ASUS’ E3 Pro Gaming V5 Motherboard Opts For Xeon Over Core i5/i7

Well, here’s an interesting specimen. ASUS’ brand-new E3 Pro Gaming V5 motherboard looks similar to many others in its Republic of Gamers lineup, but in actuality, it’s quite different. The “E3” in its name refers to Intel Xeon E3 processors, which are designated as “workstation” or “server” models. With this board, ASUS is effectively giving gamers an alternative choice to the mainstream Core i5/i7 lineup, in case one of the supported Xeons better-suits what they’re after, or can be had for less money.

It should be stressed that the official models this board supports is the latest generation of Xeon E3s, which carry the “V5” moniker. An example would be the Xeon E3-1230 V5, which ASUS says performs great against the i7-6700, but can be had less money – especially used.

One thing we’re not sure about right now is if this board supports ECC memory. The entire fleet of Xeon E3 V5 processors do, but ASUS’ product page highlights that “non-ECC” memory is needed. We’re in the process of figuring out if ECC memory is or isn’t supported, although given the board’s target audience, it wouldn’t be much of a deal-breaker if it wasn’t.

Nonetheless, the E3 Pro Gaming V5 comes complete with USB 3.1 type-A and type-C ports, support for an NVMe M.2 SSD, and a slew of other ASUS features: SupremeFX audio, LANGuard protection, GameFirst network priority, RAMCache RAMDisk, and more. You can check out the board at ASUS’ product page right here, and if you are interested in seeing all of the E5 V5 models currently available, you could refer to Intel’s process price list here.