ASUS P5E64 WS Professional

Intel's latest performance desktop chipset is now the X48 Express, but there still is life left in the X38 Express, which was released late last year. The Intel X38 and X48 Chipsets share many of the same features including support for the latest dual-core and quad-core Intel processors, DDR3 system memory support, and 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 interfaces with there being very few differences to the end-user between these chipsets. In addition, benchmarks we have delivered from different motherboards have shown the X48 has little to no performance improvements over the older Bearlake chipset. ASUS's X38 motherboards are still very much in the market place and today we happen to be looking at one of their workstation motherboards based around the X38. The motherboard we are looking at is the ASUS P5E64 WS Professional, which ships with all of the usual ASUS innovations in addition to having four PCI Express x16 slots.

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
- New power design supports next generation Intel Prescott CPU

Chipset
- Intel X38
- Intel ICH9R
- Intel Fast Memory Access Technology

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

Memory
- 4 x DIMM, Max. 8 GB, DDR3 1800*/1600*/1333/1066/800 Un-buffered Memory
- Dual Channel memory architecture

LAN
- Marvell 88E8056/88E8001 Dual Gigabit LAN controller

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

Special Features
- ASUS MyLogo 2
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- Q-Connector
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
- Stack Cool 2
- SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- AI Slot Detector
- Q-Shield
- Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution
- Noise Filter
- AI Audio 2
- O.C. Profile

ATX Form Factor
- 12 inch x 9.6 inch (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm)

Contents:

While this is a workstation motherboard, you cannot tell that from the accessories as it ships with most of the same contents you would find on many ASUS enthusiast motherboards. Included with the ASUS P5E64 WS Professional is a quick start guide, Q-Connector Kit, I/O panel, eight Serial ATA data cables, Serial ATA power adapter, one ribbon FDD cable, one G.P. diagnosis card, one ribbon IDE cable, one expansion slot adapter with USB 2.0 and Firewire ports, one expansion slot COM header port, driver CD, and the ASUS user guide. The G.P. diagnosis card is nice, but it would have been ideal if the LED display were integrated directly onto the motherboard PCB itself.