More Testing:

For 3D performance, Fear was used to show what kind of performance increases you can expect as data bandwidth improves over previous motherboards via the chipset. The results varied a little over my former Abit AB9 Quad GT. The results are closer to the once top 680i motherboard especially between memory bandwidth and CPU performance. It isn't surprising to see close scores. They do very by some degree in favor of the ASUS board sporting the P35 Chipset. On the plus side, 3D Performance has improved by a few frames per second. I performed the same test twice to verify that the results were correct. This is a welcomed gain especially among gamers. And being that a few future game titles worth playing are soon to release, the better performance should help with the data hungry games with all the new mapping and texture features.

FEAR @ 1440 x 900 High Details
AB9 Quad GT @ 83 FPS	P5K3 Deluxe @ 88 FPS

With the main course out of the way, it's time for the dessert. Manually setting the BIOS options for the best overclock was pretty simple and easy to figure out. When you overclock any motherboard, you have the option of staying with the stock multiplier which is a 9 for the E6600 and see where you top out. Or, you can drop the multiplier to 8 or 7 depending on how good a quality RAM you have. The top results achieved staying with a 9 multiplier was roughly 400MHz CPU Bus. This is of course without manually adding any voltage to the memory or processor which is very good on behalf of the Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard.

Next, the BIOS options were ALL left to Auto which included the CPU multiplier, CPU voltages, Memory Timings, Memory Voltages, and Motherboard Voltages. These settings afforded leaps and bounds in terms of overclocking. The system easily scaled from the stock CPU Bus Speed of 266MHz all the way to 425MHz without so much as a manual change. At about 430MHz, the system needed more finely tuned settings. For all intensive purposes, the motherboard did very, very well using nothing but Auto settings. Your results will vary most likely due to the DDR3 modules and processor you are using.

With the settings still set to Auto, only the CPU Bus was increased from 266MHz all the way up to 425MHz with the system booting and showing no signs of instability. At full load, my lowly little 2.4GHz processor was now churning out 3.8GHz of power and remained perfectly stable all the way through hours of Orthos. Cinebench and Fear gained much extra 3D performance. Cinebench reported results unlike any previous tested motherboard could help provide. Fear's biggest gain was the Highest game settings at my monitor's max resolution of 1440 x 990 through out any abusive testing. My previous 680i test board would occasionally experience video lag at maximum settings in Battlefield 2142 which was not the case starting around 3GHz on up of extra processing power.

Memory bandwidth increased as well with the CPU Bus frequencies. The motherboard paired with the Hyper X provided bandwidth performance from about 7000 MB/s up to a crazy 9600 MB/s which is higher than anything any DDR2 based motherboard has been able to achieve. The P965 and 975 motherboards would reach about 8500 MB/s using the fastest PC2-9200 I had on hand. With a bit more time and patience, it's very possible that the 10000 MB/s barrier could be broken.

OC @ 333MHz Bus	OC @ 400MHz Bus	OC @ 425MHz Bus
8923 MB/s	9584 MB/s	9628 MB/s

I can't begin to express the excellent level of stability the P5K3 Deluxe maintains under all the pressure and abuse. The BIOS features an ASUS basic recovery in the event some setting doesn't work or an overclock fails. During only a handful of failed overclock attempts, the system powered itself down, reconfigured itself, and booted back up. Two out of eight failure attempts didn't completely recover properly as it should have. Holding the system power button for 5 seconds powered down the system. After a small pause the system was powered up again at which point it did boot to the BIOS presenting the Failure Message. While it's not a flawless process every time, the CMOS did not have to be cleared which is really cool since none of us like to keep reconfiguring the BIOS.

Bring On The Pain!

Conclusion:

It would take a while to list all the good things about the Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition Motherboard. The foremost things I enjoy about the motherboard is the stable platform it provided throughout all of the testing. There didn't seem to be a middle ground with the board and its intelligent BIOS. The settings either worked providing a solid stable boot for hours on end, or it simply would reboot and come back asking for a better setting. Memory timings ran tighter and better under every CPU and memory option set to Auto indicating the A.I. BIOS knows what to do a bit better than the user. The memory modules should have operated at 7-7-7 but were perfectly happy to operate at 7-6-6 throughout and offered up no resistance when it was necessary to reconfigure to correct timings.

While I like to dive in and get my hands dirty when overclocking a motherboard, having such a well configured and tuned BIOS to do the job for me is a whole new feeling. Typically, you won't get the crazy high overclock results using a motherboard's full Auto settings as you can with manual configurations. Adding in voltages often is the key element in pushing a motherboard higher and higher beyond its limits. However, if a BIOS is fully capable of coming within a mere 10% or less of a manually configured overclock, it deserves its day in the sun!

A rock solid motherboard can just about make any other peripheral operate correctly without any issues or random problems. A solid motherboard can do even more when coupled with better memory over the cheap stuff. And alas, if you feed that motherboard with clean, stable voltages from a good power supply, it can do so much more. The P5K3 Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition is one of the most solid motherboards I've had the pleasure of working with to date.

The bottom line is very simple. This is an extremely solid performer and offers a great deal all around from the BIOS to the design. Everything about the board says performance and stability. Overclockers will definitely enjoy playing around with the motherboard. It affords a nice array of settings, features, and options that are all but guaranteed to show you what it can do. Just make sure your memory, power supply, and CPU cooler are up to the task. The ASUS P5K3 Deluxe WiFi-AP Edition Motherboard is a perfectly balanced enthusiast board for any and every type of desktop user.

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