Review of the ASUS P6T motherboard based on Intel X58 Express. Asus motherboards on Intel X58 Express Asus p6t se three cards

Comb connectors for connecting the front panel of the case, additional USB ports and front audio connectors are located along the bottom edge of the board. The CMOS battery and jumper are also conveniently located here. reset BIOS. Expansion slots include only PCI Express, there are six of them here and each is full-size, that is, a full-size PCI-E x16 card can be installed in any slot, which includes video cards and some controllers. Moreover, there are three slots for which up to 16 PCI-E lanes are allocated on the board; the missing lines for two slots are obtained using the Nvidia nForce 200 chip, which “transforms” 16 lines from the 40 northbridge into “extra” 32 lines. You shouldn't expect a big performance gain in 3-Way SLI, because the delays of the nForce 200 chip lead to some performance degradation. There are no miracles. But there is a plus: if two of the three video cards are loaded, then the second card will still receive its 16 lines, which absolutely cannot happen in the “16+8+8” configuration. The number of lines between the slots is dynamically distributed (this is done by two groups of four chips, which can be seen between the slots): if more than one video card is installed, then the black slots simply do not function. If there is only one video card, then the remaining 32 nForce 200 lanes are distributed between four slots, and the white x4 slot is always allocated 4 PCI Express lanes from the south bridge. The latches on the slots are inconvenient - they are tight and difficult to open.

Expansion options and features

The expansion capabilities of the Asus P6T6 WS Revolution are quite good. We only note the complete absence of outdated interfaces, which Asus considered the IDE, Floppy and COM/LPT ports to be. However, for a gaming computer their presence is not at all necessary, but for an industrial (and the board is positioned as a professional) computer, the lack of a COM port, FDD, and even PCI and PCI-X slots is a serious drawback. USB ports presented in their entirety - 12 pieces, 6 of them are located on the rear panel, another 6 can be connected using strips. Interestingly, the product lacks the Fire-Wire bus, which is usually present even on some budget boards. Pleased with the presence of two Ethernet ports with maximum throughput up to 1 Gbps each, controlled by two popular Realtek RTL8111C chips. The sound on the board is implemented using the eight-channel Analog Devices AD2000B HD audio codec. At one time, Asus abandoned the AD series codecs in favor of Realtek, now, as you can see, Analog Devices products are again used, only of a different model.

It just so happens that in order to attract buyers, motherboard manufacturing companies produce several board options on one set of system logic, differing both in cost and in technical specifications and opportunities. So, for example, the ASUS company produces, in addition to the main basic model, several more versions of it - more expensive and “stuffed” with the PRO and DELUXE prefixes, and a cheaper, so to speak “stripped down” version, with the SE prefix. The latter often do not have various additional extensions and special features, but these “bells and whistles” are not always needed. Thus, the ASUS P6T SE motherboard being considered this time is built on the Intel X58 Express system logic set, working in tandem with south bridge ICH10R, it has LGA1366 CPU socket for installation Intel processors Core i7 Extreme Edition or Intel Core i7, supports three-channel mode with DDR3 memory with a total capacity of up to 24 GB and, as the name suggests, is a cheaper version of the ASUS P6T we previously reviewed. Let's see what the engineers of the famous company ASUS decided to save on, and how this affected the performance and overclocking potential of this product.

ASUS P6T SE motherboard specification:

The packaging of the ASUS P6T SE motherboard is made of thick cardboard with high-quality color printing and in design and color scheme is practically no different from the packaging of P5Q series motherboards. On the front side, with the help of icons, it is indicated that the board is manufactured using the Intel X58 system logic set, supports DDR3 memory with a frequency of up to 2000 MHz, implements the functions and technologies of Quad CrossFireX, ASUS Express Gate, TurboV, EPU and the processor power regulator has 8+ 2 phases.

On the back of the box, the TurboV and EPU technologies, which simplify overclocking and save energy, are described in more detail, and there is also a photograph of the board itself, and its main capabilities are indicated using small icons.

Included ASUS supplies P6T SE includes:

• user guide;
• 4 x SATA cables;
• 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable;
• ASUS Q-Sheld rear panel cover;
• Q-Connectors set;
• DVD with drivers and utilities.

