ASUS P5Q-EM

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This board is now up on newegg!

Some changes from P5E-VM HDMI
G45
DDR2 1066 support
Realtek 1200 audio (new chip)
PCIe 2.0x16 (unlike the gigabyte boards)
Now has an optical S/PDIF out instead of coaxial
EPU (although how useful this is debatable)
Has Express Gate
Cooling system uses anodized blue aluminum, seems worse than the P5E-VM HDMI :mad:
Brown PCB :mad: (although it MIGHT be the photo, as I've seen brown P5E-VM HDMI's in photos here and mine's definitely black)
​

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=761&l4=0&model=2413&modelmenu=1

There's also the P5Q-VM, which does have a black PCB, but seems to have less features. This really doesn't make sense, so I'm really hoping it's just the photo.
 
Taken long enough for these to show up.

It will be an interesting battle between this and the DFI P45 LP JR for the best gaming mATX case. If you don't need crossfire (which given the power of the Gx280 / 4870x2 is pretty niche) the two boards look close. This one has a better sound card I guess, claims support for 1066 ram (though I assume the DFI can be overclocked too), is cheaper, has a better expansion layout when running one card (will still have a PCIeX1 usable) and a couple of extra's (onboard graphics, firewire).

I look forward to the reviews.... and the things reaching the aus market.
 
Just after I bought the p5e-vm too, hate it when that happens. Oh well, looking forward to the reviews and benchmarks.
 
dude just bought the gigabyte g45 board like 4 days ago, o well dont really need the pcie but it would have been nice to have.
 
I've got a P5E-VM HDMI now and I'm having problems with my SATA ports being blocked by my 9800GX2. The new P5Q-EM has the same expansion slot and SATA port layout as the P5E-VM HDMI.

I think I'll go with the new DFI LanParty Jr. since they know what they're doing with the SATA ports (mounting them on the edge of the board).
 
IsLNdbOi said:
I've got a P5E-VM HDMI now and I'm having problems with my SATA ports being blocked by my 9800GX2. The new P5Q-EM has the same expansion slot and SATA port layout as the P5E-VM HDMI.

I think I'll go with the new DFI LanParty Jr. since they know what they're doing with the SATA ports (mounting them on the edge of the board).
Click to expand...

Oh wow, I didn't even think of that. How many of the ports are blocked?
 
With my 9800GX2, I need:

- Two left angle SATA cables to use the top two SATA ports.
- Two right angle SATA cables to use the bottom two SATA ports.


So I guess two of the ports (the two in the middle) are totally unusable. If I hadn't found some left angle SATA cables (which are pretty difficult to find) then I'd have four unusable ports.
 
This will make a very good HTPC board, with G45 a video card is not required. Would like to see some reviews about its stability and ease of use.
 
I am still waiting for some overclock results before I fully commit to a P5Q-EM/VM. Anyone heard anything?
 
I may be buying 5 of these boards for work...............putting together orders now. They'll be mated with Q6600's, but I'll probably swap one with my current board to see how well she does on my Q9450. I'll see if I can get a Q9550 or a Xeon equivalent. I see BIOS allows for tRC of higher than 42.
 
Just unpacked it and decided to share some pics.


Nothing we haven't seen before.


Vdroop or Vcore mod, we'll soon find out :)
 
IsLNdbOi said:
I've got a P5E-VM HDMI now and I'm having problems with my SATA ports being blocked by my 9800GX2. The new P5Q-EM has the same expansion slot and SATA port layout as the P5E-VM HDMI.

I think I'll go with the new DFI LanParty Jr. since they know what they're doing with the SATA ports (mounting them on the edge of the board).
Click to expand...

I noticed that too, that's one of the reasons why I sold my P5E HDMI...it's a real PITA
 
Right angle connectors would only work for the two bottom SATA ports. Using right angle connectors on the other four ports would have the SATA cable blocking the other ports since they go downwards.

We could use left angle SATA cables for the top two ports and right angle SATA cable for the bottom two ports, but that still leaves the middle ports unusable. I need all six of my ports.
 
The current bios of the P5Q-EM seems to have some problems with my QX9650.
When I change vcore to something else than AUTO my system doesn't boot.
Temp shows up wrong in bios etc.
Even at stock speeds my system isn't 100% stable.

