[18th Anniversary] Asus Black Pearl - P5k-Premium Testing Report

[sesdave]

sesdave,

Of course you're absolutely right... I should RMA this board. I've tried everything I can think of (other than using another CPU - which likely wouldn't change anything), and nadda has worked.
Now the question is, if I RMA the Premium, I'll need another board... Should I get the same thing or maybe see if I can find a Maximus Formula locally?

I still have my Striker Extreme handy, but It's never played all that well with my Mushkin RAM (upper limit of 900MHz @ 5-5-5-15) whereas with the Premium I'm easily getting 1066MHz @ 5-4-4-12. I'd also like to just swap boards without having to re-do the OS et-all. Keeping to an Intel chipset would likely afford that, but installing the Striker would almost for sure mean a format.


Ahh, decisions, decisions...

Personally I would get another Premium - overall it a nice board and o/c nicely. It was just bad luck getting a duff one. Make sure you get the rev 2.0 if you do get one. The BIOS will continue to be developed and it will support the penryn. The maximus cost more and this living reviews show the BIOS seems a bit flakey. http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=124 Deja VU perhaps-lol! From what I have read x38 boards with DDR2 dont seem to offer much performance gain either unless you want to run crossfire with 2900xt's. That said ChaosminionX has offered to do a comparision of P5K Premium and the Maximus over here http://www.driverheaven.net/motherbo...aximus-se.html That should be good reading and may make your mind up for you.
If you have to fall back on your striker whilst you RMA the MB get a copy of Acronis True image and Universal restore software. This will let you backup the operating system and then restore to any new platform. If you cant get a copy of that software at least take a ghost image whuch may save you a reinstall if you decide on the premium.