Before we tell you anything concrete about ASUS P5QL-E we should clarify differences between Intel P45 and P43 northbridge. If you followed up IT scene in last couple of months you should definitely know that Intel’s P45 is the first chipset made in 65nm technology and that it introduced to us with few new technologies and higher overclock margin. One of most important new possibilities that were implemented into P45 was ability to divide PCI Express line into two x8 lines.

This resulted in better CrossFire performances on motherboards based on P45 chipset. P43 is direct derivate of P45 chipset so they have almost identical specifications but with few limitations on P43 side. First major difference is lack of support for dividing PCI Express line for CrossFire system. Off course, as on P45 chipset, P43 also supports x16 PCI Express lines for graphics card. Second difference is in support for DDR3 memory which doesn’t make much of a difference because most of manufacturers still use DDR2 standard on most of their memory modules. Bottom line is that P45 supports 1333 DDR3 memory while P43 supports 1033 DDR3. Off course this limitation can be overcome with FSB bus overclock. Last difference between P45 and P43 chipset is lower overclock margin for northbridge on P43 chipset which is not that big problem for most desktop users.

P5QL-E

First thing that makes this low budget motherboard interesting is very good cooling solution, power unit made in eight phases and very good layout. Black PCB results in much better visual effect than for instance orange or green. Components are on more or less standard positions with few differences so we will deal with them first. Area around CPU socket is very “clean” so “monstrous” coolers can be fitted on this MB. CPU socket is surrounded by 8-phase power unit. EPS 12V connector can be found on upper left corner of motherboard which is standard position. One more interesting details is presence of two phase power unit for northbridge and RAM which is option that this model inherited from “older brothers” from P5Q series .

Beside connectors for CPU fan on this motherboard are present three additional fan connectors that can control rotation speeds of connected fans from BIOS. Realtek ALC 1200 is responsible for audio experience on this motherboard and this audio solution is still exclusive to ASUS motherboards. Another interesting detail of P43 chipset is presence of ICH10R southbridge so proud owner of this motherboard will not be denied from RAID support. On back panel are located: two PS/2 connectors, eSATA connector, FireWire, LAN and audio connector along with 6 USB 2.0 connectors.

As we are used to, on ASUS motherboards all vital overclock options can be found in AI TWEAKER submenu. Range in which speed of FSB bus can be set is: 200-800MHz. Manuel settings of northbridge strap can be: 200, 266, 333 and 400MHz. During our tests motherboard didn’t show any signs of instability or problems. CPU power unit cope with ease during out tests with Quad Core CPU that we used.