ASUS P7P55D questions

[will2power]

Hi all,

I am looking for some good advice about Motherboards, the area I know least about (I am no expert at other areas so I am pretty much clueless with Motherboards!)

I am building my 1st computer for Graphics (Photoshop mostly) and possibly Video (I took a course in Premiere some time ago but do not use at the moment).

After looking around I am thinking about buying an ASUS P7P55D but have been looking at the Asus M4A78T-E, P4B533-E, and the P4P800. I will be using with an Intel i5 core processor (possibly i7, not sure it is necessary though!).

My 1st question is, does anyone with good knowledge think the P7P55D the right choice? 2nd question is, there seems to be different varieties at different costs, eg P7P55D "LE", "Deluxe", "EVO" and "E-premium". If there is anyone kind enough to explain the difference I would be very grateful!!

Also, if anyone has some advice on good memory I really aprreciate it!

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
Well first of all if you are going to get i5 or CPUs like i7 860 or i7 870 you have to go for 1156 socket(P55 motherboards)but for all other i7 CPUs you have to go for 1366 socket(X58 motherboards),the difference between these 2 sockets is that socket 1366 supports future 6 core CPUs but it more expensive,and since an i5 750 can handle CS4 and Premiere fine,so go for it and save some bucks.
About the difference between those motherboards,i just checked ASUS's site and the and the differences are in PCI-E slots,heatsinks and some other extra features,for example P7P55D Deluxe and P7P55D Premium have TurboV Remote which others don't, or P7P55D Deluxe,P7P55D EVO,P7P55D Premium and P7P55D PRO support SLI/CF at dual 8x mode whereas the other model support it at 16x4x mode(which if you don't want to game its not very important),other differences like i said are minor like heatsinks etc.

 

[Rock_n_Rolla]

Go for the P7P55D, its one of the cheapest in the ASUS P55 line and one of the
most durable P55 mobo around today (that offers very good overclocking
features) and has all the features found on the high end ones.
It only lacks features that are not important and only serves as easy access on
CPU tweaking and some, like those found in the P7P55 deluxe model where
you can easily overclock the CPU by pushing the buttons on its remote connected
to the mobo's bios and thats it.
You can easily do this without the remote by changing parameters in the BIOS
manually and not spending a great deal of time with it.
In addition, the support for SATA 6GB which as of now, few hard drive models
available out there supports.

 

[signaltonoise]

I too have selected the P7P55D for my new build, so I have already researched all this. Here is the breakdown of the options:

P7P55D, P7P55D LE - $ Most basic options (I discarded these choices as too basic for my needs).

P7P55D PRO - $$ good midrange choice, lacks clear CMOS button, and power / reset buttons on the board. Has a single LAN port.

P7P55D EVO - $$$ adds JMicron® JMB322 (Drive Xpert) controller, External SATA port

P7P55D Deluxe - $$$ adds JMicron® JMB322 (Drive Xpert) controller, 24 Hybrid Phase, TurboV remote

P7P55D Premium - $$$$ gives you 6GB SATA, 48 Hybrid

Now, the really confusing part is that ASUS has "E" versions of all these boards about to come out right away that add USB 3.0 and 6GB SATA to all of them.

P7P55D-E PRO

P7P55D-E EVO

P7P55D-E Deluxe

P7P55D-E Premium

My assumption is that they are all about the same as above but just have the new USB and SATA.

It seems to me that it is worth waiting for the E-versions.

 

[will2power]

Thank you so much for the help! Everything is much clearer now

"Well first of all if you are going to get i5 or CPUs like i7 860 or i7 870 you have to go for 1156 socket(P55 motherboards)but for all other i7 CPUs you have to go for 1366 socket(X58 motherboards)"

This is good info, thanks. So with this board I can upgrade to a i7 860 or 870, worth knowing for future!

"Go for the P7P55D, its one of the cheapest in the ASUS P55 line and one of the
most durable P55 mobo around today (that offers very good overclocking
features) and has all the features found on the high end ones."

I think this will be the one for me, thanks

"In addition, the support for SATA 6GB "

"Now, the really confusing part is that ASUS has "E" versions of all these boards about to come out right away that add USB 3.0 and 6GB SATA to all of them."

I am a little confused to which support SATA 6GB so thought I would confirm. I am right in assuming only the P7P55D Deluxe, P7P55D Premium, and all "E" versions have this support?

I can find the P7P55D-E EVO ￥24,840 (about 20 dollars more than reg EVO).
The P7P55D-E PREMIUM at ￥36,800 and the P7P55D-E DELUXE at ￥30,800. 1 dollar = 90 yen.

