i3 530 Motherboard, P55 or H55?

lundrog · 18 Jan 2010 at 03:10

I am looking for recommendations for a i3 530 motherboard. Not sure if I should do a P55 or H55.

I am looking for somthing that I can overclock, and that I do not need to do a bios update to use with the i3 530, as I do not have any other CPU's that would work in the board.

I am looking for a motherboard with room for a a LARGE CPU cooler, and I need to put in my GTX 285 in the computer.

I have yet to decide if I should put 8 gb of 1600 and do a mild overclock, or put in 4GB of 2000 or 2200 memory and get a larger OC.

If possible, like it to be under $200.

Thanks

And, yes I saw the other post with a question about these two Chipsets, but I didn't see many answers there yet.

lundrog · 18 Jan 2010 at 03:36

Hotwired said:
H55 supports the onboard graphics in the i3's and the new i5's, the P55's don't.

Agreed, never going to use that, but I have heard that some P55 boards require bios updates.

http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3254#anchor_os

I was trying to make sense of this list for example.

lundrog · 18 Jan 2010 at 22:18

I e-mailede gigabit support and got

"Dear Customer,

I am unable to answer your question. It will depend on the age of inventory from your place of purchase. The i3-530 processor has been validated with BIOS F4. If your motherboard GA-P55A-UD3 has BIOS F4, it will work out of the box. Depending your place of purchase, some retailers offer free upgrading of motherboard BIOSes.

Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products"

so much help...

lundrog · 19 Jan 2010 at 06:37

nightmare99 said:
What did you expect? he gave you all the information he could.

Thanks, I was hopping for some manufacture dates, shipment dates, recommended stores for exact model's, etc. Then I can contact a reseller, requesting specific information.

i'll ask about the usb flash.