Asus P5B Deluxe

[Tenchu0300]

i was wondering if someone can tell me how reliable this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131045 is as i will be ordering it in a couple of days...i'm using it for games only so if there is another board someone could recommend it would be greatly appreciated..thx

 

[kwalker]

The board is fairly solid.
quirks.
some boards revert to 1X pci express Lane width on reset 0711 bios and later.
soundmax drivers bad and no fix yet(get stand alone sound card)

 

[RU_469]

Do not buy this board. According to the dual core2 over clocking guide this board is NOT recommended for OC'ing.

But the ASUS P5B Deluxe w/wifi is recommended.

The OC guide recommends many MB's if your interested in reading it.

 

[rwpritchett]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the P5B-Deluxe and P5B-Deluxe WiFi is the exact same board with the exception of the WiFi... which doesn't affect reliability or OC'ing at all. It's the P5B that you want to stay away from if you want to OC.

I have the WiFi BTW and there are some issues with the onboard sound and the drivers that Asus has put out as kwalker posted. I've worked out all the kinks and I'm perfectly happy with the onboard sound. Most sound issues are complaints of crackling sound or not getting the DTS to work.

There are also some 'tricks' you will have to look up to get the JMicron controller configured correctly.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this board and recommend it.

 

[Supergoal]

I have the p5b deluxe wifi board too. Been using it a couple of weeks with no problems. Seems a fairly solid board with a fair amount of stuff with it.

 

[srxtreme]

I too have the P5B Deluxe/ WiFii and have had it a couple months now and have found it to be an excellent board.
I did have the problems with the onboard sound, but did not put much effort into correcting it since I had already planned to use my own sound card.
Overclocking is quite easy and very stable at resonable levels, assuming you use quality memory (be sure to check and use the memory compatability list)
> Memory compatability List <

You mentioned gaming If you plan to use 2 cards in SLI. I'd look at another model, or go with a single Geforce 8800 series card and you'll be ready for Vista and DX10


ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz Processor fsb 1066MHz
Overclocked and running at 2.560 FSB @1280MHz w/ stock CPU cooling (for now)
Thermaltake Xaser Case w/ 5-Variable speed 80mm LED fans
Enermax Front Panel with LCD temp readout and fan speed controls
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon X1900 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E x16 Video Card (used as DVR, HTPC)
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
SCEPTRE X20G-Naga III Black 20.1" 8ms Widescreen HD Ready LCD Monitor
SeaSonic S12-600 ATX12V 600W Power Supply
2 x 200GB SATA Western Digital Hardrives
Sound Blaster Audigy
Backup -1 External 80GB (USB2) Hard Drive, 1 60GB IDE Drives, 1 30GB Drive (ide/usb adapter)
NEC DVD Burner

 

[MasterOfDisaster]

I would recomend this board too...although i also use the wi-fi edition...haven't oc-ed yet but it is stable as hell plus the sound was working fine before i disabled it(no replacement for a stand alone sound card)...hadn't problems with the wi-fi either...

 

[Grated]

P5B Deluxe and P5B Deluxe Wi-Fi are the same board.

Just stay away from the P5B board

 

[BMFM]

You mean to stay away from the "plain" P5B's, right? And not from the Deluxes and P5B-E's versions.

 

[Supergoal]

Srxtreme, on your case's your list says you have fan speed controls. On my case I also have fan speed controls, however they don't seem to work, or change anything by twiddling them!

Since you have the same board as me, I'd like to know did you have to configure anything to get them working?

 

[bazza]

P5B-E is the best of the bunch
Then Deluxe (no wifi/wifi are basically identical boards)
People dont like P5B vanilla coz of the caps @@

The new BIOS versions make this board rock stable

If I was forced to upgrade it'd be P5B-E or P5WDG2 WS PRO

 

[srxtreme]

Srxtreme, on your case's your list says you have fan speed controls. On my case I also have fan speed controls, however they don't seem to work, or change anything by twiddling them!

Since you have the same board as me, I'd like to know did you have to configure anything to get them working?

I have a Enermax Front Panel with LCD temp readout and fan speed controls built in, IT only has 2 controls so I use 1 for the 2 rear exhaust fans and the other for the front 2 intake fans.
I also have 3 simple mini toggle switches, one for the side window fan, one turns off 1 of the intakes and 1 exhaust to quieten down things when not needed, and the final switch control the Lights I have in the case. This took a little extra time to wire up when I was building it, but it was worth it.

As far as the BIOS controlling the fans is concerned, I have the CPU fan on one bios controlled fan header and the other bios controlled fan header manages the 2 unswitched fans (1 front, 1 rear). So with the switches I installed I can switch 1 intake, 1 exhaust and side fan off for quiter operation and still have the BIOS adjust the speed of the remaining fans.
My grand plan for fan control sounds great in therory, unfortunatley the BIOS managed fans dont really seems to speed up when I want them to, They only increase around 200 rpms when the CPU get to hot for my taste (>65C). I believe the bios controlled fan speed can operate at 3 speeds so I'd like to see the fans run at low speed then kick on to med at 50C and High at 650C This is with the BIOS set to the mid-level Optimal setting (Silent, Optimal, Performance) so I end up having to manually adjust them with the fan control knobs, defeating the purpose of using the BIOS auto fan control. Sure wish I could adjust the BIOS fans trigger points manually.


I can speed the fans up with AI Gear fan controll (Gear shift) but for some reason they decided to disable it if the system is overclocked.

 

[rwpritchett]

Sure wish I could adjust the BIOS fans trigger points manually.

srxtreme,

Download and install SpeedFan. Go into your BIOS and DISABLE Q-Fan for both CPU and Chassis fans (otherwise SpeedFan won't work).

With SpeedFan, you can set up whatever profile you like including what temperatures trigger what fan speed. It's much better than the Q-Fan utility plus you can make changes without having to reboot each time.

When you first install the program, you will probably need to play around with the settings and rename the fans and sensors so they make sense to you since the program is a 'catch-all' utility meant for many different chipsets.

The one downside to SpeedFan is that since it is a windows program, fans will be at full blast when you first start your system. When the program loads with windows, then the controls take over and slow the fans down.

Give it a try and see what you think.

 

[srxtreme]

Appreciate the info.. I'll give speedfan a try

Update:
I tried Speedfan and it was exactly what I was looking for.
Took a little while to fine to it but it works great.. shuts off my extra fans when there not need and kicks them back on when it does.
Also allowed me to speed up the CPU fan rpms a bit, which allows my cpu to idle much cooler. It used to idle at 45C (fan at 865rpms) now it idles a 32C (fan at 1800). and with the extra case fans off it is quiter than before.

Seems like ASUS would pruchase a quality product like this and dump Probe

Thanks for the tip!