Asus P5E3 Premium Motherboard: Surf the Web Without an Operating System Installed

Asustek has just released yet another hot motherboard model in the P5E enthusiast family: the P5E3 Premium. Built on the X48 chipset from Intel, the motherboard features the Splashtop technology, that lets the user surf the web a few seconds after they pushed the power button. There's no need to have any operating system installed on your machine - it works out of the box.

The Splashtop technology has been renamed in the meantime to "Express Gate en route", but its main features are well preserved. It is a Linux-based front end that runs independently of the user's operating system.

The good part is that you can get online 10 seconds after you have hit the power button. Moreover, you can carelessly surf any webpage you might want, including porn or warez sites: no virus will be able to hit you down, although you might get a not-so-friendly visit from the local police.

The bad part is that you would have to squeeze out a considerable amount of money to enjoy this ride: the Splashtop technology is only available on high-end motherboards, such as Asus P5E3 Premium. Common motherboards won't sport this anytime near.

The motherboard, however, deserves the spent money. For the $511 you get a state-of-the art motherboard. It works with Socket LGA775 CPUs from Intel and fully supports the new generation of 45-nanometer processors in the "Penryn" family. The chipset has a 1,600MHz front-side bus and can take up to 8GB of DDR3 DRAM memory clocked at 1,800MHz. The motherboard includes 802.11n draft wireless for easy and comfortable web surfing.

"The combination of this board's extensive feature set and up-to-date design makes for a potent combination. With an excellent BIOS, it proved to be a solid overclocker, and performance and stability were top-notch. An exceptional product if you plan to build a new Intel-based rig using a Wolfdale or Yorkfield CPU - do yourself a favor and put this motherboard on your short list of potential candidates. The ASUS P5E3 Premium is an excellent motherboard and worthy of an Editor´s Choice award," reads the press release.