Asus goes mental: P5K3 Premium with onboard 2GB DDR3!

This board is based on the Asus P5K3 Deluxe (so P35 and DDR3) that we can buy today, but it does have something weird to it.
It has 2GB DDR3-1333 directly soldered onto the motherboard for better overclockablility. Asus claims they have improved the connection between the memory and the motherboard for the best possible overclock. The memory is directly connected to the heatpipes for better cooling, or so they say. It has Qimonda chips that work at 1333MHz speed, but it should be able to get up to 1600MHz. The price is still unknown, but Asus hinted at the price of 2GB DDR3-1333... stunning!
It will be available soon and will come in limited quantity's.

http://www.hardware.info/images/news...7-IMG_0499.jpg

Link (Warning: In Dutch!) - Cheers... ;)

It's even worse than soldered bios or onboard GPU.

their rma won't come cheap :p:

In stock :p:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...ticleId=205503

I just can't persuade myself that this is a good idea :shrug:

Im divided bothways here.

On a brief sidenote first I wanna say, what the hell is up with that copper galore on the memory!

My Cons are first:
Non replaceable, non upgradeable and possible OCed style that you have a higher chance of defects. Only 2GB and not 4GB.

My Pros:
Possible move later on to on CPU package or chipset. Sets some kind of clear standard. Possible higher quality and validation.

But I rather see this in some kind of OEm board.

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Originally Posted by pcfreak

In stock :p:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...ticleId=205503

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It has been in stock for a week now, over in the Netherlands... Price is still €699... :shocked:

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product...l?artno=GPEA8A

Picture ^^ = incorrect.

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Originally Posted by LowRun

I just can't persuade myself that this is a good idea :shrug:

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Because it is not ,, who wants to pay that much for a non expandable upgradeable platform ,, will you rma a whole Mobo just for 1 stick of memory or would you stick with the same immature memory for long time , those OC advantages will be lost in 3 months because Stock performance will get pass this with ease

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Originally Posted by pcfreak

In stock :p:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...ticleId=205503

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No that motherboard doesn't have the memory soldered on it, but included.

They're marketing it to the wrong crowd... Overclockers don't want integrated solutions, they want the possibility to choose their own gear... They should've been selling it to the home-computer /office PC-crowd...

Best Regards :toast:

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Originally Posted by Martijn

It has been in stock for a week now, over in the Netherlands... Price is still €699... :shocked:

http://www.alternate.nl/html/product...l?artno=GPEA8A

Picture ^^ = incorrect.

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The picture was taken from Computex 2007 by Hardware.info-reporters on the scene. I don't think they would make up this story just fun, these guys know what they are doing.
I think the picture Alternate put up there is just a P5K3 Deluxe, with the side-note that it will include the 2GB DDR3-1333. The picture correct...

BTW, I agree that this thing is a dumb move. I understand they want to be innovative, but the OC-crowd just wants to choose what they put in their PC. Upgradeability and choice is why we buy PC's from parts nowadays (like from Asus), right?

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Originally Posted by kemo6600

Because it is not ,, who wants to pay that much for a non expandable upgradeable platform ,, will you rma a whole Mobo just for 1 stick of memory or would you stick with the same immature memory for long time , those OC advantages will be lost in 3 months because Stock performance will get pass this with ease

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True, not to mention watching the value of a motherboard you spend USD $650+ plummet into the abyss of depreciation. Thats should be the realm of video-cards only, as one should not spend more than $250 on a motherboard unless they are super enthusiast who will likely blow it up in a matter of months(and would never bother with fixxed memory).

:shocked: Well with AMD you can get all three, with asus, by now get all two, adding the videocards they sold separately...

This company is a mass market booster

I'm sure Asus are going more and more Bling. They have more pipework than the film Brazil. It looks like a minature train set with stations ....

I like the MSI board in the other thread

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/4958_large_MSI.jpg

Very unassuming, probably not a great overclocker but seems to be pretty futureproof with it's DDR2 for now and DDR3 later on and multiple PCie slots. As a gaming machine you could stick your DDR2 in it now and Conroe and then upgrade middle of next yeat to Penryn and DDR3 when it is cheaper and lower latencies are about.

