P45 boards head-to-head comparison

[RoamDog]

Can you point me to a site that has done a head-to-head comparison of the following P45 boards:
Asus P5Q
Asus P5Q Pro
Asus P5Q-E

Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R

MSI P45 Neo3-FR
MSI P45 Platinum

The only direct comparisons that I have found are for the more expensive > $200 boards.

I am still unsure which board to get.
I am NOT going to use 2x video cards so Crossfire is not needed (but I do not mind paying $10 more for future expansion in this space). However, I definitely want at least one PCIe 2.0 16x port.
I definitely need raid so ICH10R is required.
I am using DDR2 so I don't really care about DDR3 support (and will probably get a new board by the time I get around to wanting to upgrade to DDR3 so I really am not interested in paying extra for DDR3--again do not mind paying $10 more for the capability to run DDR2 and eventually upgrade to DDR3, but the real emphasis here is DDR2).
I would like have at least 2 old-school PATA/IDE ports.
I would like as many SATA ports as possible.
I would like as many USB ports as possible.

So, is there a nice (and accurate) comparison chart somewhere?

 

[geokilla]

P5Q Pro

Out of all 3 ASUS boards that you listed, the P5Q Pro is the best out of the bunch.

 

[RoamDog]

OK. Why do you say that? What makes it the best of the Asus boards?

And more importantly how does it compare to the boards of the other manufacturers?

Originally posted by: geokilla
P5Q Pro

Out of all 3 ASUS boards that you listed, the P5Q Pro is the best out of the bunch.

 

[Sylvanas]

Very rarely do you see comparative roundup articles these days, and if you do they are pretty vague and don't really investigate the individual products. Honestly, any of the Big 4's P45's will be a good board (MSI, Asus, Giga, Foxconn). I would recommend the MSI boards however since I have had a very good experience with MSI recently and over the years, so they're top in my book. All the best with your decision.

 

[egale]

All I can add is that my P5Q-E has been problamatic. First one was DOA. This one runs well except for temperature and fan speed recording.

CPU temp can sometimes go as high as 111 degrees, Motherboard temp 254 degrees and the fan speeds, especially the exhaust fan in the back will report as 0 RPM for days at a time. If I have Asus Probe II loaded, I have alarms going off every few seconds. Speedfan shows the same info but at least no alarms.

I know the fans are spinning even though they report as 0 RPM and I know the CPU is not overheating because the core temps are good. It is just annoying more than anything else.

I have been doing some research on a replacement and the MSI boards seem the best to me on paper. Have no experience with them though.

 

[hsfnewbie]

to the OP, for the Asus boards I would go after the P5Q-Pro.

I'm also doing mobo shopping right now, and based on my research here's why:

The p5Q is the base model for the Asus P45 line. What's important is the placement of various sinks and connectors on the mobo. The p5q has pretty bad placement of connectors that will make it a pain to have good airflow and be easy to manage wires. Most people then start comparing the P5Q-E to the P5Q-Pro. I forget what their reasons were, but most went after the P5Q-Pro because it's a slight upgrade to the P5Q-E. The one problem with the Pro based on what I've read is that it doesn't fit huge heat sinks well. It's best you look at the pictures and see how the mobo is like.

As for all other p45 mobos, it seems they are all good boards and provide stable performance. But if you want the cream of the crop, Asus is where it's at. I, personally, am still waiting on the Abit ip45 pro if/when it comes out.

 

[AmberClad]

The P5Q-E is actually technically a better board than the Pro. It has an additional PCIe x16 (physical, not electrical) slot, and one more Ethernet port. It also has fancier heatsinks.

The layout of the Pro might be more desirable though, depending on your needs. I don't think I would have been able to manage a quad-slot video card (due to my aftermarket heatsink), 2 PCI cards, and all 8 SATA slots free with the "E".