does not have the inconvenience of working with SATA drives when installing a long video card.

You can note the almost classic arrangement of connectors on the rear panel:

• 1 x PS/2 port keyboard
• 1 x PS/2 port mouse
• 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF outputs
• 1 x IEEE1394a port
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
• 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• 8-channel audio port.

The heatsinks on the board really look amazing - the manufacturer did not deceive us on this, but we will check how effectively they perform their assigned function a little later.

As you can see, the board has an 8-phase regulator and an 8-pin connector for supplying power to the processor (it is mainly necessary when using a 4-core processor). There are no “infringements or cuts” compared to the older model.

This board can only install one video card, which excludes the possibility of using CrossFire technology. However, this also has its advantages - we have at our disposal as many as three PCI slots, which can be very useful when installing a TV tuner, modem, audio card and other peripherals. And at the same time, we still have two free PCI-e x1 slots under the PCI-e x16 connector, which makes it possible to install video cards with the largest cooling systems, up to three-slot ones.

Above the RAM slots there is a chip responsible for energy saving.

As noted, all SATA ports are located at the bottom of the board, so they do not interfere with the installation of a long video card, but there, under the south bridge, there is also a battery, a fan connector, a connector for 1394, and connectors for the front panel USB ports and connectors to connect, in fact, this very panel. And the cable for FDD can also run from below. In other words, when all these connectors are connected, a considerable bundle of mutually interfering wires is formed at the bottom of the board. And screwing a screw into the mounting hole under the SATA connectors turned out to be a real test of dexterity and agility. Alas, in terms of ergonomics, the entire lower left corner of the board disappointed us. This is the third, taking into account those described above, minus in the board design.

On the left side of the motherboard there is a diagnostic chip, a COM port connector and an audio codec chip. But, unlike P5Q-E, this board uses a codec from Realtek, the quality of which we will definitely check.

The overall impression of the board was pleasant. Despite the slightly insufficient ergonomics, the board is made of very high quality.

We're done with the hardware review, let's take a look at the settings BIOS.

Standard for ASUS boards BIOS from Amerecan Megatrends Inc. Compared to the ASUS P5Q-E BIOS, there are slightly fewer overclocking settings in the AI ​​TWEAKER menu, but all the main options are present and are sufficient for successful overclocking.

The board works with processors that support the reference system bus frequency of 200/266/333/400 MHz, for which it has certain sets of settings.

Naturally, changing the set of settings for the system bus entails changing the set of supported memory dividers. In nominal modes, the board supports memory with frequencies from 533 to 1066 MHz. But the manufacturer guarantees memory support up to 1200 MHz.

The remaining settings were discussed in the ASUS P5Q-E review, and we will not dwell on them again.

We only note that, unlike ASUS P5Q-E, when the voltage on the northbridge rises above 1.6 V, the board issues a warning that it is necessary to use more efficient cooling.

For ease of understanding, all BIOS settings intended for overclocking and fine-tuning the ASUS P5Q are summarized in the table:

Parameter	Menu name	Range
Processor technologies	C1E, TM2, EIST, Virtualization Technology, XD bit, C4-state (for 45nm processors)
CPU multiplier	CPU Ratio Settings		1 and 0.5 for 45 nm models
System bus frequency
PCI-e bus frequency
Set of FSB settings	FSB Strap to North Bridge
Memory frequency			Depending on FSB Strap
Timings		A complete set of basic and additional
Technologies for improving the performance of the memory subsystem	DRAM Static Read Control	Auto, Enable, Disable.
	DRAM Read Training	Auto, Enable, Disable.
		Auto, Enable, Disable.
	AI Clock Twister	Auto, Lighter, Light, Moderate, Strong, Stronger
	AI transaction booster
CPU voltage		0.85-1.7 (2.1 – with jumper switching)
Clock chip voltage
FSB bus voltage	FSB Termination Voltage
Memory voltage
Northbridge voltage		1.1-1.9 (2.2 – with jumper switching)
Southbridge voltage
SATA port voltage	PCIE SATA Voltage
Supply line calibration	Load Line Calibration	Auto, Enable, Disable.
CPU clock signal		-100 to -700
Northbridge clock signal		-100 to -700

In the Hardware Monitor menu everything is the same as in the older model. But, unfortunately, the board supports one less case fan (2 versus 3 for the older model), but it’s nice that it retains the ability to control their rotation speed.