And I like that heatsink, just need some good thermal and a downward blowing 120mm fan from the cpu and you are laughing. No heatpipes in site.

Yeah MSI ! :clap:

Regards

Andy

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Originally Posted by L1m1t.NL

The picture was taken from Computex 2007 by Hardware.info-reporters on the scene. I don't think they would make up this story just fun, these guys know what they are doing.
I think the picture Alternate put up there is just a P5K3 Deluxe, with the side-note that it will include the 2GB DDR3-1333. The picture correct...

BTW, I agree that this thing is a dumb move. I understand they want to be innovative, but the OC-crowd just wants to choose what they put in their PC. Upgradeability and choice is why we buy PC's from parts nowadays (like from Asus), right?

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I actually meant the picture on Alternate was incorrect ;)

P5K3 Premium with on-board 2GB DDR3 + Dell = sales
I don't think this is intended for the pure enthusiast segment of the market. If this cost just as much as a typical MB with 2 gigs of ram then companies like Dell, HP, etc may just jump on this IMO. I guess we have to wait and see what the asking price is. The only issue I see is the missing ram slots. There should be at least 2 ram slots with an option in the bios to disable onboard ram.

When does taking away choice from the consumer become a feature ?

Perkam

Just another excuse to sell an overpriced board, but they gone too far this time, 699 euro is taking the piss.
I would pay 699 euro for a m/b with onboard 8800 GTX SLI:D
And all those fancy heatpipes could go over the gpu's and gddr.

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Originally Posted by Eastcoasthandle

P5K3 Premium with on-board 2GB DDR3 + Dell = sales
I don't think this is intended for the pure enthusiast segment of the market. If this cost just as much as a typical MB with 2 gigs of ram then companies like Dell, HP, etc may just jump on this IMO. I guess we have to wait and see what the asking price is. The only issue I see is the missing ram slots. There should be at least 2 ram slots with an option in the bios to disable onboard ram.

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you solder the ram and claiming that this Improve OC then sell it to those who don't Overclock , Nice marketing indeed :up:

Convenient for the system integrators.

one less component to buy. i can see the appeal, particularly in pre-built systems (ie cheap+performance?)

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Originally Posted by Vassili

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Originally Posted by pcfreak

In stock :p:
http://www.alternate.de/html/product...ticleId=205503

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No that motherboard doesn't have the memory soldered on it, but included.

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...

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Originally Posted by Martijn

I actually meant the picture on Alternate was incorrect ;)

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im telling you some guy at Asus and at gigabyte own stock options in a coppermine.

and real overclockers would nvr buy this board cause you wouldnt be able to exchange the RAM. and besides that its only 2GB of RAM so once 4GB of ram is usable u wont be able to upgrade.

ah asus have so many flavors.. :D

When did Thermaltake buy ASUS? :eek:

the idea isnt bad, but they should have used the best DDR3 memory...
and even then in a few months new memory would be out that reaches much much higher speeds. i doubt the speed boost is that big, especially since its not placed next to the chipset. maybe 50mhz max?

DEFINITELY not upgradeable I wouldn't want to be stuck with this board.

The board listed at Alternate is a P5K Deluxe bundled with 2gb ddr3. It doesnt say its soldered.

I always wondered why we dont see mainboards with soldered memory to them.
If done right, it could have some benefits.

Humm water cooling the lot be a bit of a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

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Originally Posted by Pete

Humm water cooling the lot be a bit of a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

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If anything it would be EASIER to WC it.

holly rollercosters!!!

I'm with saaya. They should've waited for DDR3 to mature more, so they could choose the top bin modules that did DDR3-2000 stock, and could hit DDR3-2200 or so. Otherwise it seems pointless to have soldered the RAM to the board without more of an incentive for buying such an inflexible solution. Maybe 2GB of onboard NAND for Vista's ReadyBoost would've been a better idea?

I personally think that anyone choosing a board with memory soldered on is not going to be a real enthusiast... so why bother with top of the line RAM? This is clearly more for mainstream people that want minimum hassle. A typical Thermaltake fanboy will snap this up in an eyeblink!

