Intel P55 Motherboard Shootout - The New Mainstream

Hail to the New Intel Mainstream

Intel's much awaited mainstream CPU successor to its Core 2 series finally hit the streets last month with three different processor models. In case you're still in the dark about these new processors, you should know that although they are based on the same Nehalem microarchitecture as the Core i7 (Bloomfield), there have been significant changes under the hood, of which (if you can only remember one thing), a new pin-count requiring a new socket (LGA1156) is probably the nugget to take away from .

The other major news is that Lynnfield indeed lives up to its promise as the mainstream CPU we have been hoping. Intel's Bloomfield Core i7 may remain the most powerful processor in the universe (as Intel likes to remind us), but for the majority of users, the Core 2 is plenty of power already. The new Lynnfield processors manages to top the Core 2 significantly while remaining relatively affordable; in fact, for everyday usage, it's more than competitive with the slower Bloomfield Core i7s thanks to its enhanced Turbo Boost feature.

At launch, the lowest end Core i5-750 is just under US$200, with the Core i7-860 at around US$285 and the highest Core i7-870 at about US$555. So for those looking for a new performance mainstream machine, a Lynnfield processor is a good start. But of course, the processor is but one part of the 'trinity' at the heart of a PC.

The other two are memory and the motherboard. And there are more good news for consumers, as DDR3 memory prices have been on the downwards slide. For choices and recommendations of some of the best DDR3 1600MHz memory, we've got a . The last part of the equation is the Intel P55 Express chipset, which is the focus of our article today.

This new chipset represents a rather drastic shift in Intel's chipset topology, with the North and Southbridge divide gone and replaced with a single Platform Controller Hub (PCH) that handles the I/O like the old Southbridge. PCI Express graphics controller meanwhile is now handled by the CPU, which following the addition of a memory controller in Bloomfield, gets loaded with an internal PCIe graphics controller hub for Lynnfield.

As you can imagine, it appears to make things a lot simpler for motherboard vendors, though given Lynnfield's mainstream nature, the graphics PCIe lanes are unsurprisingly more modest: a single GPU installed will get the full 16 lanes of bandwidth but a dual-GPU (both CrossFireX and SLI are supported depending on the motherboard vendor) system will be configured in a x8/x8 arrangement. For the typical consumer, it's more than adequate.

Therefore, with the Lynnfield processor and P55 combo looking likely to be in most of the new PCs for the rest of the year and the next, we have decided to snag the top P55 motherboards from some of the bigger brands around and put them through our comprehensive testing and comparison. This time round, we managed to get offerings from ASUS, ECS, Gigabyte, MSI and of course, Intel's own retail desktop motherboard kit. Could one of them be your next motherboard? Find out in the following pages.

ASUS Maximus III Formula

Arguably one of the premier names in the motherboard business, ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) series is its best of the best, with pro-enthusiast features that can be either hit or miss, depending on your needs. For the P55 chipset, ASUS offers the Maximus III Formula, which has the usual litany of ROG features, which are too many to mention (we advise a trip to ASUS' website to get educated on all of them if you're so inclined). This time, there is however a new feature called ROG Connect that we shall take a short look later.

First though, what struck us about this polished motherboard is how ASUS has gone heavy on the storage front, which is quite unlike its X58-based ROG board, the ASUS Rampage II Extreme, which had comparatively fewer SATA ports than its peers. For the Maximus, there are now ten SATA ports, with ASUS adding more JMicron controllers for the extra ports. Two of these extra ports even come with RAID 0 and 1 capability. Unfortunately, the Maximus does not come with support for the newer SATA 6 Gbit/s standard though ASUS has previously voiced the option of an expansion chip to enable this feature on all its new motherboards. ASUS' P7P55D Premium however comes with this feature for those looking to jump to the faster standard.

Besides the improvements in storage options, other familiar ASUS touches like having only a single retaining clip for its DIMM slots such that it's easier for users to remove the memory modules (especially on a packed motherboard), or the retaining clip for the PCIe graphics slots get the thumbs up from us.

