P5Q PRO vs Deluxe

Okay, I'm trying to figue out if it's worth the extra $60 for the Deluxe over the PRO. Here's the rig I'm going to build:

LIAN LI PC-A6010B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Tuniq Tower 120
DIAMOND Viper HD 3870 512MB
G.SKILL DDR2 PC8500 2x2GB
WD Raptor 74 GB X 2
WD Caviar 250 GB
ASUS SATA DVD Burner

As far as OC'ing, I'm thinking of somewhere between 3.6 and 4.0 GHz. Not sure what multi I'll settle on, but I'm assuming I can drop it like on my P5B and get a higher FSB? So I can either stick with 9 and keep the FSB somewhere between 400 & 450 or drop it down to 8 or even 7 so I can get the RAM over 1000 MHz?

So here are my questions:


1) Will the PRO suit my needs or should I kick up to Deluxe?

2) Cooling - I think I'm okay on cooling with the Tuniq. Plus the Lian Li case has a 140mm fan in front of the HD cage plus a 120mm fan venting out the rear and the TT should blow right into it. Here's some additional cooling I'm tossing into the case:

Lian Li fan module for the front bay with a SCYTHE S-FLEX™ "F" 120mm 1600 rpm Quiet Fan

Lian Li BS-03 Aluminum Fan Assembly - This sits upright next to the PCI slots with a 120mm 1500 rpm axial fan and it vents out the back of the case.

3) PSU - I think the Corsair unit should be fine. I used a PSU calculator and included a 95% load factor and a 20% capacitor aging factor plus a 4 GHz OC with 1.35 vCore and it tells me I need a 457W PSU.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

pro is more suited to your needs, for dual core ocing you need 4phase pwm. the pro has 8 and the dlx has 16. even in the case of a quad core the 8phase is more then enough. the only time i could see getting the DLX is if you have the money and want it for bragging rights or your into extreme cooling(LN2/DICE/PHASE) while ocing the cpu.

as for psu's i dont use calculators, i tend to go with i can spend. then get the best in that $$ range, i would suggest a Corsair 550VX unit its only 89 or 99 on newegg.

Do you already have the 3870? Seems silly to get a 3870 over a 4850. Also I believe that newegg has the corsair 750tx for 99 AR

I've got the same question - which one is better if I want 500+ FSB. I'm concerned with mobo overheating and deluxe seems to have beefier cooling...

Zetto said:

I've got the same question - which one is better if I want 500+ FSB. I'm concerned with mobo overheating and deluxe seems to have beefier cooling...

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Never seen my Deluxe go over 35C after being left on for a few days overclocked to 3.9GHz, 460MHz FSB. I've tried dropping to an 8x multi and pump it up to 500, but I haven't made changes to motherboard voltages, and I've seen test/benchmarks of the board showing over 500 is possible. Cooling is definitely not an issue with the Deluxe especially if you have a great 3rd party Heatsink. I have an Artic Cooling AS 7 Pro (whatever, it's late) and to make it fit best the fan actually blows down on the video card Temps are great, even on the vid card. I'm sure another factor is having enough cooling to get that hot air out of the case, then it probably wouldn't matter which enthusiast board you went with. Still, the Deluxe I have has just a little over .1ishV VDroop. My 680i and 780i were both .6 - .7V Just keep researching, and maybe even wait for another BIOS release.

Zetto said:

I've got the same question - which one is better if I want 500+ FSB. I'm concerned with mobo overheating and deluxe seems to have beefier cooling...

Click to expand...

I've always been a little skeptical about motherboard stock cooling but they have improved over the last few years. Whatever board I get, I take the NB, SB and Mosfet heat sinks off to ensure they do make contact (I bend if needed) plus I replace the original TIM with a better one.

In the case of the deluxe board you'll find that the heat sink is really made of two parts that are joined by a wimpy sheet of TIM that allows the two metal pieces to float as needed. The deluxe also comes with a small fan but I would bet that both setups would work better with a 120mm fan flowing on them.

I wouldn't buy the deluxe just for the motherboard heat sinks. I would figure out how to make those on anther work more effectively. Case air flow and directed fans on heat sinks will add a lot of cooling often with minimal cost.

deeppow said:

The deluxe also comes with a small fan but I would bet that both setups would work better with a 120mm fan flowing on them.

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True enough. I'm running my E8400 on a P5Q Pro in a Lian LI PC V1010 case with a BS03 exhaust blower plus a 5.25 bay 120mm fan and the case comes with a 120mm fan that attaches to the PCI card support pillar and blows right on the memory and chipset.

I haven't stressed for stability yet, but I've been able to run at 7.5x533 at 1.325 vCore in Bios, 1.5v NB. I've run Orthos with this config for about 1 hour, but not any longer yet. According to ASUS PC Probe II my MB temperature never exceeds 36c.

Is ASUS PC Probe accurate for monitoring the MB temp?

bloodshedder said:

Is ASUS PC Probe accurate for monitoring the MB temp?

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Seems to echo what I see with HWmonitor and a couple other apps I have.