Testing

The following equipment was used to test the capabilities of motherboards.

CPU	Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (LGA775, 1.86 GHz, L2 2 MB)
	Thermaltake Sonic Tower (CL-P0071) + Akasa AK-183-L2B 120 mm
RAM	2x DDR2-800 1024 MB Apacer 2x DDR2-1066 1024 MB Transcend (overclocking)
Video card	EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 256 MB DDR3 PCI-E
HDD	Samsung HD080HJ, 80 GB, SATA-300
Optical drive	ASUS DRW-1814BLT SATA
power unit	Chieftec CFT-500-A12S 500W, 120 mm fan
	CODEGEN M603 MidiTower, 2x 120 mm in/out fans

We tested the board in various popular test packages. Take a look at the results.

The board shows excellent results, no failures or unjustified drawdowns are observed.

Testing the Realtek ALC1200 audio codec

Overall results (RightMark Audio Analyzer)

Frequency response unevenness (in the range 40 Hz - 15 kHz), dB
Noise level, dB (A)
Dynamic range, dB (A)
Harmonic distortion,%		Very good
Harmonic distortion + noise, dB(A)
Intermodulation distortion + noise, %		Very good
Interpenetration of channels, dB		Very good
Intermodulation at 10 kHz, %		Very good
Overall rating		Very good

Overclocking potential

This point was of particular interest to us, because the board is not positioned by the manufacturer as a product for enthusiasts, but at the same time it has good makings for good overclocking.

Wow! Frankly, the board pleased us, showing one of the highest overclocking results. When using a 2-core processor, it reached a frequency of 535 MHz. However, there is a fly in the ointment - during overclocking, the radiators on the south and north bridges became very hot, therefore, when using an overclocked board for a long period, it is recommended to install a more powerful cooling system.

The board did not cope much worse with a 4-core processor - the result of 510 MHz on the bus deserves applause.

conclusions

In the person of ASUS P5Q, we received an excellent and high-quality mid-level board at a very good price ($120-140) and that’s a fact. However, the very concept of “mid-level” is distorted when looking at the ASUS P5Q - PCI-e 2.0, RAID arrays, FSB 1600 MHz, IEEE 1394, 8-phase processor power supply and many proprietary ASUS technologies have recently been the prerogative of high-end solutions. And now all this is available to the average home PC user. The board has proven itself in terms of functionality and pleased us with its overclocking potential. It can be safely recommended as the basis for creating a modern, not very expensive home computer that has a full set of all necessary functions. And in terms of overclocking, if there is good ventilation in the case, this motherboard can compete with more expensive older models.

Apparently, the entire line of ASUS P5Qx-x motherboards turned out to be very successful, since two of them that visited us left a very pleasant impression.

The development trends of the modern IT market are such that solutions with an integrated graphics core are gradually replacing entry-level discrete video cards from home PCs. But initially, chipsets with an integrated graphics processor were intended for the office PC market, the heaviest graphic load for which was solitaire or pinball. However, later, when computers became so cheap that their use as multimedia processors became feasible from an economic point of view, the market for chipsets with IGP (Integrated Graphic Processor) began to develop like an avalanche. The idea of ​​the so-called “Digital Home”, promoted by Intel, also played an important role in this process. The strangest thing is that in technical terms, both in terms of functionality and performance, solutions from Intel, the company that played a major role in popularizing systems with integrated video, have always lagged quite noticeably behind the solutions of competitors, NVIDIA and ATI (AMD). The companies were the first to offer IGP with DVI and HDMI digital outputs, significantly ahead of Intel, whose younger chipset models still only output video to the outdated D-SUB (VGA). And this is during the total transition of users to LCD monitors. As for the performance of integrated graphics processors, here again Intel lags significantly behind its competitors, whose solutions are increasing their power much more actively. AMD, for example, seems to have completely forgotten the original purpose of chipsets with a built-in GPU, and the performance level of its solutions has already come very close to the level of discrete video cards in the lower price range. Moreover, such chipsets as AMD 780G and 790GX, at the request of the motherboard manufacturer, can be equipped with their own memory!

