P5Q-E and P5Q pro
 

Hi guys,

Now my old mobo would be RMAed i am looking for a replacement, i can see the P5Q series is highly recommended on TPU so i have decided i will get it. i have narrowed myself to the above 2 models but i have 2 problems.

1.The p5q pro will only run crossfire in x8 speed, is that a problem? (i have never run crossfire).

2.A few reviews claim the p5q-E is not that good a performer for the price so i thot i may as well get the pro version which is cheaper, but isent the p5q E supposed to outperform the p5q pro?

whats your opinion pls, i will be getting it tomorrow .

thanks.

i would say get the pro and use ketxxx modded bios :p

From comparing them on newegg, the P5Q-E can support 16gb of ram and the Pro only 8, P5Q-E has 3 PCI-E slots (16x,8x,4x) and the Pro only 2 (16x,8x) although the Pro has 1 more PCI-E 1x slot that the E. They have different onboard audio devices (possibly, E is listed as ADI and Pro as Realtek, but the model # look similar so both might be Realtek), and the E has dual gigabit lan. There are a few other differences over all, but those are the most important IMPO.

remember that 8x xrossfire pci-e2.0 is equal to 16x pci-e1.0, so you won't have problems with 8x-8x crossfire with pci-e 2.0 cards

ok thanks guys.

ehm... cough cough (whisper): why doesnt he press the "thanks" button if he wants to thank us?
:p

Notice on the P5Q-E with long video cards your sata ports are going to get blocked......

Asus REALLY needs to rethink the placement of those plugs...

Update- tried all the bios versions i could find for my mobo and the ethernet jack started working again with on of them, looks like no RMA yet.

The sata slot placement is not that bad,there is only really one that is unuseable,the weird one thats the wrong way around.

http://img.techpowerup.org/080728/Untitled.jpg

Thanks, the quick look I got before looked as bad as my P5k-e...

Well in that case, I may end up getting a P5Q-E, the orange and red side mounts the other 2 sata ports?

Newegg says 8.... Asus says 6.... I need 5 accessible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131326

how about that one?

or even better... get the P5Q3 DLX. why is NO ONE going to DDR3? it's seriously not that expensive. most good kits can be had for under $150 now.

'Coz no one wants to pay 80+ dollars extra for -5% performance advantage. You don't really need DDR3 before Nehalem..

DDR3 makes OCing way easier. you dont pay $80 more then ddr2. look at the Gskill HZ's.... they are still $119 a pair. you can get the DDR3 gkill HZ's for $139.

Niko,there is 5 red available sata ports for raid etc,and the other two yellow/white ones.

You should not have bought the mobo yet cause I would've answered all of you questions np. But I might as well answer them since mobos come with receipts. Q1 The 8x Xfire feature will only affect your performance by a very small gap on most titles, if your not satisfied try looking for x38 or x48 motherboards as they are the only mobos that can reach x16 speeds on Xfire also the P5E (which has an x38 chipset) is on the same price range of the P5Q Pro and also has the PCI-E 2.0 slots as well. Q2 I don't know wtf they mean that the P5Q-E isn't a good performer, probably because it is about 5 frames apart from the P35 motherboards on Crysis. However I still recommend the P45 mobos as they were mainly designed for less power consumption and better scalability which is why the P5Q series are loaded with features compared to the P5K series, also the fact P5Qs can overclock like hell, which makes it the power-saving devil that picks a fight with the big-boys.

I've been trying to decide between a number of P45, X38 or X48 motherboards and two of them are the P5Q Pro and P5Q-E. I've eliminated the P5Q Pro and I'll explain why later. I've also decided against DDR3 at this time.

Both P5Q Pro and PBQ-E run crossfire at x8 speed. I'm not sure how much of a difference that would make but it would be a step up from the P5K.

Below are links to the Asus product pages and the current Newegg prices.
P5Q Pro Newegg $149.99
P5Q-E Newegg $159.99
P5Q Deluxe Newegg $209.99

If you go to the Asus product pages and compare the components around the CPU Socket you'll see quite a difference with the P5Q Pro. It's for this reason that I've eliminated the P5Q Pro and will go for the P5Q-E if I decide to buy a P45 motherboard. Of course if you've got another $50 you could get the deluxe version.

That 'unusable' SATA port is #6. I don't know if it will clear but I think it is placed correctly to put a right angle sata connector on it. If it won't then you'll just have to settle for 5 sata ports on the ICH10R and 2 from Silicon Image (the orange connector).