Asus' P7P55D EVO Motherboard: Core i5 Finds A Home
Asus' P7P55D EVO Motherboard: Core i5 Finds A HomeThe Core i5/P55 hardware has started rolling into our performance labs and we're getting our hands wet with it. Asus' first P55-based motherboard showed up earlier today, though, and we couldn't resist giving you an early preview of what the board will include when it hits store shelves on...
...Hello? Bestofmedia legal department? Oh, I can't say that? Bah, what a bunch of party poopers!
Well, I can promise you that we'll be seeing this hardware soon enough. In fact, we're close enough that if you've been in a holding pattern for your next mid-range platform, you might as well wait to see the real performance attributes of Core i5 and boards like this one: Asus' P7P55D Evo.
In the pages that follow, we'll take a trip around the platform to talk about the new LGA 1156 socket interface, a reversion to dual-channel memory, multi-graphics card support via PCI Express, and the possibility of 6 Gb/s SATA accompanying the upcoming launch.
Think of i7 as Xeon 5500-series and it makes a little more sense. That was Intel's high-performance breakout of what it was planning in the workstation/server market, really.
I want a i5 now. =D
The board is very clean looking. Hope they keep up the perfect professional look (such as the 15 phase power, which looks very sexy all neatly organized, and the colour scheme).
That basically is the south bridge that you see. P55 is a single chip motherboard. Most if not all of the north bridge has been moved onto the cpu.
This was exactly my reasoning for NOT waiting for the i5 and instead building an i7 machine.
When the new 40nm cards come out I want to put triple SLI into my rig, and i5 just wouldn't handle that well.
Still, for a mid range machine this looks promising. If/when they develop some micro boards for the i5 I can see it making a nice HTPC.
Only reason I would consider the i5 better than my i7 rig is if it's considerabley cooler running. In the summertime my i7 heats up my entire office and with the thermostat on the otherside of my downstairs I have to keep the rest of the house at 68 degrees just to hit 74-76 in my office.