However, being also a manufacturer of processors, Intel does not want to lose its market share of ready-made platform solutions and year after year offers new models of chipsets with an integrated graphics core. And it doesn’t matter that at times the changes are microscopic, because this does not prevent (excuse the sarcasm) from regularly updating the model range. This year, Intel’s lineup has been expanded with a line of G4x Express chipsets. We have no right to leave it unattended, so let’s begin to consider it.

Intel G45 Express Chipset

Like many other chipmakers, who have long adopted the practice of releasing new chipsets in lines, this year Intel again offered a trio of chipsets with IGP, labeling them G45, G43 and G41 Express. The differentiation of the first two is primarily achieved by reducing the functionality of the built-in graphics processor. Both chipsets are equipped with an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 graphics core, only the G45 comes with the HD suffix. The presence of the suffix means that the graphics processor included in the G45 has a hardware HD video decoding unit with support for MPEG2, VC1 and AVC formats.

Of course, the possibility of hardware decoding significantly reduces the load on the central processor when watching high-definition video, which reduces the stringency of the requirements for this component and, under certain conditions, is a very useful feature.

Functionally, the X4500 graphics processor differs slightly from the previous version of the X3500. In general, the X4500 claims the same hardware support for the DirectX 10 API and the ability to output video to the digital outputs DVI and HDMI, as well as to analog D-SUB (VGA). Among the changes, we can note the expansion of OpenGL support to version 2.0 and the addition of the DisplayPort digital video output, which has not yet been widely used.

Both models, both G45 and G43, are equipped with an updated ICH10 south bridge, which supports 6 PCI Express x1 version 1.1 lanes, 12 USB, 6 SATA ports and has dedicated ports for connecting a gigabit network controller and a high-definition audio codec.

Intel G41 is the most stripped-down version of the line's chipset. Just like older models, the chipset is equipped with an X4500 graphics core, supports a FSB frequency of 1333 MHz, DDR3 memory, but is artificially deprived of support for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus. The chipset is equipped with the old version of the ICH7 south bridge, which lacks a number of proprietary Intel technologies and supports eight USB ports, four 3 Gb/s Serial ATA ports and one Parallel ATA channel.

The target market sector for using the G41 is office PCs, so cuts such as the lack of support for PCI Express version 2 and the reduced number of USB and SATA ports do not affect the attractiveness of the chipset in any way, and the presence of built-in PATA support eliminates the need for motherboard manufacturers use of additional controllers.

That's all I would like to say about the functional features of the new Intel graphics trio. As for performance, you should not expect changes in the speed of operation of chipsets with a processor or memory, since the corresponding blocks are unlikely to have undergone any serious changes at all. But you should definitely expect an increase in 3D graphics processing speed from the updated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD processor, which Intel is paying special attention to. Well, we will pay attention to this aspect of Intel's new product during testing, but for now let's look at one of the first real products based on the new chipset - the ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard.

Specifications

The ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard is based on the Intel G45 Express chipset. Paired with the most powerful Intel ICH10R southbridge chip, the G45 chipset with integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD brings the ASUS P5Q-EM to the level of the most feature-rich solutions. The ICH10R's lack of built-in support for the already outdated Parallel ATA interface, which Intel so methodically "withdrew" from the market, was compensated by ASUS developers by integrating a specialized single-channel IDE controller Marvell 6102. However, the board could not have been equipped with it. There are already quite a lot of drives with the Serial ATA interface on the market, and hard drives with PATA have been completely discontinued by most leading manufacturers. Unless there is concern for users who did not catch the market conditions, who recently bought a capacious IDE hard drive and now do not want to part with it. Well, they'll probably appreciate the concern. For those who are building a computer from scratch, the Marvell 6102 is nothing more than useless ballast.

Not everyone will need the Agere L-FW3227 dual-port FireWire controller either. Still, there are many more devices with a USB interface on the market.

The network capabilities of the board are provided by the Realtek 8111C gigabit controller, and the sound is implemented on the eight-channel Realtek ALC 1200 codec, the main difference of which from its popular predecessor ALC888 is the ability to output sound to the digital audio and video output HDMI.

