EVGA's P55 Motherboard Lineup Detailed

[btarunr]

Although not as old as someone like ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, or DFI, in the motherboards scene, EVGA's recent motherboards have shown the company has very quickly matured and can look other companies in the eye, when it comes to enthusiast-grade motherboards for DIY system builders. Recently, the EVGA P55 FTW aka 132-LF-E657 earned some media coverage. The rest of the lineup, top to bottom, includes: P55 Classified 200, P55 FTW 200 (141-LF-E658-KR), P55 SLI (132-LF-E655-KR), P55 LE (123-LF-E653-KR), and the P55 Micro (121-LF-E652-KR).

The P55 Classified 200, and P55 FTW 200 carry nForce 200 bridge chips that make 3-way SLI possible, and faster. While not much is known about the Classified, it intends to roof the lineup with every enthusiast-grade feature available. One of the distinct features include a "Show Volt" panel, that eliminates the need for a multi-meter to physically read voltages. An LED display on the NE corner of the board displays voltages, as the probes connect to various voltage readout points. The P55 FTW 200 features four PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots in all, to support 3-way SLI. It electrical lane arrangement is detailed in the slide below. Like the Classified 200 and P55 FTW, this one supports the EVbot (discussed later).



Without a supplementary bridge chip in place, P55 SLI suits most 2-way SLI setups with two PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots (x8, x8) to drive graphics, and a third one for dedicated PhysX. It gets skimpier with the P55 LE, that should do fine for single graphics card setups, with a second PCI-E x16 (x4) slot that suits PhysX accelerators. Finally, there's the P55 Micro, which, as the name suggests is a micro-ATX board with features similar to the P55 SLI, albeit in a smaller package.



First spotted with the P55 FTW, the EVbot is a gadget similar to ASUS' OC Palm, that provides on the fly overclocking controls outside the system's display and control. The EVbot connects to the motherboard using a special connector on the rear-panel. The connector is only found on the P55 Classified 200, P55 FTW 200, and P55 FTW. A user interface similar to that of a '90s mobile phone lets users control a variety of low-level system settings including voltages and frequencies.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[a111087]

wait, there is 2 X 8 pins for CPU power on first board?

 

[kid41212003]

There is mounting "holes" for CPU socket 775 .

 

[human_error]

wait, there is 2 X 8 pins for CPU power on first board?

Yep. It seems a little odd to put them on tbh - cpus need less and less power as their dies shrink, but i guess some people will want some mega-awesome overclocks needing a lot of power.

I do like that first mobo - nice look and cpu temp shown on the board is kinda useful, but since i have a 1366 i7 i won't be needing any of these boards, oh well...

 

[LittleLizard]

the p55 le looks rather nice for a basic build

 

[Kenshai]

Anyone else get a good laugh at the "pulasting led"?

 

[johnnyfiive]

Anyone else get a good laugh at the "pulasting led"?

I did,

 

[boomstik360]

My classified e759 had that, it was cool to look at Just sold it though

 

[OnBoard]

the p55 le looks rather nice for a basic build

It sure does and the ability to use your old S775 cooler is a nice plus. I'd be tempted to go for it, if I was upgrading. Nice layout and no "useless" extras to bring price up.

 

[werez]

Well that can be problematic if you apply to much pressure when mounting your H&F . Taking a Prolima Megahalems cooler for example ( 790g without fans ) . That`s 1K mounted horizontally , i don`t know ... the Prolima retention mechanism i pretty solid , but over time the motherboard may suffer damage ( bending , the area around the mounting hole can yield if subjected to high pressure over time ) . Also it can be problematic for someone who changes HSF's frequently .
I may be wrong , but durability is important to me . Around here physical damage caused by improper mounting of a third party heatsink is not covered by warranty so i can't risk mounting a bigass cooler in there .

 

[OnBoard]

Well that can be problematic if you apply to much pressure when mounting your H&F . Taking a Prolima Megahalems cooler for example ( 790g without fans ) . That`s 1K mounted horizontally , i don`t know ... the Prolima retention mechanism i pretty solid , but over time the motherboard may suffer damage ( bending , the area around the mounting hole can yield if subjected to high pressure over time ) . Also it can be problematic for someone who changes HSF's frequently .
I may be wrong , but durability is important to me . Around here physical damage caused by improper mounting of a third party heatsink is not covered by warranty so i can't risk mounting a bigass cooler in there .

Well in my cooler the mounting hardware stays there if you remove the cooler. Megahalems pretty much copied the Thermalright Ultima-90/IFX-14 mounting system. (edit: this is LGA1366 mount brace, but same thing on S775 http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_p...uct_accessories_btk.html#ifx-14lga1366boltnew)

And for me it's Weight:460g. Featherweight compared to current coolers. One of the reasons I bought this compared to others, though main reason was that case at the time couldn't with TRUE sized coolers

You talk about bending, have you installed Intel stock coolers recently outside the case Those things are horrid, bend the mobo like no other and require inhumane strength to push the pins in place. I'll take third party heatsink with a backplate, even heavy one, any day over stock cooler

 

[werez]

i think we all agree on the fact that the Intel stock HSF is crap and if i`m not mistaking they made it even smaller for the P55 ( i might be wrong )

 

[zithe]

Ooh, I like this. Continue with the good color schemes!