Duel: P5K Deluxe VS Maximus

Ok, I promised I would report back after I had put these boards head to head to solve my skepticism of the ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA. My initial thoughts were that the board was buggy, quirky, ran too hot and that the clocks were not as good as the P35 Chipset. Do I still feel that way? Well, let's take a look at results I was able to gather.

I had only two CPU's and Two Boards to test with.

CPU: Q6600 (G0) and my trusty Dual Core e6400.
MOBO: Asus P5K Deluxe and Maximus Formula
Cooling: Apogee GT, Dual 120mm Rad, MCP655b pump

The Maximus and the Quad...

With Crucial Ram (800mhz) I was able to reach a top FSB speed at 9 Multiplier of 460, although it was not stable enough for booting into windows. The Maximum Frequency I was able to Boot and run a test was 446. Keep in mind that the memory was not the deciding factor here, as the timings were still low and the memory operating at below 900MHZ.
The Vcore was 1.6v (as opposed to the 1.200 shown in the CPU Info). The northbridge was at 1.6v as well.

So, with the EXACT same CPU I went diving into my P5k Deluxe....This would be an easy spanking for the Maximus...or would it?? Before I go any futher, let me say this. I was happy with the clocks that the Maximus was giving me, but I knew that they should be better....Keep in mind that the Maximus was also tested at a multiplier of 8 with the Q6600. This netted NO INCREASE in FSB whatsoever. The highest FSB I could boot at was still 460. Lest's start with that. The P5K Deluxe allowed me to boot even higher, at 470 with the same 9x Multiplier (4230Ghz). As a matter of fact, the only thing that prevented me from booting any higher was the memory, that refused to boot at speeds way beyond it's specs (1:1). 480? Not a problem...490? Forget it on 800Mhz Ram...but the P5K Deluxe wanted more.....Unfortunately, here is where the Irony is. The highest stable boot I could get was 445Mhz, 1 Mhz LOWER than the Maximus. This was telling me that the CPU was close or at it's FSB Wall without extreme cooling. So it appears that for now with Quad Cores, the boards have ended the first round with a draw..... I have to give the edge to the P5K Deluxe though, for by relaxing the timings on the memory I was able to boot at far higher FSB than the Maximus....but not stable, so is it at that point a matter of symantics? Perhaps the Dual Core Round would tell more.....

There is more coming shortly Don't panic

Im waiting

Now all you need are two 3870s to compar 16x4 and 16x16

Will be interesting to see the P35 up next to the x38 in overclocking.

1.2V for an OC to 4ghz with a Q6600 with sub 40C temps?

That is the best I've ever seen, PERIOD!

grats man

Forget the motherboard duel, both of those OC's you're getting are insane.

Very nice results!

Be interesting to see how the dual core stacks up.

Shiggity said:

1.2V for an OC to 4ghz with a Q6600 with sub 40C temps?

That is the best I've ever seen, PERIOD!

grats man

Forget the motherboard duel, both of those OC's you're getting are insane.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind that CPU-Z is reading the voltage wrong....it is 1.60V VCore.
The Temps, however, are correct

Nice duel!

Coreyhm1 said:

Im waiting

Now all you need are two 3870s to compar 16x4 and 16x16

Will be interesting to see the P35 up next to the x38 in overclocking.

Click to expand...

P35 vs x38 in OC is something i've already seen duels with over "here" and the results are the same, a tie!