Asus P5B Deluxe

[Pentium4]

Nice score at the local recycle place! Picked this up in the "AS IS" bin for $4.95. Usually in that bin boards are chucked around and the CPU sockets usually get damaged. This one looked in good shape with just some vented KZG's, and for $5, why not try?

I plugged it in as is, and it powered up but gave no POST, no video, and ran all the fans at full speed.

I replaced just the four bulged KZG and it fired right back up! So I'll be replacing the other twenty eight KZG caps, and I plan on replacing one of my main P5B boards at home so I can get SLI GTX 260. Or is this from the era where only nvidia boards could SLI nvidia cards? Either way, nice board

[Gabriel]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

This is a crossfire only board, sli will only work with the sli modified nvidia drivers.

Nice board.

[c_hegge]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

Yup, and the kicker is, the nvidia chipsets from that era all had the substrate defect.

[Pentium4]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

That's what I was afraid of. But thanks for confirming! I know the local shop has some used 5770's for $29, might pick up a couple of those. I never bought the second GTX 260 so I'm guessing two 5770's would perform better than a single 260.

I love the heatsink on the VRM! And I'm still baffled by KZG sometimes. Those on the VRM look fine but not the ones down by the south bridge chip. Maybe they had a really hot running GPU installed in it that cooked them.

[Lance Thornton]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

Please don't forget that Asus places their caps in oppositeland. Check the polarity and markings before you fire it back up. Good find!

[linuxguru]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

I have maybe an earlier version, without the Northbridge heatpipe and the polymers on the Vcore rail (I spotted NCC TMVs there instead). It's working fine for now, but I may eventually have to recap the TMVs.

[momaka]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

Sweet score. I saw at least several boards today on eBay with bulged KZG. Most were sold as "used, working pull, but as is". Most were quite overpriced too.

The funniest one was a Jetway/EVGA. Seller said something along the lines of, "it has a few bulged caps but posts and works great and has never given me a problem"
That being a Jetway/EVGA board, who wants to "guess" what brand the bulged caps were?

[c_hegge]

Re: Asus P5B Deluxe

Sweet score. I saw at least several boards today on eBay with bulged KZG. Most were sold as "used, working pull, but as is". Most were quite overpriced too.

The funniest one was a Jetway/EVGA. Seller said something along the lines of, "it has a few bulged caps but posts and works great and has never given me a problem"
That being a Jetway/EVGA board, who wants to "guess" what brand the bulged caps were?

Yeah. I've seen plenty of fleabay listings where the board is sold as "excellent condition, working perfectly" in spite of having several bad caps. Some sellers even offered a warranty on the board (which is brave, but kind of good, I guess). I've also seen a few Antec SmartPowers where the seller says it squeals, but works perfectly. I can bet that they would have been full of busted Fuhjyyus.