Got my P5K Deluxe today...

[Staren]

Recived my P5K Deluxe and Antec P182 from Directron.com today. So far I'm impressed with both, but especially the P5K. This will probably read like a lot of the reviews done by the major sites, but I'll try to touch on some stuff I saw specifically.

Opening the box you see the standard stuff, I/O shield, floppy and single flat IDE cable, SATA cables, rear USB/Firewire bracket, and manual. What you don't notice at first glance is that there are actually 4 SATA data cables total. Two standard, and two angled for those tight spots. It's a nice little touch. The ASUS Q-Connect models are like a gift from the gods if you've never seen one before, and there are 3 that come with the case, a main panel, USB, and Firewire header module are included.

The layout of the board itself is almost perfect.

The jumper to clear the CMOS is in kind of a bad spot, but considering you shouldn't need to access it too often thanks to the crashfree BIOS it's not a huge problem.

The only other issue that's obvious is that the 24pin and aux power connectors are on the high top right of the board. Not an issue if your using a standard case with a top mounted power supply, but might come up if your using a case with a bottom mounted PSU like the Antec 900 or P182. I'll follow up on this when my PSU comes in and I get the build together.

Double hight video cards are going to cover legacy PCI slots rather then PCI-E x1 slots as with some other boards so that might be a problem to some, but should be less of an issue as time goes on. I wouldn't worry about it for a fully new build.

The back panel is clean and sweet. They finally got around to pulling legacy ports in favor for extra USB ports. You still have a PS/2 keyboard port just in case, but the mouse port is gone. In it's place are 2 USB ports for a total of 6. So you can use USB input devices and still have free all 4 of the usual USB ports you'd get on other boards. Something else that I like about all Asus boards is the build quality of the back panel. All of the blocks of ports are solid and surrounded by a good amount of aluminum. Other boards have a tendency to have a few ports fairly loose on the back panel which makes them feel flimsy.

The pictures that are out there now make the heatpipe seem pretty big, but looking at it in real life, it doesn't seem near as bad. Most of the standard after-market heatsinks should work fine. I wouldn't use one of the upside down mounting cases with this board, but shouldn't be a problem with a standard P5K is it uses more common separate heatsinks rather then a heatpipe.

I'll post a usability review when I get my PSU in a day or two and get the build done.

[minsonngo]

Be sure to post pictures. I'm waiting on your review of how the P5K Deluxe runs before I start to plan my new build.

[HarshWinter]

Sorry if its to early to ask, but would you suggest the p5k deluxe over the p5b deluxe?
I was about to order my parts today but some of the parts i wanted were out of stock.

So my plan was to overclock a c2d with the p5b deluxe but I saw the p5k deluxe at newegg for $220, only $30 more than the p5b deluxe. I was thinking that this board would be a better overclocker and use the new intel chips when i need to upgrade.

Should I spend $30 extra for the P5K?

[Staren]

The reviews definatly look good, and overclocking on the P5K is wild going by the major reviews. I should have my PSU coming in tomorrow, so if you want to wait one more day for a first hand review I'll be posting one. If you think you can figure out the BIOS on your own and don't mind taking the small risk that you might have to do a return since we don' know the boards quirks yet, I'd say go for it.

Remember there is one more major consideration for P35 boards, they will support the new Penryn processors which will be replacing Conroe some time next year. So if nothing else the P5K will be more future proof. If this build goes well, the P5K will become my recommendation. But I want to make sure it doesn't have any odd issues first.

[whubbard]

yeah, i've heard great things.

Please post a review when you get the chance.

[HarshWinter]

Ya Staren, I think I can wait for you to make a review :D . I have to still wait for the parts I want to restock.

I'll happily waiting for a review if you decide to make one, thanks.

[Mr.Ferrari]

If your gonna do a build around it, just make sure you stick to known compatible ram. I.E corsair to be safe. Since this is really more of an update rather then a full rehaul, the boards are pretty stable besides being a little finicky with ram. This minor bug should also be fixed by the next few bios releases.

Overclocking has stepped up especially for Quad Cores.

Im personally waiting for X38 :D.

[Staren]

X38s going to be outta my price range same as 975X was. I'll stick to the more mainstream boards thanks.

The one thing I will be looking at when I build is the heating issue for the P5K i've been reading about. It looks like the passive cooling isn't doing a perfect job so far. People are looking at CPUs that run 28c idle and 32c load, but MB temps in the low 40s. Usable for sure, but an issue none the less.

Early BIOS revisions are also seeing RAID problems, but it looks like Asus has that one well in hand.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Very true, some of the boards have been overvolting the northbridge when set to auto, but bios updates have been fixing that. The chipset itself just runs hotter overall.

