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Asus makes sure that their P5E3 Deluxe sets the standard for all other X38 based motherboards

INTRODUCTION

Intel's X38 Express chipset is now officially released, and it's their next-in-line chipset aimed at the high-end user and enthusiasts. It brings all of the new technologies together into one package. This chipset differs from its predecessor the P35, by offering new features which includes support for higher FSB and DDR3 ram. It will also support all Intel 775 processors based on current 65nm and future 45nm technologies, these include the Core 2 Duo and Quads.

The original P35 was designed to support 1333FSB processors, which we are now beginning to see its availability. What is really interesting about the X38 chipset is the official support for 1600FSB ... if that's true, then we could be seeing future Intel processors running at 1600FSB. Can't wait to see one of these processors in action.

        

The X38 chipset suffered a slight delay with its release due to some minor issues, but now that's fixed and the wait is finally over. We are now seeing motherboards starting to appear using this chipset. First of the block is Asus with their P5E3 Deluxe motherboard.

There's been talk already of Intel planning to release an even newer chipset ... the X48, by Q1 2008. The word is that the X48 is basically a X38 with all the bugs ironed out, cherry picked for enthusiasts with better headroom for overclocking. Sounds very interesting and I would love to see if there's any real difference, but in the meantime we've got the X38 to contend with.

In this review we'll be taking a look at the Asus P5E3 Deluxe motherboard. It utilises Intel's latest X38 chipset and offers support for 1600FSB and DDR3 ram. The motherboard looks very good and it's absolutely packed with feature. Take for example the dual sockets for wireless LAN, as well as the addtional dual gigabit ethernet LAN, 4 USB ports, 2 eSTA ports, firewire port, SPDIF optical connector, IR module and remote. What a list of features.

It also comes with Asus's silent chipset cooling, 3 PCIe slots and Asus's innovative "Express Gate" feature. This feature allows you to be connected to the internet without the PC being switched on, thus enabling you to use internet based applications such as the popular Skype phone.

In our tests, we will be using our new Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (G0 Stepping) processor and Crucial's Ballistix DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 2Gb kit, along with a Geforce 8800GTS graphics card and Coolermaster's Real Power M850 power supply. Hopefully, we will be expecting some good results both in our benchmarks and overclocking tests.

Motherboards based on the P35 chipset is now becoming widely available, and it's still a popular chipset among mainstream users and enthusiasts alike, offering very good performance. This brings us to the question ... will the X38 chipset offer anything significantly different? or will it be just be a re-packaged P35 supporting 1600FSB?

OK, let's not waste any more time and see what the X38 chipset is all about, and see how well the Asus P5E3 Deluxe can perform in our tests.