Thanks to Regeneration for putting this up here...
I've spent some time looking at this preliminar design picture that was posted in
DailyTech.
So here are my concerns:
a) Location of Memory Modules v/s First PCI-E Slot.
As you can see in the picture, the memory stick slots are directly on a straight 90 degree collission with the video card (I've created a red rectangle to picture where the videocard will be located, and these rectangles is an approx of a high-en board like the 8800GTX or HD2900XT)
So, if I want to take out my memory I will FIRST have to remove the video card. Which is kind of a "chicken and egg situation"
What if you want to run memtest on each stick, can you imagine? Taking out
videocard, then replacing one stick, then video card back, and test.. and again...
This is my first critic to the board.
The memory slots should be moved approx 1 inch up (to the right in the picture)
b) The location of the First PCI express is plain bad.
Instad of having it on the First or Second PCI Bracket, you will have it on the third.
Asus thinks it's more important to have two PCI-1 plugs on the top?
Like we really going to make use of them? At least, lets say, one PCI-1 if you want a SCSI, LAN or IDE adapter. But giving more space and importance to 2 PCI-1 slots is just
absurd.
Instead we pull all the video cards lower, thus shrinking the cooling space between them.
This is even worse on Crossfire (SLI we hope?) the second card at the bottom will be
almost touching the bottom of your desktop case.
Now think about how to plug or if we can even make use of the Firewire and USB ports located at the bottom, right where the second Crossfire card is supposed to go.
c) Adding a third party coooling solution on Crossfire is UNTHINKABLE.
Thinking about using a Thermalright-H03, passive cooling with an extra fan? Or maybe an Arctic Cooling Accelero S1?
For the design of this motherboard and the waste of space and PCI-E location I don't think so.
d) Adding a soundcard, can we?
Asus thinks PCI is important to keep. And I applaud that, because no Soundcard manufacturer will build PCI-Express soundcards. (Recently interviewed Soundcard Manufacturers have stated there is a problem to have sound data transmitted using PCI-Express because of the data package speed is too high at PCI-E).
So we have 3 PCI plugs for us in this board. GREAT!
But on Crossfire (or SLI), I wonder where can I fit my Soundblaster Audigy or XFire card?
In between the two videocards on Crossfire? Please look at the space in the diagram.
This is important because as a high-end consumer, I really don't want to run onboard sound, thus eating CPU cycles on my system.
e) Bad location of the Agere IDE Adapter.
Since this board uses ICH9, IDE support is thrown away, courtesy of INTEL. And Asus gladly thought of the people who still has ULTRA DMA DVD drives. So they put an AGERE IDE adapter, in red at the bottom of the board.
Oh, my god, what an excellent location... NOT!!
I can imagine routing the ribbon cable down there, and I think I will need a
very long one.
Running now in Crossfire (or SLI) see the picture, I wonder if I can use that adapter? Yes the big behemoth videocard is going to be right on top of it!!!
f) Lack of Second Lan Adapter
Where is the Second LAN Ethernet adapter? This is typical offer of all Deluxe or Premium motherboards.
To Wrap Up
This motherboard's design is wrong. I have no doubt it can be very powerful as it claims it will be using PCI-E 2.0 and 1333 FSB and the bells and whitles.
With all the design flaws already pointed it might still be OK or passable, if you plan to go with only one video card, but with a very small space to manage a clean build.
To make things worse I can already picture the hell it's going to be setting up a high-end system on Crossfire using this motherboard.
Asus P5E3 is a
small motherboard, no doubt about it, and the space between the components is very bad... Not only that, the components are badly centered on the PCB area, all in all, I think those 2 PCI-1 slots are the bad guys in this PCB.
That and moving up the memory slot could have fixed all this, and save us all the hassle.
I think Asus is missing the point. Again, I've been an Asus consumer for many years, and I've heard people telling me that they were going downhill...
I still cannot see the price of this motherboard being so high
The design just doesn't justfies a price like that, plus forcing me to buy SATA DVD drives, and a low latency DDR3 module, if I can find it or if I can get drunk or have mental problems and burn money for a 4gb DDR3 set (approx $900)
And after seeing one I'm starting to believe it. I own an Asus P5W DH motherboard, and here is a picture of it...
very decent design... compare it side by side with the P5E3, and you will see a big difference, or at least how Asus should have used this one as a reference when they create the P5E3. Supposedly the sucessore of the P5W DH (aka 975X Chipset)
I think Asus should pay attention, or they are not getting my money this time, at least not from the High-End users they are targetting.
Is there any other good motherboard brand like Asus? I need advice for my next mobo, or at least I hope they fix all this before the September lunch.
Thanks for reading.
