ASUS P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP @n

Last October we had looked at the ASUS P5E3 Deluxe motherboard that was designed around the Intel X38 Chipset and it had arrived with its share of ASUS innovations such as ASUS AI Lifestyle, Crystal Sound, and EZ DIY. In addition, this was the first motherboard on the market to feature DeviceVM's SplashTop, or Express Gate as it's called on the ASUS motherboards. Today at Phoronix we are looking at the updated version of the P5E3 Deluxe, which is now called the P5E3 Premium. The ASUS P5E3 Premium is similar to the earlier Deluxe model but is now engineered around Intel's newer X48 Chipset.

Features:

Processor
- Intel Socket 775 Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Extreme/Pentium D/Pentium 4 Processors
- Compatible with Intel 05B/05A/06 processors
- Support Intel 45nm CPU

Chipset
- Intel X48
- Intel ICH9R
- Intel Fast Memory Access Technology

Front Side Bus
- 1600/1333/1066/800 MHz

Memory
- 4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR3 2000/1800/1600/1333/1066/800 Memory
- Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
- Dual Channel Memory Architecture
- Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
- DDR3-2000/1800 With Overclocking speed

Expansion Slots
- 3 x PCIe x16 (blue @PCIe2.0 x16 mode, black @PCIe x4 or x1 mode)
- Supports CrossFire Technology
- 1 x PCIe x1
- 2 x PCI

Storage
- 6 x SATA 3 Gb/s ports Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
- 2 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
- Support RAID 0,1,JBOD

LAN
- Dual Gigabit LAN controllers
- Marvell 88E8056 PCIe Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2
- Realtek RTL8110SC PCI Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2

Wireless LAN
- ASUS WiFi-AP @n
- 300Mbps* IEEE 802.11n (Draft) and backwards compatible with IEEE 802.11g / b

Audio
- ADI AD1988B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
- Support Jack-Sensing, Enumeration, Multi-streaming
- AI Audio 2

IEEE 1394
- Agere L-FW3227 1394a controller supports 2 x 1394a ports

USB
- 10 USB 2.0 ports (4 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)

ASUS Power Saving Solution
- ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
- ASUS 3rd Generation 8-phase Power
- ASUS AI Nap

Form Factor
- ATX Form Factor
- 12 inch x 9.6 inch (30.5 cm x24.4 cm)

Contents:

The ASUS P5E3 Premium motherboard arrived in packaging similar to many of the other ASUS motherboards we have reviewed in the past. On the front of the packaging were various emblems advertising some of the features of this motherboard such as support for 45nm processors, ASUS RoHS Compliant, Ai Lifestyle, and their Energy Processing Unit (EPU). Inside the box a cardboard divider had separated the motherboard from all of the accessories.

Included with this motherboard was the ASUS WiFi-AP @n user guide, P5E3 software CD, two WiFi 802.11g/n antennas, the motherboard user guide, one ribbon IDE cable, one ribbon FDD cable, two optional fans, I/O panel, one 4-pin molex to two-head SATA power adapter, six Serial ATA 2.0 cables, one expansion slot adapter with tow USB and one Firewire ports, and last but not least are the front panel header extensions as part of the ASUS EZ DIY kit. This selection of accessories is similar to the P5E3 Deluxe. The P5E3 Premium is sold along side their other Intel X48 motherboards, which currently include the P5E Deluxe, P5E64 WS Evolution, and the Rampage Formula.