Features wise, this board uses the Intel P35/ICH9R chipset. It supports the newer 1333FSB processors including all mutli core processors. It has all the bells and whistles of any high end ASUS board out there. The most important difference between the ASUS P5K3 is the removal of PS/2 mouse port in replacement of 2 USB ports. This can be a bit inconvenient for users who do not use a USB mouse or have misplaced their converter. On top of that, the WiFi Access point is good but it could be an accessory addon rather than bundled. The board also comes innovative features like AI GEAR 2 to save power and AI slot detector (with diagnostics leds to check PCI/PCIe card installation).

The overclocking features is very complete. With crazy voltage range, one can test out watercooling for those high voltages. The FSB can even be chosen from a range of 200 all the way to 800MHz.  DDR3-2000 and above is selectable from the ASync memory settings with latencies up to 10 CLKs.

In our test, we are able to boost the memory up to DDR3-1510 at CAS 10-10-10-24. The CPU is run at 472MHz x 7 with a memory multiplier of 5:8. In a seperate test, we were able to overclock the E6300 to 500x7 Air cooled. For a list of options in the BIOS, you can refer to our Gallery for a view of the options available.

Overall, this board has performed well for its first official BIOS. Using DDR3 is exciting but did not show major improvements in bechmarks. For its package and pricing, I would go for the P5K with DDR2-1066 until we see lower latency/higher bandwidth DDR3 modules appearing in the market.

Pricing

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Pros

• Future CPU support

• Plenty of oc options in BIOS

• WIFi, AP

• 1394

• AI Slot Detector

• AI Gear2

Cons

• No PS/2 Mouse port

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10 stars.