Maternal pay
Supported processors	Intel Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo in LGA775 package
Supported FSB frequencies	1600/1333/1066/800 MHz
Chipset	Intel G45 Express + ICH10R
Memory slots	4 DIMM slots (two channels) for unbuffered non-ECC DDR2-1066/800/667 MHz modules, maximum total capacity up to 16 GB
Expansion slots	1 x PCI Express x16 (v2.0), 2 x PCI Express x1 (v1.0a), 1 x PCI 2.3
Parallel ATA	1 channel UltraDMA 133, implemented on the basis of the Marvell 6102 controller
Serial ATA	6 3 Gb/s Serial ATA ports, implemented based on a controller integrated into the chipset
	RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5
Ethernet	Gigabit LAN controller Realtek 8111C on PCI Express bus
Integrated sound	Eight-channel (7.1) HDA codec Realtek ALC1200
	12 ports (6 are routed to the I/O panel)
IEEE 1394	2 ports implemented on the Agere L-FW3227 controller (1 is connected to the I/O panel)
System monitoring	Monitoring voltages on components, fan speeds, processor temperatures (using the built-in thermal sensor)
Overclocking options	Possibility to change system bus and RAM frequencies, processor supply voltage and DIMM modules
	AMI on 8 Mb chip
Form factor	ATX, 244x244 mm
Approximate retail price, USD

A noticeable drawback of the ASUS P5Q-EM is its retail price. Still, for a MicroATX board, even if equipped with one of the most advanced chipsets with IGP at the moment, $170 is too expensive. After all, for just $70 you can easily buy a board based on the G31 chipset, and for the remaining $100 a very good video card, many times faster than the G45 in speed. But it’s not always possible to find a video card with an HDMI connector. But let's take a closer look at the ASUS P5Q-EM.

Packaging and equipment

The ASUS P5Q-EM box looks quite impressive.

The beautiful shimmer of blue shades gives the packaging the appearance of an expensive product. However, the board in question cannot be called cheap, even if one wants to. Once again, we note the mystery of labeling that defies any logic, which can cause confusion even among professionals, which sometimes happens when “blindly” ordering ASUS products in an online store. It’s good that at least with visual contact one of the mass of logos on the front side suggests that the board is based on the Intel G45 chipset.

Upon opening the box, some will be disappointed. For the money that is being asked for the ASUS P5Q-EM, one could have put in much more of all kinds of “adapters” and “laces”. However, we do not believe that a rich set of accessories can justify the high cost of the product. If a manufacturer spends money on high-quality components, pays a lot of money to competent PCB design developers, maintains a team of programmers developing proprietary software capabilities, probably makes serious “infusions” into brand promotion and for all this asks for the corresponding amount of money, then this does not mean that the box should contain a bunch of all kinds of “stuff”. A simple kit for assembling a conventional system will be sufficient. Whether it’s worth paying for all of the above, each user will decide for himself.

Moreover, the set of accessories supplied with the ASUS P5Q-EM still cannot be called basic. The following items are supplied specifically with the board:

• three Serial ATA signal wires;
• two power adapters from a MOLEX to two SATA connectors;
• 80-wire IDE cable and 24-wire for floppy drive;
• bracket with External SATA connector;
• Q-Connector connector set;
• plug for I/O panel;
• disk with drivers and software;
• manual.

Design and Layout

As befits a product based on a chipset with an integrated graphics core, the ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard is built in the MicroATX form factor.

When designing the design of the printed circuit board, the dimensions of the textolite provided by the standard were used by the developers to the maximum. As a result, the layout of the P5Q-EM elements turned out to be almost ideal.

The space around the socket is free enough for the smooth installation of almost any cooler, even the most bulky one. This makes it possible to use giants in the system that are capable of cooling not the hottest processors in passive mode.

There are four DIMM slots on the board, which in itself is a plus for a MicroATX board, as it gives the user some freedom of action when upgrading.

But the set of connectors for additional devices looks somewhat controversial. Even taking into account the rich functionality of the board, one PCI slot is clearly not enough, and the presence of two PCI Express x1 slots is unlikely to compensate for their lack. Still, there are not many devices on the market for this type of connector.

