# Asus P5Q-E or Abit IP 35 Pro?



## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

OK, im getting out of my P965 board and can get a cheap deal on either of these boards. Im not interested yet in waiting for intels new socket. SO, what one of these two would you pick and why? Also, I have a Xigmatek HDT-S1283   I have two processors I will be using, a E8400 and soon a QX6850  . My ram is corsair DDR2 1066 Dominator 2x2GB. I like overclocking. i know abit baords are great overclockers, but I have not run an Asus board in forever so, have no opinion on the OC potential of this particular board. Please dont recommend other boards, as my deal is between these two. 

Here are the boards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ogle-_-Motherboards+-+Intel-_-ASUS-_-13131296



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813127030


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

P5Q-E hands down.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Asus P5Q boards FTW  . P45 FTW  . lol.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> P5Q-E hands down.



Hey Ket, I knwo your very familiar with the P5Q series BIOS, I think you were modding them for a while. How are they set up? Do I have fan control and thermal monitoring? Also, when I OC, what options do I have. I know of course Vcore, and DDR voltage, probably multiplier and FSB for the mulitplier. Do I have northbridge memory strap and dividers? NB voltage? When I start to adjust my frequencies, does the bios give me a estimated new speed for cpu and memory? Or do I just reboot and see what my ram is running at? Sorry for dumping, but im doing my buy this afternoon.

ALLLLSOOOO, will my xigmatek fit?


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Yep P5Q series has and does all that. As long as you select a specific memory divider and NB strap you will see your DRAM speed dynamically increasing in the BIOS as you raise FSB. General layout of the BIOS is good too, I wasn't too comfortable with all the OC options being on one page in a massive list, but once you looked at the BIOS enough you know where everything is in the list. In a nutshell, P5Q series has more options than you can shake several sticks of RAM at


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Cybrnook2002 said:


> Hey Ket, I knwo your very familiar with the P5Q series BIOS, I think you were modding them for a while. How are they set up? Do I have fan control and thermal monitoring? Also, when I OC, what options do I have. I know of course Vcore, and DDR voltage, probably multiplier and FSB for the mulitplier. Do I have northbridge memory strap and dividers? NB voltage? When I start to adjust my frequencies, does the bios give me a estimated new speed for cpu and memory? Or do I just reboot and see what my ram is running at? Sorry for dumping, but im doing my buy this afternoon.
> 
> ALLLLSOOOO, will my xigmatek fit?



I love that about my P5Q dlx bios. On my old boards, you had to work out the divider based on stock speed then adjust which one as you increase fsb, then reboot and hope for the best. but like ket said, as you punch in different values or use the  +  - keys on the FSB, the dividers all change with it! So you can specify the exact ram speed from your FSB.

I have also noticed, that these bioses have a lot more dividers than I have seen before.

My last mobo had 533,666,800

This one has about 10! (would check but I'm not at home atm.  )


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

What about my xigmatek? Is it to fat to fit in between those heatsinks? Also, what is the difference between the E, the Deluxe, Pro etc... I see there are about 1,000 P5Q boards, all will different suffixes. Will mine be the bottom of the list?


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Cybrnook2002 said:


> What about my xigmatek? Is it to fat to fit in between those heatsinks?



Well my freezer 7 pro JUST fits, I had to mod the fan shround though, cus that was too big!

I'm pretty sure the xigma has better clearance than a freezer 7 pro anyway.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

You should be able to squeeze it in, might be tricky but there should be _just_ enough room.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

Also, what is the difference between the E, the Deluxe, Pro etc... I see there are about 1,000 P5Q boards, all will different suffixes. Will mine be the bottom of the list? And whats missing between?


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## wolf (Jul 22, 2008)

have a think about Gigabyte models, the ultra durable series is VERY good.

jsut got myself a EP45-DS4P and it rocks hardcore.


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## INSTG8R (Jul 22, 2008)

Im pretty happy with my P35. I was just about to stick a Q9450 and 4870 in it. But a REALLY good deal from a friend on some D-SLR's and bought those instead.
 I have been using Abits for quite some time because I like that they have always had direct BIOS access in Windows thru uGuru.(e.g. fans speeds are too loud I just adjust turn on uGuru, adjust em and turn it back off. Its set in the BIOS permanently) You can basically do that with everything. They have have a ridiculous amount of adjustments and I have never really had any real trouble with this board other than needing to get the volts up on the RAM to turn over my Crucial.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

wolf said:


> have a think about Gigabyte models, the ultra durable series is VERY good.
> 
> jsut got myself a EP45-DS4P and it rocks hardcore.



