ASUS P35 Bearlake Roundup

Intel’s P35 chipset is the platform of choice for current Intel CPUs. It surpasses all other chipsets in both features and performance. With features such as DDR3 and support for Intel’s future CPU Penryn, as well as 1333MHz FSB support and Intel’s memory boost technology, the P35 is the most advanced platform today. If you want to learn more about the P35, read out Gigabyte P35 Roundup and our Intel P35 Bearlake Performance Preview.


Today we’re going to look at two ASUS boards and their DDR3 variants. Unlike the boards in the Gigabyte P35 roundup, these are all high end boards. In our roundup of Gigabyte P35 boards we looked at P35 boards from both the budget performance segment (P35-DS3R) and the enthusiast segment (P35-DQ6 and P35T-DQ6). The ASUS boards here are all premium boards, all costing over $220 at the time of writing.

Asus P35 boards make up almost one third (15 out of 48) of all P35 boards on Newegg.com. They vary from the cheapest, bare boards to the highest end boards with wireless LAN and DDR3. We’re even going to look at a board with optional water cooling for the chipset.

ASUS P5K Deluxe & P5K3 Deluxe – Features and Layout

Like Gigabyte’s P35-DQ6 and P35T-DQ6, the only difference between ASUS P5K Deluxe and P5K3 Deluxe is the latter supports DDR3. All other features, connectors, slots, cooling, etc are identical. As with all of ASUS’s premier boards, the PCB on the P5K and P5K3 is black. The boards are extremely well laid out and uncluttered. Even though it has the same amount of features as other expensive motherboards, the board seems very bare, even on the outside edges.


At first glance, this may look like an ASUS Striker Extreme board because of its cooling around the CPU socket that has double heatpipes. ASUS carried over that system for a good reason. So far, the Striker Extreme has been our number one overclocking board, topping out at 537MHz FSB. The effective cooling on the P35 Northbridge may break ASUS’s own record here at FiringSquad. The only issue with this cooling setup is that aftermarket heatsinks with a wide base or with fins towards the bottom may not fit. We used a Thermaltake Big Typhoon for out testing because it has a small base and its fins extend way above any board’s cooling structure. ASUS may have left the PWM without any cooling for the same space reasons.