While the Maximus comes with three PCIe slots for graphics, only the two red ones are appropriate for modern graphics cards. With a single graphics card, you can install at either red slots and get the full 16 lanes. With two graphics cards on the two red PCIe slots, you'll get x8/x8 in either CrossFireX or SLI, which is the compromise made by the mainstream P55 chipset. The last white PCIe slot is actually a version 1.0 slot that is limited to four lanes.

When it comes to the CPU phase power race that the major vendors appear to be in, the ASUS Maximus III Formula is anything but shabby with its 16-phase design. High quality chokes and capacitors are used and they are all quite low profile and unlikely to interfere with your CPU cooler. As expected from an enthusiast board, there are various LED indicators, onboard switches and buttons to monitor or trigger the ROG features.

HD audio is provided by the add-on SupremeFX module, something that we have seen on other ASUS motherboards. There's nothing new here on this front.

We finally get to one of the newer ROG features that's on the Maximus III Formula. This is none other than ROG Connect, which in the words of ASUS, allows users to monitor and tweak the motherboard settings in real time via a separate PC or notebook, just like how race car engineers do it! This is done via USB cable through a special reserved USB port at the rear of the ASUS board, hooked up to another system's USB port.

Well, it sounds much better than it really is, since the novelty wears off really fast. Although it worked as intended, we aren't too sure of its actual utility. If we needed to tweak the motherboard outside the BIOS, we could have installed the same software on the motherboard system and done the same.

The only application we could think of, is when the user is running an application, like a benchmarking suite. One could conceivably tweak or monitor the motherboard settings in real time without having to exit the benchmark to check. See, we can't even convince ourselves that this tool is useful for even enthusiasts, at least not as useful as it's 'cool'.

Overall though, the ASUS Maximus III Formula continues with the company's ROG formula of stacking as many pro-enthusiast features as it can, even if some might end up being ignored by users. Besides these attempts at innovation, this board is well-made, with quality components to justify its US$250 price tag. The layout too is impeccable, with many fan connectors that should appeal to enthusiasts. Most importantly, we didn't encounter any usability issues.

ECS P55H-A

The next vendor on our list is ECS, which offers up the P55 entrant in its Black series, the P55H-A. Despite looking the least attractive aesthetically, it has the same basic features as the other P55 motherboards. It is in fact, very standard, with few frills thrown in to make it worthy of its 'top' billing from ECS.

In terms of storage options, you'll find the standard six SATA ports that's supported on the chipset, with an extra JMicron controller giving some love to the IDE interface. It's also responsible for the rear eSATA port. But other extras like FireWire is not available and like the ASUS, we're glad that there's only one Gigabit Ethernet controller since one is all most users ever need.

Multi-GPU configurations are supported of course with two PCIe graphics slots where one of them operates in full x16 mode with a single GPU or in x8/x8 mode when running a pair of cards. The other expansion slots include PCI and two PCIe (x1 and x4). Adequate spacing between the graphics slots ensures that dual-slot graphics cards are compatible.

One thing that appears to be lacking on this board is the passive cooling aspect. The heatsinks onboard are quite modest and while we believe that they can do their tasks adequately, that's all we expect from them. Cooling this board could be an issue with such a basic design.

As seen from our previous experience with ECS's Black series boards, the vendor has stepped up the game with more quality components like solid capacitors and some enthusiast touches like LED indicators, onboard switches and even a Linux-based quick boot utility known as eJiffy that is functionally similar to what ASUS and MSI have done. There's still some way to go however, especially for the P55H-A in terms of implementation.

Finally, some of the layout issues we have noticed from previous ECS boards return, though the P55H-A was mostly decent here with no major flaws noticed. Overall, it's a pretty generic board that's likely to get buried by the big vendors but there's no denying its value. At just US$120, it's the most affordable of the boards gathered today and half that of the most expensive ASUS and Gigabyte boards.

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6

The heavyweight among our P55 motherboards (and we mean it literally) is the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6. Thanks to its Ultra Durable 3 features, which mandates that the amount of copper in the PCB be twice that of the typical PCB and its 'overuse' of chokes for its power phase design, this is one hefty motherboard. The staggering number of features included and the solid heatsinks used also contribute to the overall weight.