Thanks for the 2 cents wolf. But as I wrote in the first post, pleae no suggestions on other boards as my deal it between these two. Plus its hard to find gigabyte where i am. But thanks


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

INSTG8R said:


> Im pretty happy with my P35. I was just about to stick a Q9450 and 4870 in it. But a REALLY good deal from a friend on some D-SLR's and bought those instead.
> I have been using Abits for quite some time because I like that they have always had direct BIOS access in Windows thru uGuru.(e.g. fans speeds are too loud I just adjust turn on uGuru, adjust em and turn it back off. Its set in the BIOS permanently) You can basically do that with everything. They have have a ridiculous amount of adjustments and I have never really had any real trouble with this board other than needing to get the volts up on the RAM to turn over my Crucial.



Yeah, thats where im stuck. Im using abit now and I LOVE the uguru, and the BIOS is straight forward, no bullshit. I had 0 problems with my board now. But ASUS is the top dogs now, and the ASUS board has the newer chipset. But I can get the ABIT for cheaper than the asus, by about 15 euros. Plus i dont want to buy a new CPU cooler. BUUUUT, my cpu's are 1333 FSB, which I think the IP35 handles, and ddr 1066, which i think abit supports on the chipset.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Cybrnook2002 said:


> Also, what is the difference between the E, the Deluxe, Pro etc... I see there are about 1,000 P5Q boards, all will different suffixes. Will mine be the bottom of the list? And whats missing between?



The Deluxe is supposed to be one of the better models. The biggest difference between the P5Q series is memory compatibility, overclockability HS design and a few onboard components. Personally, I think the P5Q Pro is better than the Deluxe and Premium. The Pro isn't quite as feature rich and a few onboard components are different, but unlike the Deluxe and Premium, the Pro can do 8x8 Crossfire, the best the other 2 boards can do is 8x4, significant performance difference there. The last main difference is the power regulation, the DEluxe has 16 phase while the Pro has 8 phase, however this is also a moot point. 16 phase has just been done because the engineers can, it doesnt actually offer any benefit over 8 phase. The Pro also has my mBIOS gracing it, so you dont need to worry about the overclocking, quad core support or memory compatibility  stock BIOS for the Pro is rubbish, wont even boot 1000MHz with 4 different RAM kits I tried.. with my mBIOS? The board is banging out DRAM frequencies of 1146MHz+ @ 425FSB, and theres plenty more headroom. 425 is just my CPUs FSB ceiling.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

WTF?? All P45's do 8x/8x crossfire!


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

No, they dont. Go see for yourself on the Asus site. Deluxe and Premium are 8x4.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Taken straight of the P5Q deluxe specs page:

*2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, support ATI CrossFireX™ technology at x8 link *
(PCIe x16_1 blue, PCIe x16_2 black*)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link(black)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots
**PCI Express x16_2 slot (black at max. x8 link)*


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> Taken straight of the P5Q deluxe specs page:
> 1 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link(black)



In other words, when the 2 PCIE slots are used independently of eachother they can work in 8x8, but in CF its 8x4.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> In other words, when the 2 PCIE slots are used independently of eachother they can work in 8x8, but in CF its 8x4.



It has three PCI-E x16 slots.

Top two operate at x16 when used independantly,
Bottom one works at x4

Then in CF, top two work at x8 and the bottom one works at x1.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

I was looking at the Deluxe, I know the Premium has 3x PCIE slots, Dont think the Deluxe does tho. Then again, its hard to tell with the pics on the Asus site their tiny even their "enlarged" pics. (Yes I usually look at specs off a website that has decent sized pics.. understanding some Asus interpritations you do literally need the pic along with it to act as like a scematic to work it out )


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> I was looking at the Deluxe, I know the Premium has 3x PCIE slots, Dont think the Deluxe does tho. Then again, its hard to tell with the pics on the Asus site their tiny even their "enlarged" pics. (Yes I usually look at specs off a website that has decent sized pics.. understanding some Asus interpritations you do literally need the pic along with it to act as like a scematic to work it out )



Deluxe has three slots too. I should know I have one, lol. 

