ASUS P7P55 Pro Motherboard in Pretty Pixels

[btarunr]

One of the first mid-range motherboards by ASUS, the P7P55 Pro smiled for the camera at XFastest. The motherboard comes across as yet another shining example of how simple Intel has made the motherboard by relocating the northbridge to the CPU package. The LGA-1156 socket CPU is powered by an 8+2 phase power circuit. Four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3 memory, and use the click-slot retention mechanism the company experimented with, on the Rampage II Gene. The DIMM retention notches are available only on one side of the slot, creating uninterrupted room for a PCI-Express graphics card.

The board provides two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots (electrically x16, x4), two PCI-E x1, and three PCI slots. The P55 PCH provides six SATA II ports, while an extra one, along with an IDE channel and an eSATA port are provided by an external controller. 8-channel audio and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of the mix. The way the SKU is named, tells us that this could be a successor for the P5Q-Pro, one of the most popular P45 motherboards by the company.



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[thebeephaha]

Oh now that is nice isn't it.

I like how there is no NB and that you get to use all the available slot spaces.

I also like the color scheme.

 

[DanishDevil]

Nice color scheme. A little skimpy on the heatsinks for my liking, I would rather see right angle SATA ports, and I'd also like dual x16 2.0 PCI-E lanes, but hey. I'm nitpicking.

 

[legends84]

nice board.. does this come with SLI/CF like X58? or just CF?

 

[lemonadesoda]

Mainboard looks quite spartan! Neat and tidy.

But isnt the i5/s1156 best suited to mATX and non-performance applications like "consumer" and "office" machines? Just does seem the right starting point for crossfire/SLI.

However, if these things FLY on performance, it would be great to see some benchmarks.

 

[DanishDevil]

Well, are Core 2 Duos meant for "consumer" and "office" machines? Yes, but some people also like to push them. Core i5 will take the place of Core 2 Duo, and Core i7 will take the place of Core 2 Quad basically. At least that's the way I see it. I can still see a very good market segment for performance Core i5 boards. Not everybody is willing to shell out almost $600 for a new CPU/Mobo/RAM, including me.

nice board.. does this come with SLI/CF like X58? or just CF?

Any board with multiple PCI-Ex16 slots supports Crossfire because it is software-based. nVidia SLi requires that there be a chip on the board that nVidia has allowed to be SLi compatible, and I don't think that's the case with this board. Crossfire only.

 

[alexp999]

Core i7 takes the place of Intel Extreme Editions (QX9xxx), Core i5, will still cover the mainstream "core 2 quad" markey

 

[DanishDevil]

I'm not 100% sure I agree with that, but that does argue my side even more. I think once Core i5 is out and isn't super new, the low-end Core i7's will be about the price that a Q6600 was for a while, and that Core i5 quads will be in a similar price range, with Core i5 dual cores (4 threads) under them. QX chips have always been well over $300, and with the 920's dipping down to $200/ea, Core i5 will bring those prices down IMO.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Are there any benchmarks for i5, esp. i5 vs. i7 vs. Core 2?

 

[btarunr]

Nice color scheme. A little skimpy on the heatsinks for my liking, I would rather see right angle SATA ports, and I'd also like dual x16 2.0 PCI-E lanes, but hey. I'm nitpicking.

The PCH heatsink should be sufficient as it's not much more than a southbridge in terms of what it does. With the VRM however, I agree. ASUS and Gigabyte off late, have discovered that they can make heatsinks with large heat-source contact areas, and then cheap out by using slightly longer slanted aluminum ribs (which end up being less in number compared to if the heatsink had straight ones.) Then again, with so many phases, the VRM should be cool.

Any board with multiple PCI-Ex16 slots supports Crossfire because it is software-based. nVidia SLi requires that there be a chip on the board that nVidia has allowed to be SLi compatible, and I don't think that's the case with this board. Crossfire only.

Not any. NVIDIA nForce doesn't support CrossFire. And SLI is as much software-based as CrossFire. Think SLI on X58+ICH10R motherboards.

