First build around Asus P7P55D-E Pro? High pitched buzzing?

[noonin1]

Hi all,
I am getting my technical guts up to tackle my first build (an i7860), and am trying to narrow down the MB. I want something I can keep running for a few years, so I looked at ones that have USB3/SATA3 support.

My first choice was a Gigabyte P55A-UD4P until I read about USB3 stealing bandwidth from PCI-E. I doubt if I will be running dual GPUs, but want the option to in the future, or if something else comes along that needed the other slot, the USB3 functionality wouldn't be crippled. I thought about switching everything to a i920 build to get around this, but thought it would be overkill for my use.

I then ran across the Asus. P7P55D-E Pro, which, as I understand it, uses another chip to "give"itself the extra BW, though according to a review on Overclockers, it looked like 100MB shy of the 600 that is the USB3 standard. Seemed like a better route than GB's. The rest of the review looked like it would be a good board for a beginner, and one with the quality to last a while.

Then, I started reading about a high pitched buzzing coming from the board itself. Does anyone have recent experience with this board? Is the buzzing there, and how bad? Does the Q-DIMM setup hold memory in securely enough? Any other thoughts?
Thanks guys!

 

[gracefully]

You never know till you try. Personally, I have the P7P55D EVO. The -E at the end of the P7P55D denotes that it has USB 3.0 and SATA3, so it's a newer generation. I hear no high pitched sounds whatsoever, and I doubt that there will be any in the motherboard. The Q-DIMM setup holds memory well (very very snugly, I might add), the way it's supposed to be.

 

[garandx]

I have been watching the reported noise issue on the p7p55d-e Boards. It seems to be hit or miss, it may have been a bad batch or it could be a much wider problem, what does seem to be uniform though is that all of those who had the noise were able to "fix" it by disabling C-States, but this may cause you to lose some overclocking potential along with some energy efficiency. Asus has not posted on the issue but they are collecting information from those that did report it on newegg.

Just a couple of suggested options:

1. Take the plunge and see what you get, most of those that have the board have reported no noise. If you find that you do have the noise you could RMA it.

2. If your not dead set on SLI/Crossfire you could take a look at the p7p55d-e, its about 30 bucks cheaper and has no reported noise issues.

3. Wait. If your build isnt mission critical you could wait a while to see if its just a bad batch, perhaps it can be fixed via bios update or if it will be a long standing issue with this board.

 

[noonin1]

You never know till you try. Personally, I have the P7P55D EVO. The -E at the end of the P7P55D denotes that it has USB 3.0 and SATA3, so it's a newer generation. I hear no high pitched sounds whatsoever, and I doubt that there will be any in the motherboard. The Q-DIMM setup holds memory well (very very snugly, I might add), the way it's supposed to be.

I just looked at the EVO as well (the P7H57D-V EVO though), and will look at again. If I remember right, EVO adds onboard video and support for more lower end chips. I know I missed some stuff, not sure what as I'm having trouble finding reviews. More $$ though. I'll check it out...

 

[noonin1]

I have been watching the reported noise issue on the p7p55d-e Boards. It seems to be hit or miss, it may have been a bad batch or it could be a much wider problem, what does seem to be uniform though is that all of those who had the noise were able to "fix" it by disabling C-States, but this may cause you to lose some overclocking potential along with some energy efficiency. Asus has not posted on the issue but they are collecting information from those that did report it on newegg.

Just a couple of suggested options:

1. Take the plunge and see what you get, most of those that have the board have reported no noise. If you find that you do have the noise you could RMA it.

2. If your not dead set on SLI/Crossfire you could take a look at the p7p55d-e, its about 30 bucks cheaper and has no reported noise issues.

3. Wait. If your build isnt mission critical you could wait a while to see if its just a bad batch, perhaps it can be fixed via bios update or if it will be a long standing issue with this board.

No critical time frame, so think I'll give it a couple more weeks and see how Asus deals with it (check URs on Newegg for hints). I will also take a deeper look at the EVO as Gracefully suggested

 

[noonin1]

More reading on how the 1156 board's solution to USB3/SATA6 competes with the 1355 boards makes this an exciting time to build as PC!

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3079/sata_6gbps_implementation_investigated_asus_vs_gigabyte_p55/index9.html

 

[gracefully]

The Deluxe/Premium offers 24 power phases, if you're interested. Also, do you really need 8 cores? I'm sure the i5-750 is plenty enough for what you need, and it overclocks well.

 

[noonin1]

The Deluxe/Premium offers 24 power phases, if you're interested. Also, do you really need 8 cores? I'm sure the i5-750 is plenty enough for what you need, and it overclocks well.

Mainly looking to build something in the high-mids of current speeds, with potential to keep "fast" via OC or changing GPU in 5 years, I don't know what my needs will be in a year. I'm running a very old Dell (PIII 933Mhz) and have "lived" with it because I know it's limitations.

Now I want to:
> Encode and edit a shobox of Mini DV home movies
> Rip 300+ CDs (and more as I get new ones)
> Edit photos
> Use Corel Draw for tracing/vector drawing
> Watch HDTV
> Watch Blue Ray movies
> Start doing some basic gaming with my 5 1/2 yr old. I'm sure the level will grow as he does!
> Run Business apps like Quick Books
> Create and maintain a website.

There are as many opinions on what I need as there are types of processors. I thought I had it all settled on a P55 CPU, like the i7860 (seemed like a sweet spot of price/performance), but stumbled across the new H57 stuff. I don't think I want to run integrated graphics, but it looked like there were other advantages (and disadvantages) to the Clarkdale chips. Reading up on all this is making my brain hurt!

I know there are going to be new CPUs released soon, but to keep waiting would never get me a PC! I know the new chips will also carry a premium price, and may heve bugs to work out. I just want a platform I can keep going for a few years without dumping a ton of money into. I'm more familiar with Intel's i9XX and i7XX, so I've been leaning that way. Now I have to learn the h57?

 

[gracefully]

The i3 and i5-5xx-6xx are dual core parts. They sacrificed two processing cores to fit the integrated GPU in the chip. It is a 32nm processor (45nm graphics) though, so it dissipates less heat and power. Since you're going to be using a dedicated graphics card, I suggest you go for the i5-750 or up, with the P7P55D-E Pro motherboard. You can get the Deluxe/Premium versions of the motherboard, but I think there's not much added over the pro version.