All P45's with two full length PCI-E slots support 8x\8x crossfire.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

My -E has 3 pci-e too,its 2x 8x+1 at 4x for xfire.

I just got up and popped mine to 450fsb lol,my chip is back at 3.6ghz now with 1.41vcore.

Great boards,the -pro and -e are great i didnt really think the dlx was worth the extra,plus i have sen the -e at 600+ fsb.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Here you go


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

thats exactly the same as mine alex.

I like the pci slot above the top pci-e slot,better than usual placement for it.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

tigger69 said:


> My -E has 3 pci-e too,its 2x 8x+1 at 4x for xfire.
> 
> I just got up and popped mine to 450fsb lol,my chip is back at 3.6ghz now with 1.41vcore.
> 
> Great boards,the -pro and -e are great i didnt really think the dlx was worth the extra,plus i have sen the -e at 600+ fsb.



Main reasons I got the Dlx, was:

Express Gate *SSD*
SB heatpipe


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Ok, you can chalk this one up to me not going to a site with a decent sized pic and me not having the greatest eyesight then, hence my slightly skiwif explanation. (see people, it is possible for me to not be 100% right ALL the time ) I still say with my mBIOS the P5Q Pro is better still thought for these reasons;

- Who actually needs 3 PCIE slots? Especially as the last slot works so slow anyway.
- The HS design on the Deluxe and Premium make it almost impossible to fit a fan on the NB and SB
- Minor differences aside between the Pro and Deluxe\Premium, the price hike doesnt justify the small differences.

Oh, and the Pro has Express Gate as wel, though its largely a gimmick EG.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

I wont even use the expressgate though,imo its only for showing off,also if the sb get too hot i will put a better cooler on it,so no loss.

How high have you been on your fsb yet?

EDIT-i had to bend the bottom fins on my ac7 pro to fit in between the sinks around the cpu socket.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Ok, you can chalk this one up to me not going to a site with a decent sized pic and me not having the greatest eyesight then, hence my slightly skiwif explanation. (see people, it is possible for me to not be 100% right ALL the time ) I still say with my mBIOS the P5Q Pro is better still thought for these reasons;
> 
> - Who actually needs 3 PCIE slots? Especially as the last slot works so slow anyway.
> - The HS design on the Deluxe and Premium make it almost impossible to fit a fan on the NB and SB
> - Minor differences aside between the Pro and Deluxe\Premium, the price hike doesnt justify the small differences.



Express Gate SSD did it for me. But anyone who wouldnt use it, I wouldnt recommend the deluxe as it is not worth the extra.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Pro has Express Gate as well. EG is arguably only useful for those that like to update their BIOS on a new board before installing all the software an stuff.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

Guys, now for 15 euros more for me, is the P5E3 a better deal with the x38 chipset?

EDIT: N/M  Its ddr3


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

tigger69 said:


> I wont even use the expressgate though,imo its only for showing off,also if the sb get too hot i will put a better cooler on it,so no loss.
> 
> How high have you been on your fsb yet?
> 
> EDIT-i had to bend the bottom fins on my ac7 pro to fit in between the sinks around the cpu socket.



My highest Fsb is 337 so far, lol. Havent had much time to OC. my new cooler should be waiting for me when I get home today, SO I'll fit that then see how high I can go on my e6600. and compare temps/speeds to my e8500 when I get it.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> Pro has Express Gate as well. EG is arguably only useful for those that like to update their BIOS on a new board before installing all the software an stuff.



Not express gate SSD though. You have to install it to HDD. and it doesnt support raid.
Express gate gets used everyday on my PC. my mum uses my PC to get on the net. Express gate is perfect, she is so impatient, and now she cant accidently do something to bugger up my windows install. plus I now only need one login for windows!


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

tigger69 said:


> I wont even use the expressgate though,imo its only for showing off,also if the sb get too hot i will put a better cooler on it,so no loss.
> 
> How high have you been on your fsb yet?
> 
> EDIT-i had to bend the bottom fins on my ac7 pro to fit in between the sinks around the cpu socket.



