Packaging and Contents:

Retail Front	Back	Lid Opened	Top Half
Lower Half	Open Box	Bottom Level	Cables
Heatsink Fans	Antennas	Ai Remote	Software/Manuals

    The front of the retail box for the Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP@n is rather plain, and not overwhelmed with all the clutter of the motherboard features. Instead, a flip-up lid on the front cover is present, and all the features are listed under here. On the back, a brief description on the ASUS EPU is given, along with a simple specifications layout. For the contents, there are six SATA cables, a Molex to SATA power adapter, a floppy and IDE cable, two WiFi antennas, an USB/IEEE PCI bracket, Asus Q-Connector adapters, two mini fans for the chipset heatpipe cooler, and lastly a mini remote control and USB I/R receiver. More about that later on in the review..

ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP X38 ATX Motherboard Layout:

    Here's a couple of pictures I grabbed from newegg.com since, quite honestly, they show off the layout better than I could:

A Closer Look:

ICH9R Heatsink

X38 Heatsink

4 Finned Heatsinks

    Let's start off with the heatpipe cooling system for the chipset. It seems like with each new release of a motherboard, the heatpipe cooling system get more and more technical. A beefy, copper heatsink sits on top of the Southbridge ICH9R chip. From the center of that heatsink is a single heatpipe that snakes its way up to the Northbridge X38 chip, which has a large, finned, copper heatsink with an aluminum cap with ASUS stamped in. From the X38 chip heatsink three more heatpipes emerge: two flank off to the left, and one off to the right. The right side heatpipe passes through two more copper-finned heatsinks that flank two sides of the CPU socket. The left side heatpipes (two total) pass through a single copper-finned heatsink. This setup has four copper finned heatsinks surrounding the CPU socket.

   Now it's time to move over to the CPU socket, which is LGA775 and supports Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual-Core, Pentium Extreme Edition, plus some other versions. It will also handle the newer 45nm CPU's. The P5E3 Deluxe also uses the ASUS' Stack Cool 2 feature, where a mini PCB is stacked against the main PCB under the processor socket. This is to lower system temperatures by conducting the heat away from power components. On two sides of the CPU socket are some solid state capacitors and the four heatsinks I mentioned earlier. Just above and to the left of the socket is the 4/8pin 12v ATX power plug.

    Moving on in a clockwise manner, the next stop is the DIMM slots: four slots total, allowing for 8GB of total RAM. Notice the DIMM slots are in festive Halloween colors of black and orange. On the far right edge are the floppy header and motherboard 24pin power header.

  And we continue moving down to the lower right corner, which is the busiest section of a motherboard. Starting off with the Southbridge Intel ICH9R chip, which is covered with a copper heatsink that has a aluminum cap stamped with the the Ai Lifestyle logo. Along the right edge of the motherboard are six SATAII headers and a single IDE header. On the bottom edge of the motherboard is the front panel I/O header, chassis fan headers #3 and #4, BIOS battery and reset jumper, a tiny BIOS chip and two USB2 headers.

    Continuing our journey in a clockwise fashion, next up will be the expansion slots. But first note that on the bottom edge are a few more headers, one each for the following: IEEE, the elusive COM1 header, and front panel audio header. Three PCIe x16 slots are present; two are blue and one is black. When used in conjunction, the two blue expansion slots will be in x16 mode and support ATI CrossFire.  Seven expansion slots are on the P5E3 Deluxe, the other four consisting of two each of the PCI and PCIe x1.

   Just above the expansion slots is an onboard wireless LAN module and dual antennas for dual wireless LAN ports. Two omni-directional antennas are also included.

Rear I/O

Ai Remote Goes Here

    The last stop on this tour is the rear panel I/O connections, which on this motherboard is quite intensive and surprising. The surprising part is the lack of two PS/2 slots. With everyone using USB mice and keyboards, Asus decided to drop the PS/2 port for the mouse and pop in two additional USB2.0 ports. Two S/PDIF outs ports are present, giving the option of either Coaxial or Optical. Next in line is the Marvell LAN1 port, with two USB2.0 ports under it. Next is a single IEEE port with two eSATA ports below that. Moving down the line, we find a second LAN port, named Realtek LAN2, and below that is another set of USB2.0 ports - bringing the total number to six on the rear I/O panel. On this set of ports is a sticker telling you to use one of those two USB ports for the IR Receiver. Next are the six audio ports, which can be configured for 2, 4, 6, or 8 channels. Lastly, we see the connections for the wireless.

Got News? Send 'em in!