Asus P5Q

The P5Q is an unassuming board with a modest name, but it's actually one of the best-specified boards in this group.

A case in point: where most boards offer either four or six SATA ports, depending on the south bridge, Asus has added a Silicon Image controller, leaving you with a whopping eight SATA ports and a choice of four RAID modes. And for external drives, you also get an eSATA and FireWire bracket - a convenience matched only by the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R.

You also get Asus' trademark ExpressGate environment, which lets you get online in a Linux-based environment within seconds of turning on your PC. We're not sure how practical this is, but it's nice to have the option.

Another distinctive feature is "Ai Nap", a user-invoked power-saving mode. It shuts down hardware such as graphics cards and sound devices while leaving the CPU, network and hard disk active - useful for remote connections or long downloads. We measured the P5Q's idle power consumption at 85W - on the low side for this group, although nowhere near the economies achieved by boards with integrated graphics.

Of course, this largesse has its limits. The P5Q has no multi-GPU support, nor can it boast onboard displays or controls - if that's your bag, check out the Biostar TP45 HP instead. But the Asus BIOS offers plenty of latitude for those who like to fine-tune their systems, and if you get into serious trouble it can be restored from a USB flash drive.

The P5Q is also one of this month's more expensive boards, but it's less expensive than the similar Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R, and for the money you do get some nice luxuries.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith