Had it with the p5w dh: P5k?

My current MB will not oc the E6700 past 3.43ghz, and the RAM won't go beyond 845.

It regularly requires I turn the power off the psu or it won't post. Fans come on, lights on, no beep. It will do this until I kill power to the psu. I've flashed it to V.2004, reset cmos, it makes no difference. I always happens when I hit f10 from the bios. (save and exit.) Makes adjusting the clock and voltage an extra pain.

The on board sound card quit working. (Although that one is my fault... long story involving confusing a power supply cable for speaker cable.)

Since I can't RMA the board, I'll give it my girlfriend who's building a file server. It's wireless lan, and wap will come in handy in that capacity.

I'm looking at a p5k premium, http://www.iguanamicro.com/asp5kdelgmoi.html or a p5kc: http://www.iguanamicro.com/asp5lgmoinp3.html
(I like this shop, 'cause it's close to home, and they have great customer service.)

The premium is packed with features I don't need. But I'm willing to shell out the extra $$$ if it will significantly oc better. All I want the board to do is OC and game. I won't be changing any of the other hardware in my sig.

Suggestions please? Is the premium THAT much better (Like $100 bucks better) In terms of oc performance?

Also, from pics it looks like the p5k premium has on-board sound (I don't need) that takes up a pci slot on the case. True? I'm concerned that it will be a problem for my crossfire set up, which takes up slots, pci tv card, and xtreme gamer sc, plus the Zalman fan controller which takes up a slot on the case for the power usage cable. My case will be FULL.

Thanks. Sorry about the rambling question.

The onboard sound is integrated, it won't take up a PCI port. Not sure what you are talking about.

As for OC ability, AFAIK, the P5k Premium is the best OC'ing board to date. Not considering DFI's new board which has limited reviews/results posted as of yet.

I really am not sure if it is $100 better in the OC category, but it has other things that are better in terms of power consumption and handling. As well as a handful of other things.

I would certainly recommend the Premium version. What features does it have that you don't want by the way? RAID ?

Maverick0984 said:

The onboard sound is integrated, it won't take up a PCI port. Not sure what you are talking about.

As for OC ability, AFAIK, the P5k Premium is the best OC'ing board to date. Not considering DFI's new board which has limited reviews/results posted as of yet.

I really am not sure if it is $100 better in the OC category, but it has other things that are better in terms of power consumption and handling. As well as a handful of other things.

I would certainly recommend the Premium version. What features does it have that you don't want by the way? RAID ?

Click to expand...

There was a pic online of the p5k premium that had what appeared to be a sound card, or input/output device using up a slot... It COULD have been an mp3 in, or usb, which the p5wdh also has as an option. In any case, I don't use onboard sound! I'm glad you don't know what I mean, because that means it's probably an optional input.

lan, RAID, wap, is not necessary. I just wanted to make sure that if I paid a premium price for this board, I was paying for performance, not bells and whistles. I made that mistake with the p5w dh.

I've read that the premium has less vdroop, and more mosfets. How much that translates into performance is my question.

Thanks for the response!
Edit: Nice 3DM06 Maverick!

The addon you speak of is probably the WAP.

How do you not need LAN? lol

Maverick0984 said:

The addon you speak of is probably the WAP.

How do you not need LAN? lol

Click to expand...

I meant wireless... sorry, I'm at work! typing quickly.

oakstave said:

I meant wireless... sorry, I'm at work! typing quickly.

Click to expand...

heh, so your decision has been made easy now.

the slot is a double usb slot, but you prolly won't use it. The board has like 6 slots or so..

One Bull said:

the slot is a double usb slot, but you prolly won't use it. The board has like 6 slots or so..

Click to expand...

That is something else entirely.

However, I am using 7 USB slots and a Firewire port,

Maverick0984 said:

heh, so your decision has been made easy now.

Click to expand...

Not sure I follow you... The reason I bring up not needing some of the features on the premium is to elicit responses that have nothing to do with the additional features. I'm just curious if the two boards I selected have simlilar, or even identical overclocking features/abilities.

Hopefully someone has checked out both these boards and can say definitely that the premium is far better than the p5kc in ocing.

I'm a self-taught laymen as far as computers go, but from what I've read: They both support 45nm for next gen cpus, both use P35 chipset, both support ddr3. So what am I gettin' as far as performance for the extra $100?

