Which P55 board?

[Octopuss]

I have been happily using Gigabyte boards for several years, but came to a point where I just cannot choose one I'd like. I want a board with decent OC possibilities, based on P55 chipset, with enough PCI-e slots. I originally wanted to grab GA P55-UD3, but then realized I wouldn't be able to fit all my cards in, because 5850 occupies two slots itself, and then I have LAN card and extra sound card as well. I really wonder what is the logic behind having FOUR PCI slots on modern board in 2010. I just don't get it. I could get something like UD5 or something, but those boards have features I don't need, and the price is like 40% higher than UD3. So it almost looks like I will have to part with Gigabyte, which sucks. What would you recommend in say $150 range? That is roughly what UD3 cost here.

[erocker]

What does the LAN card and sound card use for slots? Planning on CrossFire or anything?

[Octopuss]

Those cards are PCI-e of course.

No Crossfire at all. I am happy with one VGA.
Btw I also heard about limitations of PCI-e lanes, not sure how exactly it with P55 chipset.

[Wrigleyvillain]

If you are only running single gpu you don't need to be concerned about pci-e lanes.

[Octopuss]

Hm, ok. But it still leaves me without a board to buy
I really like the Ultra Durable series by Gigabyte, their performance and OC potential is great. But...

[sneekypeet]

I love my UD6 and UD7, but they are steep in price. There is a used UD6 in our FS section for like $170-175. I hear good things about the UD3 and up as well, but I never tested one personally.

[avatar_raq]

You can buy the UD3 you mentioned, it has -like all new mobos- a built in lan card which works flawlessly, and you'll have enough PCI-e slots left for your sound card. You can use the topmost PCI-e x1 or the 2nd PCI-e x16, if you use the latter you'll limit your VGA to x8 bandwidth, but that'll cost you 2-3% of the performance only!
You can also have a look on this one:
ASUS P7P55D LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboa...

[Octopuss]

I will never go back to Realtek onboard NIC.Never. I only gave me problems. I love my Intel Pro/1000 PT though

But you are probably right, I took a closer look at the board and chipset is somewhere else than on my P45 (I couldn't use the first PCI-e slot because of heatsink).
I still hate PCI slots though :P

[avatar_raq]

Most P55 mobos have PCI slots simply because of the limited lanes the 1156 system has, so manufacturers fill the mobo with the legacy and not much needed anymore PCI slots.
And the onboard lan adapter never gave me trouble on my P5KSE

[avatar_raq]

And BTW, P55 does not have a northbridge! It has been moved to the CPU, leaving only the poor southbridge!!

[Octopuss]

I know, I'm just too used to the term
What is the exact limitation of PCI-e then? Can you provide a link please? I admit being lazy today

[avatar_raq]

P55 Platform has only 16 PCI-e v2 lanes as opposed to the 36 lanes the X58 has
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-p5...-review-test/2

[CJCerny]

Check out MSI P55-CD53

[avatar_raq]

Originally Posted by modder

Yes is true but we can found exception like "Maximus III Extreme" ASUS added an NF200 chip from NVIDIA .This board support:
5 x PCIe 2.0 x16 Supports single at x16, dual at x16, triple at x 16 x16 x8, quad x8.

You are right, but I don't believe P55+Nf200 x2 chips will cost less than an X58 chip, so I think it's kind of stupid to manufacture and buy such a mobo when it cost ~350 USD, a price preserved for high end x58 mobos which will provide better performance in multi-GPU setups, nf200 adds some latency, you know!! BTW the OP wanted a mobo for 150 USD or less.

[Octopuss]

With the way things are, I might as well buy X58 board. i7 for 1366 cost pretty much the same as for 1156. And memory is cheap...

[overclocking101]

my EVGA P55 board will cream any asus or gigabyte P55 board.

[DonInKansas]

Originally Posted by Octopuss

With the way things are, I might as well buy X58 board. i7 for 1366 cost pretty much the same as for 1156. And memory is cheap...

Memory is cheap? since when..........

If you have an 1156 chip it won't be compatible with an x58 board.

[d3fct]

ive been using this board for a few months now and i havent found a complaint yet. asrock p55 extreme i have 2 280's in sli and it runs my i7 860 at 4.3 without a hitch. it also has 775 mounting holes, if you have a 775 waterblock or other cooler, and it's in your price range.

[lemode]

i love my evga p55 ftw

[Octopuss]

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

Memory is cheap? since when..........

If you have an 1156 chip it won't be compatible with an x58 board.

DDR3 is not expensive... At least the prices I see do not make me cry.
I do not have 1156 anything... yet. I know the sockets are different :P

[Octopuss]

Just btw, inspired by a suggestion elsewhere, I took a quick look at AMD and it doesn't look all that bad, even though there are no 32nm CPUs available yet, and probably still won't for some time. The features those boards have are pretty interesting though.

[[crs]]

MSI P55-GD65 or a Gigabyte P55-UD4

Got both and even tho the Gigabyte does have a nicer bios to use, it has that retarded (bling) heatsink right in the middle of the board, it pretty much makes that pci-e x1 slot unusable. You can remove the top part of the heatsink, its just held on with two screws and a bit of glue.

For me the msi board did everything the gigabyte board did, was able to set the memory and overclock the cpu to the same speed with no problems and i was able to use the top pci-e x1 without voiding the warranty

The AMD boards do have some nice features and with the possbility of core unlocking on some of the newer boards and cpu's you may get lucky, heard of a couple of ppl who got the msi 770 motherboard+ an AMD 555 cpu and was able to unlock the other 2 cores. Apparently its stable, but i havent seen it running myself.