Best Mid-Range P55 Board Choice?

[CurseTheSky]

I'm looking for a cheap, somewhat basic motherboard for an i7 860 or i5 750. I don't want anything TOO basic, as I may do overclocking, Crossfire, etc. in the future. Frills like a CMOS reset button on the back panel, SPDIF out, eSATA on the back panel, on / reset buttons, etc. are all a plus. Fewer legacy ports (PS/2, IDE, parallel, serial, etc.) is also a plus. I went over the specs on the charts here (ASUS) and here (Gigabyte), but it's hard to determine exactly what the pros and cons of each board are - especially UD3P vs. UD3R. Can anyone clarify?

The board MUST support AHCI. I'm not sure if that's standard with P55, but I know in the past you had to get ICHx-R rather than vanilla ICHx.

Price wise, I'm trying to stick in the $130-140 range, but I'd consider jumping a bit higher if the board had an excellent feature the cheaper versions do not.

Any suggestions?

 

[makdaddy626]

Do you mean UD3L vs UD3R? I'm not seeing a UD3P listed...

The R has 2 extras SATA connections and the rear panel eSata connections compared to the L, neither offer Crossfire or SLI support (jump up to the UD4R for that). My opinion on the Asus vs. Gigabyte thing is the same as the old Ford vs. Chevy argument... some people like one, some people like the other and there doesn't have to be a good reason for it. I've been using Gigabyte alot recently and continue to only because I'm more familiar with their BIOS options and quirks, not because I really think they are "better".

 

[CurseTheSky]

Weird - maybe the UD3P is coming out later, or got scrapped for the final lineup (it's listed in the chart in my original post). Here's the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R and here's the ASUS P7P55D

 

[fleflikr]

-for crossfire you must jump up to gigabyte ud4 series or asus p7p55d pro
to take advantage of the dual x8/x8 mode

-both boards support ahci

 

[SmCaudata]

The ASRock Extreme looks like a nice board as well. It is in the price range of these boards but is closer to the ud4 for options. It also has the clear CMOS switch and some of the other things that you said you wanted.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Originally posted by: SmCaudata
The ASRock Extreme looks like a nice board as well. It is in the price range of these boards but is closer to the ud4 for options. It also has the clear CMOS switch and some of the other things that you said you wanted.

Very true. I have limited experience with ASRock, but the motherboard does have a nice feature set for the price. I'm also considering the Gigabyte P55M-UD4 (mATX), since it's only $10 more than the UD3R and has better features. The only down side is the fact that I'd lose both the PCI-E x4 slot and the PCI slot if I went with two dual-slot graphics cards. So, no optional sound card, wireless card, SATA card, etc.

 

[SmCaudata]

Here's the deluxe reviewed. Deluxe has more power phases and the add on SATA3 card. The extreme carries a feature set like the UD4. The Pro has a feature set like the UD3. Basically the equivalent ASRock boards give you features that are on the next step up price wise from the other vendors. The x58 ASRock is a good board, they have been pretty good as of late.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...5-Deluxe-Review/b2.htm

 

[lopri]

Might as well wait for AT's round-ups. That's what I'm doing.

 

[ekoostik]

Think we can expect AT's roundup this week? I'm itching to start a new build this weekend.

 

[yacoub]

At this rate we might even see the ATi 5870 review before the P55 mobo roundup.

But i'm hoping the delay is because the P55/Nvidia GPU issue has been identified and fixed and Gary's updating the article with the new data.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Originally posted by: yacoub
But i'm hoping the delay is because the P55/Nvidia GPU issue has been identified and fixed and Gary's updating the article with the new data.

Please elaborate on that. Is there an issue for single GPUs, or just SLI?

 

[yacoub]

Read the articles an blogposts Anand and Gary have posted in the past two weeks. There appears to be a driver issue that hampers 3D performance when running NVidia hardware/drivers on P55 boards. But it's inconsistent. Everyone who's everyone is looking into it. I'm betting the delay is because a solution has been found, tested, and distributed to Anand/Gary, and they are benchmarking the NVidia GPU again and updating the article accordingly before release. That's the only real explanation for the two week delay.

 

[memo]

Originally posted by: lopri
Might as well wait for AT's round-ups. That's what I'm doing.

I've been at the edge of my seat these past two weeks waiting for this round up. Hope it comes out soon!

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: SmCaudata
Here's the deluxe reviewed. Deluxe has more power phases and the add on SATA3 card. The extreme carries a feature set like the UD4. The Pro has a feature set like the UD3. Basically the equivalent ASRock boards give you features that are on the next step up price wise from the other vendors. The x58 ASRock is a good board, they have been pretty good as of late.

http://www.ocworkbench.com/200...5-Deluxe-Review/b2.htm

Is that vcore a bit in that review for i5? I thought the max vcore was like 1.35v?

What is the max vcore for the i7 860?