Though it may seem like it, the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe is not ASUS top of the line model - that privelege is reserved for their Republic of Gamers - Blitz, Striker and Maximus- series of motherboards. But don't be mistaken - the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe is no slouch, as is also its DDR2 equipped sibling, the ASUS P5K Deluxe (which is also included in this round up). Both motherboards resemble each other in every way - the WiFi adapter / AP bundle, motherboard layout , a plethora of PCI and PCI-E expansion slots, SATA ports and dual Gigabit LAN adapters. Aside from the memory used, the only other difference is the cooling solution - very similar but there are notable differences.
Let's look at the Stackcool on P5K3 Deluxe. As you can see, all the heatsinks are connected together by three heatpipes. Theoretically, these heatpipes allow much more 'effective' heat dissipation area than traditional solutions. Of course, more heat dissipation area should meabs lower chipset temperatures. That's because heat from the hottest parts of the heatsink (the chipset) will travel to more cooler parts (the mosfet radiator fins and southbridge heatsink). The problem with that assumption is that the design rely on air exhaust from the CPU cooler to cool the three heatsinks (two on the mosfet and on the northbridge).
The two pictures above shows two points of concern with Stackcool on the P5K3 Deluxe. First, the P35 Express chipset. ASUS wisely chose to use thermal paste on the chipset. Unfortunately, not all the surface is covered. ASUS may want to re-examine their heatsink mounting procedures, we certainly expect better from them. Now, no doubt you'll notice the slightly strange angle we used for this shot. The reason - we couldn't (easily) detach Stackcool from the motherboard. Apparently, ASUS used a thermal adhesive on the southbridge heatsink. Not a good choice because it unnessarily complicates the removal of this cooling solution. Hardcore overclockers who want to use their own cooling solutions such as a bigger heatsink or a watercooling block may be a little put off with this decision. Of course, this is not a problem if you don't feel the need to remove the heatsink.
The second point of concern is the mosfet radiator sinks (the picture on the right). Notice the use of thermal tape / pad. Although there is enough pressure to maintain good contact between the heatsink and the mosfets, we believe the use of thermal tape or pad is not as optimal if compared to using thermal paste or plain direct contact between the heatsink and the mosfets. Of course, that's assuming the heatsinks are there to cool the mosfets.
If you look closely at Stackcool's design, it's clear that these radiator heatsinks are meant to help dissipate more heat from the P35 chipset by relying on exhaust airflow from the processor's fan / heatsink. The design assumes you'll be using a heatsink blowing air directly on the processor like Intel's stock cooler. If you're using third party fan / heatsink, you'll have to make sure there is enough airflow to cool the radiator heatsinks (or more directly, the heatsink on top of the P35 chipset). So, users of P5K3 and P5K Deluxe should make certain they have very good air circulation inside their case.
Previous experience with ASUS motherboards shows that you really have to pay more attention to memory timings and FSB clocks. The ASUS P5K3 Deluxe continues ASUS tradition to 'jump the gun'. Notice the differnce between the SPD timings of the Samsung DDR3 memory modules we used and the timings applies by the P5K3 Deluxe when you set the memory configuration by SPD. With slightly higher clocks (480 MHz), the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe is using timings similar to the modulues 457 MHz timing defaults - except for TRAS (15 as opposed to 18 cycles). How's that for aggressive?
Thankfully, no such behavior is present in regards to clocks. The ASUS P5K3 Deluxe accurately applied 400 MHz, just like we manually set in the BIOS. Also notice the core voltage - 1.256 volts We set core voltage settings to 'Auto' for this test. That's actually pretty much the same voltage we originally set with this processor on the Gigabyte P965-DS3 (we had to up the voltage to 1.275 on the P965-DS3P). Now, let's see if these clocks changes during heavy processor loads.
.As you can see from the Rivatuner graph above, there are some small fluctuations in processor clocks, but not to a degree that should be a concern. You'll likely won't notice the difference at all during routing operations and daily usage.
