Enthusiast P55: Eight LGA 1156 Boards Between $150 And $200

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Features Overview

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Sub-$200 Core i5/i7 Motherboard Features
	ASRock P55 Deluxe	Asus P7P55D EVO	Biostar TPower I55	EVGA P55 SLI
PCB Revision	1.06	1.06G	5.1	1.0
Chipset	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express
Voltage Regulator	18 Phases (16+2)	14 Phases (12+2)	12 Phases (8+4)	10 Phases (8+2)
BIOS	1.70 (09/15/2009)	0711 (09/24/2009)	080015 (09/05/2009)	080016 (10/02/2009)
133.3 MHz BCLK	139.6 MHz (+4.7%)	133.7 MHz (+0.28%)	133.3 MHz (+0.0%)	133.2 MHz (-0.10%)
Clock Generator	ICS 9LPRS140CKLF	ICS 9LPRS140CKLF	RTM85N-914	ICS 9LPRS139AKLF
Internal Interfaces
PCIe 2.0 x16	3 (x16/x1/x4, x8/x8/x4)	3 (x16/x1/x4, x8/x8/x4)	2 (1 x x16 or 2 x x8)	3 (x16/x1/x4, x8/x8/x4)
PCIe x1/x4	1/0	2/0	1/1	1/0
Legacy PCI	3	2	2	2
USB 2.0	3 (6 ports)	3 (6 ports)	3 (6 ports)	3 (6 ports)
IEEE-1394	1	1	1	1
SerialPort	1	1	None	None
ParallelPort	None	None	No	No
Floppy	Yes	No	Yes	No
Ultra-ATA 133	1 (2-drives)	1 (2 drives)	1 (2 drives)	None
SATA 3.0Gb/s	6	8	6	6
4-Pin Fan	2	2	1	1
3-Pin Fan	3	2	2	5
FP Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CD Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
S/PDIF I/O	Output Only	Output Only	Output Only	Both
Power Button	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reset Button	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CLR_CMOS Button	Jumper Only	Jumper Only	Jumper Only	Yes
Diagnostics Panel	Numeric	Pass/Fail LEDs	Numeric	Numeric
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2	2	2	1	1
USB 2.0	8 (1 Shared w/eSATA)	8	8	6
IEEE-1394	1	1	1	1
Network	Dual (with teaming)	Dual (with teaming)	Dual	Dual
eSATA	1 (Shared with USB)	1	2	2
CLR_CMOS Button	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Digital Audio Out	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial
Digital Audio In	None	None	None	None
Analog Audio	6	6	6	6
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA	6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA 3.0Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Add-In SATA	JMB363 PCIe 1 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s	JMB363 PCIe 1 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s 1 x SATA to JMB322 JMB322 to 2x SATA	JMB363 PCIe 2 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s	88SE6121 PCIe 2 x eSATA 3.0Gb/s
Add-In Ultra ATA	JMB363 PCIe	JMB363 PCIe	JMB363 PCIe	None
IEEE-1394	VT6308S PCI 2 x 400Mb/s	VT6308P PCI 2 x 400Mb/s	LSI L-FW3227-100 PCI 2 x 400Mb/s	TSB43AB22A 2 x 400Mb/s
Gigabit Ethernet
Primary LAN	RTL8111DL PCIe	RTL8112L PCIe	Intel WG82578DC PHY	88E8057 PCIe
Secondary LAN	RTL8111DL PCIe	RTL810SC PCI	RTL8111DL PCIe	88E8057 PCIe
Audio
HD Audio Codec	ALC890B	VIA VT1828S	ALC888S	ALC889

Setting a 133 MHz base clock on the ASRock P55 Deluxe enables the firm's Intelligent Overclocking Technology function, even when that function has been disabled. Instead choosing a 134 MHz base clock disables I.O.T., but gives ASRock a slight speed advantage in the benchmarks. We’ll keep that slight advantage in mind when discussing result charts.

