ASUS introduces two new P45 motherboards

Nordichardware has released details about two new motherboards, part of ASUS´ upcoming P5Q series. It concerns motherboards based on Intel's P45 chipset: the P5Q-E and P5Q Pro. Both motherboards support a 1600MHz FSB and DDR2-1200 memory. They also offer support for EPU: a chip that produces on-the-fly power saving, if the situation allows it.

The ASUS P5Q-E has a bigger heatsink than the PQ5 Pro. It also has extra cooling on the voltage regulators. The P5Q-E features three PCI-Express x16 slots which, in CrossFireX run at two times 8x and the third on 4x. With two graphics card both slots run at 8x.

The ASUS P5Q-E is the most luxurious of the two

Both the P5Q-E as the P5Q are equipped with the ICH10R southbridge, no longer supporting ATA devices. However, ASUS does offer this support on both motherboards through an external chip. This chip also features two additional SATA ports.

The boards have twelve USB 2.0 connectors, two FireWire ports, a total of eight SATA connectors, 7.1-channel HD audio and Gigabit Ethernet (the P5Q-E features dual-Gb).

The ASUS P5Q Pro