I'll probably be arsed to lower my multi to 6x and see if I can surpass 425FSB with my E4400. As longs my chip can take a higher FSB at low clockspeeds I'll let ppl know how high the Pro can go. I seriously doubt theres a lot of difference on average between even a plain P5Q and the Premium model when it comes to FSB, falls down to luck of the draw and the CPU in the end.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> Not express gate SSD though. You have to install it to HDD. and it doesnt support raid.
> Express gate gets used everyday on my PC. my mum uses my PC to get on the net. Express gate is perfect, she is so impatient, and now she cant accidently do something to bugger up my windows install. plus I now only need one login for windows!



lol, as ti66er said, EG is a gimmick, even the SSD version. I can understand why _you_ went for it though. People are seriously putting their life in danger if they go anywhere near my PC


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

I will do the same today bud,and we can compare notes,it did go straight upto 450(which was my 24/7 on the p5k-prem) though.I did get my p5k upto 500 so i will have to see what this will do.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> I'll probably be arsed to lower my multi to 6x and see if I can surpass 425FSB with my E4400. As longs my chip can take a higher FSB at low clockspeeds I'll let ppl know how high the Pro can go. I seriously doubt theres a lot of difference on average between even a plain P5Q and the Premium model when it comes to FSB, falls down to luck of the draw and the CPU in the end.



Pretty sure every p5q is based of the same PCB, then they finsish it off with each of the different models own features. From your experience ket, the bioses are all probably the same other than the memory tables (still cant work out why) anyway, arent they?


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Alright m8. I'll start a thread where we can dump all our finding in


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> lol, as ti66er said, EG is a gimmick, even the SSD version. I can understand why _you_ went for it though. People are seriously putting their life in danger if they go anywhere near my PC



Lol. proximity alarm? some sort of bubble shield. lol.

Thats why I said earlier, I use the EG, but for people who wouldnt, I wouldnt actually recommend my mobo, lol.


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## Cybrnook2002 (Jul 22, 2008)

I made my mind up guys. Im going off subject, but im buying the Asus P5E   Thanks for the input


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

alexp999 said:


> Pretty sure every p5q is based of the same PSF, then they finsish it off with each of the different models own features. From your experience ket, the bioses are all probably the same other than the memory tables (still cant work out why) anyway, arent they?



Nope their not, some variables are very slightly different (and no I cant change them with the tools I have before anyone asks) From what I have seen these are the bigest differences between a Pro and Premium

- Pro has a rubbish memory table
- Pro supports 31 CPU types vs. 37
- Pro doesn't have as good Quad support
- Some variables are slightly different between boards (likely more to do with slightly different components used rather than OCing)

with my mBIOS the differences are reduced to just those slightly different variables. So essentially I have a Premium mobo and saved like £40 in the process and with my mBIOS my PRo actually supports 2 more CPU types than the Premium does. I'm a better engineer than the Asus toads


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

Cool,with the advent of p45,it might be a good idea to have an p45 oveclocking thread,i am pretty sure over the next few weeks,there will be more people switching to p45.

The deluxe is pretty nice,i would have loved that eg ssd to show off to my mates,but the extra price differance was busting my balls,so the -E it was.I am happy and thats all that matters


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Ditto here. If I want to show off I just need to turn EG back on, dont need the SSD part to show off  just turn EG back on and its all like "look at the free OS I got with my mobo )


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

I was gonna get the -E and it would be the one I would recommend, lol.

What I dont get is why Asus dont make P5Q bioses virtually identical?? Surely it would be easier to have one memroy table, one CPU table and just make small changes based on the differences in extras?


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

It would, but Asus doing things as they do is their way to try and force buyers into buying their more expensive boards.. obviously Asus dont understand around the £100 mark for a mobo is the most lucrative. To get my P5Q Pro working properly I had to use a memory table and P6 table from a £160 mobo (and thats before postage). The great thing now is I actually increased the value of my board and made it do things even the Premium cant do and all it took was my inginuity


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

How hard is bios modding then? do you need to know some sort of programming language?


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> It would, but Asus doing things as they do is their way to try and force buyers into buying their more expensive boards.. obviously Asus dont understand around the £100 mark for a mobo is the most lucrative. To get my P5Q Pro working properly I had to use a memory table and P6 table from a £160 mobo (and thats before postage). The great thing now is I actually increased the value of my board and made it do things even the Premium cant do and all it took was my inginuity



£160 mobo 

Which one was that!?!?


