Best p55 Motherboard around 150 dollars; what is it?

Well I don't really know about the EVGA offerings, but I had an MSI P55GD65 which was good but lots of vdroop and it ended up burning out at 180bclk during a burn test... so now I have an ASUS P7P55D Pro and I actually like it quite a bit more plus it has Load Line Calibration so there's no change in Vcore under load. Only downside is a lot of these ASUS boards have a squealing high pitch noise at idle. I got rid of it by changing C States to C3 instead of Auto/C6.
The good part of both these boards is they support 16x single card or 8x/8x crossfire GPUs and the ASUS also has a 3rd PCIe at 4x. Price wise, they're under $200 I think here the MSI was $170 and the ASUS $180

ASUS p55D- Deluxe !!!

I have the ASUS p7p55d pro and I've had zero problems with it for about 2 months now. It doesn't have dual x16 pipes only 1x16 or 2 8x8s and a x4 slot, so it may not be exactly what you're looking for. I've never had any probs with asus boards. I got it for about $169 at newegg.

Thank you so much for your replies. 8x by 8x is perfect. I meant 16x slots for I understand that without the NF200 chip from Nvidea, the P55 platform can only give 16 lanes from the processor for graphics.
thestrangebrew: the ASUS p7p55d does not have USB 3.0 and/or SATA 6GBs. It's not a deal breaker for me though. But USB 3.0 by itself would be nice.
foxmulder13: the p55d-Deluxe is 250 bucks
Wolfram: Yes, I read those reviews about that board earlier... I guess I am going to try to avoid that board. But ASUS is still a great brand.
Any more suggestions? TH's articles are a little old on this subject.
Is it possible to have USB 3.0 on the P55 platform without leaching graphics performance? Like using the PCI express lanes from the northbridge instead of the CPU.

Is this board anygood?
GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX
It lacks firewire but has USB 3.0. I also does not have SATA 6Gbs, but that's ok.

I don't have experience with Gigabyte boards so I'm not sure. I've heard they're a great company to deal with and make great boards however. Good catch on the USB and sata. For some reason I was thinking the pro version had it, but it's the Asus p7p55d "E" PRO that has it. Now I'm a little disappointed, all this time thinking I had it lol. That's alright tho, still a great board. If the usb 3.0 and sata 6.0 isn't a big deal to you right now, there's an open box asus p7p55d pro on newegg for $116.99. Here's the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... I'm not sure what they're open box policy is or if it's worth as I've never bought an open box item before, but it seems like a steal...

OK: The ASUS P7P55D-E Pro uses the PCI-E lanes from the chipset for it's Sata 6.0 and USB 3.0.

Yes, thank you. For some odd reason I didn't get your post before I posted mine. It looks like the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro is the way to go and it avoids all of the problems inherent of the P55 platform in respect to stealing pci express lanes from the CPU for next generation SATA and USB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
it's only 20 dollars more.

On the up-side... the P55D-E does not seem to have those squealing reviews on Newegg.


For the heck of it, I am going to post what I have configured so far for my new build:

Prices are after Shipping/Tax.
MICROCENTER
Core i7 860 Processor Boxed: 213.99

NEWEGG
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0: 189.99
GIGABYTE GV-R585OC-1GD Radeon HD 5850: 317.55
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600: 119.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache: 79.99
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W: 110.17
LIAN LI PC-A05NB Black Aluminum ATX Mini Tower: 104.98
LG Black Model GH22LS50 SATA LightScribe Support – OEM: 25.99
Noctua NH-U9B SE2 92mm SSO CPU Cooler: 62.98
TOTAL 1225.63

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - OEM: 139.99

Ok: For my third double post:
I'm still open for suggestions ;P (for anything, like mobo to graphics or case)

you got your Mobo's mixed....Asus P755D-deluxe is $165.00 with rebate on New Egg!!
The ASUS P755D-E- deluxe is $250.00 on New Egg !!!

No USB 3.0 and/or SATA 6Gbs though  
I really find the P55D-E PRO attractive though.

Here's a good deal if your fast

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42714&vpn=132-LF...