Is the P7P55D-E EVO a good deal?

 

[Techno-boy]

Keep in mind that if you go with P7P55D motherboard then you would not be able to SLI since it does not support NVIDIA SLI technology so you had to go with only 1 NVIDIA video card (1x PCIe x16 slot). You can still crossfire with 2 ATI video cards but they would run at x4 mode which is very bad.

So if you are planning to SLI/Crossfire then I would not recommend P7P55D but I would prefer to recommend P7P55D PRO at least. It will also save you more money than the EVO version. The P7P55D EVO version will have DriveXpert Technology in which I don't think that you need it so the PRO version is enough. JMicron® JMB322 chip which supports DriveXpert Technology is the only difference between the P7P55D EVO version and the P7P55D PRO version so the P7P55D EVO would have 2 Jmicron chips while the P7P55D PRO has 1 Jmicron chip. You don't really need DriveXpert because even Norton Backup or Microsoft Backup would do the job well too. The Deluxe version is pure marketing hype like having 9 SATA connectors instead of 7. Even 7 SATAs is enough on the P7P55D PRO. Seriously, who the heck would need to run 8 Hard disks + 1 DVD-+RW? That is too much and crazy. The Deluxe version will also have 19 power phases (True 24 Phases XtremeDesign (16+3 = 19 Phases)) but again, even 14 power phases (True 16 Phases XtremeDesign (12+2 = 14 Phases)) is enough for overclocking and it would satisfy your overclocking. So forget about Deluxe Version and Premium Version which will rip your wallet more.

Another thing, if you are planning to use USB 3.0 and SATA 3 then P7P55D-E PRO would be better than P7P55D PRO because it has onboard USB 3.0 and SATA 3 support. However, even P7P55D PRO would support SATA 3 and USB 3.0 only if you add $30 ASUS U3S6 addon card but you had to occupy 1 PCIe x4 slot.

I think that the PRO version is the sweeter spot for budget PC...

P7P55D-E PRO:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=T2FxW2fXGZQgSn2V&templete=2

Another thing, P7P55D will not support Core i3 but P7P55D-E will support Core i7 860/870, Core i5, included cheaper Core i3 (based on ASUS's webpage about P7P55D specs compared to P7P55D-E specs).

PS: Both the P7P55D-E EVO and P7P55D-E PRO does not have JMicron® JMB322 DriveXpert Technology. However, the only difference between them are that the P7P55D-E EVO will have Dual Realtek Gigabit Ports included the Power switch and Reset switch while P7P55D-E PRO does not include Power Switch and Reset switch and it has only 1 Realtek Gigabit port. Anyway, even your PC Case has both Power and Reset switch and if you are not running a home network much then 1 Gigabit LAN port is also enough.

 

[will2power]

Thanks Technoboy, as your name suggests you really know your stuff!

I am not exactly sure what crossfire is but I think its a gaming thing? I guess it is not important for video or graphic work? I do not plan on playing games and even if I decide to try, I will never be a serious gamer.

Your explaination of the difference between the P7P55D motherboards was great. I will get the P7P55D-E pro (as soon as I can find it here in Japan- can only find EVO and Premium).

Now that Motherboard has been decided, on to Memory! Any recomendations for P7P55D-E pro? Would I be ok going with 8GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory? Would I need to go for 4 x 2GB? I cant seem to find higher than 2GB, also does manufacturer make a difference? I will post this in "Memory" forum also.

Thanks again to all who have helped

Peter

 

[Maziar]

CrossFire = to use 2 ATI cards on a motherboard,which boosts gaming performance and does not effect vide encoding etc.
About memory well 4GB is even enough but if you want to get more,if you don't want to OC(OverClock),then go for the cheapest 8GB RAM you find from brands like Corsair,Geil,OCZ,etc because the speeds of the RAM and voltages and timings are mainly important if you want to OC

 

[shadyadi32]

I would say go for the motherboard that gives you the best upgrade possibilities for the future,maybe the 1366 socket motherboards is what you should be looking at,because these will give you more choices for processors later on....

