Intel P965: Mid-Range Performance Sector Roundup
by Gary Key on October 20, 2006 9:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
ASUS P5B-E: Feature Set
ASUS is replacing the P5B (non-deluxe) with the P5B-E. The improvements in the board have centered around better performance and overclocking capabilities. ASUS has improved the BIOS while upgrading or adding additional capacitors on the board. Our opinion is that they have succeeded based upon our test results. The current motherboard that is shipping is a 1.01G revision with either the C1 or C2 P965 stepping. As we witnessed in an earlier article there is not a real difference in performance between the two chipsets.
The current P5B-E 1.01G is very well optioned and sells for around US $160. ASUS will be launching a new revision of the motherboard oriented to the enthusiast crowd in the near future and it sports a new PLL controller that allows up to 1.7V for the MCH and 2.45V for the memory. The current 1.01G board does not offer voltage selections for the MCH and memory is limited to 2.10V. The board revision is 1.02G and we do not know if the name will change at this time or not. However, this should not deter the majority of users from considering the 1.01G motherboard as there is no difference in the performance of the boards except in overclocking when utilizing mid to lower range memory modules that require additional voltage.
ASUS supports their AI Suite of utilities with the P5B-E that include AI N.O.S., AI Gear, AI Nap, AI Booster, and Q-Fan applications. ASUS AI Gear allows for four different fixed settings ranging from maximum performance to maximum power saving. ASUS AI Nap is a power savings utility and Q-Fan controls the CPU and chassis fans. AI Booster allows you to overclock the CPU to a certain level without rebooting to the BIOS. AI N.O.S. determines the load on the system and automatically overclocks the system up to 20%.
We found when setting the AI N.O.S. setting to auto that the system would boot our E6300 at 7x266 with the memory set at DDR2-800 with timings of 5-5-5-15. Once in XP and stressing the system with game play or 3DMark06 it would automatically raise the FSB to 275 with the memory at DDR2-824. If we set the AI N.O.S. from Auto to Sensitive then we could predetermine the percentage of overclock capability with the Turbo setting up to 20%. At the 20% setting the system would lock up due to our memory running at DDR2-958, something not possible with our GEIL DDR2-800 being limited to 2.1V. The FSB setting was 7x319 with memory timings at 5-5-5-18.
Once we backed down to a 15% overclock setting then the system would operate normally. This resulted in a 7x306 FSB with the memory speed at DDR2-920 with timings of 5-5-5-18. We found this to be strange as the system would operate with the memory set manually to 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-980 in our overclock tests. Overall, we still suggest you manually adjust the BIOS for optimum settings with your components.
| ASUS P5B-E (1.01G and 1.02G Revision) | |
| Market Segment: | Mid-Range Performance |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Pentium EE, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme |
| Chipset: | Intel P965 + ICH8R |
| Bus Speeds: | 100 to 650 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Speeds: | Auto, 533, 667, 800, 889, 1067 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 90MHz~150MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| PCI: | Auto, Fixed at 33.33 |
| Core Voltage: | Base CPU V to 1.7000V in 0.0125V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-11x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked |
| DRAM Voltage: | Auto, 1.80V ~ 2.10V in .10V increments on 1.01G, 1.80V ~ 2.45V on 1.02G |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 10 DRAM Timing Options |
| NB Voltage: | Not available 1.01G, 1.4V~1.7V on 1.02G |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 1 - PCIe X16 3 - PCIe X1 3 - PCI Slot 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - Intel ICH8R (RAID 0,1,5, 1+0,JBOD) 1 SATA 3Gbps Ports - JMicron JMB363 1 e-SATA 3Gbps Port - JMicron JMB363 |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - JMicron JMB363 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 10 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel - 6 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA VT6307 - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Gigabit Ethernet Controller - PCI Express Interface Attansic L1 |
| Onboard Audio: | ADI 1988A 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 4-pin EATX 12V |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel Port 1 x S/PDIF Optical 1 x S/PDIF Coaxial 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 1 x eSATA 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| BIOS Revision: | AMI 0601 |
| Board Revision: | 1.01G, 1.02G |
ASUS is replacing the P5B (non-deluxe) with the P5B-E. The improvements in the board have centered around better performance and overclocking capabilities. ASUS has improved the BIOS while upgrading or adding additional capacitors on the board. Our opinion is that they have succeeded based upon our test results. The current motherboard that is shipping is a 1.01G revision with either the C1 or C2 P965 stepping. As we witnessed in an earlier article there is not a real difference in performance between the two chipsets.
