The Heart Of A Greener PC, Courtesy Of Asus

The Test Center recently had a chance to evaluate the next generation of AsusTek Computer Inc.'s newer, energy-efficient board lineup by looking at the P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP @n.

The P5Q3 Deluxe is an Intel Corp. LGA775 socket board with the new Intel P45 chipset. With four slots for DDR3 memory, it has two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots to support ATI CrossFireX at x8 speed and another PCIe x16 slot at max x4 speed. There also are two PCIe x1 slots and two PCI slots.

In addition to the expected internal and external connections come two Gigabit RJ-45 ports. Another nice touch are the two connectors for the included external Wi-Fi antennas that support the integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN.

What first stands out when looking at the P5Q3 is all the copper. With a fanless design, there are heatsinks over all the critical chips, and a heat pipe that directs the heat to the back IO ports, where it can be carried away by existing airflow from the CPU (or other) fan. During our tests, not a single part of the motherboard was hot to the touch.

One of our favorite features of this, and other, Asus motherboards is the Asus Q-Connector. The Q-Connector is merely a small plastic block with a set of jumper pins on it. The block is labeled for easy connection to the case's front panel cables (power switch, reset switch and the like). After all connections are made to the module, it is easily placed on the motherboard.

Another nice touch on the board is the inclusion of backlit power and reset buttons. This feature allows gamers to fine tune performance without having to short out pins or move jumpers.

The first screen to appear when the board is powered on is the menu for the Asus Express Gate, an embedded, Linux-based, instant-on environment that gives quick access to the Web and Skype, as well as an image viewer and a chat client.

The heart of the P5Q3 is the EPU (Energy Processing Unit). This version is called the EPU-6 Engine because it provides power management for the six critical power-consuming components (CPU, memory, HDD, system fan, VGA card and the chipset). By detecting current loadings and moderating the power in realtime, the EPU automatically provides the most appropriate power usage. The newest version (v4) of Asus' AI Gear utility is now simply called Six Engine. This application allows the user to select among five settings that attempt to balance energy use with performance needs. Besides the Max and Medium Power Saving settings, there are also High Performance and Turbo selections. The final choice is Auto, which dynamically adjusts the six components as necessary.

Reviewers placed the motherboard in the same exact system as the original "green" PC from earlier testing. Our standard benchmarking tool, Primate Labs' GeekBench2, was used for scoring. It is interesting to note at this point that we ran our first series of tests on the motherboard straight out of the box. When this was completed, we updated the BIOS to the latest version and ran all the tests again. After the BIOS update, most of the GeekBench2 scores were about 800 points higher with the same, or in some cases lower, power consumption.

Although we had expectations of seeing a large jump in power savings/performance over the previous model, the P5Q3 showed only a small reduction in power usage with a tiny hit to the GeekBench2 score. That isn't necessarily a negative. On average, it is indeed a step up from Asus' earlier P5E3 board and, like its predecessor, shows a strong improvement when compared to our standard, in-lab test bed.

With a street price of around $230, the P5Q3 has many unique features at a reasonable price. With the world's first 16-phase power design and 100 percent Japan-made, 5,000 hour, ultra-long life solid capacitors, Asus is able to back this board with a 3-year warranty. Its energy saving elements are icing on the cake.