The delivery set is minimal, it contains nothing except the essentials. But the board is positioned as a budget option for “top” systems.

The ASUS P6T SE motherboard makes a pleasant impression with its high-quality installation of elements. All connectors are shifted to the edges of the board for easy and convenient connection to them. The board has six slots for installing DDR3 memory with a total capacity of up to 24 GB, which can operate in both dual-channel and triple-channel modes, but do not forget that to support such a volume random access memory must use 64-bit OS. A power button is soldered near the DIMM slots, but the Reset button was not soldered in to save money, leaving empty place. The logic of this is not entirely clear, but, as they say, we save as much as we can. The board also differs from ASUS P6T in fewer SATA connectors and the lack of a connector for connecting FDD. Combining video cards using CrossFireX technology is possible using three PCI slots Express x16, working according to the formula x16+x16 or x8+x8+x8. PCI Express x16 slots alternate with a PCI Express x1 slot and two PCI slots.

On the back of the board, under the processor socket, there is a metal support plate, which protects the board from bending when installing the processor. Next to it is an inscription indicating that the ASUS P6T SE motherboard is made using Stack Cool 2 technology. This technology improves heat distribution in the hottest areas.

When installing a long video card, the latches of the memory connectors were at a decent distance from it, but the video card turned out to be “covered” by four SATA connectors deployed parallel to the board. Connecting to them in an assembled system can cause some inconvenience. If you install a second video accelerator of the same type, this problem will also become relevant with the IDE controller connector.

The cooling system of the ASUS P6T SE board is exactly the same as that of the ASUS P6T. It consists of conventional aluminum radiators and a heat pipe. The heatsink on the Intel X58 Express is small and, for better cooling, is connected by a heat pipe to a specially enlarged heatsink for this reason on the power elements of the processor power stabilizer. In general, this design copes well with the task assigned to it. The southbridge heatsink is quite small, but since the ICH10R does not get very hot, it is more than enough for efficient cooling of this element. Transistors in the processor power regulator circuits are also protected from overheating by radiators - one half is covered by a larger radiator connected by a heat pipe to the chipset radiator, and the second half is cooled by a separate small radiator. The disadvantages of the cooling system include the mounting of radiators using plastic clips, which is simple, but not very reliable.

The supply voltage is supplied to the central processor through a switching stabilizer made according to an 8+2 phase circuit. Eight phases directly power the processor core, and two phases are used to power the built-in memory controller and QPI bus. Two two-phase stabilizers are responsible for powering the chipset and memory modules. All stabilizers use closed chokes with a ferromagnetic core and polymer capacitors. This power supply is similar to that used in the more expensive base model.

The disk subsystem is served by the ICH10R south bridge and consists of six SATA2 ports, which support the creation of RAID arrays of levels 0, 1, 5 and 10. Due to the possibility of overlap with a long video card, four connectors are deployed parallel to the board, which makes it possible to connect to them in the assembled case not entirely convenient. The south bridge also serves 12 USB 2.0 ports, six of which are connected to back panel, and six are routed on the board. You can connect, for example, USB ports to the USB ports on the board quick access on the front panel of the case, a card reader, or using a special module to bring them to the back panel of the computer. Compared to the ASUS P6T, the disk subsystem is a little simplified - there is no controller for two additional SATA connectors and there is no connector for connecting an FDD drive. But this is not critical - the six available SATA connectors are more than enough for the average user, and FDD drives have long since sunk into oblivion.

A special JMicron JMB363 controller is responsible for supporting the e-SATA connector located on the rear panel and for connecting two PATA devices via the IDE interface.

The VT6315N chip, manufactured by VIA, serves two high-speed serial ports of the IEEE1394a interface, one of which is located on the rear panel, and the second is routed on the board and can be connected to either a special remote module or, if available, an IEEE1394a connector on the front panel of the case .

The audio subsystem is based on the ALC1200 eight-channel HD audio codec produced by REALTEK. The same chip is responsible for optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs for connecting multi-channel audio systems.

Connection via local network carried out through a Realtek RTL8111C gigabit LAN controller, which supports the AI ​​NET2 function.

