ASUS P5E3 Premium X48 Motherboard Review

Conclusion

What makes a good motherboard? Does it have to be 100% stable stock and overclocked? Does it have to come with a large accessory package? Does it have to look good? Everyone has their own opinion, or we should possibly say needs, when it comes to what makes a motherboard "good". So it only naturally makes sense that not all motherboards are considered equal and understand that by nature they shouldn't be. Is the P5E3-Premium the perfect motherboard? To some it will be, to others it won't even be considered due to price alone. The key is whether or not you feel it will be the perfect motherboard for your application, because it does a lot of things well, real well.

Of course the P5E3-Premium doesn't do everything but like we said, it can't be expected to be perfect since nothing really is. The biggest flaw is going to be the price and the fact that it is $350+ means that only a thin slice of the market is even a potential buyer, and this thin slice is not easily impressed. The one issue that shouldn't have been (and indeed we weren't expecting it to be) an issue is the lack of FSB overclocking demonstrated by this board. As we mentioned a number of times, the sweet spot is in that first three quarters of the 400FSB range but the experienced overclocker wants 500FSB+ and generally needs it for certain kinds of benchmarking. This motherboard has been gaining praise all over enthusiast forums as 'The' DDR3 motherboard for memory clocking right now but we clearly weren't so fortunate with our sample. Just another perfect example of how the world of overclocking is hit and miss at the best of times. Another potential drawback is the AI Gear 3+ and EPU power saving feature. It really was a little unruly to get installed, and running properly. Even when it was running relatively smoothly, there were still ASUS ACPI errors and random issues with the software. If ASUS really wants to push the benefits of saving a hundredth of a kilowatt hour of energy with your CPU idle, they are going to have to improve the software that runs it. EPU is supposed to be all hardware? Then make it an option in the BIOS for the various settings or to disable it all together, and leave software out of it.

With the bad comes plenty of good though, including dual PCI-E 16X slots for the ultimate CrossFire X gaming rig. The P5E3-Premium also boasts a silent cooling solution that again impresses with improvements to mounting hardware and the ability to really push the motherboard passively. Round that up with a full accessory package and enough software features to keep the geek in the house happy and you have a very well laid out, high performing motherboard that fills the high-end gaming segment very well. Just don't forget the sweet spot we talked about and keep the boards clocking high and the Performance Level low.

• Another solid, silent, and featured ASUS motherboard
• Make your life easy, get some XMP
• The sweet spot really is strong performance wise and most setups should hit it easily

• Not nearly enough voltage or temperature readings available
• The EPU software, ExpressGate Feature, and BIOS needs to mature a little bit
• Very high priced and aimed at the upper end of the spectrum
• Fought with our sample for high FSB overclocking