ASUS Motherboards to Smash the Competition

ASUS just released its new motherboards supporting Intel's 1333MHz frontside bus and Core 2 Extreme/ Core 2 Duo processors. "As the leading motherboard manufacturer, our customers have come to expect the latest solutions from us," said Joe Hsieh, Director of ASUS Motherboard Business. "Our series of Core2 Extreme/Core2 Duo 1333FSB-ready motherboards once again proves our leadership position for the newest and most advanced processors."

Based on the P35 Bearlake new chipset from Intel, ASUS' top of the line P5K3 Preminum motherboard is a new twist on the traditional motherboard market. It comes without any memory slots (it should have four DDR3 capable slots) and instead integrates the DDR3 memory directly into the motherboard. ASUS packs into the P5K3 Preminum 2GB of DDR3 random access memory running at 1333MHz, with latencies from CL7 to CL10. ASUS call this solution the "Turbo D3 Onboard Memory". The memory is placed into a dual channel configuration in order to make the most of the new P35 chipset. The memory controller has access to each pair of memory chips in what ASUS calls a "perfect T-Tree design." Because of these innovations, ASUS claims that the clock cycle timing is reduced by 50% compared with traditional fly-by designs, which grant the memory controller access only at a module at a given time.

Overclocking is another issue addressed by ASUS' new generation of motherboards as the P5K3 Preminum should overclock at about 1500MHz. Using at least a processor with a frontside bus of 1066MHz is recommended when trying to reach speeds above 1500MHz. Apart from the Intel chipsets P35 Bearlake and G3x, the new ASUS motherboards use variants of the Nvidia nForce 6 chipset.

According to the producer these motherboards will make the most of Intel's last generation processors, allowing them to use their full computing power in a much more energy effective way. As more Core 2 Extreme and Core 2 Duo motherboards will soon be announced, it is said that ASUS will provide firmware updates to keep the already launched motherboards in line with the latest generation of hardware.