The following ports are located on the rear panel of the ASUS P6T SE motherboard:

• two PS/2 connectors for connecting a keyboard and mouse;
• six USB 2.0/1.1 connectors;
• optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs;
• IEEE 1394a connector;
• e-SATA connector;
• RJ45 connector for network connections;
• 6 analog connectors for connecting 8-channel audio.

The BIOS of the ASUS P6T SE motherboard is based, like all ASUS motherboards, on AMI code. All overclocking-related settings are located in the “AI Tweaker” section:

Here you can manually set the processor and QPI bus multiplier, change the PCI Express bus frequency, QPI bus speed, memory frequency relative to the FSB, memory timings and sub-timings, and also change the supply voltage values ​​of the main components. It is worth noting that all values ​​can be set to “Auto” mode so that the system itself selects the optimal voltage and frequency values.

Timings and sub-timings of RAM can be changed within wide limits separately for each channel, which should have a beneficial effect on the overclocking capabilities of the system.

The BIOS of the ASUS P6T SE motherboard allows you to change the effective voltage values ​​on almost all elements. Values ​​that are dangerous for components are highlighted in red and, if you are not sure of the correctness of the value you have chosen, you can leave it in the “Auto” mode so that the system itself sets the optimal value for the parameter.

For convenience and clarity, all adjustable parameters are summarized in the table:

The “Advanced” tab is used to manage processor functions and technologies.

The System Monitor is located on the "Power" tab. You can control temperatures in it central processor and motherboard, voltage on the processor core and main power lines, look at the fan speed and enable or disable the ASUS Q-Fan function of automatic fan speed control.

On the “Tools” tab we get access to the proprietary utility for BIOS updates ASUS EZ Flash 2, here we can also turn on or off ASUS Express Gate and ASUS AI NET 2, and also, if desired, save our BIOS settings at ASUS O.C. Profile.

Testing

The following equipment was used to test the ASUS P6T SE motherboard.

ASUS P6T SE motherboard shows high level performance the same as its competitors.

Overclocking options

The processor bus was raised to almost 205 MHz, which turned out to be 35 MHz higher than that of the ASUS P6T and can provide a 54% increase in processor frequency. This is a very good result.

conclusions

The ASUS P6T SE board we reviewed today demonstrated high performance and very good overclocking potential.

It differs from the basic ASUS P6T model only in the absence of an additional SATA controller and an FDD connector, but considering that the board already has six SATA ports with support for RAID arrays, and FDDs have not been used for a long time, we get a high-quality motherboard for significantly less money . Support for the new Intel Core i7 processors, DDR3 memory in three-channel operating mode, PCI Express 2.0 bus, CrossFireX technology for combining two or three video cards into one powerful video system make this board an excellent basis for gaming computer or a high-performance graphics station. The advantages of ASUS P6T SE include excellent price-to-price ratio functionality, as well as high overclocking potential.

Advantages:

• high performance;
• good overclocking potential;
• PCI Express 2.0 bus support;
• CrossFireX technology support;
• possibility of installing coolers for LGA775;
• coaxial and optical SPDIF.

Flaws:

• covering SATA connectors with a long video card;
• still relatively high cost.

We express our gratitude to the company PF Service LLC (Dnepropetrovsk) for the motherboards provided for testing.

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Made the transition not only to the new Nehalem architecture, but also to a new policy in general. The new processors have significant, one might even say revolutionary, innovations for Intel. But processors cannot work on their own; they require an appropriate motherboard. In this segment, the company also offered a new product – the Intel X58 Express system logic set, specially designed for motherboards for Socket LGA1366 and Core i7 series processors.

So let's take a look new set logic in more detail.

The X58 Express north bridge works in tandem with the ICH10(R) south bridge, which is familiar to us from the days of the P45 Express.

As can be seen from the diagram, in the new set of logic, instead of the usual system bus The QPI (Intel QuickPath Interconnect) bus is used with a throughput of up to 25.6 Gb/s. It also supports only DDR3 RAM, although this is more a feature of the memory controller built into the processor. Support for PCI-e connectors is provided by 36 lanes, which is enough to create a combination of several video adapters. There is indeed a small limitation - when a sufficient number of PCI Express x16 slots are implemented and more than two video adapters are installed, they become PCI-e mode x8.