The current P5B-E 1.01G is very well optioned and sells for around US $160. ASUS will be launching a new revision of the motherboard oriented to the enthusiast crowd in the near future and it sports a new PLL controller that allows up to 1.7V for the MCH and 2.45V for the memory. The current 1.01G board does not offer voltage selections for the MCH and memory is limited to 2.10V. The board revision is 1.02G and we do not know if the name will change at this time or not. However, this should not deter the majority of users from considering the 1.01G motherboard as there is no difference in the performance of the boards except in overclocking when utilizing mid to lower range memory modules that require additional voltage.
ASUS supports their AI Suite of utilities with the P5B-E that include AI N.O.S., AI Gear, AI Nap, AI Booster, and Q-Fan applications. ASUS AI Gear allows for four different fixed settings ranging from maximum performance to maximum power saving. ASUS AI Nap is a power savings utility and Q-Fan controls the CPU and chassis fans. AI Booster allows you to overclock the CPU to a certain level without rebooting to the BIOS. AI N.O.S. determines the load on the system and automatically overclocks the system up to 20%.
We found when setting the AI N.O.S. setting to auto that the system would boot our E6300 at 7x266 with the memory set at DDR2-800 with timings of 5-5-5-15. Once in XP and stressing the system with game play or 3DMark06 it would automatically raise the FSB to 275 with the memory at DDR2-824. If we set the AI N.O.S. from Auto to Sensitive then we could predetermine the percentage of overclock capability with the Turbo setting up to 20%. At the 20% setting the system would lock up due to our memory running at DDR2-958, something not possible with our GEIL DDR2-800 being limited to 2.1V. The FSB setting was 7x319 with memory timings at 5-5-5-18.
Once we backed down to a 15% overclock setting then the system would operate normally. This resulted in a 7x306 FSB with the memory speed at DDR2-920 with timings of 5-5-5-18. We found this to be strange as the system would operate with the memory set manually to 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-980 in our overclock tests. Overall, we still suggest you manually adjust the BIOS for optimum settings with your components.
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zjohnr - Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - link
In all the features tables for the motherboards in this article the PCI slots are listed as being PCI v2.3. However, looking at the pictures for the boards, the slots have PCI v2.2 keying. I think the entry in the features tables is wrong. (Is it?)Patsoe - Saturday, October 28, 2006 - link
Seeing all the trouble with the P965 - especially with the non-intel p-ata controller and with the ich8r - I'd be inclined to get a Core2-ready i945P board with ICH7R instead. Would that be a sane idea?BadThad - Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - link
Is the v1.02G Asus P5B-E using all solid capacitors? I read a press release stating that Asus was releasing the "P4B-E Plus" version with all solid caps. Rumor says the "Plus" version will not be sold in the USA.....arrgggggg. Tell me that's not true. I want the solid caps for long-term reliability. I'm wondering if our "Plus" is actually the v1.02G?Thanks
Gary Key - Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - link
The 1.01G and 1.02G boards are exactly the same except for a PLL controller. Asus stills states the P5B-Plus will not be imported into the States but you never know.keithke - Monday, October 23, 2006 - link
I was interested to hear you used this Scythe Infinity Air Cooler as I was going to do the same. Were there any issues with the Northbridge heatsink sitting so close? Or did it just plop right in with no spacing issues?Thx
Keith
Gary Key - Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - link
No issues with the Inifinity on all four corners. It is a close fit but it works fine with the enclosed fan.SniperWulf - Monday, October 23, 2006 - link
Hey guys,Did you have any strange anomolies with the X-fi on the DS3 while overclocked? When I was using that board with the F6 bios, I'd have to reboot like 3-4 times before windows would properly detect it. I eventually grew tired of it and bought a P5B-D so I haven't had a chance to try F7 with it.
Gary Key - Monday, October 23, 2006 - link
I did not have any issues with the X-FI on the DS3 when it was overclocked. The F5 and F6 BIOS releases were not X-FI friendly where F4 was perfect. F7 is working for some and not others, I did not have an issue with it. F8 will fix it for good.schlumpfi106 - Monday, October 23, 2006 - link
Im a little bit disappointed that there are so few informations about the cooling/silencing-related capabilitites of the boards. I would like to know how many fans can be connected, if the connectors are 3- or 4-pin, and if there is a way to control the fan speeds (preferably via SpeedFan). I don't care about a one-percent performance difference. My first priority is a reasonably silent system.goinginstyle - Monday, October 23, 2006 - link
He mentioned the number of fan headers on each board and even added a couple of comments on the ones that did not work right. In the features section there was a statement about whether the included utility worked or not. Sure he did not say anything about SpeedFan but how far do you want a guy to go after 26 pages? Also, if you click on the Enlarge picture on the boards you can clearly make out whether the fan headers are 3 or 4 pin.