ASUS P5B-E: P965 stepping C1 versus C2, Round One
by Gary Key on October 4, 2006 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
ASUS P5B-E Features
Our featured motherboard today is the ASUS P5B-E with both the P965 C1 and C2 Stepping. Each motherboard has the latest 0402 BIOS installed with each board being based on the 1.01G revision level PCB. We will fully test and review the P5B-E in our P965 roundup. According to ASUS the performance and capability of each board should be equal and hopefully our test results will prove this statement correct.
ASUS has delivered a well optioned and performance oriented Intel P965 board for the midrange sector that should sell for around US $160 or under. While our motherboard and BIOS are new releases, we were still surprised at the overclocking prowess of the P5B-E during our benchmarking runs with the Core 2 Duo E6300. We will provide BIOS screenshots and a more in-depth review of the BIOS in our full review. At this time the two glaring omissions when compared with other boards in this price range is the lack of memory voltage settings past 2.10V and the MCH voltage is not adjustable. ASUS will address this in their 1.02G board revision but honestly with the right components you can still get this board to the 500FSB level without the additional voltage options - not that it wouldn't be nice to have them anyway. At this time the C1 stepping will be shipped on this board until the scheduled switch to the C2 stepping later this month.
Our featured motherboard today is the ASUS P5B-E with both the P965 C1 and C2 Stepping. Each motherboard has the latest 0402 BIOS installed with each board being based on the 1.01G revision level PCB. We will fully test and review the P5B-E in our P965 roundup. According to ASUS the performance and capability of each board should be equal and hopefully our test results will prove this statement correct.
| Asus P5B-E (C1 or C2 Stepping) | |
| Market Segment: | Mid-Range Performance |
| CPU Interface: | Socket T (Socket 775) |
| CPU Support: | LGA775-based Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium D, Pentium EE, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme |
| Chipset: | Intel P965 + ICH8R |
| Bus Speeds: | 100 to 650 in 1MHz Increments |
| Memory Speeds: | Auto, 533, 667, 800, 889, 1067 |
| PCIe Speeds: | Auto, 90MHz~150MHz in 1MHz Increments |
| PCI: | Auto, Fixed at 33.33 |
| Core Voltage: | Base CPU V to 1.7000V in 0.0125V increments |
| CPU Clock Multiplier: | Auto, 6x-11x in 1X increments if CPU is unlocked, downwards unlocked |
| DRAM Voltage: | Auto, 1.80V ~ 2.10V in .10V increments |
| DRAM Timing Control: | Auto, 10 Options |
| MCH Voltage: | not available |
| Memory Slots: | Four 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Slots Dual-Channel Configuration Regular Unbuffered Memory to 8GB Total |
| Expansion Slots: | 1 - PCIe X16 3 - PCIe X1 3 - PCI Slot 2.3 |
| Onboard SATA/RAID: | 6 SATA 3Gbps Ports - Intel ICH8R (RAID 0,1,5, 1+0,JBOD) 1 SATA 3Gbps Ports - JMicron JMB363 1 e-SATA 3Gbps Port - JMicron JMB363 |
| Onboard IDE: | 1 ATA133/100/66 Port (2 drives) - JMicron JMB363 |
| Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394: | 10 USB 2.0 Ports - 4 I/O Panel - 6 via Headers 2 Firewire 400 Ports by VIA VT6307 - 1 I/O Panel, 1 via Header |
| Onboard LAN: | Gigabit Ethernet Controller - PCI Express Interface Attansic L1 |
| Onboard Audio: | ADI 1988 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC |
| Power Connectors: | ATX 24-pin, 4-pin EATX 12V |
| I/O Panel: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel Port 1 x S/PDIF Optical 1 x S/PDIF Coaxial 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x Audio Panel 1 x RJ45 1 x eSATA 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 |
| BIOS Revision: | AMI 0402 |
| Board Revision: | 1.01G |
ASUS has delivered a well optioned and performance oriented Intel P965 board for the midrange sector that should sell for around US $160 or under. While our motherboard and BIOS are new releases, we were still surprised at the overclocking prowess of the P5B-E during our benchmarking runs with the Core 2 Duo E6300. We will provide BIOS screenshots and a more in-depth review of the BIOS in our full review. At this time the two glaring omissions when compared with other boards in this price range is the lack of memory voltage settings past 2.10V and the MCH voltage is not adjustable. ASUS will address this in their 1.02G board revision but honestly with the right components you can still get this board to the 500FSB level without the additional voltage options - not that it wouldn't be nice to have them anyway. At this time the C1 stepping will be shipped on this board until the scheduled switch to the C2 stepping later this month.
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Gary Key - Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - link
The highest we could get while keeping the memory timings tight was 485FSB, that level required 2.10V on the memory and 1.4625V on the CPU. Anything over 485FSB, we just let the board handle the memory timings automatically, probably could have decreased tRAS to 10.xsilver - Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - link
ok,then how high can it go on default voltages? northbridge,dram,cpu
thanks
Ecmaster76 - Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - link
C1 -> C2 implies a very minor change.Conventionally a major reviosion comes with a new letter designation like C1 -> D#
Plus performance improvements of the magnitude apparently rumored would not be sold as the same chipset. Instead it would probably be marketed as a new product and perhaps even released with a new socket or voltage regulation standard to make upgrading even more fun.
Tujan - Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - link
Found myself just getting out of the middrift to browse ASUS for that notorious AMD ATI motherboard wich shouldhave been out in September.Of course I couldn't keep myself from looking at the 775 Intel MBs from ASUS. There is was an ASUS P5B. 1 PCIexpress,and 3PCI . Passive cooling,and an eSata to go with it.
Then alas I still had to find somebody who had something using a 'Core-Duo for sale. To use it. The same story,just enough in a review and nothing on the retail,or you could find something in some foreign country..perhaps.
Yes,there IS a Asus P5B for sale.Yes,it IS an ASUS P5B-E !!! No,..im not going to tell you where. Nananana no,no...(snickers).
Seriously,the Asus P5B fits right there between the other single PCI-e 965 motherboards I have read reviewed on Anandtechs website. I count around 4 of them at the present time. But I keep reading. There is a Foxconn board out there somewhere with the same type of derivitive numbering. Still different specs.and performer however.
Cant really say too much now can we. Dont want to upset the 975x boys now.
ASUS P5B motherboard looks like a "nice"motherboard.
rawr1234 - Thursday, October 5, 2006 - link
You guys didnt test Rev 1.02G ... only 1.01G, rev 1.02G is soposed to be able to change the volt on ram up to 2.45v and it comes with C2Gary Key - Thursday, October 5, 2006 - link
We have another 1.02G board coming, the 1.01G boards actually clocked better. You will see the 1.02G results late next week.JarredWalton - Thursday, October 5, 2006 - link
That was sort of the point - this is an "apples to apples" comparison of C1 and C2 on a motherboard that will ship with both revisions. Testing a C2-only board and drawing conclusions that C2 is better isn't fair - maybe it's just the board that's better. So basically, any improvements over C1 boards judging by this article are going to be largely due to the improved motherboard/BIOS designs and not the chipset revision.