While we have done a rather of this board's numerous features that you should at least glance though for the updates on Gigabyte's newest features and software tools, some of the more important ones bear repeating. Just like the Gigabyte EX58-EXTREME, this is a board stacked with features and the crowded PCB is a clear sign of the added complexity required. With 10 SATA ports onboard, it's hard not to crown this P55 board the champion in storage options for our roundup. Mind you, we're not counting the two USB/eSATA combo ports at the rear. And Gigabyte has thrown in both floppy and IDE controllers to ensure that even the legacy options are there.

Another surprise is the presence of six DIMM slots when the P55 chipset only calls for four. With a dual-channel memory controller on the Lynnfield CPU, we weren't expecting more than the usual four, which makes the six here reminding us again of the EX58-EXTREME. There is however a rather large caveat. If all six slots are populated, the ones in blue can only accept single-sided memory modules, which naturally are not as dense as double-sided ones. So more likely than not, you may end up using 1GB memory modules on these slots. It's certainly limited in its usefulness, perhaps for those with older memory modules lying around.

We have had some issues with some of Gigabyte's larger motherboard heatsinks in the past and the same goes for the UD6. While the heatsinks here are unlikely to interfere with the CPU cooler, there's one that is a touch too close to the PCIe x1 slot (on the right in the picture above). It could be difficult utilizing that slot. The same goes for the PCIe x4 slot at the extreme left, which is close to the floppy connector. To be fair, Gigabyte probably feels that users won't ever end up using all the available expansion slots here. If that's the case, we rather they didn't try so hard in the quantity department and reduce the number of slots or features.

No doubt, we have said this throughout our assessment of the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 but it feels that Gigabyte went a bit overboard in terms of the features, especially for a mainstream board. As it is, the online retail price for this board is around US$250, a match for the ASUS and its enthusiast heavy features. There are some minor layout issues that could be improved but given the lack of PCB space, it's probably not as easy as we would presume.

Intel DP55KG

Intel may be well-known for many technologies but when it comes to motherboards, it's not a name that enthusiasts will run out to buy for their next overclocked rig. While the company may have rock-solid boards with intimate knowledge of the chipset as an added plus, the boards themselves have not been very enthusiast friendly.

Things have been changing gradually and some of Intel's more recent attempts have had certain features that at least made a nod towards the needs of enthusiasts. The Intel DP55KG, codenamed Kingsberg continues this trend with some features that are comparable to those found on enthusiast motherboards.

Features-wise, there's nothing we haven't seen from the other P55 motherboards so far, except that Intel takes the lead when it comes to eradicating legacy devices, with no IDE and floppy options. The basic six SATA ports however get increased to eight, with two eSATA connectors at the rear. There's FireWire, optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs (courtesy of the Realtek ALC889 CODEC) and up to 14 USB ports. What's new is a Back-to-BIOS button that when depressed will boot the board straight into BIOS the next time round. Obviously, this is useful for overclockers who often need to fiddle with the settings. Less useful, but still good for its task is the POST LED indicator.

The board itself is quite sparse, with plenty of free space. This is despite the three PCIe graphics slots and some unusual additions, like a Bluetooth module onboard. There's even space for Intel to engage in some bling of its own, like the glowing skull at the corner of the board. Onboard cooling appears quite minimal, with small heatsinks preferred. Of course, this means more space but we aren't too optimistic on how the DP55KG will fare in our temperature test.

At least, the layout appeared quite sensible, even if the placement sometimes could be quite different from what we have been accustomed to on other motherboards. For instance, the power button is at an inconspicuous corner that took us some time to find.

MSI P55-GD80

MSI has hit on a pretty successful formula after a rather mediocre period in the past when its offerings fell behind the competition. We have had nothing but praise for MSI's recent AMD based boards, like the 790GX-G65, which had a great layout that more than made up for the sometimes dodgy auto-overclocking feature on that board.

