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P5Q Pro thoughts?

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Good afternoon all... rookie builder, but experienced upgrader looking for advice on his first full build. Hope you guys on Tom's forums can help a bit.

Build specs:
- Budget/low-end build
- LIGHT gaming (AoC, Sims, etc.. no Crysis, COD4 or UT3 plans though)
- HEAVY multitasking (iTunes & Folding@Home 24/7, plus other usage)
- $150 (US$) max limit for mobo
- Intel E7200 LGA 775 planned
- Rookie overclocker... my long overdue first attempt at OC'ing

I have a family-inherited loyalty towards Asus boards, and a bias based on the facts I've heard/read over the last few years as an "upgrader".

So, somewhat recently NewEgg released this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

A new p45 low/mid-range board from Asus, based off the popular P5Q Deluxe. FSB of 1600/1333, capable of DDR2 1600 RAM. True 16x Crossfire-capable as well, which isn't a need NOW but leaves the gaming upgrade option for the future when Nehalem hits, LGA 775 goes extinct and GPU is the best upgrade option.

Looks awesome.

So... what's the catch?

Does anyone have any experience with this board? Is it literally a scaled-down P5Q Deluxe? How are the BIOS looking? Am I missing something I should be noticing and will be upset about post-purchase?

Any info anyone can give me would be greatly helpful.

If you're not a fan of this board... could you suggest other options? I'll consider a comparable Gigabyte or similar quality equivalent (don't suggest ECS or MSI, not interested, personal bias, sorry).

Moo.

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i just bought a p5q-e as a replacement for my p5b deluxe that went bad. I compared it to the p5q-pro. It is basically a p5q deluxe without 16phase power. from what i've read, the 16 phase power doesn't really make too much of a difference in terms of overclocking performance, so i decided that it wasn't worth the extra $50.

IMO, i love the p5q-e it has a better board layout than the p5q pro, and it has larger heatsinks for the north and south bridges, so that will improve cooling. and for $10 more, i think it was a no brainer.
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roadrunner197069 said:
I dont believe P45 does Crossfire in 16x2. You might want a x38/48 if you want true 16x crossfire.

P45s do have 2 lanes but both dont run 16x in crossfire.

I could be wrong, but I dont think so.



the OP wanted a budget/low end build, i think an x38/48 would be overkill for a lowend build, especially since his limit is only about $150 for the board.

Well, I didn't say buy one, I just said P45 doesn't do 16x2 in xfire like he posted he was interested in.

He can't have his cake and eat it to.

I'm all for budget builds, and P5Q series. They just dont do xfire 16x 2. Only 16x + 8x.
Motherboard Master

When nehalem arrives, current motherboards will be obsolete.

If you are a heavy multitasker, you would be better served by a quad core.
Look at a simple P35 based board, and put the difference towards a quad like the Q6600 or Q9300.

roadrunner197069 said:
Well, I didn't say buy one, I just said P45 doesn't do 16x2 in xfire like he posted he was interested in.

He can't have his cake and eat it to.

I'm all for budget builds, and P5Q series. They just dont do xfire 16x 2. Only 16x + 8x.

That's right. No p45 motherboard can use dual 16x pcie in crossfire. It's chipset limitations, and cannot be changed. The specs on Newegg is wrong.

To crossfire 48xx cards, you need pciex16, which means at least a x38 board.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/7/page_7_benchma...

If you don't want cf, and just want high overclock, consider this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...]
Asus made its name through the old p35 chipset, and is the king of oc then. Since then, it's been unseated by Gigabyte in x38/48, and BioStar in p45.
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