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Sub-$200 Core i5/i7 Motherboard Features
	Foxconn Inferno Katana GTI	Jetway HI05	Gigabyte P55-UD4P	MSI P55-GD65
PCB Revision	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Northbridge	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express	Intel P55 Express
Voltage Regulator	10 Phases (8+2)	8 Phases (7+1)	10 Phases (6+4)	7 Phases (6+1)
BIOS	080015 (09/17/2009)	080015 (09/04/2009)	F4r (09/18/2009)	1.3 (09/03/2009)
133.3 MHz BCLK	133.7 MHz (+0.28%)	133.3 MHz (+0.0%)	132.9 MHz (-0.32%)	133.7 MHz (+0.28%)
Clock Generator	ICS RS4105BL	ICS 9LPRS919HKL	ICS 9LPRS914EKLF	MSI LRS4116AL
Internal Interfaces
PCIe 2.0 x16	3 (x16/x1/x4, x8/x8/x4)	2 (1 x x16 or 2 x x8)	2 (1 x x16 or 2 x x8)	2 (1 x x16 or 2 x x8)
PCIe x1/x4	2/0	2/0	3/0	2/1
Legacy PCI	1	3	2	2
USB 2.0	3 (6 ports)	3 (6 ports)	2 (4 ports)	3 (6 ports)
IEEE-1394	None	0	1	1
SerialPort	None	1	1	1
ParallelPort	None	1	1	None
Floppy	No	No	Yes	Yes
Ultra-ATA 133	1 (2 drives)	1 (2 drives)	1 (2 drives)	1 (2 drives)
SATA 3.0Gb/s	6	6	8	7
4-Pin Fan	1	1	2	1
3-Pin Fan	5	2	3	3
FP Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
CD Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
S/PDIF I/O	Output Only	Output Only	Both	Output Only
Power Button	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Reset Button	Yes	Yes	No	No
CLR_CMOS Button	Jumper Only	Yes	Jumper Only	Jumper Only
Diagnostics Panel	Numeric	Numeric	No	No
I/O Panel Connectors
P/S 2	1	1	1	2
USB 2.0	8	8	10	8 (1 Shared w/eSATA)
IEEE-1394	None	None	2	1
Network	Single	Dual	Dual (with teaming)	Dual
eSATA	None	1	2	1 (Shared with USB)
CLR_CMOS Button	Yes	Yes	No	No
Digital Audio Out	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial	Optical+Coaxial
Digital Audio In	None	None	None	None
Analog Audio	6	6	6	6
Mass Storage Controllers
Chipset SATA	6 x SATA3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA3.0Gb/s	6 x SATA3.0Gb/s
Chipset RAID Modes	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10	0, 1, 5, 10
Add-In SATA	None	JMB363 PCIe 1 x eSATA3.0Gb/s	JMB363 PCIe 2 x SATA3.0Gb/s JMB362 PCIe 2 x eSATA3.0Gb/s	JMB363 PCIe 1 x SATA3.0Gb/s 1 x eSATA3.0Gb/s
Add-In Ultra ATA	88SE6111 PCIe	JMB363 PCIe	JMB363 PCIe	JMB363 PCIe
IEEE-1394	None	None	TSB43AB23 PCI 3 x 400Mb/s	VT6315N PCIe 2 x 400Mb/s
Gigabit Ethernet
Primary LAN	RTL8111DL PCIe	WG82578DC PHY	RTL8111D PCIe	RTL8111DL PCIe
Secondary LAN	None	RTL8111DL PCIe	None	None
Audio
HD Audio Codec	ALC888S	ALC888	ALC889A	ALC889

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Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.

60 Comments Comment from the forums

enzo matrix

interesting
Reply
skora

There's two market segments. Once you get the features you need, there's overclockers, and stock users. I've never seen a mobo recommended based on its application performance and all thats looked at is how well it OCs. Hopefully, people read the article and don't just go buying biostar expecting the regular quality of gigabyte or asus though the asus is a little overpriced here for my taste. That $25 can go towards a better GPU, but I'm a gamer.
Reply
Crashman

enzo matrixinteresting
Gigabyte had some additional interesting news about the new P55A-UD4P, where the addition of the letter "A" supposedly means "Advanced" and refers to the addition of SATA 6.0 Gb/s and USB 3.0 controllers. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready when the comparison was written. The "A" also cost slightly more.
Reply
ibnsina

For $15 more is best to go for the newly released Giga-byte GA-P55A-UD4P, the extra’s you get are:-

2 x USB 3.0
2 x SATA 6Gb/s.

$184.99 on newegg.
Reply
Crashman

ibnsinaFor $15 more is best to go for the newly released Giga-byte GA-P55A-UD4P, the extra’s you get are:-2 x USB 3.0 2 x SATA 6Gb/s.$184.99 on newegg.
$15 for all that sounds great, unless those features are useless to you. SATA 6.0 Gb/s will remain completely useless until long after the board is outdated, and USB 3.0 is nothing more than an eSATA substitute at the moment.
Reply
apache_lives

Why do we bitch about IDE and FDD connectors? If your using windows xp and IDE hdd/dvd drives your should be ashamed, and even then you can get USB floppys etc, and if you are using those fittings you are not getting the true performance out of your modern system, and IDE also makes boot times longer thanks to detection and legacy delays - cudos to those who ditch those ports in an effort to modernise modern systems, and to those who keep them - its like adding ISA ports to the board - times up.
Reply
cahl

The new P55A-UD4P has better power phasing, 12+2 vs 8+2 on the old gigabyte UD4P, and probably more stuff aswell, like the LOTES socket, well worth the extra $15 to me.
Reply
bigballinggpr

You don't bring up MSI's board at all in the conclusion. . . i'm a little curious as to what your final thoughts are on it.
Reply
Crashman

apache_livesWhy do we bitch about IDE and FDD connectors? If your using windows xp and IDE hdd/dvd drives your should be ashamed, and even then you can get USB floppys etc, and if you are using those fittings you are not getting the true performance out of your modern system, and IDE also makes boot times longer thanks to detection and legacy delays - cudos to those who ditch those ports in an effort to modernise modern systems, and to those who keep them - its like adding ISA ports to the board - times up.
You mean complain? Like you're complaining right now? It's all a matter of logic: There are probably more Windows XP users carrying over their old OS into a new build than there are Ultra ATA users carrying over their ancient hard drives. Therefor, the floppy interface, as outdated as it is, is more useful than the Ultra ATA interface.

The problem as described is that you PAY for an Ultra ATA controller. Why bother? Even if you're an XP devotee you probably don't WANT to pay for an Ultra ATA connector.

But for most motherboards, the floppy interface is free. It doesn't slow down boot times or performance either, if you don't need it you can ignore it.

Well, maybe you can't ignore it, but a logic dictates over emotion in reviews.

THG has no reason to love or hate the floppy connector, no stake in the legacy OS game, but anyone reader who wants to play the hater deserves to be called out for it. As for the manufacturers, honest reporting is Tom's Hardware's goal. Personally, I like the fact that some manufacturers provide legacy features and others don't, both types of products work well.
Reply
doomtomb

with only a single PS/2 port left behind to support the older mice occasionally preferred by seasoned gamers

This is from the page on the EVGA P55 but you can clearly see it is a purple PS/2 port which is for keyboards... lol
Reply

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