The vast majority of connectors for power supply, hard drives, additional USB and FireWire ports are located on the bottom and right edge of the board, which is most convenient for connecting them.

The north and south bridge chips of the chipset are equipped with aluminum heatsinks of a rather bizarre but attractive shape. The whimsicality of the shapes did not have the best effect on the total area of ​​the fins. Of course, beauty requires sacrifice, but why sacrifice critical parameters? Even with indirect airflow from the Scythe Ninja Plus cooler fan, the northbridge radiator warmed up to 52"C, which is no longer a favorable temperature range.

Moreover, we are talking about the temperature value recorded on an open stand and in the presence of airflow. In a hot case or with passive cooling of the processor, the situation can become much worse.

In turn, the power transistors of the processor's switching power supply regulator, deprived of any forced cooling, warmed up to 57"C, which is also quite a lot.

The south bridge chip ICH10R is a fairly cold chip, so the temperature of the corresponding radiator did not exceed 37"C.

• one PS/2 connector for connecting a mouse or keyboard;
• six USB 2.0 ports;
• one IEEE1394a;
• network RJ-45;
• digital optical audio output S/PDIF;
• eight three-pin analog inputs and outputs of the sound card (mini Jack).

As a result of adding a couple more USB ports to the usual four, only one PS/2 fits on the panel, but you can connect both a mouse and a keyboard to it. That is, one of these devices can be with a PS/2 plug, and the second - only with USB.

In general, we did not have any complaints about the layout of the ASUS P5Q-EM elements. The only thing I would like to change in the design of the board is to equip the northbridge chip with a more massive heatsink, because the heat dissipation capacity of the standard one is clearly not enough.

Test bench configuration,BIOSSetupand overclocking

Product testing with ASUS P5Q-EM was carried out with the following set of equipment:

• processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, 2133 MHz (8x266), 2 MB L2;
• cooler: Scythe Ninja Plus with 120 mm fan at 1500 rpm;
• RAM: 2 modules of 1024 MB each, Apacer DDR2-800, 4-4-4-15 400 MHz;
• hard drive: Seagate ST3160811AS, 160 GB, 3 Gb/s SATA, 8 MB Cache, 7200 rpm;
• power supply: FLOSTON 560 W (LXPW560W).

The basic I/O system of the motherboard in question is built on the AMI microcode version 2.61.

The design and structure of the main menu look familiar to ASUS products. The most interesting section of BIOS Setup, called AI Tweaker, contains a wide range of tools for overclocking and fine-tuning system performance, which is usually not typical for products with built-in video. The section opens with the traditional AI Overclock Tuner option, the value of which is best immediately set to Manual, which gives us access to all settings without restrictions.

Now we can freely change the FSB frequencies, PCI Express buses, select the FSB Strap frequency and change the clocking calculation coefficients for RAM modules. By default, all memory module timings are determined automatically, but if we set the DRAM Timing Control option to Manual, then we are given a simply huge selection of all kinds of addressing delays. Moreover, if desired, all values, with the exception of the four main ones, which will need to be set explicitly, can be left in the Auto position. For convenience, the developers have divided all delays into three groups. Probably based on the degree of their impact on system performance. Conveniently, at the head of each group a line is displayed with the current timings assigned at startup.

Having dealt with delays, we come to the logical section with settings for voltage values ​​​​on various components. Values ​​are set explicitly by entering numbers manually, which, firstly, is convenient, and secondly, forces you to act meaningfully, with a sober understanding of what you are doing. The adjustment ranges are extremely wide, and there are color warnings for novice overclockers: high and critically high voltage values ​​are highlighted in yellow and red, respectively.

I’m also glad to see the presence of such an option, again unusual for such products, as saving settings profiles. That is, after achieving certain overclocking results, you can save and calmly continue experiments, always having the opportunity to go back without having to deal with the tedious procedure of setting all options to the required values. Moreover, the profiles are not “killed” even when using the Clear CMOS jumper. And the technology of starting the system in the so-called safe mode during overclocking works excellently: we did not have to use the jumper even when setting the most optimistic values.

