Asus P5QL-E mainboard is packed into a small glossy box bearing numerous logos of supported technologies:
We have seen enough gigantic boxes for mainboards from the upper price range, so this one seemed unusually thin: only 5cm. It is two or even three times smaller than the boxes of some elite mainboard models. It seems too small inside for the mainboard, not to mention the bundled accessories. However, the board wrapped in an antistatic bag feels quite at home there. It is also wrapped in thin corrugated cardboard sheet providing additional transportation sturdiness. There was also enough room for accessories including the following items:
- FDD and PATA cables with Asus logos;
- Three Serial ATA cables and three adapters for SATA devices (one of the cables has an L-shaped connector);
- I/O Shield for the rear panel;
- Asus Q-Connector set for simple connection of front panel indicators and buttons, USB and IEEE1394 ports;
- “Powered by Asus” Sticker for the system case;
- A brochure with brief assembly instructions in several languages;
- User’s manual;
- DVD disk with software and drivers.
By replacing a traditional CD disk with a DVD disk allows to include not only the drivers but also the whole bunch of different applications and utilities. The autorun startup window has barely changed. The interface allows installing device drivers and applications, creating floppies with RAID drivers, checking the electronic version of the user manual, getting hold of technical support team.
The only innovation is a very convenient Asus InstAll function that helps installing necessary drivers and tools all at once. It is especially useful for programs and utilities, because there are so many of them that they won’t all fit into one screen.
The bundled DVD disk contains the following programs and utilities:
At this point we can state that Asus P5QL-E has everything necessary with it and a truly extensive list of applications and tools.