Expansions and Add-Ons
The ASUS P5B Deluxe offers three PCI slots, two PCI-E x16 slots and two
PCI-E
x1 slot. The two PCI-E x16 slots are Crossfire ready, but if you have
plans to use two Radeon cards with dual slot coolers, you'll lose all
those PCI slots. Why? Well, remember that you should leave the slot
beside the cards
empty for better airflow - dual slot coolers doesn't only mean the card
takes space from two slots, you'll need to empty the slot the next to
it. The second PCI-E x16 slot don't have this problem -
there's
only one PCI slot to lose. But doesn't that mean less airflow? Well,
yes and no
- there's still enough space between the card. Plus the bottom
of your
case typically has much cooler air (with an ATX tower
case). If you do use such a setup, your choice of expansions are
limited to PCI-E x1 peripherals. We can
actually think of at least three cards that might tickle your fancy -
ASUS's own Xonar D1 sound card, Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio or K-World's
dual tuner cards. The K-World tuner card and ASUS Xonar sound
card with their long PCB might be a
problem if you place it on the PCI-E x1 slot next to the PCI-E x16
slot, but overall a good compromise between expandibility and layout.Bundle wise, ASUS have all your base covered. A full complement of six color coded SATA cables enables you to fully utilize the six available SATA ports on the motherboard. Granted, there's only one 4 pin ATX with two SATA power connectors, so you'll have to get four additional SATA power cables elsewhere. Thankfully, ASUS now consolidates the additional USB ports and Firewire ports on just one bracket. So, you don't have to choose between the bracket or an add-on card. The rest of the ports are located on the usual ATX back panel - you'll find the usual suspects here. In addition to the standard 6 jack analog ports, you'll find coaxial and optical SPDIFoutput port, six USB ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, a Firewire port and two eSATA ports. A slight deviation is the absence of a PS/2 mouse port, though the PS/2 keyboard is still present.
Of course, ASUS trademark bundle, the WiFi adapter is included, along with the appropriate drivers and access point software. The necessary drivers and other utilities inside the included driver CD - the standard ASUS fanfare of software utilities with some additional software - ASUS is nice enough to include an antivirus software plus an image editing suite. Of course, nowadays you could pick free versions of several antivirus and image editing tools of the Internet. It's nice, but chances are you'll be more comfortable with the ones you already using.
Tweaking and Overclocking Friendly
We don't like to analyze
BIOS settings, since they sometimes change between BIOS revisions.
Overall, the ASUS P5K3 Deluxe comes with more than ehough BIOS settings
to
satisfy most overclockers. Processor, PCI-Express slot,
chipset and memory settings are available - these include clock,
voltage and other plethora of settings. Even the hardware monitor page
responds much better now - traditionally we had to wait a few seconds
before we can see the values. BIOS overclocking profiles are
supported
and ASUS also provides a feature to quickly flash your BIOS without
needing a DOS boot device.However, there are minor gripes we had with this board. Here they are:
- Stack Cool definitely needs an improvement - one that ASUS actually already provides as an option - a fan. With the high temperatures after long hours of operation, we think the fan should've been a standard accessory, more so with the price ASUS is asking for the board. StackCool also unnecessarily complicates heatsink installation and removal - though its more of a nuisance than a serious problem.
- ASUS was kind enough to provide 90 degree SATA cables, which should help SATA cables clearance issues with long dual slot cooling cards. We just wish there were more of these cables - ASUS only provides two 90 degree SATA cables.
- As for the SATA ports arrangement (6 internal SATA and 2 eSATA), we think ASUS should consider 'mimicking' Gigabyte's approach of using eSATA brackets with internal SATA headers. That means users who do not want to use eSATA can still use the headers for internal hard drives.
- Another gripe we have is DIMM placement - there's not enough room for your finger to unlock the DIMM module locks (on the end near the PCI-E x16 slot) if there's a graphics card present
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