ASUS PK5 to Deluxe or not ?

[JKL]

more info for ya,

this deluxe board o/c's higher than my premium did .
runs a bit hotter though

The reason the Deluxe runs hotter than the Premium is coz Asus have mounted 8 mosfets on the back of the P5K Deluxe board. Some Gigabyte boards have this design too, but Gigabyte have provided large flat copper backplates to disappate the heat generated by these mosfets. Asus on the otherhand have left the mosfets naked and being underneath the board there's nowhere for the heat to escape. People complained, Asus listened and removed the mosfets from the back of the Asus P5K Premium, also I think if you flip the Asus P5K-E over the mosfets underneath the board have been removed from that model too. Hence cooler temps.

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[Phil_P]

...also I think if you flip the Asus P5K-E over the mosfets underneath the board have been removed from that model too. Hence cooler temps.

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Can someone with a P5K-E board please confirm this - does it have mosfets on the back of the board like the Deluxe?

[JKL]

there's no mosfets on the back of the Asus P5K-E, I will upload some pics in a few mins if I can find image hosting.

[JKL]

Asus P5K-E (Top): see the white sticker just above the blue PCI-E slot, peel it back and you'll see Asus P5K Deluxe printed on the board, cheeky sods! - (click on image to enlarge)

http://hidebehind.com/0FA9ED?f

Asus PK-E (back): Red arrows indicate where the 8 mosfets have been removed from the back of the Asus P5K-E - (click on image to enlarge)

http://hidebehind.com/2AC5FA?f

[Clunk]

Really? So thats another thing to add to the list

[smellybumlove]

my head hurts.

wish the manufactures just stated the differences instead of just listing the same **** with a different price.

[JKL]

here's what the Asus P5K Deluxe looks like ...

yellow arrows indicate the 8 mosfets mounted on the back of the P5K Deluxe. (click on image to enlarge)

http://hidebehind.com/29A6A7?f

[Phil_P]

Thanks JKL

So, is it just a case that the mosfets have been moved to the top side of the board, or have they "downgraded the power supply circuitry?

[Toobad]

I have a PK5-E. If anyone has any questions about it in particualar, I will happily answer what I can.

Scary time, first build and all that. Can you tell me how many fan headers are on the E mobo? I believe the Deluxe has 6. I want to put a Q6600+ Zalman 9500AT in a Grandia HTPC case with 2x92mm front intakes, 1x80mm side intake and 2x80mm exhausts. I naively hope the Q Fan 2 facility will take care of the case fan speeds assuming there are enough mobo headers.

[JKL]

Thanks JKL

So, is it just a case that the mosfets have been moved to the top side of the board, or have they "downgraded the power supply circuitry?

I have no idea where they put them ... I just think of the P5K-E as a P5K Deluxe but with one less LAN port and a bit less copper plumbing. In terms of performance I can't say because no one has tested them against each other but I imagine there's very little in it. There's one more thing, Asus sold tons of P5K Deluxes to happy customers, and then bring out the Asus P5K Premium, now this board at a quick glance looks identical to the Deluxe, but it's not. Asus have made changes to the electronics in the Premium board, better mosfets, an 8 layer PCB, more caps, removal of those mosfets from around the back and other electronic stuff that I don't fully understand. They've also included 2 clip-on fans to cool the voltage regulators up top around the CPU area. The Asus P5K Premium on paper should be a better performing board than the P5K Deluxe, but so far there's no evidence of this because no one has tested these 2 boards back to back. Now if you bring prices into the equation searching around today these are the lowest prices I found. You can see that the Premium is just 12 quid more than the Deluxe, which is worth it for the 2 cooling fans alone in my opinion. I'm not going to mention the Asus Blitz Formula SE which will probably out perform all 3 of these boards on water cooling, water cooling is in a different league.

Asus P5K-E = £105

Asus P5K Deluxe = £134

Asus P5K Premium = £146
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[badass]

Scary time, first build and all that. Can you tell me how many fan headers are on the E mobo? I believe the Deluxe has 6. I want to put a Q6600+ Zalman 9500AT in a Grandia HTPC case with 2x92mm front intakes, 1x80mm side intake and 2x80mm exhausts. I naively hope the Q Fan 2 facility will take care of the case fan speeds assuming there are enough mobo headers.

I've just had a look.
There's a 4 pin CPU, and IIRC 4 others on the Motherboard.

EDIT: CHecked pics online. 1 4 pin CPU and 4 3 pin case fan headers on the Motherboard.

[smellybumlove]

I have no idea where they put them ... I just think of the P5K-E as a P5K Deluxe but with one less LAN port and a bit less copper plumbing. In terms of performance I can't say because no one has tested them against each other but I imagine there's very little in it. There's one more thing, Asus sold tons of P5K Deluxes to happy customers, and then bring out the Asus P5K Premium, now this board at a quick glance looks identical to the Deluxe, but it's not. Asus have made changes to the electronics in the Premium board, better mosfets, an 8 layer PCB, more caps, removal of those mosfets from around the back and other electronic stuff that I don't fully understand. They've also included 2 clip-on fans to cool the voltage regulators up top around the CPU area. The Asus P5K Premium on paper should be a better performing board than the P5K Deluxe, but so far there's no evidence of this because no one has tested these 2 boards back to back. Now if you bring prices into the equation searching around today these are the lowest prices I found. You can see that the Premium is just 12 quid more than the Deluxe, which is worth it for the 2 cooling fans alone in my opinion. I'm not going to mention the Asus Blitz Formula SE which will probably out perform all 3 of these boards on water cooling, water cooling is in a different league.

Asus P5K-E = £105

Asus P5K Deluxe = £134

Asus P5K Premium = £146
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yes it has 2 extra fans which clip onto the sinks, however it has a huge sticker on both of them saying to only use with water cooling and not air cooling, plus they are noisy so i never used them.

[Phil_P]

I have no idea where they put them ... I just think of the P5K-E as a P5K Deluxe but with one less LAN port and a bit less copper plumbing. In terms of performance I can't say because no one has tested them against each other but I imagine there's very little in it.

I found a couple threads with folks OCing the P5K-E with good success so no reason to believe it won't be another winner:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=150011

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=166009

[JKL]

****skip this*****

[smellybumlove]

****skip this*****

i wouldnt buy it if it was £50 cheaper!.

my computer actually runs since i changed boards!.

well if you do get it i hope you dont have the same problems i had.

[JKL]

yes it has 2 extra fans which clip onto the sinks, however it has a huge sticker on both of them saying to only use with water cooling and not air cooling, plus they are noisy so i never used them.

Yes the 2 fans are for either water cooling or passive cooling but I have seen sites test the Premium board with stock intel CPU fan and those 2 fans running in tandem, with no ill effect. If you take the fans completely out of the equation, I would still pay the extra 12 quid for an Asus P5K Premium over an Asus P5K Deluxe. It has better components, runs cooler, and will probably last longer. You don't like the Premium board because it didn't play nice with your VISTA installation, I don't think it had anything to do with the board so lets just agree to disagree on this!