Asus P5K or P5N-D Motherboard

[Ex_Coelis]

Hi guys. In the quest to build my new system, I have come to a crossroads considering motherboard. The ones I am looking at are the ASUS P5K (or P5K-E) with the Intel P35 chipset or the ASUS P5N-D with the nForce 750i chipset. (Paired with a Q6600 CPU)

I have not been able to find many reviews about the P5N-D but from what I undertsand it is a very new chipset/motherboard. My biggest draw to the P5N-D is that it supports PCI-E 2.0, while the P35 P5K only supports 1.1. I will be using an eVga 8800GT 512MB video card, which is PCI-E 2.0, so I imagine I would get better video performance out of the P5N-D.

Does anyone have either of these motherboards, or can offer any comments or suggestions that might be helpful? A review of the P5N-D would be great too.

[noell]

I haven't seen any reviews on the P5N-D either and another search today came up dry.

As for mobos based on the Nvidia 750 chipset (which, as I understand it, is a watered down 780), I'd think long and hard before going that route. The reason I'm cautious is that in reviews of 780 based boards, I keep reading phrases like "this is a filler product" or it (the 780) will be obsolete before you can say "Penryn". Suggest you read this review of the eVGA 780i Sli and see what you think:
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...ds/1748_1.html

The XFX version of this board is reviewed in the March 2008 issue of Maximum PC magazine and it said basically the same thing.


......Noell

[Ex_Coelis]

Thanks Noell, I knew you'd come through. I was actually leaning towards the P35 chipset, and with your input, I will definately go with it.

As for the P35 chipset, now I have to decide whether to get the standard P5K or go with the P5K-E Wifi. I have no use for the Wifi as I already have a wireless router but from what I understand it is a much better board, and better built. Any wisdom to unlock this dilemma?

Thanks again!

[noell]

I'd be inclined to spend extra for the P5K-E. It has better cooling and one more PCIE X1 slot. Also (and this is purely anecdotal) it has the Marvel LAN controller while the P5K has the Via controller which I've had at least two problems with in the past.

FWIW - I have the P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP and, so far anyway, I've been quite pleased with it.

And have you looked at the P35 and X38 motherboards from Gigabyte?
I've recently built two systems using Gigabyte boards and I thought they were quite good.
Here's a basic model:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128059R
And a bit more expensive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128064R
Ther X38 boards (which support up to a 1600FSB) look very nice as well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ntel+X38%2fX48



...Noell

[Ex_Coelis]

Great, thanks again Noell. Sounds like the P5K-E is the way to go. All the X38 boards were a little out of my price range (maybe next upgrade ) and I did look at some of the Gigabyte boards, but my local supplier cannot get them, and since I am getting a bundle deal through them for all the components, it wasn't an option. ASUS is a little more, but I think its worth it for the stability and quality etc.

Cheers!

[Ex_Coelis]

Hi again Noell. I just wanted to double check with you on a couple of things before I buy this system. Here is my build list:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 OCed to 3.4GHz
Zalman CNPS9700NT CPU Cooler
Asus P5K-E/Wifi-AP P35 Motherboard
2X2GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC8500 1066MHz
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA HDD
EVGA GF8800GT 512MB Superclocked Video Card
Antec Nine Hundred Gamers Case
OCZ 600Watt GameXStream PSU

I think this should run FSX quite well. I was actually wondering about the RAM, and whether or not it is worth going with the 1066MHz DDR2, rather than just the 800MHz? Apparently the board supports the 1066MHz but I'm not sure if it makes much difference.

Thanks for putting up with me

[noell]

That all looks fine. As for the RAM, it looks like you plan to over-clock so the faster RAM may be an advantage especially if you want to over-clock your RAM as well.

Not sure what operating system you plan to run, but if you are going with 32-bit XP and your main interest is FSX, then all you need is 2GB. That could save you a few bucks and you could always add more down the road if ever you found it necessary. If you did go with the 4GB, keep in mind you will only see about 3GB of it if you have a 32-bit operating system.


.....Noell

[Ex_Coelis]

Thanks again Noell. I'm actually going to be running Vista home premium, so from what I undertsand sticking with more RAM is a good idea. I know 32-bit Vista only recognizes 3gb or so, but I thought I'd be better off with 2 sticks of 2gb rather than 3 sticks of 1gb because I can run dual channel with 2 banks but not 3 correct?

My other RAM option would be OCZ Platinum XTC 4GB Kit DDR2 800MHz (OCZ2P8004GK), they are cheaper but I'm not sure how they would stack up against the Kingston HyperX?

[noell]

The manual for the P5K-E says this (among other things) with regard to RAM:

"You may install varying memory sizes in Channel A and Channel B. The system maps the total size of the lower-sized channel for the dual channel configuration. Any excess memory from the higher-sized channel is then mapped for single-channel operation."

The manual goes on to say:

"If you install Windows Vista 32-bit/Windows XP 32-bit version operating system, we recommend that you install less than 3GB of total memory."

Suggest you download the manual for the P5K-E and have a look at section 2.4.2 called "Memory Configurations".

As for type, going with PC2-8500 would give you some headroom if you plan to over-clock your RAM. Otherwise PC2-6400 (DDR2 800) is just fine.
In a non-overclock situation the difference in performance between the two would be minimal.

IMO, I'd just go with 2GB of good quality DDR2 800 with a CL of 4.

And FWIW, the manual for my P5K Deluxe has exactly the same wording in the memory section. I'm running 32-bit XP but tried 4X1GB identical DDR2 800 modules anyway. What I found was there was no detectable difference in performance for any of the things I run on my system (which is mainly FSX and games like Crysis and Call of Duty). I over-clock my RAM and the one thing I did notice is that I could not get as high an over-clock with four modules as I could with two.

...Noell

[Ex_Coelis]

Thanks for that input Noell. I have taken your advice and decided to get the OCZ Platinum XTC 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 Dual Channel Kit (4-5-4-15) rather than the 4GB of Kingston HyperX. I also decided to hold off upgrading to Vista and stick with XP for now.
My order has been made and everything should be ready by Wednesday.... can't wait!