Asus P5AD2 Premium

[Ed Nuxters]

I was looking at Intel boards until somebody told me that Asus are
pretty much better these days. The last time I used an Asus board was
with RAMbus about three years ago. Good board.

My question is this; with the P5ad2 Deluxe, should I get the 533 ram
or the 667? I know the 925 chipset natively supports 533, but Asus
found a way to make it support 667.
Will I see much of a speed increase if I go with 667? What about
stability? If Asus made a "work around" that goes outside Intel's
specs for the 925 chipset, will that cause instability?
Also, should I go with the Premium version of this board too? The
Premium version seems more colorfull...
What are the main differences?

 

[Paul]

I was looking at Intel boards until somebody told me that Asus are
pretty much better these days. The last time I used an Asus board was
with RAMbus about three years ago. Good board.

My question is this; with the P5ad2 Deluxe, should I get the 533 ram
or the 667? I know the 925 chipset natively supports 533, but Asus
found a way to make it support 667.
Will I see much of a speed increase if I go with 667? What about
stability? If Asus made a "work around" that goes outside Intel's
specs for the 925 chipset, will that cause instability?
Also, should I go with the Premium version of this board too? The
Premium version seems more colorfull...
What are the main differences?

You could try reviewing articles on Tomshardware and Anandtech.

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041101/925xe-07.html

There is some low latency memory here:
http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/currents/CurrentsMAY05.html

Some good memories are compare in this article.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2412&p=5

Have fun,
Paul

 

[MiniMe's Dad]

Just a reminder, Asus tech and customer support are horrible. If you like
your emails and returned calls ignored buy an Asus. Otherwise, I would look
around and read the forums. Tech Magazines get preferential treatment from
suppliers, you won't. Just my $.02

 

[Ed Nuxters]

Just a reminder, Asus tech and customer support are horrible. If you like
your emails and returned calls ignored buy an Asus. Otherwise, I would look
around and read the forums. Tech Magazines get preferential treatment from
suppliers, you won't. Just my $.02

Isn't that true with all board manufacturers? Besides, I'm advanced
enough to know what I'm doing.

 

[Paul]

Isn't that true with all board manufacturers? Besides, I'm advanced
enough to know what I'm doing.

The conclusion section of the last review I posted says it all:

"you'll see little if any difference between current DDR2-533
and DDR2-800/667."

It really is a cost/benefit decision, and to a first order approximation,
the processor choice could be more significant than the memory.
I'd probably just go for a low CAS DDR2-533.

YMMV,
Paul

 

[Ed Nuxters]

The conclusion section of the last review I posted says it all:

"you'll see little if any difference between current DDR2-533
and DDR2-800/667."

It really is a cost/benefit decision, and to a first order approximation,
the processor choice could be more significant than the memory.
I'd probably just go for a low CAS DDR2-533.

YMMV,
Paul

Gotcha. But the 667 would not be OCing...