This auto-overclocking feature, dubbed OC Genie, makes it to the new P55 motherboard from MSI, the P55-GD80. As the latest evolution of this feature, we hope that it has improved over its predecessors but before we delve into that, let's take a look at what the GD80 offers. You should also refer to for additional information.

In terms of features, MSI has ticked the right boxes, at least from looking at the rear I/O panel. There are dual Gigabit LAN ports, S/PDIF outputs in both flavors while retaining stalwarts like the PS/2 ports. In short, it seems to go head-on with the Gigabyte UD6 and its massive feature count. Like the Gigabyte, MSI has kept with the IDE interface, though there's no floppy drive support (not that we'll miss it much).

Besides having a competitive list of features for those who think it's all about quantity, MSI also tries to grab the enthusiasts with some tweaking and overclocking aids that appear to be right out of ASUS' recipe. The most obvious is the voltage check points (V-Check Points), located almost exactly where ASUS' similar ProbeIt is on the ASUS Maximus III Formula. Both serve the same purpose and since we saw it first on ASUS' boards, we have to give the nod to ASUS for being the first to implement it. However MSI did up the stakes by including a handy kit with instructions and connecting cables for this voltage check feature.

Next to the check points is another overclocking related feature, V-UP!, which widens the BIOS voltage setting range so that there's more leeway for the overclocking to extend the settings and push the board, memory or processor further.

MSI's usual DrMOS technology is at the heart of the CPU power delivery on this board, which claims to integrate 14 power phases in total for the CPU, memory and the PCH. We'll examine the power efficiency of MSI's Active Phase switching feature in our power consumption test later.

Moving on to the main highlights of this board, we have the new version of OC Genie. We had tried some of the older versions and while we liked how we could increase the motherboard base clock with the OC Genie overclocking dial in the MSI 790FX-GD70, the auto-overclocking aspect did not always perform to our satisfaction.

That's set to change with the new OC Genie. Instead of a overclocking utility in the BIOS (Max FSB), it's now a button the motherboard. Press it, restart the system and OC Genie should automatically adjust the required BIOS timings and voltages for you: auto-overclocking in short. Depress that button again and restart the system to disable OC Genie and revert to the original default clocks. On our configuration, the OC Genie easily pushed the board's base clock to 196MHz, which is fairly good as our maximum was only 210MHz.

Additionally, the "-" and "+" controls on the motherboard allows users to tweak the OC Genie's overclock further by small increments in real time. One can do that when running a benchmark for instance. This is similar to what the former OC Genie dial could do, so it's not that new. When combined with the auto-overclocking however, it's a quick way for enthusiasts to get a basic overclock, before progressing with the controls to fine-tune the clocks.

The other 'star' of the MSI P55-GD80 motherboard is the switch to a thicker heat pipe for the onboard cooling. At 8mm thick, the one on the MSI is thicker than its nearest competitor, subsequently leading to better heat transfer. This feature has been used to some success on MSI's graphics cards and hopefully it translates to lower temperatures on this board.

To sum up, MSI has introduced a very user friendly hardware based auto-overclocking tool that works pretty well, while allowing enthusiasts to tweak further. Although the rest of the board is hardly a paragon of innovation, MSI's design for this board reminds us of a blend between Gigabyte's heavy storage and power efficiency focus together with ASUS' enthusiast edge. Whether this approach will attract the mainstream consumer is a good question but no doubt the US$210 asking price for the P55-GD80 will help.

BIOS Settings

Each board came with its own unique BIOS but the traditionally bigger motherboard vendors like ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI generally had more advanced options or were simply more polished. ECS in particular fell behind in this department, with fewer settings than some of its competitors. The Intel reference board too could be more user friendly here.

When it came to overclocking, we throttled down our CPU ratio and pushed up the voltages and base clock. Most boards could do close to 200MHz easily, with the usual big brands hitting the wall at 210MHz. Our standout contender was MSI's auto-overclocking tool, which as mentioned earlier, managed to hit close to the maximum with the touch of a button.