But there is good news - Intel has gotten rid of excessive pride and has finally introduced official support for SLI technology in its motherboards. We don’t know how the official relationship between Intel and NVIDIA will develop there, but for us, users, this is just a gift. Now you don’t have to rack your brains when choosing a motherboard and video cards to create a powerful gaming system. Owners of this platform will be able to organize any combinations: both SLI and CrossFireX.

Let's go a little deeper into engineering parts.

The geometric dimensions of the new chip are presented in the diagrams above.

According to official technical data from Intel, this set of logic has the following temperature range: 5-95 0 C – operating temperature range, 100 0 C – maximum permissible temperature. At the same time, the heat dissipation is only 20-24 W - quite low by modern standards, so that cooling systems should easily cope with their task.

For easier understanding, we will give specification of the new Intel X58 Express chipset compared to the previous flagship Intel X48 Express, as well as the very popular Intel P45 Express these days.

As can be seen from the table, the new Intel X58 Express chipset is not far from the previous flagship – Intel X48 Express. It can be said to have become simpler than its predecessor, since the memory controller has been migrated to the processor. That's probably all the differences, except for the new type of QPI bus.

Well, now it’s time to get acquainted with a new set of logic in action. Represents his motherboard.

Appearance, equipment, specification

The new motherboard comes in the same box as the previous P5Q series. Everything is done in the traditional blue color and with a shiny finish.

An innovation in design, or rather a feature of the box specifically for ASUS P6T, is the hinged lid on the box, under which there are brief descriptions advantages of this board.

The back of the box remains unchanged. ASUS always puts an image of the board on the back of the box for greater clarity, and also lists the main advantages of the product using intuitive icons.

In the box with the motherboard, in addition to the motherboard itself, you will find:

• user manual and quick system assembly booklet;
• 4 SATA cables;
• 1 IDE UDMA 66/100/133 cable;
• 1 FDD cable;
• branded plug for the rear panel of the case (with a dielectric soft coating);
• a set of proprietary Q-Connectors that facilitate the connection of internal connectors;
• sticker on the body;
• disk with software and drivers;
• connecting bridge for CrossFireX bundle;
• connecting bridge for 3-Way SLI connection.

The equipment included is even a little modest for a product of this level. A special feature is the simultaneous presence of two bridges for running several video cards. As we wrote above, the Intel X58 Express chipset supports both CrossFireX and 3-Way SLI configurations.

Block diagram

Specification:

The board looks very nice. Six RAM slots immediately catch your eye: two for each of the three channels. They have a warning label on them stating that it is necessary to use memory modules with a rated supply voltage of no more than 1.65 V. Otherwise, damage to the processor may occur.

By the way, the processor itself is powered by a ten-phase (8+2) stabilizer, the heating elements of which are covered with radiators. Eight phases are used for the needs of the processor, and two additional ones are used to power the built-in memory controller. The manufacturer claims 96% efficiency of this power supply. There are no complaints about this board assembly - everything is done neatly and conveniently.

There are two buttons on the board: power on and reset. At first glance, it seems that they are located too far away and will be inconvenient to use. But this is only true when the motherboard is installed in the case, and these buttons should be used precisely in its absence.

The South Bridge is covered with a simple aluminum radiator, but this is enough, since it does not heat up much. Almost all connectors for connection hard drives, except for two, are deployed parallel to the board, which can cause inconvenience when connecting in some cases.

In the upper right corner of the ASUS P6T board there is an ITE IT8268R monitoring chip and a jumper that allows you to unlock processor voltage control within wider limits.

For the same purposes, there are two more jumpers that increase the voltage regulation limit on the QPI bus and memory controller. Such features may only be required by a real extreme overclocker, so they are disabled by default.

A little to the left of the RAM slots is a proprietary ASUS EPU chip, which, with the support of the corresponding utility, implements the functioning of energy-saving technologies.

The Northbridge is cooled by a small blue radiator. The radiator is made of aluminum, but its design uses one heat pipe. As we have already said, the heat dissipation of the Intel X58 Express is at the level of 20-24 W, so this design should be quite sufficient.

