Review

ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 Motherboard Review

Today we have the opportunity to review the first gaming board for Xeon E3 -1200 v5 processors, the ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 Motherboard. A LGA 1151 socket ATX motherboard based upon the Intel C232 Express chipset topping up with ASUS Gaming enhancements. Xeon processors segment basically focuses around Servers and Workstation environment, than why ASUS decided to club Xeon with gamers? Reason is very simple; an Intel Xeon E3 v5 series of processors offers performance of a Core i7 class CPU with pricing somewhat of Core i5 class processors, joining this with Intel C232 chipset ASUS now can offer gamers with a gaming board giving a superb price to performance ratio.

Now gamers even with a low budget can enjoy great features like USB 3.1, RAID support, SupremeFX audio and more with the ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 Motherboard.

Now let's see what ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 board have for us.

Features

  • LGA1151 socket for Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v5 processors and 6th-genereation CoreTM, Pentium® and Celeron® processors
  • Dual-channel DDR4 2133 support
  • SupremeFX: Flawless audio that makes you part of the game
  • Sonic Radar ll: Scan and detect your enemies to dominate
  • Intel Gigabit Ethernet, LANGuard and GameFirst technology: Top-speed protected networking
  • RAMCache: Speed up your game loads
  • Gamer's Guardian: Highly-durable components and smart DIY features
  • USB 3.1 Type-A/C and M.2: Ultra-speedy transfers for faster gaming

FLAWLESS AUDIO THAT MAKES YOU PART OF THE GAME! - Be the best on the battlefield with E3 Pro Gaming V5's truly immersive SupremeFX audio and experience sound so alive with realism that it hands you the vital competitive edge needed to win. With near-lossless delivery and exclusive Sonic Radar II technology to pinpoint battlefield enemies before they spot you, SupremeFX sounds stupendous — and puts both your ears and frags in front of everyone else! SupremeFX - Shielded audio, superior sound - ASUS-exclusive SupremeFX technology delivers high-fidelity, near-lossless audio no matter how frantic your game becomes. The purity and stability of the remarkable 115dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is assured, with a shielded design, electromagnetic-interference (EMI) cover and voltage-protected 5V power supply. Supreme FX's superior components, including the trusted Realtek ALC1150 codec, maximize acoustic performance and eliminate interference – so you hear only the very best from your gaming headset or speakers!

Sonic Radar II - Sonic Radar II displays a stealthy overlay that shows what your opponents and teammates are up to on the battlefield, all managed via a simple control panel and customizable game list. See the direction and origin of key in-game sounds, and practice your enemy-pinpointing skill, plus Audio Enhancement technology clarifies every last sound — so you hear the distant sound of enemy footsteps and become the hunter, not the hunted!

LANGuard - ASUS LANGuard is hardware-level networking protection that employs signal-coupling technology and premium anti-EMI surface-mounted capacitors for rock-solid gaming connections and better throughout for online play, plus electrostatically-guarded and surge-protected components for greater tolerance to static electricity and improved protection against surges.

GAMER'S GUARDIAN FOR REAL-WORLD PROTECTION Protect your back in the game and let E3 Pro Gaming V5 protect all sides in the real world! Motherboard self-protection with loads of brilliant defenses, including our unique smart DIY features ensures long-term gaming is in your future.

ESD Guards – Electrostatic discharge (ESD) could mean game over for your rig, so E3 Pro Gaming V5 is protected by ESD Guards to actively prevent ESD — ensuring longer component lifespan and providing system resilience that's two times greater than industry standards. Game on!

Package

Board comes in a nice black- red box following ASUS Gaming theme with model number, image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.

Inside the box

Looks

Board made with a black PCB of size ATX (30.5 X 24.4 cm.

Layout

Detailed layout of board.

1. Intel LGA 1151 socket

2. Board is equipped with four DIMM for dual channel DDR4 memory supporting max. 64GB at 2133MHz.

3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR)

4. ATX CPU Power Connector 8-pin ATX12V_2x4.

5. 1 x PS/2 keyboard (purple), 1 x PS/2 mouse (green), 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s), 1 x USB 3.1 (red)Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 4 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 5 x Audio jack(s)

6. 7. 8. 15. 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin), x Chassis Fan connector(s) (3 x 4 -pin)

9. USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional USB 3.0 port(s) (19-pin)

10.6 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)

11. M.2 Socket 3 with M Key design, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (Supports both SATA & PCIE SSD)

12. 13.System Front panel(s) (Q-Connector)

13. USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 2.0 port(s)

14. ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header(s)

16. COM port connector(s)

17. Front panel Audio connector

18. Expansion Slots - 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 mode ), 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode), 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1, 2 x PCI

Removing Heat-sinks

Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and chipset.

Component Layout

Let's now see what all components ASUS have planned for this board.

1. Digital 8-phase CPU Power VRM Section with ON Semiconductors NTMFS4C09N MOSFETs rated up to 40A each along with 60A Ferrite Chokes and 10K Black Capacitors.

2. Asus DIGI+ VRM Asp 1400 voltage controller chip.

3. Two separate DRAM Power section with ON Semiconductors NTMFS4C06N MOSFETs

4. ASMedia ASM1142 is PCIe-to-two-port USB 3.1 controller

5. Intel's i219 is used as the integrated GBit LAN solution.

6. The nuvoTon NCT6793D is the main SuperIO controller used for fan control, voltage and temperature monitoring, and the PS/2 port.

7.ASUS custom TPU controllers.

8. ASMedia ASM1083 x1 PCI Express to 32-bit PCI Bridge chips.

9. Intel C232 Chipset.

10. UEFI BIOS is stored in a Winbond 25Q128fV 128MB 8-Pin DIP Package chip, installed in a DIP socket 8-Pin for easy user replacement.

12. ASUS SupremeFX audio solution is powered by Realtek ALC1150 audio codec coupled with audio amplifier TI R4580I to drive headphones with an impedance of 300 ohms and high quality audio capacitors ELNA.

A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference.

RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing test ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 audio against Asus Xonar DX Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by on-board audio.

RMAA Asus Xonar DX

RMAA SupremeFX Audio

Testing

CPUIntel Core i7 6700K
Board ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5
RAM2 X 4GB Corsair DDR4
SSDKingston UV300 240GB SSD
CoolerCM Nepton 240M
GFX ASUS STRIX GTX 950
PSUCorsair RM650x
DisplayAcer S220HQL
OS Windows 10

BIOS

Bundled Softwares

Benchmarks

Power Consumption

Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.

Pros

  • SupremeFX Audio
  • RAID Support
  • Great looks
  • Lot of Gaming features

Cons

  • Nil

Conclusion

At a price tag of Rs.12K, ASUS E3 PRO GAMING V5 is the only Intel C232 chipset based gaming motherboard offering gamers the performance and stability of the latest server-grade Xeon E3-1200 v5 processors along with game-enhancing ASUS exclusive features, like SupremeFX Audio, Sonic Radar II, Intel Gigabit Ethernet with ASUS LANGuard and GameFirst, giving a superb price to performance benefit to gamers.

Finally, with the new E3 PRO GAMING V5 motherboards, ASUS is providing desktop users a taste of server grade performance and stability that too at a reasonable price and worthy of our PC TeK REVIEWS EXCELLENCE Award.

Manufacturers Info

Site Link

Thanks.

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