Also, I'm limited by air cooling, at least for now. I'd like to hit 3.66, maybe a little higher for benchmarks. If the cheaper board will do that, I'd really prefer that option.

You shouldn't worry about DDR3 right now. DDR3 and DDR2 are not compatible so if you go Asus you either have to go 100% DDR2 or 100% DDR3 right now. It isn't possible to just drop DDR3 into the DDR2 slots, unless you get a dual compatible board which has generally 4 DDR2 slots and 2 DDR3 slots which is a complete waste IMHO.

Everyone here will tell you that to invest in DDR3 at this juncture is a waste of resources. The Premium will OC better, and like I've already said contains other power improvement features.

I have no idea if that board will reach 3.66ghz on an E6700. I haven't seen E6700's in a whole lot of benchmark/testing situations, but I would imagine, both board would reach it, but the Premium would run it cooler/more efficient/and more stable.

Thanks Mav.

Maverick0984 said:

That is something else entirely.

However, I am using 7 USB slots and a Firewire port,

Click to expand...

well it's the only thing you get with a p5k so I don't think there is anything else. And yeah people might use more then 6 slot's but you also have the slots frm your case that you can add

The Premium board is no better then the P5K Deluxe board, and/or other P5K boards. And it doesnt OC any better. The only thing that is better about the Premium board, is that it runs a little cooler, and that is it.

So no, $100 is not worth it.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/ASUS__Black_Pearl_Special_Edition:_P5K_Premium/5175-11.html

UglyChild said:

The Premium board is no better then the P5K Deluxe board, and/or other P5K boards. And it doesnt OC any better. The only thing that is better about the Premium board, is that it runs a little cooler, and that is it.

So no, $100 is not worth it.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/ASUS__Black_Pearl_Special_Edition:_P5K_Premium/5175-11.html

Click to expand...

This coming from a bias'd Deluxe user .

Again, there is no reason to buy a Deluxe with a Premium being $10-$15 more. Regardless of that one link you posted, many people here will disagree with you based on their own personal testing. If the *only* reason was that it ran cooler, there wouldn't be so many versions .

BTW: Where are they charging the quoted $400 for the Deluxe? lol, wow.

He wants comparison between p5w and p5k series, not p5k against other edition. I'd get ga ds3r, it's a great board and a nice oc if you're not using quad core.

minhtin said:

He wants comparison between p5w and p5k series, not p5k against other edition. I'd get ga ds3r, it's a great board and a nice oc if you're not using quad core.

Click to expand...

Well, to be precise, I'm looking for an oc comparison between the p5kc and the p5k premium.

Ah ok, i should've read it more carefully. As for as asus go i don't know anything about them. I am a ga and dfi guy. Good luck though.

No worries. I'll check out the ds3r as well.

Maverick0984 said:

This coming from a bias'd Deluxe user .

Again, there is no reason to buy a Deluxe with a Premium being $10-$15 more. Regardless of that one link you posted, many people here will disagree with you based on their own personal testing. If the *only* reason was that it ran cooler, there wouldn't be so many versions .

BTW: Where are they charging the quoted $400 for the Deluxe? lol, wow.

Click to expand...

And many people will agree with me that its not worth buying Deluxe or the Premium board in the first place, simply because it has more bells and whistles.

The chip it self is what makes all the P35 boards, a good board.

And there is only 1 version of Premium board. But there are many versions of P5K boards. And the reason being so every one can afford a board with a P35 chip regardless of their budget. Its very simple, its common sense.

And its a suggested retail price of $400. Retail price.


Quote from the article in case you missed it.

It has all the features of the Deluxe and has the same general layout, but the only difference lies with the power design. For just $30 more, the P5K Premium would be the better buy, unless for some strange reason you have an inflexible budget for your new PC which restricts you to the P5K Deluxe.

Click to expand...

UglyChild said:

The Premium board is no better then the P5K Deluxe board, and/or other P5K boards. And it doesnt OC any better. The only thing that is better about the Premium board, is that it runs a little cooler, and that is it.

So no, $100 is not worth it.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/ASUS__Black_Pearl_Special_Edition:_P5K_Premium/5175-11.html

Click to expand...

Tell it to the guys getting massive vdroop on the lower end Asus P5K series boards....the CPU damper doesn't seem to work like in the Deluxe an Premium. When it comes to Deluxe and Premium there is no point in getting the Deluxe anymore since the price difference is a mere $10 and the Premium runs cooler.