Time for another Motherboard review after missing out on it long time ago. I remembered the last 2 boards I revewed are GIGABYTE GA-MA69GM-S2H and another one from MSI (K9AGM2-L). If you have missed the reading, just click on them to check them out.

Both boards are a cheap price + best quality motherboard of their bloodline. Well, it’s time to look a little bit higher and see if this ‘above normal’ motherboard would please your soul or not.

Today, I’m going to do a simple review on this motherboard:

Yup, it’s from ASUS with the code name of P5E. Looking cool, huh? All board is painted black. and the Shinny Ai Logo most likely would add some minor taste to this great board.

What’s make this board great is the implementation of the newest chipset, Intel X38! This chipset enable ASUS P5E to run the newest DDR2 1066Mhz and DualX16 PCI Express 2.0 card at their full potential.

Yes, it’s a technology that you should have if you plan to follow trend. ASUS P5E give you all of that. Also, ASUS P5E support all bloodline of Intel Processors. From their Grand Daddy, Celeron, to their Great Grand Son, Quad Core.

So, there is no need for you to worry if your will out of stock of processor or you have no budget to buy quad core. You can still use ASUS P5E with the nostalgic old friend, Celeron.

As you can see, ASUS P5E Intel X38 is well-armed with a silentpipe feature. From Southbridge to the back panel, which make this board actually working quietly under normal usage condition.

In this board, you’d likely won’t see the SATA port arrange in the normal position. ASUS quite smart to put them to the side of the board along with the IDE port. This design is to prevent user who would use a high-end graphic cards, which usually pretty big and will eat-up almost all of the lower part.

Some core specification that you should know about ASUS P5E:

• FSB : 800Mhz to 1600Mhz
• Intel CPU: PCeleron to Quad Core Supported
• Hyper-Threading Technology also included
• Max. Memory is 8 Gigs DDR2 1066Mhz
• 6 onboard SATA and 6 Onboard USB ports with one 1394 port
• one SupremeFX II - sound card with absolute HD quality.
• Gigabit LAN supported
• 100% Windows Vista Supported
• For more detail spec and user’s comment on ASUS P5E, please click here.

I know this post is somehow too simple for getting more information on P5E. Well, It’s a simple review anyway. What’s important is, this blog always include a Pros and Cons from the current users. It’s completely not a self-made testimonials. It’s all from the users of P5E. Well, let’s see:

Pros of P5E Intel X38:

• 8 Gigabyte of Memory is huge! But make sure your System is 64bit or it will be shown as 3 gigs only! LOL
• Lots of Sata Connetors, well designed heatsink (but rather big) and Nice price
• Wealth of features for overclocking and fine tuning and a nice sound card there!
• Support the latest technology which save me other bucks for future.

Cons of P5E:

• Couldn’t find any connector for front audio and mic.
• The board only have a function to set CPU temp and motherboard temperature.
• RAID seems to not working in Vista.
• Don’t use this board with Vista if you want to avoid hours of tweaking and tuning.

Afterall, nothing is perfect. Where we have positive side, a negative side would always there too. It’s depend on your own judgment now. The price is sure going to blow you away if you only have $100 on your hand.

ASUS P5E cost up to $200. I can’t say the exact number because price always changing. It’s better for you to check it right to your favorite store or try to visit NewEgg.com for best price and fast delivery service.