 

[DanishDevil]

The PCH heatsink should be sufficient as it's not much more than a southbridge in terms of what it does. With the VRM however, I agree. ASUS and Gigabyte off late, have discovered that they can make heatsinks with large heat-source contact areas, and then cheap out by using slightly longer slanted aluminum ribs (which end up being less in number compared to if the heatsink had straight ones.) Then again, with so many phases, the VRM should be cool.

They'll probably warm up quite a bit under overclocking, though. It's unfortunate to see them skimping on something as cheap as aluminum. I'm sure they spent money designing those heatsinks, and if they sold the board for an extra $10 with better heatsinks, their profit margin would be higher I bet.

Not any. NVIDIA nForce doesn't support CrossFire. And SLI is as much software-based as CrossFire. Think SLI on X58+ICH10R motherboards.

That's only because nVidia let X58 support it though. Until then, you had to have an nVidia chip on the motherboard. Hopefully they will keep the trend going and allow Intel's boards to run SLI.

Didn't know about nForce. I was fairly certain that the board didn't matter as long as it was physically possible.

 

[btarunr]

That's only because nVidia let X58 support it though.

How else do you think they "let" X58 support it? by letting NVIDIA drivers see X58 as a "qualified platform". It's not that X58 has any special hardware that makes SLI possible.

 

[DanishDevil]

Yeah, I was just pointing out that until X58, they locked SLI support to boards with nVidia chips. I should have specifically mentioned X58 as the exception.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

X58, the Skulltrail boards, and I think that crazy Asus Z7 something (not certain atm) could do sli and are intel.
You can thank nVidia for keeping it to themselves for so long the greedy bathtards, they get what they deserve now not being able to have a chipset for Nehalem architecture.
I mean this sincerely, im not a hater, I actually only buy nVidia graphics, but fact is a fact and they were the ones to horde it (sli) to only their inferior chipsets for so long.

 

[Mussels]

Any i5 board with SLI support yet?

The only reason Nv let i7 do SLI, is beacuse they dont have a chipset licence for i5/i7, so they had to let someone elses chipset support SLI.

 

[iStink]

That's a great looking board. Buying a board like that would make me wish I had a clear side panel instead of 2 250mm fans lol

 

[btarunr]

Update: Those slots are x16, x4 electrically, not dual-x8 when both are populated.

 

[Mussels]

16, 4? gay! we need 8x 8x !

 

[NastyHabits]

If ASUS treats the P55 like the P45, we should see alot more variations. The color scheme is super.

 

[Mussels]

If ASUS treats the P55 like the P45, we should see alot more variations. The color scheme is super.

also knowing asus, any 8x/8x board will have it setup so you lose every damned expansion slot when running dual graphics cards. they can never get it right.

 

[WarEagleAU]

Loving the board and also how Intel has put the NB on the cpu. I think AMD is doing the same thing but they havent released a board or proc yet. Love the color scheme too. Is it me, or does Asus do some of the most original and cool looking heatsinks for Mobos?

 

[Hayder_Master]

im still afraid from P55 chipset , cuz i think LGA 775 p45 have better performance , and i hope im wrong

 

[Assimilator]

Excellent layout and nice colour scheme, but I have to agree that right-angled SATA connectors and 8x/8x would make it almost perfect. Honestly, how much does it cost to add the hardware to allow for 8x/8x switching?

Also, LOL @ the CPU socket protection plate being made by Foxconn.

 

[Mussels]

Loving the board and also how Intel has put the NB on the cpu. I think AMD is doing the same thing but they havent released a board or proc yet. Love the color scheme too. Is it me, or does Asus do some of the most original and cool looking heatsinks for Mobos?

AMD has had the northbridge in the CPU since socket 754, technically they've just had a power hungry southbridge. (a northbridge by definition contains a memory controller)

 

[Duncan1]

Some close pics of this baby can be found here (weird, I can't find them @XF)