I should have my hands on a P5K vanilla for a build next week so I might just replace the northbridge heatsink with a beefier passive one as this is going to be a low noise (low airflow) build. Not much case flow to help it out.

[SuprchargdMazda]

I thought the new chipset was supposed to run a tad bit cooler than P965?

I've got a P5K Vanilla coming in next week too for a friend's build, going to be paired up with a E6320(x7) so it'll be a good test to see how high it'll go. A person claims the vdroop option doesn't work on the Vanilla over at XS though :( .

[Mr.Ferrari]

I've got a P5K Vanilla coming in next week too for a friend's build, going to be paired up with a E6320(x7) so it'll be a good test to see how high it'll go. A person claims the vdroop option doesn't work on the Vanilla over at XS though :( .

Nothing a nice voltmod doesn't solve :P.

[Staren]

Well finished the hardware portion of the build finally. The motherboard went in perfectly. Definatly need to connect the case headers before installing any PCI cards because of location, but other then that it worked out very well. Had some problems with the case so I got first POST and called it a night.

What turned this into a 5 hour build was the case. There is a LOT in the P182 to be taken out during prep, and the PSU location makes getting the wires untangled and ready to be run a project. I also had to mess with the tooless drives for a while because I misunderstood the mounting at first. Did manage to run all major wires behind the motherboard, even the 24pin ATX connector. Was a little tight but it's doable.

Going to finish the software install tomorrow.

[XenaWP]

Snap a couple of photos when you get done, I'll be interested to see it.

[Staren]

Ok the review is going to have to wait one more day...*sigh*. My dad has a new water heater coming so he decided today would be a good day to change out all the outlet and switches in the garage while everything is cleared out. Power has been going on and off all day and he already fried one surge suppressor so I don't dare work on a new system right now.

[chuck4456]

I decided to get a P5K myself. Bought an ABIT QUAD GT a couple of weeks ago. The delivery box looked like a forklift backed into it - board was actually bent! RMA. Second one, this time the other carrier - bango! EZ CMOS switch knocked out of kilter. Full credit time. The p35 boards had come out during all of this, so I had already decided to skip the QGT. I clicked on to order a P5K and (what do you know?) the IP35 was made available that morning and I ordered one of those!We'll have to compare notes. I hope your build goes well.

[Staren]

Man you had bad luck with the ABIT. Guess you weren't ment to have that one. I'm not an overly strong beleaver in fate, but when stuff like that happens you kind of wonder if chance would actually make that happen.

Anyway, ya. We'll defiantly have to compare experience. I'm really kind of interested to see what BIOS revision is on mine.

[Staren]

Here are the P5K photos (http://flickr.com/photos/94973115@N00/sets/72157600327375807/) I promised. I'll post BIOS shots as soon as I can, but here are some hardware pics to tide you over. Notice the location of the headers in the last shot. Not somewhere you want to work with the video card installed.

[kmillerusaf]

That is a huge case!

[Staren]

I don't think it's terribly big. Roomy, but I think the placement of the power supply makes it seem a bit bigger then it is.

[minsonngo]

Looks nice Staren!

[Staren]

Full review pending, however I am now writing this from my new build. Have not yet overclocked, but Vista installed flawlessly on auto settings. Idle temps are 30c - 31c CPU and 37c - 38c Motherboard. I think the motherboard temps are just going to be a fact of life for this board stock. Downloading Orthos and 3dMark06 now to to get stock load temps. I'll have to see what the temp does with voltages brought down a little. I'm going to get some dinner and then will have the BIOS pics up shortly.

P5K BIOS pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staren/sets/72157600332288705/

[chuck4456]

.... wasn't ABIT. It was the shipping. Worst that I have ever seen. Well, the IP35 PRO was in perfect condition, even though they still put the box on the bottom of the shipping box and THEN poured in the peanuts! Don't know how it made it thru. Got it all together with an E6420, an ACF7 cooler, 2 gigs BALLISTIX PC2 5300 (old reliable), a Sapphire, an OCZ StealthStream, and a 300gb PRT Seagate, that Seagate had just sent me from an RMA. I'm at my RAM ceiling though. This is what I'm running at stock voltages tonite:

[Mr.Ferrari]

Really..? The ballistix should easily hit 500+ with stock timings (or 4-3-4-8 and 4-4-4-8, micron likes them) and ~2.2v if not less..same stuff as their ddr2 800. Nice board though.

[chuck4456]

Yeah, well I think so too. Keep in mind, this is all stock voltage. I'm going to bump up some voltages. I feel like I should at least be able to get 900 out of them. Even though they're PC2 5300, they're the old fat boys like the TAE had. There's plenty of timing options too. That's what great about a good chip. I'm not done yet! I'm doing some module shopping tonite in fact. I haven't run 'em at 4-4-4-8 yet. Might give that a shot.