ASUS P5Q-E or P5Q Deluxe

[jhammer569]

Narrowed in on these components so far:
CPU: Intel Q9550
GPU: 2 Sapphire 512mb ATI 3650's
Mem: DDR2 800 (either 2x2gb or 4x2gb, undecided for now)

My usage:
-Mainly home video editing + I trade for a living (3 monitors) + basic web/email/etc
-Games are a non-issue (neither is crossfire since I'm going to run multiple monitors)
-This computer should last me for around 5 years

I'm happy w/ ASUS (my current is A7v8x) and various folks have recommended the P45 boards to me from other forums, so I looked at the ASUS website and then newegg and it looks like these 2 will best meet my needs.

ASUS p5Q-E = $160
ASUS p5Q-Deluxe = $200

Assume the price difference is not an issue. Do I really need the Deluxe?

The only diff. I can see is the Deluxe has Express Gate SSD, instead of Express Gate in the E.
And Deluxe has 16-phase power instead of 8-phase in the E.

Are the above differences worth it? What exactly will 16-phase do for me?

Any thoughts/opinions appreciated. Once I'm done w/ the MB, power supply will be next! Tnx.

 

[DSF]

Since you have a number of questions I'd recommend just consolidating them into one thread in General Hardware and get them answered all at once.

Unless there's a feature that you have to have on the E/Deluxe I'd actually go with the P5Q Pro which is even less expensive.

 

[jhammer569]

Can't really consolidate the questions because I don't know what my questions are until I pick 1 component at a time.

Anyway, I definitely would go with the E over the pro because of the extra pci slot.

So it all boils down to whether the 16-phase is worth the extra $40 given my Quad 9550 CPU to be purchased...I'm not an OC'er at all...

Is it?

 

[DSF]

What else do you have that you need the extra slot for?

 

[Quiksilver]

The p5q deluxe is the same board as the rampage formula with a different heatsink set and BIOS(the p5q deluxe text on the board is a sticker that can be peeled off and underneath is rampage formula text). There has been a few users on here who flashed their BIOS over to a rampage formula.

 

[Thor86]

If mostly home video editing, and gaming is not an issue, save yourself even more money and just get Q6600. If price is not a problem the extra $40.00 is a none issue when you can afford a Q9550.

 

[Big Lar]

I installed the Deluxe today, I was leaning to the P4Q-E but needed the extra pci-e slot so I can run my scsi Raid card at 4x and still run my vid at 16x, of which it is doing just fine. Otherwise I would have saved some $$ and got the -E version.

Nice board so far just need to get used to the settings.

Larry

 

[badnewcastle]

I was sifting through all the P5Q's trying to figure out which one would be better to replace my P6N Diamond (current board). I ended up with the P5Q-E and will be installing it this weekend.

To answer your question regarding the power phase issue... I read all over the net trying to figure that out and here is what I have figured out:

Basically the voltage is split between phase/transistors or whatever so that each phase has equal amount of voltage going through it. The more phases, the less current going through each phase. This is supposed to help in keeping the voltage to the processor or what ever the phases are powering at a more stable level. Because the effect of voltage differences on smaller phases will be less noticeable on larger phases. be on smaller currents etc... I hope my explanation is understandable... as I'm barely learning about it this week. I did read a lot on the issue because I'm into OC'ing and I figuring 8 is more then enough. Since the most I've had in the past is 4.

BTW, if I'm wrong let me know, I'm not an expert and I've just paraphrased several different things I've read.

As far as normal computing and even normal gaming, you should probably worry about the rest of the components and the general build quality (which should be similar between these two boards). Since your not OC'ing at all I wouldn't even concern yourself with the power phase issue as this is likely where it would make the most difference. From what I can gather 4 phases of QUALITY power is more then enough even for OC'ing. Less then a year ago, most high-end boards had 4 phases and few had 8 or 16.

 

[jhammer569]

great, that answers my question badnew. I read some posts at other forums and saw the whole thing about voltage & current and it being divided amongst more phases so it runs cooler and stuff. But you are probably right and it would be way overkill for me. I'll go with the E and be done with it.

Heck, I'm already pissed that I forgot to bid on a replacement ATI 8500DV on eBay last night for my current computer (the old one went bad and I NEED a replacement since I use 3 monitors for trading for a living so I need it asap until I build the new comp, right now I'm stuck on 2 monitors trading). Woulda been $35-40 for the eBay one after shipping, instead I just bought one from ATI directly for $70 after shipping, there's the PQ5-E vs. PQ5-Deluxe diff . Oh well, you win some & you lose some!

Tnx again all. And Q9550 is what I'll get, the $40, as you can see from above, doesn't matter to me since it's spread over at least around 5 years (especially since it's 100% deductible to my business of trading, along w/ my cable, internet, bla bla, gotta love the tax system!)

 

[jhammer569]

Also, if you look at the ASUS website descriptions of 8 vs. 16. The 8-phase reduces power consumption by "96%", the 16 by "96%+". So it's probably not much more incremental, maybe 1-2% more or something judging by the "+" next to the 96.....