ASUS P5E3 Deluxe: X38 and DDR3 arrives... almost

ASUS P5E3 Specifications and BIOS Overview

ASUS P5E3 Deluxe
Market Segment	High Performance Enthusiast - $259.99 (estimated)
CPU Interface	Socket T (Socket 775)
CPU Support	LGA775-based Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, or Core 2 Quad Recommended
Chipset	Intel X38 (MCH) Northbridge and ICH9R Southbridge
Front Side Bus Speeds	Auto, 200 ~ 800 in 1MHz increments
DDR3 Memory Speed	Auto, Eight Ratios dependent upon Strap Setting
FSB Strap	Auto, 200, 266, 333, 400
PCIe Speeds	Auto, 100MHz - 150MHz
PCI Speeds	Locked at 33.33MHz
Core Voltage	Auto, 1.10000 to 1.70000 in .00625 increments
CPU Clock Multiplier	6x ~ 11x, downward adjustable for Core 2, upward to 50 for Extreme
DRAM Voltage DDR3	Auto, 1.50V ~ 2.78V in .02V increments, 1.50V standard
DRAM Timing Control	Auto, Manual - 16 DRAM Timing Options (tCL, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, tRFC + 11 sub-timings)
DRAM Command Rate	Auto, 1T, 2T
NB Voltage	Auto, 1.25V ~ 1.91V in .02V increments, 1.25V standard
SB Voltage	Auto, 1.05V, 1.20V, 1.05 standard
FSB Termination Voltage	Auto, 1.20V to 1.50V in .02V increments, 1.20V standard
Clock Over Charging	Auto, .70V to 1.00V in .10V increments, .80 standard
CPU Voltage Damper	Auto, Enabled, Disabled
CPU Voltage Reference	Auto, .63, .61, .59, .57
NB Voltage Reference	Auto, .67, .61
AI Clock Twister	Auto, Light, Medium, Strong
AI Clock Skew CA/CB	Auto, Normal, 50ps to 350ps either advance or decrease
AI Transaction Booster	Auto, Enabled, Disabled, settings 1 to 8, higher increases performance
Memory Slots	Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered DDR3 Memory to 8GB Total
Expansion Slots	3 - PCIe 2.0 x16 (2 - x16, 1 - x8 electrical) 2 - PCIe x1 2 - PCI Slot 2.2
Onboard SATA/RAID	6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - ICH9R (RAID 0,1, 10, 5) 2 eSATA 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 - 6 I/O Panel - 4 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by Agere FW3227 - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8110SC - PCI Gigabit Ethernet controller Marvell 88E8056 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller ASUS 802.11n Wireless Port
Onboard Audio	ADI 1988B - 8-channel HD audio codec
Power Connectors	ATX 24-pin, 8-pin ATX 12V
I/O Panel	1 x PS/2 Keyboard 2 x eSATA 2 x SPDIF - Optical Out, Coaxial Out 1 x IEEE 1394 1 x Audio Panel 2 x RJ45 6 x USB 2.0/1.1
Fan Headers	6 - CPU, (5) Chassis
Fan Control	CPU and Chassis Fan Control via BIOS/AI Suite, PC Probe II monitoring
BIOS Revision	v1.4
Board Revision	v1.0

As mentioned, the P5E3 Deluxe board is designed for the general enthusiast with an emphasis on features designed for the home user, whether it is for gaming or home theater usage. ASUS provides two eSATA ports via the JMicron JMB363 chipset, IEEE-1394 support from Agere, excellent onboard audio support from the ADI 1988B, an 802.11n WiFi port, and dual Gigabit LAN capability. The board offers a very good mix of expansion slots, though utilizing a CrossFire setup will create the physical loss of a PCI-E x1 and PCI 2.2 slot. The third PCI-E x16 slot operates at x8 electrically and can be utilized for various PCI-E cards including AGEIA PhysX, RAID controllers, or a third video card. This slot will support a third ATI graphics card for "TriFire" operation once drivers are released with the proper support, according to our current information.

We will go into the BIOS settings in additional detail once we receive the retail kit and official launch BIOS. However, the following screenshots represent features that we know will be in the retail BIOS.


ASUS monitors the standard CPU fan speed and voltage readings. One item of note is that the BIOS monitors the CPU fan speed and four chassis headers but not the fifth header. Fan control is fairly limited when comparing it to abit's excellent uGuru setup with very simple options based on fan percentage speeds or base system temperatures. While the ability to individually control fan speeds is good, the speed options are too limited in our opinion for a board in the enthusiast category.


The advanced section of the BIOS contains the standard power saving options and an additional control for the CPU ratio.



The heart of the BIOS is under the AI Tweaker section with a wide variety of options for tuning the board. Although not as extensive as the typical DFI enthusiast boards, the options are fairly extensive with the notable addition being the 400FSB Strap setting in addition to 200, 266, and 333. Although not shown, the DRAM timing control section offers 15 different memory settings and hopefully they will remain in the retail BIOS.

ASUS has added the Ai Clock Twister option which basically offers slightly tighter sub-timings when set to strong. We noticed a slight decrease in latencies when utilizing this particular setting, but no tangible real world results that would matter to most users. ASUS has also revamped the Ai Transaction Booster setting when compared to their P35 boards. The old Transaction Booster setting of 0 on the P35 board is now 1 on the X38 board with the remaining ratios offering the same offset. Ratios 5 through 8 are new to the board although we could not get the board to POST with a ratio higher than 3.

Our screenshots show the maximum value for each option. Any setting greater than 1.77V for the Northbridge resulted in a warning for better chipset cooling. Although previous engineering samples of the X38 ran warm to hot when overclocking, our current sample stayed around 74C with 1.91V after two hours of looping 3DMark06. The available voltage options should satisfy about 95% of the users; however, we feel like the available CPU voltages are lacking when compared to the other X38 boards we have in-house as well as some of the upper-end P35 boards. ASUS has also included the ability to save BIOS profiles, although it is currently limited to two profiles.