Hi Folks, I have pretty much settled on an i7-860 and was trying to figure out which motherboard to get. Note that I have a single GPU and will be doing no overclocking - use is pretty much office work with huge Word and Excel docs, some photoshop and web work, and things like AAC-encoding with iTunes and amateur video work. I've narrowed it down to the $135 P55A-UD3, $160 P55A-UD3P, and $185 P55-UD4P. I know the 3P and 4P come with eSata slots - don't currently use it but nice to have. Also, the 4P comes with firewire, again, nice to have but not critical. Other than that...
1. What does the "P" mean? Any noteable extras besides eSata?
2. What are VRM phases? I noticed the UD3 comes with 4?, the UD3P and UD4P with 12.
3. UD4P supports DDR3 1600, the UD3 and UD3P do not have that listed. Will they only run 1600 in 1333 mode?
4. UD3 comes with RealTek ALC 888 codec, the UD3P and UD4P with the 889 - is the 889 that much better? Seems to support Dolby while the 888 does not?
5. Slots - the UD3 and UD3P have two x16 (an x16 and an x4), two x1 and three regular PCI. The UDP4 has two x16 (an x16 and an x8), three x1 and two regular PCI. I will confess, this is pretty confusing to me. I am running a single GPU with no add-on cards so does this really matter at all? I did note that the UD3P mentions the lowering of the first x16 slot from x16 to x8 and disabling of the second x16 when the SATA3/USB3 is enabled; the UD3 mentions only the lowering of the first x16 to 8x, and the UD4P says when both x16 slots are filled the SATA3/USB3 will only work in normal mode. These inconsistencies accurate?
6. As mentioned, the UD3P and UD4P have the JMB362 SATA2 chip supporting eSATA, the UD3 does not have this.
7. Internals - the UD4P has a "PCH chip fan header" the UD3 and UD3P do not, not sure what this is; also adds 1394 firewire.
8. Smart TPM - UD3P and UD4P, UD3 skips this - not quite sure what this is, something to do with encryption?
9. "XHD Technology" - mentions speeding up hard drives, again not quite sure what this is.
10. What is "AHCI"?
With the exception of the above mentioned, any of the three have any reliability or stability issues more than any of the others?
Thanks for any and all advice - looking to put this together at the end of the month.
PS - looks like the 3P and 4P come with 4 sata cables, the UD3 only two.
1. What does the "P" mean? Any noteable extras besides eSata?
2. What are VRM phases? I noticed the UD3 comes with 4?, the UD3P and UD4P with 12.
3. UD4P supports DDR3 1600, the UD3 and UD3P do not have that listed. Will they only run 1600 in 1333 mode?
4. UD3 comes with RealTek ALC 888 codec, the UD3P and UD4P with the 889 - is the 889 that much better? Seems to support Dolby while the 888 does not?
5. Slots - the UD3 and UD3P have two x16 (an x16 and an x4), two x1 and three regular PCI. The UDP4 has two x16 (an x16 and an x8), three x1 and two regular PCI. I will confess, this is pretty confusing to me. I am running a single GPU with no add-on cards so does this really matter at all? I did note that the UD3P mentions the lowering of the first x16 slot from x16 to x8 and disabling of the second x16 when the SATA3/USB3 is enabled; the UD3 mentions only the lowering of the first x16 to 8x, and the UD4P says when both x16 slots are filled the SATA3/USB3 will only work in normal mode. These inconsistencies accurate?
6. As mentioned, the UD3P and UD4P have the JMB362 SATA2 chip supporting eSATA, the UD3 does not have this.
7. Internals - the UD4P has a "PCH chip fan header" the UD3 and UD3P do not, not sure what this is; also adds 1394 firewire.
8. Smart TPM - UD3P and UD4P, UD3 skips this - not quite sure what this is, something to do with encryption?
9. "XHD Technology" - mentions speeding up hard drives, again not quite sure what this is.
10. What is "AHCI"?
With the exception of the above mentioned, any of the three have any reliability or stability issues more than any of the others?
Thanks for any and all advice - looking to put this together at the end of the month.
PS - looks like the 3P and 4P come with 4 sata cables, the UD3 only two.
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