Unfortunately, despite all the variety of settings and the seriousness of the ranges, the ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard is not suitable for hardcore overclocking. The maximum FSB frequency at which the board was able to operate stably was only 410 MHz.

In principle, at 415 MHz the system also remained stable, but flatly refused to reboot normally. And the difference of 5 MHz is not fundamental here. The Core 2 Duo E6400 bench processor with such capabilities was overclocked to 3280 MHz, although it can easily reach frequencies above 3600 MHz.

On the other hand, for the system the board is designed to create, overclocking the processor by 54% is a very good opportunity to achieve a performance boost for free.

Testing

We will compare the performance of the new Intel G45 Express chipset with the previous Intel G35 chipset, represented in this test by the ASUS P5E-VM SE motherboard.

Memory subsystem

Let's start by checking the throughput of the memory subsystem, measured using the Cache and Memory Benchmark module of the Lavalys Everest v4 diagnostic utility.

As mentioned above, the memory controller of the Intel G35 Express chipset did not undergo any major changes when upgrading to the version with the G45 index. This explains the identical memory speed.

Complex tests

The most serious and “advanced” package for comprehensive system testing today is the updated SYSMark 2007 package from BAPCO. The main feature of SYSMark 2007 is the fact that it uses only real-life and widely used applications to test the system. The ones that run on their PCs every day and are used by millions of people around the world for work. The package consists of four scenarios, each of which includes a number of operations performed by a specific set of applications specific to the specified area of ​​​​PC use.

It is interesting that in the overall standings when tested with the SYSMark 2007 package, the boards scored the same, which indicates identical overall performance of the systems. That is, in everyday work the difference between the G35 and G45 will not be noticeable even with a strong desire.

The same can be said when considering each of the scenarios.

Next comes the popular PCMark 2005 test suite. Unlike SYSMark, it only simulates the operation of real applications, but, nevertheless, at the moment it is capable of giving a completely adequate and comprehensive assessment of system performance.

The only task performed by the Super Pi program is to determine the value of Pi (3.14) with high accuracy. That is, this is a mathematical problem in its purest form. In our case, the calculation was performed with an accuracy of 1 and 8 million decimal places.

In these tests, the boards go head to head.

Coding of video and audio data

The next set of applications, which includes the task of encoding DVD video with the most popular codecs - DivX and XviD, as well as converting it into the 3gp format, which is understandable to the vast majority of mobile phones, loads the processor and memory subsystem, so here boards with identical memory controller performance work equally quickly.

The power consumption level of the systems was measured using the power indicator of the FLOSTON LXPW560W power supply.

conclusions

As one might expect, the new Intel G45 Express chipset did not demonstrate a phenomenal increase in performance in games. The integrated Intel 4500HD graphics processor is slightly faster than its predecessor, labeled 3500, but that's about it. Just an expected and systematic evolution.

In turn, the ASUS P5Q-EM motherboard is not a completely unambiguous product. On the one hand, the manufacturer intends to use it as part of a home media center, but for these purposes the board is too large, functional and expensive. Moreover, in this case, quite good overclocking abilities are left behind. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine an overclocker being satisfied with the performance of the integrated video. So who needs ASUS P5Q-EM? Yes, in general, for any person who is quite demanding of the overall performance of the computer, but is cool about games. By the way, the author would be happy to install this board in his home computer. The high performance of an overclocked processor would be very useful for more “fast” operation of resource-intensive Adobe Photoshop filters when processing 12-megapixel photos from a digital SLR; the HDMI output would come in handy for watching movies on an LCD TV; the DVI interface is needed for 22-megapixel inch LCD monitor, which easily reveals all the shortcomings of the D-SUB analog output, and four (and not two, as in some) DIMM slots would allow the installation of four two-gigabyte memory modules, which would completely eliminate the use of the page file even in Windows Vista , fortunately, DDR2 RAM is cheaper today than ever. So why then "would"? Yes, because this G45 system has absolutely no fundamental advantages over a previously built system on the G35 chipset. That is, the upgrade here has no practical meaning. But for a new system of this type, the ASUS P5Q-EM is just perfect. Of course, only if you are willing to shell out $170 for a Micro ATX board.

Photos were taken in the TECHLABS studio, photographer Artem Kondratenkov