 

[will2power]

Thanks again Maziar,

Looks like crossfire is not important to me at all so I will go for your suggestion on cheaperst RAM (or maybe 4gb, see how it runs, and upgrade later!). Willl check out the prices or the brands you mentioned, "Corsair,Geil,OCZ"

shadyadi32, thanks for the info, I considered leaving chioces for upgrading and what you suggest sounds sensible. If I buy a 1366 socket board can I still use an i5 on it? I believed that I would have to get the high price i7? If it is possible to use an i5 for now and upgrade later then I think I need to look into it (although means I have to start researching Motherboards again)

Appreciate the quick responses, thanks again

 

[Maziar]

Well there are other good brands too like G.Skill etc
About the CPU,i told you in my first post that : "Well first of all if you are going to get i5 or CPUs like i7 860 or i7 870 you have to go for 1156 socket(P55 motherboards)but for all other i7 CPUs you have to go for 1366 socket(X58 motherboards),the difference between these 2 sockets is that socket 1366 supports future 6 core CPUs"
So i5 will work on a 1156 Socket and not on a 1366 socket

 

[will2power]

Ah, ok, thanks for the reply Maziar and clearing things up for me I "believed that I would have to get the high price i7" with the 1366 socket and you confirmed this. I actually got a little confused by the comment from shadyadi32

"maybe the 1366 socket motherboards is what you should be looking at,because these will give you more choices for processors later on"

The "choices later on" part gave me the impression that I could possibly upgrade from i5 (which I decided on) to i7 later. I wanted to double check. I guess shadyadi32 was referring to upgrading to newer, yet to be released technology in the future, and getting one of the i7 900 series (not 860 or 870) now.

As I mentioned I know next to nothing about this area. Thanks to everyones responses I am slowly learning!! I will stick to the i5 with option to upgrade to i7 860 or 870 as the i7 900 series is a little more than I need

 

[Techno-boy]

For the memory, so far as I know, Corsair DDR3 memory are the best for Core i5 system:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145265&cm_re=4GB_DDR3-_-20-145-265-_-Product
(Corsair Dominator has a tall heatsink so it might have a conflict with a large CPU heatsink cooler and it might not fit)


or


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260&cm_re=4GB_DDR3-_-20-145-260-_-Product


These are good examples of DDR3 Rams which are perfect match for Core i5...

For the Core i5/P55/LGA 1156 VS Core i7/X58/LGA 1366, I would recommend you to go with Core i5 system more since it is cheaper with only dual DDR3 channel memory and together with Core i7 860 which is faster than Core i7 920. The high-end LGA 1366 Core i7 system is gonna rip your wallet, forcing you to pay more. Also, Core i7 motherboard's triple DDR3 memory channels won't give you a lot of performance boost from Core i7 920. It is also unlikely that you gonna be able to upgrade your CPU with X58/Core i7 system because they could be too expensive like the upcoming 6-core Intel Core i9/Xeon Gulftown CPU (for $1500! ).

So it is Intel's high end Core i7/X58 system which is more like marketing hype than the mainstream P55 market segment because it is more oriented towards servers especially the 6-Core CPU/Core i9 for DP Server/Workstation market since most of applications and games for Desktop PCs are not even optimize for 4 cores yet so 6 cores + triple DDR3 RAM are too much unless if you are rich or you wanna spend more or you are running a home server which might benefit more from 6 cores.

Core i7 920 is an LGA 1366 CPU and it is a true Core i7 CPU.

Core i7 860/870 are actually Core i5 CPUs but Intel rebranded them as Core i7 which might confuse some people and they will work on P55/LGA 1156 motherboards but Core i7 900 series will not work on Core i5 motherboards since the Core i7 900 series use different CPU socket.

Core i7 860 beat Core i7 920:

http://en.expreview.com/2009/08/28/core-i7-860-tested-faster-than-core-i7-920.html

 

[Maziar]

Yes with 1366 socket you can upgrade to 6 core CPUs later but 1156 are cheaper

 

[shadyadi32]

Will2power how much do you have to spend on the set-up?

If you give me a rough idea,i can have a look for you.

Kind regards

shady.......

 

[will2power]

Thanks again Techno-boy and Maziar for the great replies, I am now certain about the 1156 core i5! I will check out the memory when I get back to work today, I live in Tokyo so there is a time difference Look forward to checking it out.

shadyadi32, thanks for your kind offer, I have not really set a budget yet, just looking for highest performance at reasonable price, something that will last. Around 140,000 yen, (about 1600 dollar is a good start)

 

[Guest]

Yes with 1366 socket you can upgrade to 6 core CPUs later but 1156 are cheaper

hi asus in there -e seriers says in cpu suport "Intel® Socket 1156 Core™ i7 Processor/Core™ i5 Processor/Core™ i3 Processor Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology " so it looks like intel is coming with a new prosser for the 1156 motherboads .

 

[Maziar]

Yes but i3 are said to be slower than current i5,but as i said its a rumor,lets wait and see

 

[entity_of_life]

I say your best bet for a fast computer..and for not spending a small fortune.. is the P7P55D Deluxe.

