Asus P5Q SE Plus

DECEiFER

Mornin' folks,

I'm thinking of getting this motherboard. I have read some reviews, and there are a lot of pros considering the price. However, a lot of people have reported their boards have come DOA or have died after days, weeks, or months.

Reference:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813131347


Anyone have any experience with them to share?

I was thinking of getting a Asus P5Q SE2, but that has a Marvell PATA controller instead of the JMicron one on the P5Q SE Plus. I have two IDE disks for storing my music and movies, so I'd rather go with the better controller.


Thanks.

Jonathan

24 pin ATX connector is in an awkward position.

DECEiFER

Damn, I just noticed. That is very strange. Any other downsides?

How about the P5Q SE2? I mean, Marvell aren't as good as JMicron, so I am told, but are they that bad? If the SE2 is a good buy, then I might just get that instead. I know the 24-pin power connector is on the odd side there too. Might not be a problem, but it's a worry for now at least.

Or even if someone could please recommend a good board that will beat the living crap outta my MSI P43 Neo-F piece of garbage? I can't go over the €80 mark, which is the downside.

DECEiFER

Do you know what? I went on half impulse and half gut and bought the P5Q SE Plus.

I have a midi tower so I think I can work around the location of the 24-pin PSU connector at the back of the Northbridge.

I just hope it doesn't die, as it's supposed to be excellent for the money paid.

I watched this, due to the lack of written reviews for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK1ugmCFNr4


I could only find it in-stock on Elara, and paid a little more than what it would have cost on Komplett (€92.34 inc. regular shipping).


Thanks, Jonathan, for posting.


I'll have it by Tuesday or Wednesday next week at the latest, and I'll post some feedback on how I got on with the building and how it performs initially. The lack of feedback from people who have bought this board... I'd have liked to read about more people's experience, and hopefully this will help people who are also thinking about buying this board.

DECEiFER

OK, so I have had the board since this day last week. It's actually quite good.

For instance:

1. The "awkwardly" located ATX 24-pin socket is not awkward at all for my case. It actually clears up room on the front end as I can wrap the 24-pin power cable around the rail by my PSU.

2. I could be going mad, but I could swear that the PCI-E slot is a little bit upward towards the Northbride compared to my last motherboard. It suits me as my 4850 is a long enough graphics card that it was often a bit awkward getting the hard drive cables to quit getting tangled on the card.

3. I've noticed a way lower Vcore when set to Auto inside of the BIOS. The MSI P43 Neo-F usually went ~1.3v. My VID is 1.25 (E8400 E0 Stepping). The Auto setting on this board would be 1.2v-1.17v or less, and that's pretty much the same as what it is when I set the Vcore to 1.25v manually. There's serious Vdroop, but that's due to Intel's recommendations. There's a setting called Load-Line Cabibration. Turn it off to go with Intel's spec and turn it on to get rid of Vdroop, and it will try to maintain a constant Vcore. With it on, setting the value to 1.25v will bring it up to about 1.225v in real-time, so it is more accurate with it on. Very strange for me, since my last motherboard didn't have any of these features at all. But, I leave it off, so my Vcore is at the 1.2v-1.17v mark, depending on load. I did two nights of Prime95 with 8 hours on one night doing the Blend test and 8 hours the next night doing Large FFT. Both were stable! So, it's there's an extra mark for that.


Here's a snap (click to enlarge):





Hope this will give people thinking of buying the board some insight...

Solitaire

DECEiFER wrote: »

But, I leave it off, so my Vcore is at the 2.0v-1.7v mark, depending on load.

I sure hope not! Is that the smell of fried CPU coming from over there?

DECEiFER

Solitaire wrote: »

I sure hope not! Is that the smell of fried CPU coming from over there?

Ah ha ha ha I'm some nuisance. Total typo. I wouldn't be that crazy now!!! I'll correct the figures.

Both instances of where I mentioned those figures should have read 1.2v-1.17v.

Leman_Russ

Solitaire wrote: »

I sure hope not! Is that the smell of fried CPU coming from over there?

No, that's the cinnamon smell of LN2 :P