FIRST LOOK: Asus P5AD2-E - 1066FSB & DDR2-711
by Wesley Fink on November 29, 2004 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Our Take
Take our Gold Editors Choice P5AD2 Premium, update the chipset to 925XE, and further refine the BIOS adjustments. You've just created the P5AD2-E. The latest Asus Intel board does a great job of extracting whatever performance is available from a 1066FSB 3.46EE. This will come as a surprise to no one, as Asus has a long tradition of tweaking their very best boards to make them even better.It would be a mistake, however, to overlook the potential of the P5AD2-E to extract even more performance from an 800 CPU than you can achieve with the regular 925X version of the Asus. New to the 925XE version is the option to run memory at DDR2-711 while the CPU runs at 533. You also have really excellent adjustment ranges for squeezing the most from any quality DDR2 memory that you care to install in this 925XE board. Most of these enhanced adjustment ranges will likely find their way into the earlier P5AD2, but keep in mind that support for both 1066 and 800 will not be an option for the earlier 925X board.
Does 1066 support really matter? From a stock performance standpoint, we would say' "No, it doesn't." But the added flexibility for squeezing top performance from other components is very useful. If and when more processors show up that support 1066, we may actually find the 1066 option even more useful.
For now, we would definitely choose the 925XE Asus over the 925X if the prices are close. It is just a little bit faster and a lot more flexible; that is, if you are looking for and insist on an Intel motherboard. The Athlon 64 processor is faster than Intel in most applications and the A64 boards are a better choice if top performance is your goal. However, Intel has narrowed the gap recently with the introduction of the 3.8GHz and next year, things will likely get tighter between Intel and AMD. Our biggest concern, and it's a huge reservation, is the super premium price demanded for the Asus P5AD2/E motherboards. While the price has dropped in the past 3 months, these boards are still priced between $250 and $300 - a lot of money for a motherboard. However, if you want the best Intel motherboard that you can buy, the Asus P5AD2-E is still likely your best choice. The 1066 processor cost is also a hard pill to swallow at over $1000, especially when the 3.46EE is outperformed by many lower cost Athlon 64 processors.
It is still early in the 925XE introductions and something better might yet come along. For now the Asus P5AD2-E is the best Intel motherboard that you can buy. The Asus matches the overclocking capabilities of the Abit AA8XE, and the Asus P5AD2-E is consistently the fastest board at stock speeds.
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34 Comments
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dariush - Friday, February 4, 2005 - link
For Gaming, AMD is better but not all computer users are gamer, When Talking about about video encoding and stability (must important in critical cases) you see Intel says the last words.Wesley Fink - Thursday, December 2, 2004 - link
#32 - I would sincerely appreciate your reading the review before posting comments. Overclocking is covered on p.3 - which is actually titled "Overclocking and Stress Testing".Second, this is a First Look which is less detailed that a full review - the idea is to bring you more reviews quicker. We used to include a page explaining this, but I removed it this go-round because I assumed the idea was well-known by now. It appears I was should have kept the explanation page in the review.
Third, First Look uses PCMark2004 as a General Performance comparison. However, as I stated in Comment #18 the complete Winstones and media encoding do not provide additional information. However, they are already posted in Comment #18 and I'll repeat them:
"We did run a full suite of benchmarks for future comparisons, but nothing really changes.
925XE/3.46EE - 925X/3.6E - nF4/FX55 - Benchmark
34.1 - 34.4 - 39.3 - MM Content Creation 04
26.7 - 26.5 - 31.1 - Business Winstone 04
73.1 - 73.4 - 69.1 - AutoGK DivX 5.1.1".
Fourth, we use a standard setup to allow easier comparisons. Where standard 1024x768 benchmarks are CPU or GPU bound we do use AA and/or higher resolutions to allow valid comparions of motherboard performance. For example Comanche 4 is run at 1280x1024 with 4X AA because 1024x768 without AA reveals nothing about true performance. The "Score" bench for Aquamark 3 uses 4AA by default. We run the newest games at highest settings as detailed in the chart descriptions.
T8000 - Thursday, December 2, 2004 - link
If you talk about enthousiast options, overclocking is usually one of them. Still, no single overclocked CPU was included in the benchmarks.There was also no mention about the 925XE containing more options to keep PCI-E within spec during overclocking.
Besides, there where only gaming benchmarks with high end GPU's running at 1024x768 with no AA or AF, thus creating an unlikely scenario with performance numbers that do not reflect real world performance differences, even for those who just play games.
Who would even consider buying a $500 GF6800U to play only at settings that a $200 GF6600GT does with ease?
danidentity - Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - link
#28 - The Dolby Digital Live encoding on this board is functionally the same as SoundStorm on the NF2 boards. No PCI sound cards currently support Dolby Digital Live.cALIx - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - link
Not to change the subject, but in this review, Doom 3 is listed as a dx9 game. Isnt D3 an opengl based game? If you open the console you can easily see all the gl_ extensions that are open. Also Hardocp always lists D3 as an opengl game when they benchmark with it. So I'm just wondering if someone could clear that up for me. I understand what they are individually, but i'm still confused as to how they work/dont work together...LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - link
Ouch...my brand new $140 MSI K8N Neo 2 mainboard and I feel sorry for those who choose to shell $250-300 for this board. Not that it's a bad piece of hardware, not that Intel's high-end P4 chips are bad hardware either...but you can do better for far less money, so why would you pay this kind of cash? Especially when you could balance out your system with the money you've saved by upping your graphics card or opting for more RAM or a faster hard disk. Guess I'm just someone who doesn't see the point in buying a Jaguar when an Acura RSX-S would do what I want for less.tc2k04 - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - link
I know i'm late, but,Did anybody else notice the talk about the audio solution, is this encoding comparable to the output of nforce2 boards? they say its a first for on the motherboard audio, can you buy seperate pci cards at reasonable prices which can do this?
i'm trying to get a sound solution that can output 2 channel audio in 5.1 through a digital out like my nforce2 onboard does. If this can do this, i might end up buying an intel.
Googer - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - link
Intel's engineering DEPT takes orders From queer mac using Marketers.Googer - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - link
#3 it works. I have done it. Super7 is like a Swiss Army Knife.TrogdorJW - Monday, November 29, 2004 - link
Hey Wes,Any chance of some OC tests and numbers from a standard Prescott core?
I'm wondering if a 2.8E has the potential to reach a 1066 FSB overclock.
(I'm also including hard returns due to the overly long link someone posted.)
As the 2MB cache alleviates some of the pressures of the FSB, a 1MB cache might benefit more.
Besides, if a 2.8E could actually OC well to 3.73 GHz and a 1066 FSB, that might be worthwhile!