I bought one recently..and built my computer...and..I guarantee you would not be disappointed.

I use it for gaming, HD 1080 video editing..and for using Maya..

I have yet to bog down the computer...

Good luck with whatever you choose!

 

[will2power]

Thanks entity_of_life, it seems the E versions of the boards are now available for me in Japan, at least I can find all but the E pro (the one I decided on!)

I might go for the Deluxe but it is a fair bit more expensive. I am waiting on the P7P55D-E pro, I dont know if it is has not been released here or simply not available on the sites I looked at!

If you used the deluxe for the things you mentioned maybe I will just go for it!

 

[jayjoshi]

I say your best bet for a fast computer..and for not spending a small fortune.. is the P7P55D Deluxe.

I bought one recently..and built my computer...and..I guarantee you would not be disappointed.

I use it for gaming, HD 1080 video editing..and for using Maya..

I have yet to bog down the computer...

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Hey entity_of_life!
which graphic card you are using???

 

[madaload]

Keep in mind that if you go with P7P55D motherboard then you would not be able to SLI since it does not support NVIDIA SLI technology so you had to go with only 1 NVIDIA video card (1x PCIe x16 slot). You can still crossfire with 2 ATI video cards but they would run at x4 mode which is very bad.

P7P55D PRO suports both SLI and Crossfire. Yes, Quad SLI too with dual GPU cards. It is only the P7P55D LE and P7P55D that do not support SLI at all. All P55 chipsets are capable of supporting both platforms, but manufacturers choose not to spend money on SLI licence for entry level mobos in order to keep the cost down. The ASUS P7P55D PRO is far from being entry level or budget. It is an excellent motherboard with professional sound, more whistles and blows a home user would ever need and it has JMicron® JMB363. JMB322 for a home user is an overkill.

 

[progunnerboi]

Keep in mind that if you go with P7P55D motherboard then you would not be able to SLI since it does not support NVIDIA SLI technology so you had to go with only 1 NVIDIA video card (1x PCIe x16 slot). You can still crossfire with 2 ATI video cards but they would run at x4 mode which is very bad.

So if you are planning to SLI/Crossfire then I would not recommend P7P55D but I would prefer to recommend P7P55D PRO at least. It will also save you more money than the EVO version. The P7P55D EVO version will have DriveXpert Technology in which I don't think that you need it so the PRO version is enough. JMicron® JMB322 chip which supports DriveXpert Technology is the only difference between the P7P55D EVO version and the P7P55D PRO version so the P7P55D EVO would have 2 Jmicron chips while the P7P55D PRO has 1 Jmicron chip. You don't really need DriveXpert because even Norton Backup or Microsoft Backup would do the job well too. The Deluxe version is pure marketing hype like having 9 SATA connectors instead of 7. Even 7 SATAs is enough on the P7P55D PRO. Seriously, who the heck would need to run 8 Hard disks + 1 DVD-+RW? That is too much and crazy. The Deluxe version will also have 19 power phases (True 24 Phases XtremeDesign (16+3 = 19 Phases)) but again, even 14 power phases (True 16 Phases XtremeDesign (12+2 = 14 Phases)) is enough for overclocking and it would satisfy your overclocking. So forget about Deluxe Version and Premium Version which will rip your wallet more.

Another thing, if you are planning to use USB 3.0 and SATA 3 then P7P55D-E PRO would be better than P7P55D PRO because it has onboard USB 3.0 and SATA 3 support. However, even P7P55D PRO would support SATA 3 and USB 3.0 only if you add $30 ASUS U3S6 addon card but you had to occupy 1 PCIe x4 slot.

I think that the PRO version is the sweeter spot for budget PC...

P7P55D-E PRO:
http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=T2FxW2fXGZQgSn2V&templete=2

Another thing, P7P55D will not support Core i3 but P7P55D-E will support Core i7 860/870, Core i5, included cheaper Core i3 (based on ASUS's webpage about P7P55D specs compared to P7P55D-E specs).

PS: Both the P7P55D-E EVO and P7P55D-E PRO does not have JMicron® JMB322 DriveXpert Technology. However, the only difference between them are that the P7P55D-E EVO will have Dual Realtek Gigabit Ports included the Power switch and Reset switch while P7P55D-E PRO does not include Power Switch and Reset switch and it has only 1 Realtek Gigabit port. Anyway, even your PC Case has both Power and Reset switch and if you are not running a home network much then 1 Gigabit LAN port is also enough.

So if I just want a Motherboard for gaming with a ati 5770 without crossfire and SL is this motherboard good enough?