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ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review - PCSTATS
For starters, the ASUS P5E3 Premium has a class-N wireless network card integrated into the motherboard's design that pulls double duty as a Wireless access point, in addition to a pair of wired gigabit LAN ports.
 89% Rating:   
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: ASUS Feb 05 2009   J. Apong  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N

Overclocking the P5E3 Premium

Overclocking Results:
stock max. oc
motherboard speed: 333 mhz

555 mhz

if you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

The ASUS P5E3 motherboard has been preceded by other Intel X48 Express motherboards like Gigabyte's GA-X48-DS5 and MSI's X48 Platinum, so PCSTATS was anxious to get it on our benchmarking test bed and see how well it overclocked. Bet's anyone?

As usual, PCSTATS dropped in a 45nm 1333MHz FSB Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor and a 2GB set of Corsair's DOMINATOR Twin2X2048-8888C4DF memory, then powered the board up. The Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU replaces the Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 for our overclocking tests because the E6750 won't go past 475MHz any longer. Why do we use Corsair memory and not OCZ or GeIL? Well, over the years PCSTATS has just had better luck overclocking with sticks of Corsair locked and loaded.

To begin the E8400's CPU clock multiplier was changed from 9x to 6x, and the memory set to run at the lowest possible divider (DDR3-800). Starting at 333 MHz FSB the speed was increased in 15 MHz jumps.

The ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N motherboard was overclocked from 333MHz, 350MHz and then 400MHz as an initial overclocking boost. At 415MHz the RAM timings were relaxed to 8-8-8 15, and the system was overclocked further to 450MHz, then 500MHz without problems. We finally decided to push it to the limit, and pumped up the FSB to 550MHz, then 565MHz which POSTed but failed to boot into Windows Vista. The FSB was scaled back to 555MHz, which booted into Windows and benchmarked stably.

Not a bad overclocking result at all! With some more fine tweaking and further voltage fiddling, the ASUS P5E3 Premium motherboard could likely reach a 600MHz FSB.

BIOS Tweaking Tools:

The BIOS controls how the motherboard communicates with all the peripherals connected to it, and is a crucial component for any good well rounded motherboard. PCSTATS is only going to highlight the tweaking features so you'll know what to expect.

Here's the BIOS AI Tweaker overclocking page, with some of the values set manually to their maximums.

Like most ASUS motherboards, the P5E3 Premium opens up pretty much every RAM value open for tweaking.

Voltages can be adjusted in increments as fine as 0.0625V if needed, and clocked as high as the values seen here. Remember that these values are maximums (for information ONLY) and if you set things this high you will damage your PC system!

It's also possible to save multiple overclocking profiles, a useful feature given just how many adjustable options the ASUS AI Tweaker BIOS has. These BIOS options can also be exported to USB drives for redistribution over the internet.

With overclocking taken care of, it's time to benchmark the P5E3 Premium!

Prelude to Benchmarks

The details of how the ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi.N motherboard test system was configured for benchmarking, including the specific hardware, software drivers, operating system and benchmark versions are indicated below. In the second column are the general specs for the reference platforms this Intel X48 Express based system is to be compared against. Please take a moment to look over PCSTATS test system configurations before moving on to the individual benchmark results.

PCSTATS Test System Configurations
test system reference system #1
processor: intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (65nm)
OC tests with:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (45nm)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (775)
Motherboard: ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi (X48 Express)

ASUS P5NT Deluxe (NF 780i)
MSI P6N Diamond (NF 680i)
Biostar TF7150V-M7 (GF 7150)
Asrock Penryn1600SLIX3 (NF 680i)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 (P35 Express)
MSI P35 Platinum (P35 Express)
Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe (P35 Express)
ASUS BLITZ Formula (P35 Express)
Foxconn MARS (P35 Express)
Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 (X38 Express)
ASUS Maximus Extreme (X38 Express)
Biostar TPower I45 (P45 Express)
ECS P45T-A (P45 Express)
Gigabyte GA-EP45-DQ6 (P45 Express)
MSI X48 Platinum (X48 Express)

Videocard: MSI NX8800GTS-T2D320E
Memory: 2GB Crucial Ballistix PC3-12800 (DDR3)

2GB Corsair Twin2X2048-8888C4D (DDR2)

Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740
CDROM: AOpen Combo 52x
Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 750W
Heatsink: Intel E6600 Reference
Software Setup:

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
Intel INF 9.0.0.1008
nVIDIA Forceware 169.25

Benchmarks:

SYSMark 2007
SiSoft Sandra 2008
PCMark Vantage
3DMark Vantage
3DMark06
FEAR

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Contents of Article: ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N
 Pg 1.  ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
 Pg 2.  ASUS WIFI-AP @N and Express Gate
 Pg 3.  ASUS Express Gate - 5sec Internet Access
 Pg 4.  Intel X48 Chipset and Total System Power Draw Comparisons
 Pg 5.  ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N Motherboard Highlights
 Pg 6.  — Overclocking the P5E3 Premium
 Pg 7.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sysmark 2007
 Pg 8.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sandra XII 2008 Processor
 Pg 9.  Motherboard Benchmarks: Sandra XII 2008 Memory
 Pg 10.  Motherboard Benchmarks: PCMark Vantage
 Pg 11.  Motherboard Benchmarks: 3DMark Vantage, 3DMark06, FEAR
 Pg 12.  Too Much of a Good thing?

 
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