In celebration of its 18th Anniversary, ASUS announced the 3rd Generation Black Pearl Special Edition P5K Premium motherboard.

New motherboard is based on P35 chipset supports Intel Core 2 Extreme/Quad/Duo processors. According to PR new motherboard "utilizes specially-designed technologies which enable it to provide overclocking up to 100% faster speeds in water-cooled systems". The P5K Premium supports DDR2 1066 memory with overclocking options that can be enhanced by, as ASUS claims 75 per cent, up to DDR2 1400.

Other features are enhanced 8-channel HD Audio with its built-in AI Audio 2, AI Gear 2 to provide 50% CPU Power savings, ASUS WiFi-AP Solo for easy WiFi connections, quiet thermal solutions which contain the 8 phase power design, Stack Cool 2 and the Heat Pipe Design functions for cooler operations.

The new board is specially designed for water cooled systems and again as PR states, stays 40ºC lower then other thermal solutions.