There are six expansion slots under the northbridge. PCI-e x16 slots alternate one after another, which makes it possible to install three video cards with a dual-slot cooling system.

On the back panel there are:

• 1 x PS/2 port for keyboard;
• 1 x PS/2 mouse port;
• 1 x optical S/PDIF output;
• 1 x coaxial S/PDIF output;
• 1 x IEEE1394a port;
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port;
• 1 x eSATA port;
• 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports;
• 6 x audio jacks.

On the back of the board there is a support plate for the processor socket. Here you can see that the motherboard is made using Stack Cool 2 technology, which is designed to improve heat distribution from the hottest zones.

It's time to look into the BIOS of ASUS P6T

We still have the same AMI BIOS. But ASUS promised to introduce EFI with the P5Q line of boards. Well, no one pulled her tongue, so we will wait for his appearance. As you can see from the photo above, this motherboard supports two types of auto overclocking - D.O.C.P. and using XMP profiles. The first option works with any memory modules, and XMP only with those that support it.

Naturally, the use of XMP profiles does not give the same effect as subtle manual overclocking, but this technology is safe.

When overclocking in D.O.C.P. mode we need to choose one of two profiles for memory. Each profile includes its own settings for memory frequency, timings and voltage. This is a kind of analogue of the FSB Strap on previous generation motherboards.

There is also another proprietary automatic overclocking technology – Intel Turbo Mode. Inclusion this parameter allows you to increase the processor multiplier by x1 when its temperature allows it.

When overclocking a processor, the QPI bus frequency may have to be reduced so that it does not turn out to be a “weak link”.

For convenience, we present the main BIOS settings in table form.

Well, the set of settings is not the most complete, but quite sufficient for good overclocking. This motherboard will not provide extreme overclocking - it is the base model in the family and does not claim records, but is more focused on small automatic and safe overclocking.

In the Power section we can track the temperature of the processor and northbridge, as well as control the rotation speed of the case fans using the proprietary Q-Fan functions. Voltage monitoring on various board elements is also located here.

The Tools submenu provides us with a BIOS update utility called ASUS EZ Flash 2, the ability to enable/disable the Express Gate function, save BIOS profiles (ASUS O.C. Profile), test LAN cable (AI NET 2) and manage Drive Xpert ports.

Overclocking potential

ASUS P6T was able to overclock the Intel Core i7-940 processor to a frequency of 3910 MHz. Accordingly, the clock generator frequency was 170 MHz. It’s difficult for us to judge whether this result is good or not, since there are still very few statistics on overclocking new processors.

Testing

The following equipment was used to test the capabilities of motherboards:

ASUS P6T motherboard is on par with more expensive competitor, which is a good indicator. We did not have any problems with the BIOS firmware.

Audio codec testingRealtek ALC1200

Overall results (RightMark Audio Analyzer)

We were not pleased with the sound codec binding. We have no doubt that it is to blame for such low test results, since on other motherboards the Realtek ALC1200 codec usually shows a “Very Good” result.

conclusions

The new processor architecture from Intel involves as much integration of chips as possible. IN Core processors i7 was the first to use an integrated memory controller, and future Clarkdale processors will also have an integrated video adapter. The “mystical beast” Larrabee, according to rumors, is generally a cross between a processor and a video card. Be that as it may, the trend is clear - gradually all important functions of the system will move to the processor. At the same time, the role of the motherboard is simplified - it becomes an auxiliary element, but no less important.

motherboards based on Intel X58 Express and ASUS P6T in particular do not represent anything revolutionary. The new set of logic has no special differences, other than support for Intel Core i7 processors and three-channel RAM. Implement SLI technology on previous maternal Intel boards only the licensing feud between the two prevented large companies, which, thank God, is over.

During testing, ASUS P6T showed good performance results, very similar, good overclocking potential and acceptable temperature conditions.

Advantages:

• ergonomic design;
• possibility of installing LGA775-compatible cooling systems;
• support for CrossFireX and 3-Way SLI technologies with the ability to use accelerators with a dual-slot cooler;
• efficient cooling system.

Flaws:

• not very well executed audio codec binding;
• quite modest equipment;
• the price is still high.