I hope they release a more comåatible bios soon ;(.
 
Allsop said:
The current bios of the P5Q-EM seems to have some problems with my QX9650.
When I change vcore to something else than AUTO my system doesn't boot.
Temp shows up wrong in bios etc.
Even at stock speeds my system isn't 100% stable.

I hope they release a more comåatible bios soon ;(.
Click to expand...

This the primary reason I buy Asus boards. They are good about bios updates. Dont worry.
 
IsLNdbOi said:
Right angle connectors would only work for the two bottom SATA ports. Using right angle connectors on the other four ports would have the SATA cable blocking the other ports since they go downwards.

We could use left angle SATA cables for the top two ports and right angle SATA cable for the bottom two ports, but that still leaves the middle ports unusable. I need all six of my ports.
Click to expand...


Actually I'm using the bottom four ports on mine with my GTX260. It's tight, and I'll need reverse 90's for the top two ports to access all six, but you can use the bottom four ports with standard 90's
 
I have four right angle (90 degree) SATA cables. When I have two plugged into the bottom ports, I can't plug the other two into the middle ports because the ports are so close together and the two cables in the middle ports don't have longer connectors (all four of the right angle cables have the same length connector at the end of the cable) so they jam into the cables below them in the bottom two ports.

I can use the top two ports with left angle (270 degree) SATA cables.
 
so whats the verdict, how well does this board overclock?

inquiring minds want to know!
 
PClark99 said:
so whats the verdict, how well does this board overclock?

inquiring minds want to know!
Click to expand...
With the current bios 0202 it's too early to tell how well the P5Q-EM will overclock since there are quite a lot of things that needs to be improved.
Changing the multipler or anything past the standard values ie FSB etc will cause the system to not boot.
Maybe it's because lack of support for my QX9650...

But to OC your ram with this board is a breeze and is a major improvement over the P5E-VM HDMI since it will help you get higher numbers. It got similar options as it's bigger brother the P45.

Asus better release a new bios soon... right now this board is no fun :/
 
Allsop said:
With the current bios 0202 it's too early to tell how well the P5Q-EM will overclock since there are quite a lot of things that needs to be improved.
Changing the multipler or anything past the standard values ie FSB etc will cause the system to not boot.
Maybe it's because lack of support for my QX9650...

But to OC your ram with this board is a breeze and is a major improvement over the P5E-VM HDMI since it will help you get higher numbers. It got similar options as it's bigger brother the P45.

Asus better release a new bios soon... right now this board is no fun :/
Click to expand...

that really sucks. Even with the release bios the P5E VM HDMI was an OC monster.

I guess these newer boards don't have much on my DSR2's and my P5E VM HDMI, at least not from an overclocking perspective.
 
The anticipation is killing me...

The cooling on this new board looks much inferior to the p5e-vm though. Perhaps its like that because the newer chipset is a smaller nm and doesnt draw as much power to generate as much heat?
 
The heatsinks on the lower end P5QL-EM look better than the heatsinks on the P5Q-EM. So does the SATA port layout.

What was Asus thinking?
 
There must have been something wrong with the bios file I tried to flash with because now my board won't boot. Cleared CMOS, removed the battery, memory etc it's completely dead and to top things off "Asus Crash free bios" does not work :/.
Time for RMA...
 
Allsop said:
There must have been something wrong with the bios file I tried to flash with because now my board won't boot. Cleared CMOS, removed the battery, memory etc it's completely dead and to top things off "Asus Crash free bios" does not work :/.
Time for RMA...
Click to expand...

Uh, sorry to hear that happen.

I hope you have better luck with ASUS RMA than I did.
 
Instead of RMA'ing it you could just ask them for a replacement BIOS chip or does Asus not do that?
 
Now I have a working system again!
Took out the P5Q-EM bios chip and popped it in my P5E-VM bios socket and did a hotflash.
I hope I won't have to do this again :)
 
it happened to me twice with another board (abit f-i90hd): issue solved thanks to the hotswap...
 
got my board today, gonna try to get it installed tonight and play around with overclocking
 
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