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

The p5q-premium i guess.My p5k-premium was £146 :O a lot in dollars.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

£160 is the stickup price for a P5Q Premium.

ED- SNAP!


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

I would have considered that too,but 4x giga lan.......WHY? I dont even really use 2.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> £160 is the stickup price for a P5Q Premium.
> 
> ED- SNAP!



Wow, what does £40 give you over a deluxe then? One PCI-E slot that you probably will never use? I wont use the third on mine, and I probably wont even use the second one (although I was originally going to when I bought it but, hey-ho, lol!)


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

It gives you 4x giga lan,for some reason.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

£40 extra was vs. the Deluxe  for *£80* extra vs. a Pro with my mBIOS the Premium gives you;

- Prettier packaging
- A PCIE slot you will never use
- Fancier looking heatpipe system thats actually more impractical than it is practical
- SSD Express Gate?

Worth *£80* more over the Pro? You decide


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> £40 extra was vs. the Deluxe  for *£80* extra vs. a Pro with my mBIOS the Premium gives you;
> 
> - Prettier packaging
> - A PCIE slot you will never use
> ...



Seems like have Asus have gone quad crazy on the premium!

quad lan (why? I wont ever use dual lan!)
quad raid (Once I get my new HDD i wont even be using raid!)
quad PCI-E (I'm probably only going to ever use one PCI-E slot, lol!)

But we all choose our mobos for different reasons, hence all the different models. But IMO all that quad stuff is just silly. Who would need all  that!


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

TBH, nobody. Only those who think they will get respect because they went and bought a shitload of expensive hardware, then leave it all stock  Even if they do OC it all to the max I still dont like *THOSE* types of people as their just doing it to be "look at all the expensive shit I have" and brag about it more or less in every post they make, and\or they do it for the whole "look at my epenis"


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> TBH, nobody. Only those who think they will get respect because they went and bought a shitload of expensive hardware, then leave it all stock



lol.
Did u answer tigger on how you mod bioses? I'd like to know too (sorry if I missed it.)



			
				tigger69 said:
			
		

> How hard is bios modding then? do you need to know some sort of programming language?



EDIT: epenis, lmao!


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

To BIOS mod, for the more complex things, you do at least need to posess some Hex editing skills. If your fortunate though and happen to buy a "lower grade" mobo from a series of mobos, usually no Hexing is required. Just rip the BIOSes apart, take what you want, dump it into a BIOS made for your board, VIOLA! you got a mobo that has equal OC abilities (and possibly better) than a board thats twice the price.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> To BIOS mod, for the more complex things, you do at least need to posess some Hex editing skills. If your fortunate though and happen to buy a "lower grade" mobo from a series of mobos, usually no Hexing is required. Just rip the BIOSes apart, take what you want, dump it into a BIOS made for your board, VIOLA! you got a mobo that has equal OC abilities (and possibly better) than a board thats twice the price.



How do you "rip" the bios apart? Do you have special dev tools? to put the bios in a more meaning full sense than just numbers and letters and symbols?


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

Yup. I have lots of BIOS tools, but not as many as the devs naturally have. If I did, you can bet my mBIOS releases wouldnt just be better than the official releases, they would absolutely crush, demolish, kill and destroy the official releases  Be very careful if anyone reading this decides to give BIOS modding a go, you can bork it up very easily.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Jul 22, 2008)

500fsb P45 ftw

I think i will leave the bios modding to someone who knows what they are doing.


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

tigger69 said:


> I think i will leave the bios modding to someone who knows what they are doing.



lol same. I'd like to see what a BIOS "looks" like in its non jiberish form tho.


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

An AWARD BIOS looks like this;







And a AMI BIOS looks like this;


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## alexp999 (Jul 22, 2008)

Ketxxx said:


> An AWARD BIOS looks like this;
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wow...I think I'll leave you to it, lol!


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## Ketxxx (Jul 22, 2008)

It's like anything, once you have an idea what your doing things get much easier, but you still have to be careful you dont bork the BIOS. My latest mBIOS for the P5Q Pro works like a dream, but for some reason AMIBCP cant open it in its modified state


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