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Originally Posted by virtualrain

I personally think that anyone choosing a board with memory soldered on is not going to be a real enthusiast... so why bother with top of the line RAM? This is clearly more for mainstream people that want minimum hassle. A typical Thermaltake fanboy will snap this up in an eyeblink!

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But they're marketing it as an enthusiast product, so they may as well make it seem enthusiast oriented, instead of speaking with forked tongue (that is, soldering on very 'average' DDR3, and targeting the high-end market).

its not a bad idea, if the board having ram directly connected to it, can actually improve its OC potential.

however, a boad like that, obviously has a very limited life potential for overclockers, with how fast ram developes these days, it wont be long before DDR3 easily surpasses the 1600 mhz mark, without too much trouble at all.

its a interesting idea...
I just dont think I'd want to invest into, with how obviously short, the life span of solderd ram is, for a overclocker is.

not a bad idea?

are you serious man

that means that every time someone comes up with better ICs you'd have to buy a new motherboard. Which part of that is a good idea :confused:

this i s good idea. but not for overclockers. this would be nice for dells and the like though. one less component. better cooling and maximum reliability. nice idea but to limiting for the market they are trying to get into. now if they had this ddr3 and space for expansion then it might be more overclocker friendly. but they would have to have it so you could disable their ram.

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

its not a bad idea, if the board having ram directly connected to it, can actually improve its OC potential.

however, a boad like that, obviously has a very limited life potential for overclockers, with how fast ram developes these days, it wont be long before DDR3 easily surpasses the 1600 mhz mark, without too much trouble at all.

its a interesting idea...
I just dont think I'd want to invest into, with how obviously short, the life span of solderd ram is, for a overclocker is.

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This would have worked with BH-5 back in the day.

Edit: I think they should try to come up with better connectors as opposed to soldering the memory into the regular connector.

They do this with laptops and it usually ends poorly. Eventualy the memory goes back and you have to break out the soldering iron to replace one IC. or in the case of DDR2 and DDR3 you have to bust out the BGA rework machine.

looks cool and sounds almost like a good idea, but I think there will be so many failures. of all my HW failures, DDR and DDR2 have been by far the most, with modest volts, some times stock. I have had 4 sets of memory die on me.

They had better limit voltage options in the bios as well otherwise you will end up with borked memory and a borked board.

this mobo will be a heaven for salesman when talking to computer noobs

A heat spreader over a heat spreader??

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9554/img7099zp1.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2562/img7101bj4.jpg

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Originally Posted by Omastar

But they're marketing it as an enthusiast product, so they may as well make it seem enthusiast oriented....

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Exactly!... It is being marketed as an ethusiast product and APPEARS to be enthusiast oriented, but no enthusiast would touch this with a 10-foot pole! It's for enthusiast wannabe noobs.

WTF!!! this is ridiculous. if they provided additional DIMM slots and a onborad ram disable function I could see hope, but like this...no way.
who would buy this, other than a complete budget minded builder. in which case it i scompletely uninteresting to anyone here.

I can imagine a HUGE EK waterblock on that memory and i'm tempted...:sofa:

5 buks says the system is faster thanx to the solder on ram vs comparable socketed ram even with better timings

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Originally Posted by NapalmV5

5 buks says the system is faster thanx to the solder on ram vs comparable socketed ram even with better timings

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Yes, maybe 0.05%

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Originally Posted by NapalmV5

5 buks says the system is faster thanx to the solder on ram vs comparable socketed ram even with better timings

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Being soldered to the board wont have any affect to making it faster. The same traces that would normally go to the RAM slots are still there, they just happen to be soldered directly to the ram ICs. They will be faster, but only because the traces are a quarter inch shorter:rolleyes:

Both of these designs are utterly stupid.

2go is low for futur, this motherboard il already outdated. ...

Whomever supplies Asus with heatpipes should from a moral standpoint, stop supplying them. Honestly people, what the :banana::banana::banana::banana:?

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Originally Posted by virtualrain

Exactly!... It is being marketed as an ethusiast product and APPEARS to be enthusiast oriented, but no enthusiast would touch this with a 10-foot pole! It's for enthusiast wannabe noobs.

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Indeed, bying enthusiast- branded hardware does not automatically make you an enthusiast. I would never buy this, for several reasons, I find it interesting nevertheless.