ASUS PK5 to Deluxe or not ?

[blowtorch]

Evening All,

Hopefully will be building a Q6600 based system soon (yeah, I know me and everyone else).

Anyway, I have been checking out motherboards and the ASUS PK5 is the likely candidate but I was wondering if anyone has experience with the non-deluxe models like:-

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=615972

I am not interested in DDR3 for the minute but as this appears to use both DDR 2 and 3, it looks like it might be a winner.

[Clunk]

If you want it for overclocking, then the deluxe model is the one you want.

The others will overclock ok, but they are missing some voltage settings.

[blowtorch]

If you want it for overclocking, then the deluxe model is the one you want.

The others will overclock ok, but they are missing some voltage settings.

That's sort of what I figured. (you get what you pay for etc.....) Thanks

[Clunk]

I forgot to mention that some of the lesser models are lacking raid and esata, and I think firewire (might be remembering that wrong though )

[JKL]

I think the Asus P5K-E is almost identical to the Asus P5K Deluxe. The P5K-E has a single Gigabyte LAN port, whereas the Deluxe has Dual LAN. The P5K-E also has a less elaborate heatpipe cooling system, but I don't think these differences would hinder the performance of a P5K-E board which should be very close to the Deluxe but £30 -£35 cheaper. As far as I know the BIOS options on both boards are the same.
(If you peel back the sticker on an ASUS P5K-E board, you will see Asus P5K Deluxe stencilled beneath it.)

[smellybumlove]

just dont get the premium 18th anniversary!

[JKL]

What's wrong with the Premium ?

[Fornowagain]

What's wrong with the Premium ?

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...20#post1171020

[JKL]

... strange because everything I 've read about the P5K Premium has been good, and I have that board on a shortlist together with the P5K-E. If a high priced board like the Premium refuses to work with VISTA it must be considered a MAJOR flaw and somehow I don't see Asus releasing a board that they have not tested on VISTA. I'm awaiting a refund on an RMA so I'm not in any rush to decide on which board to buy, but I have been following the P5K Premium thread on xtremesystems.org and I don't see any reports of people having issues running VISTA.

[PoDd]

P5K-E. Definately. You wont have a problem. An excellent quad core clocking board for the value/performance minded enthusiast. Same as deluxe, minus stuff u prolly wont need as stated above. What ur left with is the same clocking headroom and options as the deluxe without uneccessary features, but plenty of on-board extras. If you don't need raid, there are other cheaper options - Gigabyte.

It's what i'm gettin.

PoDd

[smellybumlove]

... strange because everything I 've read about the P5K Premium has been good, and I have that board on a shortlist together with the P5K-E. If a high priced board like the Premium refuses to work with VISTA it must be considered a MAJOR flaw and somehow I don't see Asus releasing a board that they have not tested on VISTA. I'm awaiting a refund on an RMA so I'm not in any rush to decide on which board to buy, but I have been following the P5K Premium thread on xtremesystems.org and I don't see any reports of people having issues running VISTA.

understood, this is what i thought until i saw it do the same thing on 2 other new boards!.

so far i cant tell the difference between the deluxe and premium anyway.

[JKL]

I don't doubt your word that you had major problems with an Asus Premium board & Windows VISTA 32. The question is .... is this typical of all Asus Premiums or did you just get a bad one. If your retailer subsequently tested 2 more Asus Premiums with VISTA and found the same problem it suggests something is very wrong with this combination. If this is the case I would expect the various Asus forums to be flooded with complaints and also expect to see this problem highlighted on review sites that have tested this board, but so far I have not seen this. I checked on Xtremesystems, VRforums, [H]ardOcp, Coolaler, and other sites that have tested the Asus Premium and this problem is not mentioned. Either way I'm glad you got your problem sorted out and your happy with the Asus P5K Deluxe, I had to RMA a Gigabyte board last week and agree it's no fun.

[jamadaia]

My friend has been running the P5K deluxe board with VISTA (64) Ultimate. He apparently had some initial issues (I think SATA related) but nothing that wasn't easily fixed.
Personally I just streer clear of VISTA as I honestly think its more trouble/hassle than its worth (at moment).
On a side note, I have the P5K Deluxe board my self and am going to be selling it any day now. Basically I need a workstation level board now, as I am going to be running SAS RAID drives via PCI-E. Kind of annoying as I only had the board for a few weeks grrrrr

[JKL]

I'm not a VISTA fan either, I will use XP-PRO for as long as possible but there will come a time when they finally pull the plug on that O/S and we will be forced to change. As such, I can't see where any manufacturer would release a motherboard without thoroughly testing it on all versions Windows VISTA beforehand.

[jamadaia]

I hear ya m8, but its been happening for as long as I can remember.
So much so that I am pleasantly surprised when I get a board that works in exactly all the areas as it is expected to. Annoying thing is it doesn't matter if you buy the high end versions or not.

[JKL]

The thing is it only takes one bad experience to put you off a brand for life.