We would like to express our gratitude to PF Service LLC (Dnepropetrovsk) for providing the motherboard for testing.

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In the mid-range price range, the Asus P6T SE removes very few features but adds significant money savings.

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Mother's layout Asus boards P6T SE is as good as the model P6T, but we still think the board would have benefited if Asus had positioned the two (blue) PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots at least one more slot space away from each other. The white long slot is still limited to x4 bandwidth, but is ideal for a low-end graphics card or a high-bandwidth RAID controller.

We continue to take issue with the traditional bottom-rear placement of the front-panel audio ports, as it makes routing cables to the top bays of tower cases very difficult. Some of Asus's competitors, fortunately, have already moved away from this tradition.

Asus is one of the few companies that provides support for both LGA 1366 and LGA 775 CPU coolers. This could be a particularly valuable addition for all those users looking to upgrade from LGA socket 775 without having to spend large sums of money replacing your existing water cooling system.

BIOS

All frequencies, voltages and BIOS delays are indicated in the summary table in the "Overclocking" section.

Using the same printed circuit board, as the more expensive P6T, allowed the P6T SE to also use the same BIOS, although Asus has updated it since we tested P6T .

Intel XMP Profile works exactly as we'd expect on all Asus motherboards we've tested, which isn't the case with some competing models. However, overclockers, even with little experience, can easily set the memory voltage and delays manually.

The voltage settings are more detailed than you'd expect from an X58 chipset board costing around $200, but most of the added settings are rarely used. Extreme overclockers will love this, but the settings for other components aren't as detailed.

In the "DRAM Timing Control" menu we again see unusually extensive memory settings. Fortunately, the user can set some settings manually and leave the rest in automatic mode.

Asus EZ Flash 2 supports update BIOS firmware using its own interface, eliminating the need for boot disks. In contrast to this useful opportunity- Automatically enabled Express Gate feature, which increases boot time without adding functionality. Neither the P6T SE nor the P6T has an Express Gate module.

Accessories

The Intel platform with the LGA 1366 processor socket and the only set of logic for it - X58 Express - appeared more than a year ago. All motherboard manufacturers did not fail to release their products for it. And the presenters are their whole series. The current diversity of motherboards based on Intel X58 Express was also contributed by the fact that during this time its northbridge chip was transferred to a new stepping, and all manufacturers rushed to update their products.

Boards based on this set logic, designed for desktop systems the highest price segment, and it is it, and not the Intel P55 Express, that takes the lead in mastering the new Intel Nehalem architecture. Asus has released a fairly wide range of X58-based motherboards, covering literally all market segments: inexpensive options (if this word can even be applied to the LGA 1366 + X58 combination); premium boards that meet the most sophisticated requirements; boards for entry-level/mid-level single-processor servers or powerful workstations; and of course boards for enthusiasts that are equipped with advanced overclocking functions. Let's look at them in order.

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Entry level boards

The platform itself with 1366-pin processors does not imply the presence budget solutions, because is based on a rather expensive set of logic, requires the use of three-channel DDR3 memory, and the cheapest CPU here costs just under 10,000 rubles. The difference between the boards of this group and the others is insignificant and is of a very conditional nature. However, it is impossible not to highlight them.

The characteristics of the boards are summarized in a table for comparison:

Model	P6T	P6T SE
Pay
I/O panel
Number of phases	8+2	8+2
CrossFire/SLI support	Yes Yes	Not really
PCI-E x16 slots	3 (16+16+4)	3 (16+16+4)
PCI-E x1 slots	1	1
PCI connectors	2	2
PATA	1 (JMicron® JMB363)	1 (JMicron® JMB363)
SATA	6 (ICH10R)+2 (JMicron® JMB322)	6 (ICH10R)
SAS	No	No
eSATA	1 (JMicron® JMB363)	1 (JMicron® JMB363)
USB2.0 on I/O panel/board	6/6	6/6
IEEE 1394a on I/O panel/board	1/1	1/1
Lan Realtek 8111C
Sound	Realtek® ALC1200	Realtek® ALC1200
Dimensions, mm	305 x 244	305 x 244
Average retail price, rub	7700	6500
Specification