Gigabyte High-End P55 Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

With the industry inching closer to the launch of Intel's Core i5 series processors, motherboard vendors are busy readying waves of motherboards to go with the processors' launch. Earlier in March, a picture of Gigabyte's first P55 chipset motherboard, the GA-IBP surfaced. The pictured then revealed a motherboard based on the Ultra Durable 2 component package. At an overclocking event in Los Angeles, Gigabyte unveiled a second motherboard. This one, yet to be named, is up to date with the Ultra Durable 3 package, a seemingly powerful CPU VRM design, support for dual-channel DDR3 memory, dual-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, an additional storage controller for four SATA ports over the six P55 offers, among standard features. The expansion slots on this board include three full-length PCI-Express slots, the first (blue) one being of full x16 bandwidth that shares 8 lanes with the first orange slot if populated, while the second orange slot is electrically x4, and probably connected to the P55 PCH. No other details have emerged about this board, though we're keeping track of things.



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[qwerty_lesh]

Looks oddly like a short version of my x58-ud5 Nice mainstream mobo. They should have a naming contest
I would call it the GA-EP55-UD3R.

 

[csendesmark]

Nice!
Single chip mobo

My suggestion: GA-EP55-UD3P

edit:
I can see a floppy connetor, why are they putting it on? Who is using floppy today?

 

[Imsochobo]

Whats the real diffrence between core i5 and core i7 except dualchannel/trichannel memory and socket ?

Core i5 runs P55

 

[farlex85]

I wish they would stop loading as many pci x16 slots as they can on there. 2 ought to cover it for the vast majority. A couple more pci or pci x1 would be more useful imo.

 

[ShadowFold]

Is the south bridge even gonna run hot?.. The SB cooling looks intrusive and annoying. The VRM cooling looks ok tho.

 

[z1tu]

Sorry for not knowing but is the SB the one with the radiator that says Gigabyte on it? Cause if it is I have a similar one on my mobo and it's hot as hell

 

[ShadowFold]

Sorry for not knowing but is the SB the one with the radiator that says Gigabyte on it? Cause if it is I have a similar one on my mobo and it's hot as hell

That's because gigabyte's old AMD boards were some of the poorest boards made. I had two of their 780G boards and they both died because the nb got too hot. The P55 doesn't have a northbridge but I can't imagine that the SB would get hot at all.

 

[z1tu]

That's because gigabyte's old AMD boards were some of the poorest boards made. I had two of their 780G boards and they both died because the nb got too hot. The P55 doesn't have a northbridge but I can't imagine that the SB would get hot at all.

So is the southbridge the one with the radiator that says gigabyte on it or not

 

[ShadowFold]

Yea..

 

[z1tu]

Yea..

Should I be worried that it runs really hot?

 

[ShadowFold]

If they're like what's out now then no

 

[z1tu]

ok thanks and sorry for the off topic

 

[Assimilator]

I wish they would stop loading as many pci x16 slots as they can on there. 2 ought to cover it for the vast majority. A couple more pci or pci x1 would be more useful imo.

Don't forget that PCIe is downwards compatible - so if you have a 16x slot, you can plug in a 1x, 4x, 8x or 16x card.

This is a very nice looking board - 10 SATA2 ports plus decent amount of space between the first and second PCIe 16x slots. Do want!

 

[farlex85]

Don't forget that PCIe is downwards compatible - so if you have a 16x slot, you can plug in a 1x, 4x, 8x or 16x card.

This is a very nice looking board - 10 SATA2 ports plus decent amount of space between the first and second PCIe 16x slots. Do want!

That's all fine and good if there was anything else that utilized those slots aside from GPUs. My point was the vast majority of people don't use 3 GPUs, most don't even use 2. It isn't even really "compatibility" w/ lesser electrical PCI X, it's intentional crippling so you have to pay more for full x16 slots elsewhere.

But I suppose there's room so why not.

 

[SystemViper]

That's all fine and good if there was anything else that utilized those slots aside from GPUs. My point was the vast majority of people don't use 3 GPUs, most don't even use 2. It isn't even really "compatibility" w/ lesser electrical PCI X, it's intentional crippling so you have to pay more for full x16 slots elsewhere.

But I suppose there's room so why not.

Bingo, that is why i got the Asus Gene, they upgraded the PWM to 16 phase and some other minor changes, oh besides it being Matx,

but it;s a killer mobo.


I love the space you gain in the case, Except for my benching, i always use single card solutions, so this was the perfect board.

I wonder what Asus has in mind for the sister P55 board to the Gene, prob could be real good....

 

[Sasqui]

What are those two strange looking white and black slots just to the left of the guys pinky?

 

[z1tu]

What are those two strange looking white and black slots just to the left of the guys pinky?

White one is floppy

 

[VIPER]

That's all fine and good if there was anything else that utilized those slots aside from GPUs. My point was the vast majority of people don't use 3 GPUs, most don't even use 2. It isn't even really "compatibility" w/ lesser electrical PCI X, it's intentional crippling so you have to pay more for full x16 slots elsewhere.

But I suppose there's room so why not.

Let's see: TV Tuner, sound card, LAN card, RAID card, this is what I used @work on PCI-E from 1x above...

 

[farlex85]

Let's see: TV Tuner, sound card, LAN card, RAID card, this is what I used @work on PCI-E from 1x above...

Really? those will all fit in those three PCI x16 slots? Links? I've never seen expansion cards that didn't have GPUs on them that would fit in PCI x16 slots. The ones you are referring to are of the PCI and PCI express x1 variety, not what I was talking about.

 

[VIPER]

Not at all. I have PCI-Express 8x RAID cards (from Areca), a lot (and I mean a lot!) of 4x LAN cards from Intel, etc etc.

If a MB has 3 x 16x (physical, at least 8x electrical), I am happy. If not, that MB is not good for me...

 

[farlex85]

Not at all. I have PCI-Express 8x RAID cards (from Areca), a lot (and I mean a lot!) of 4x LAN cards from Intel, etc etc.

Raid cards I can see (although I never have seen them, I don't look for RAID cards often though), LAN cards, tv tuners, and sound cards I can't. I don't disbelieve it, but can you give me some linkies?

 

[VIPER]

There are LAN cards PCI-E 4x with 2 or 4 Gb LAN's on them. Made by Intel (what we use), or by others.

 

[farlex85]

There are LAN cards PCI-E 4x with 2 or 4 Gb LAN's on them. Made by Intel (what we use), or by others.

Like this? Your telling me that goes in the PCI x16 slot?

 

[ShadowFold]

Yes, of course. A PCIE 16x slot can hold a 1x, 4x and 8x length card too.