Test Setup

With Windows 7 looking likely to be the operating system that finally entices current Windows XP users to upgrade, we decided to try our benchmarks on the new OS. All the boards here are tested with the top Lynnfield processor currently, the Core i7-870, with HyperThreading and Turbo Boost enabled. Here is the rest of the configuration:

• Intel Core i7-870 (@2.93GHz, Intel Turbo Boost, HyperThreading enabled)
• 2 x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3-1333 @ 7-7-20 CAS 7.0 (ECS P55H-A was running DDR3-1333@8-8-8-24)
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB SATA hard disk drive (one single NTFS partition)
• ASUS GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB - with ForceWare 190.38 drivers
• Intel INF 9.1.0.1007 and Intel Matrix Storage manager 8.6.0.1007 driver set
• Microsoft Windows 7

The following benchmarks were used to determine the performance of the X58 motherboards here:

• BAPco SYSmark 2007 (with Patch 3)
• Futuremark PCMark05 (ver 120)
• SPECviewperf 9.0
• Futuremark 3DMark06 (ver 110)
• AquaMark3
• Far Cry 2

Results - SYSmark 2007 Preview

Our first benchmark, system suite SYSmark 2007 sprung a small surprise, with ECS taking on the bigger boys with a impressive start. The P55H-A had a slight lead over Gigabyte, with both ASUS and MSI tying for third. Coming in a close last was the Intel DP55KG. Looking at the breakdown, it became clear that the ECS garnered the most advantage in the E-Learning and Video Creation sections, while remaining competitive in the others. Certainly interesting given that it had to settle for slower memory timings in our test setup.

Results - Futuremark PCMark05 Pro

The next benchmark, PCMark05 also saw ECS continue its surprising run, with the highest overall score, with the others clustered closely behind. Despite its higher memory latency, which affected its memory scores and a rather mediocre CPU performance, the ECS topped this benchmark thanks to its hard drive performance, which was significantly better. In contrast, some of the bigger names like ASUS and MSI did not do well in this section.

Results - SPECviewperf 9.0

Moving on to SPECviewperf 9.0, we again saw some variance in scores for the 3dsmax portion, with the Intel and MSI falling behind despite repeated runs to weed out fluke runs. The ECS P55H-A topped the table here and in the later PRO/ENGINEER test too, aided no doubt by its storage performance. In that segment however, the competition was a lot closer, though the MSI appeared just a touch off the pace.

Gaming Benchmarks

When it came to games, the differences between the boards were very minor, with no clear front runner. Whether it was a synthetic benchmark like 3DMark06 or an actual game like Far Cry 2, the scores varied in the negligible 1% range. Please note that Futuremark's 3DMark Vantage had issues running on Windows 7 and so we stuck to the older 3DMark06 for now. Once that issue is resolved, we'll migrate over in future.

Temperature Testing

The thicker heat pipes on MSI's P55-GD80 showed that they were not merely marketing as we recorded the lowest temperature on the rear heatsink of the MSI. Gigabyte's emphasis on its quality and build also extended to the temperature stakes, with the second lowest temperature close behind the MSI. From what we saw, the ASUS and Intel had rather typical temperatures of between 40 and 50 degrees Celsius for this class of motherboard.

Meanwhile, the ECS P55H-A could not build on the positive momentum from its benchmark results and it was clearly the warmest of the lot.

Power Consumption

We soon found out the reason for the ECS's higher temperatures - its relatively higher power consumption. The bigger vendors emphasizing their dynamic, multi-phase power schemes got their 'patented' technologies working at least. MSI was notable for its low idling power draw. Gigabyte's 24-phase power also can take some credit for helping the board score the lowest power draw at full load. The rest fell in between them and Intel's own solution looked very decent too.

Conclusion

Despite our hope that the Lynnfield processors will herald a new wave of mainstream systems, a glance at online prices showed that it's only half fulfilled. The premium P55 boards from the top vendors remain substantially more expensive. One can even find Intel X58 motherboards that are less costly than the US$250 boards we have seen from ASUS and Gigabyte. Of course, the highest end X58 boards continue to be terribly expensive, costing more than US$300, so one could say that these premium P55 motherboards are indeed more affordable than their X58 counterparts.

