i must say few things about this as i own a asus p5b deluxe and had asus p5b-e for a week or so. now remember that p5b deluxe also have crossfire capabilities. when i ran 3dmark06 on p5b-e, and the result i got was a little lesser than the results i got from p5b deluxe.p5b deluxe have metal heat spreader or whatever we call them. p5b deluxe has a hell of accessories like soundmax mic which is good but the sound will decrease because it will filter all the unwanted sounds, & etc. one thing before buying any of these mobos, the sound card is a little crappy. i mean there are some bugs in it. the jack recognisor is not accurate, that is if i put in a mic, it will think u have put in a line in device. apart from raid and sound card this board is really good. i have read it on other forums about htese problems but i myself have experienced the sound one only, but i havented experienced the raid one because i dont have a raid configuration. one more thing, there is a specific driver for audio that i have downloaded with which i can record with stereo mix. if u dont have that drivers, then u r unable to record sound. think about it and then make a move. thanks.