Asus P5B Premium - Vista Edition Mobo

[Toobad]

Hi – First time poster, long time lurker!

These P5Bs are just starting to hit the supply chain. I’m considering building a Vista64 high definition video editting rig around one of these puppies and would like to start a thread for initial thoughts, observations and comments.

As far as I can tell this £160+ variant is just a P5B Deluxe with improved long-life solid capacitors and added “marketing gravy”. I’ve heard the bundled USB-powered Screen Duo monitor is a bit of a ‘mare to configure and the remote still has compatibility issues with Vista! The mobo as an extra 512K of onboard flash memory to make use of ReadyBoost technology but if you don’t match flash size to RAM size, I’m not convinced there is much benefit. The extra cooling fan and the directional microphone again just seem to have been included to justify the price.

As I’m intending to put everything in a Silverstone Grandia GD1 HTPC/server case, I thought I could save a few quid by not getting the GD1MX and using the Vista Sideshow screen and remote for VFD duties instead.

I plan to do the build in H2 when the Q6600 prices will have dropped significantly, the ATI RV630 range of graphics cards will be out and a pair of 2Gb sticks of RAM will be readily available. A 74Gb Raptor, pair of 320Gb Caviar16s in Raid0 and a 500Gb eSATA will provide storage while an AC7 will cool and an HX620 will provide power. All this will output to a 30” Dell.

I will do a “Check Spec/Prices” post nearer the time but for now I am still doing the groundwork and am looking for feedback on this mobo. An early review has been posted at bjorn3d.com so I suggest you head over there for the full skinny.

[DecomposingStar]

All i've heard is that the P5B variants are all solid boards, but the Vista version is just using a buzz word. You need to truly look at the specifications of the board and see if its what you want for the price, which it seems you have, so it's pretty much up to you.

Could you get a similar spec P5B board and buy some other items? Would that work out cheaper? Do you really need some of the things on the board?

Just a few things to think about.

[Clunk]

By the time H2 gets here, there will probably be better stuff on the market. Its probably best to speculate closer to the time.

The older P5B boards have been great, but keep an eye on complains about build quality, especially as Asus's last few enthusiast boards have suffered from some quite serious build quality problems, escpecially the Chinese built ones. Hopefully the Vista edition P5B wont suffer from these problems, but it is definately worth keeping an eye on.