Long Term Impressions

ExpressGate

What can you say...this should have been an option on motherboards sooner. Just a few more applications, a little refining, and a touch of polishing; ExpressGate could be quite the useful tool for all of us.

There are going to be a few different schools of thought on this 'ExpressGate' feature of the ASUS motherboards. There are general users that might try it a couple times, think its cool, and never likely use it again or forget about it. There are also going to be the uber geeks who start a forum because they only use ExpressGate as their OS. Okay, so maybe not that extreme but the idea behind the feature sure does open some possibilities.

Think about it from an overclocking perspective. Port a version of Prime 95, SPi 32M (for my personal choice) and some form of memory test like HCI, maybe even OCCT. Throw in a screenshot capture program and call it a night. If you want to get really fancy, you can have system monitoring as an added touch. Then there is the pushing the envelope stage. What about software loaded in ExpressGate to allow say, memory manufacturers to upload a 'BIOS Profile' to the machine which can then be accessed through the easy update within the BIOS. This would allow tremendous troubleshooting capabilities and once a perfect BIOS version and profile were found for a kit of memory for each motherboard, it would be an easy starting point for trouble shooting.

Hopefully ASUS develops this potential feature and ensures it be used to its full potential. Let's have a quick look at what is currently offered with ASUS ExpressGate.

The interface is very easy to understand and intuitive for Windows users. I would imagine it would be as intuitive for Mac users as well. The 'desktop' is not much un-like Windows with just a dock that we can launch applications from which include an Internet Browser, Skype, and then some options and settings. The first option of importance is the resolution options available. From 800x600 up to 1440x1050 are what we have but another option up to the very popular 1680x1050 would be a welcome sight.

The rest of the options in the Configuration Panel are very straight forward including the network setup. If you are just on a Dynamic DHCP setup with a cable or DSL connection with a router, then you will likely automatically connect. For those of use on manually configured environments, getting connected upon first boot was a breeze and took only a couple seconds knowing the network connection settings.

All options are saved and can be reset at anytime from within the Configuration Panel in ExpressGate or in the BIOS. There were a couple issues with ExpressGate, the most important was that it didn't work until the 0401 BIOS. We almost gave up on it but trying the latest BIOS got it working rather well aside from a couple weird hang-ups that could have been more a cause of a bad overclock than anything else.

As mentioned though, we felt that the ExpressGate feature might be the start of a very nice feature for a smaller segment of the market with some effort on the part of ASUS but even still, ExpressGate is an interesting step in the motherboard evolution and something to keep an eye on as it matures.

The Sweet Spot - 400FSB ~ 460FSB

Despite the trials and tribulations we went through during the overclocking of this motherboard before we found the winning combination for us, the 400FSB to 460FSB range was always good to us. With any BIOS on the 333 strap, running 1:2, tight PLs and great performance are to be had right where most if not all top end C2Ds and C2Qs are going to run out of gas CPU frequency wise. Clocking that high with a tight PL is so simple in fact that the motherboard does it on its own with the right memory. Before we knew it, we were running 450FSB like it was stock...with a Performance Level of 6 giving incredible performance.

The higher FSB clocks at the tail end of the review period were impressive and all but the real performance is had with next to no voltage and very low heat output in the 400FSB to 460FSB range. The honorable mention goes to 499FSB, 333 Strap, DDR3-1596 (5:8), PL 8. This combination brings memory up to DDR3-1600 with a FSB that could put your CPU at 4GHz, 3.74GHz, 3.49GHz or lower depending on CPU ratios available. The bandwidth and latency results are equal to or better than the 400FSB range with the memory at the same frequency but voltages to the north bridge might be a bit more and we are not sure if all boards/CPUs will be able to run that high a FSB, most 45nm C2Ds should though. The added benefit is that you get about the same bandwidth, without the need for the ultra high-end memory. Lots of cheaper kits will run DDR3-1600 with good latencies, 1GB and 2GB kits.