Specifications
| ASUS P5K3 Deluxe | |
|---|---|
| Item | Specifications |
| Processor support | All Intel LGA775 CPUs (except 533MHz FSB Celerons and Pentiums) |
| Northbridge | Intel P35 |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH9R |
| Memory support | 4 DIMMs, dual-channel, non-ECC, unbuffered memory, 8GB max
DDR3-800/889/1067 @ 1066MHz CPU FSB DDR3-800/833/1000/1067/1111/1333MHz @ 1333MHz CPU FSB |
| Graphics (main) | 4 x PCI Express x16 slots with support for ATI CrossFire, one at 16x speed, three connected to an IDT PCIe switch. |
| PCI conventional | 2 x PCI 2.2 |
| ATA | 1 x Ultra DMA 133 / 100 / 66 / 33 controller (supplied by Marvell 88SE6121 controller) |
| SATA |
6 x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s provided by Intel ICH9R |
| RAID | RAID 0, 1, 10 and 5 through Intel ICH9R |
| LAN | Marvell 88E8052/88E8001 Dual Gb LAN |
| Audio | Realtek ALC888, eight-channel Azalia Audio CODECS Multi-streaming Jack-sensing and enumeration Jack-retasking S/PDIF Out interface |
| Floppy | 1 x Floppy disk drive connector provided by Marvell 88SE6121 controller |
| FireWire | VIA VT6308S controller, providing 2 x IEEE 1394a ports (one at mid-board, one at back panel) |
| USB | 12 x USB2.0 ports (six ports at mid-board, six at back panel) |
| ASUS special features | ASUS MyLogo2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 ASUS C.P.R. ASUS CPU Lock Free EZ Flash2 SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection) at 1MHz increment Stack Cool 2 |
| Back panel I/O ports | PS/2 keyboard 2 x RJ45 S/PDIF out (coaxial + optical) 6 x USB 2 x eSATA 1 x IEEE1394a Audio I/O |
| Internal I/O connectors | 24-pin ATX power connector 8-pin ATX +12V power connector 4-pin EZ plug Chassis intrusion CPU fan with PWM control Chassis fan1 with Q-fan control Chassis fan2 with Q-fan control PWR fan IDE connector Floppy disk drive connector CD audio in 6 x USB2.0 20-pin panel connector 1 x IEEE 1394a port 1 x COM port Front panel audio connector |
| Monitoring ASIC | ASUS AI |
| Form factor | ATX form factor, 12in x 9.6in (305mm x 245mm) |
| Current street price | £160 (inc VAT) |
Summary
An initial glimpse at the specifications suggests that the P5K64 WS is a P5K3 Deluxe but with the PCIe 1x slots replaced by 16x slots.
However, a closer examination shows something rather different. The ASICs used for audio, FireWire, and eSATA/PATA support are all different to those fitted to the P5K3 Deluxe.
Most surprising among these changes is the replacement of the ubiquitous JMicron JMB363 controller for IDE, floppy and SATA, which has been the default choice for almost every board we've tested since Intel dropped IDE support from its chipsets. Instead the P5K64 WS has the Marvell 88SE6121 doing the honours.
While the P5K64 WS has a total of four PEG slots, the P35 chipset doesn't have enough PCIe lanes to run them all at full width. Furthermore, the Marvell 88E8052/88E8001 Dual Gigabit Ethernet and 88SE6121 SATA/IDE controller each requires a PCIe 1x connection.
ASUS doesn't specify how the board's PCIe lanes are arranged, so the following is our interpretation of how they are configured.
The P35 MCH supplies a single 16x lane and, unlike the 975x chipset used on this motherboard's predecessor, the P5W64 WS, it can't be re-configured as two 8x lanes. Consequently, this runs to the first PEG slot.
ICH9R offers an additional six lanes. Two of these are most likely used as 1x lanes to connect to the Marvell 88E8052/88E8001 and 88SE6121 devices. The remaining four lanes are routed to a PCIe switch supplied by IDT, instead of being attached to the second PEG slot as you would normally find on a P35 board. This switch then provides each of the three PEG slots with a PCIe 4x connection, with the bandwidth that can be used depending on the number of devices connected to the switch.
If this interpretation is correct, it could, of course, mean that the bandwidth between the PCIe switch and ICH9R may become a bottleneck when more than two PEG slots are being used.