P55 motherboards

nathanc · 16 Sep 2009 at 15:19

Why are there so few reviews of P55 motherboards on the net... have they not *officially* been released yet?

And whilst I'm on the subject, it really annoys me that review sites rarely get sent samples of mainstream boards (especially during a new product release like this)... it's as if the manufacturers think consumers only buy high end boards!

I'm trying to put a Lynfield system together for a friend in time for Win7 but I've no idea what board to go for. I like to purchase products based on their merits not just cos I prefer one manufacturer other another!!

ben90 · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:14

From what I have heard the Gigabyte range is very good for their price.

ally · 20 Sep 2009 at 14:09

yeah im lookin at the gigabyte boards, theres a lot of choice tho :/

WJA96 · 20 Sep 2009 at 14:23

From current results i5 is a major disappointment. The motherboards are very expensive, the CPU doesn't appear to clock especially well and when they are clocked they run very hot.

I would buy a decent S1366 system instead. Yes, it'll cost £100-£150 more, but almost every D0 920 out there clocks to 4GHz on low volts and runs cool, and the X58 chipset itself is better.

A 920D0, ASUS P6T and 6GB of Patriot Viper RAM can be had for £470 and is pretty much guaranteed to get you 4GHz at reasonable temperatures and has the full compliment of 16x PCIe 2.0 slots which could be important if you intend to run CrossFireX or SLi in future.

A 750, ASUS P7P55D motherboard and 4Gb of 1600MHz G.Skill Ripjaw RAM will cost £340, but there is a good chance it won't hit 4GHz without custom water cooling and ultimately it's a slower CPU.