It's all relative isn't it? Though we highly doubt that mainstream users would be looking at these US$200 and above P55 motherboards and is probably catered for enthusiasts who know their requirements and needs. The ECS P55H-A at around US$120 is more reasonably priced while ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI all have slightly lower versions of what you have seen today in the US$150 to US$170 price range. These boards then are the likely choices for those who are building a truly mainstream system, with the Core i5-750 the obvious choice to pair these boards with.

Yet, there's one good reason to go the P55 route even if you're an enthusiast. And that is the enhanced Turbo Boost feature on these boards. Going with the less expensive Core i7-860 for example, one gets Turbo Boost and HyperThreading, which in quite a few cases, ends up being faster than the Core i7-920. Hence, these enthusiasts would be the ones looking for boards with premium features like more storage or overclocking options.

After looking through the five top P55 boards from these vendors, we have summarized our results in the following table:

ASUS Maximus III Formula: There's nothing much to fault ASUS here with the Maximus III Formula. If we had to nitpick, it's that ASUS is trying too hard. No doubt, the company has a reputation to maintain and its ROG series have always pushed the limits with new features. This time, the new ROG Connect failed to connect with us as we couldn't see it being useful to enthusiasts. It adds on to the other hit or miss features that ASUS has implemented on its ROG boards so far.

Fortunately, the layout and other non-overclocking features remain top class, though heat and power consumption were only average. The price too (US$250) is at the highest end so get this board only if the ROG features work for you. If not, ASUS has plenty of other comparable options that perform just as well without the extreme slant.

ECS P55H-A: The least expensive of the five at US$120, the ECS provides great value if you can ignore its flaws. There are plenty, even if ECS has upped its game with more enthusiast friendly features. The most basic of the five boards, even when taking into account of the Intel board, the ECS suffers from a case of being more power hungry than its competitors, which leads to higher board temperatures when coupled with its basic cooling solution.

Its performance however, was a bright spot and its benchmark results surprised the bigger brands. While there are still some minor issues with the layout and features, the ECS P55H-A makes for a decent budget alternative that is price competitive with the mATX models of other brands.

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6: While ASUS went off with its overclocking overload, Gigabyte has went the other route, emphasizing on the quality and build of its motherboards. A feature packed motherboard that arguably covers the whole gamut of storage options, this is the board for those with a home file or media server. In fact if you're not quite sure if you need more features or not in the future, you might just want to give in and choose this board for its all inclusive features. Plus the fact that it scores on the temperature and power efficiency front are more reasons to choose it.

The Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 was a really close contender for winning this shootout, however a similarly high US$250 price point and some niggling layout issues gave us pause, though for Gigabyte, it does appear to be the more you pay, the more you'll get (not only features, but mass as well).

Intel DP55KG: Frankly, we were quite surprised to find out the price of the Intel DP55KG. Although the company has made an obvious effort to spice up its motherboards to appeal to enthusiasts, it is still some way behind the competition. This is why the US$210 price tag does not suit it in our opinion. This is a board that aspires to be a premium board, but lacks some of the features on the others. The performance was also average, with no outstanding power efficiency to convince us of its value.

MSI P55-GD80: Finally, we come to the last contender - MSI P55-GD80. This is a board that like some of the brand's recent offerings, has a good blend of features for mainstream and enthusiast users. Admittedly, some of its overclocking features are not the most original but MSI has not been tempted to throw everything in. This 'balance' to cater to the more mainstream user while having some allowance for enthusiasts is best exemplified by the new OC Genie.

A one-button solution for the mainstream user, OC Genie can be tweaked further by enthusiasts and the BIOS is as full featured as any from its competitors. Furthermore, MSI's choice of a thicker heat pipe has paid off, with lower temperatures while its power efficiency is above average. Together with a layout design that gave us no complaints, this US$210 board may not be the cheapest but it's extremely competitive with the other top brands. It's no doubt our choice for the best P55 of its class and thus the Winner of our shootout with a nice balance of what's good for both the mainstream consumer and the enthusiast.

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