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ASUS P5B-E

As a mainstream style follow up to their award winning Intel 975X based board, ASUS released the P5B-E on to the market. The little brother to the P5W DH Deluxe, the P5B-E seems to be able to hang just fine with the big boys.

Introduction

ASUS is one of the best known tier one computer component manufacturers. The company has a consistent track record for providing some of the most stable and high performing parts in the industry. Enthusiasts flock to ASUS for those reasons, as well as the technological leaps ASUS makes with their new product introductions. ASUS’ latest board is no detriment to them whatsoever.

The P5B-E is among the ASUS line up offering support for the Intel Core2 Duo line of processors, based on the Intel 965P chipset. This chipset offers full supports for all LGA 775 type processors, DDR2 DRAM modules operating in Dual Channel mode up to 800MHz officially, as well as single card support for PCI Express based x16 graphics cards. As is a common trend in today’s marketplace, the P5B-E is a feature complete solution, requiring a minimal number of components for complete operation: an Intel LGA 775 style processor, DDR2 memory, drives, and a PSU. ASUS integrated the following components in to the P5B-E’s design: 6 SATA II ports (RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capable) on the Intel ICH8R controller; 1 ATA-133 IDE port, 1 SATA II port, and 1 e-SATA port (RAID 0 and 1 capable) on the JMicron controller; 10 USB 2.0 capable ports (4 in rear panel, and 3 onboard headers supporting 2 ports each); 2 IEEE 1394 capable ports (1 in rear panel, and 1 onboard header); 1 Attansic GigE Ethernet port in the rear panel; ADI 8-channel HD audio codec featuring an S/PDIF component and optical output ports; and PS/2 and parallel port support in the rear panel.

Main Specifications Overview:

Detailed Mainboard Specification List:

Packaging

ASUS went with a simplistic design for the P5B-E’s box front, featuring the board name and supported technologies clearly displayed. ASUS chose to include the following articles in with the P5B-E board: ATA-133 and floppy ribbon cables; SATA drive and dual ended power cables; the rear panel shield; the normal complement of driver CDs and manuals; a rear panel bracket with USB 2.0 port support; and the Q-Connector modules. The Q-Connector modules allow for an easy interface for connecting in to the motherboard headers. You simply plug in your front panel jumpers in to the white connector and the USB 2.0 jumpers in to the blue connector block, and then plug both blocks in to the motherboard headers. It makes for a much easier install for those typically hard to reach header areas.

Board Layout

The board layout is about what we’ve come to expect from ASUS, well thought out and not overly tight anywhere on the board. The board’s revision is silk screened on the surface just above the DIMM slots, with a version 1.02G used in testing the board. As far as capacitor selection goes, ASUS chose capacitors from the following manufacturers: T&E Industries (USA) marked as CFJ; United Chemi-Con (USA, Japan) marked as KMG; and Jen Pan Electronics Co., Ltd. (Taiwan) marked as TK or ATWY.

ASUS chose to use low profile solid state capacitors above and to the right of the CPU socket, giving the CPU cleaner power as well as clearance for an overly large cooler. While you should not have problems mounting even larger coolers on this board, it may take a few applications if the cooler base is much larger than the CPU socket itself. For CPU cooler hold-down, the P5B-E comes standard with the stock 4 hole LGA775 design. The Northbridge chipset is passively cooled by a large aluminum heat sink, located directly to the left of the CPU socket. The Northbridge cooler is held in place by 4 top mounted wire loops. Directly above the Northbridge chipset are the CHA_FAN1 header and one of the PCI Express x1 slots. The Northbridge cooler may impede use of this slot with a larger PCI Express x1 based expansion card. Just below the rear panel assembly at the USBPW1-4 jumper on the left and the KBPWR jumper and 4-pin ATX12V power connector. The jumpers control system standby operation based on activity from the rear panel USB and PS/2 ports, respectively.

The 4 onboard DIMM slots are located directly below the Northbridge chipset and CPU socket area. The slots themselves are arranged in a bi-colored 2-by-2 configuration, with Dual Channel memory mode activated by placing modules in like colored slots across sets. Directly to the right of the DIMM slots are the 4-pin CPU_FAN and 3-pin PWR_FAN headers, with the 24-pin ATX power connector to the slots lower left side.

The ICH8R Southbridge chipset is located directly below the onboard PCI slots, covered by a low profile aluminum cooler. The cooler is held in place by 2 push pins on opposite sides of the cooler. The onboard floppy port, CMOS reset jumper, and CHA_FAN2 header are located directly below the chipset, with the chipset’s 6 SATA II ports to its left. To the left of the Intel ICH8R SATA II ports are the JMicron IDE port, the CMOS battery, the standby power LED, the chassis intrusion header, and the front panel header. The onboard USB and COM port headers are located in a line directly above the CMOS battery along the edge of the board. The USBPW5-8 and USBPW910 jumpers, which control system standby based on activity from the USB headers, are located to the inside of the USB headers themselves.

The P5B-E is designed with 1 PCI Express x16 slot, 3 PCI Express x1 slots, and 3 PCI slots. Along the edge of the board, are the IEEE 1394 header, the JMicron SATA II port, the front panel audio header, and the S/PDIF output header. The CD_IN connector is located just above PCI slot 3.

The follow device ports are integrated in to the P5B-E’s rear panel: PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; a parallel port; 1 IEEE 1394 port; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 1 e-SATA port; 1 Attansic GigE Ethernet port; 6 analogue and S/PDIF component and optical output audio ports.