The P55 PCH - Platform Controller Hub

So the P55 chipset itself and the Lynnfield processors embargo was lifted. The P55 motherboard chipset is just one chip, no more North and Southbridge. Interesting to learn is that the P55 chipset connects to the processor directly through DMI (Direct Media Interface) bus, and that's different from X58 where it connects directly to the QPI link.

The P55 chip has a lot of goodness embedded in it: we see an all-time first integrated PCIe controller for x16 or two eight-speed PCIe cards, when it comes to input / output capabilities we are talking about support for 14 USB 2.0 ports with integrated USB 2.0 rate matching hubs, 6 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports and an integrated Gigabit LAN Ethernet.

The chipset also supports Integrated Clocking Buffer Through Mode, provides thermal sensor data via SMBUS for discrete fan control solutions and Intel Matrix Storage Technology 9.0. New Intel Matrix Storage has a new user interface for managing all storage related tasks, support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, and Rapid Recover Technology.

DDR3 wise 1333 MHz is supported straight out of the box, but running the memory at 1600 or 1866 MHz should be no issue either. Speaking of memory, with the arrival of Core i7 870, 860 and i5 750 Intel made the decision to go back to a dual-channel memory interface. Don't get too worried here, the controller is so much faster than the old limited FSB based controllers. You'll have 64-bit wide memory controllers which are connected directly with the processor's silicon. As a result this design brings a bandwidth utilization of as much as 90%, a nice jump from the FSB based 50-60% utilization for sure.

In this review we'll be using a 1866 MHz DDR3 OCZ memory kit. OCZ provided this kit specifically for this review.

The ECS P55H-A motherboard is thus based on that single chip P55 chipset and allows up-to 16GB of memory to be installed. Looking at the board we spot a 4+2 phase VRM power design.

Memory wise, of course, DDR3 1066/1333 MHz is supported though the BIOS reveals a 1600 MHz settings as well, which I feel is a very nice sweet spot memory bandwidth / performance and budget wise. Anything above 1600 MHz needs to be dealt with through overclocking. Two PCI slots are supported and you'll spot two physical PCIe 2.0 x16 graphics slots. Should you opt for Crossfire then your PCIe lanes will be divided into an x8/x8 configuration as the P55 chipset only has 16 lanes available for graphics. Mind you that I do not mention SLI here as the motherboard manual does not make note of it. We do not think ECS bought SLI certification, keep that in mind.

The board has eight USB 2.0 ports and an additional three SUB headers to add another 6 USB ports should you want to. Extras can be found in an eSATA port, clear CMOS, power and reset micro switches, debug POST LED and Optical S/PDIF audio output controlled by 8 channel Realtek AL888S HD Audio, which is one of their better quality audio codecs.

ECS labels this motherboard with a catchy new marketing phrase as well, the '4E design' which boils down to: Easy Clear, Easy Debug, Easy Attach and Easy Buttons.

Pricing should be roughly 160 USD or 125 EUR, which seems fair. Let's have a better look at the product with the help of a photo-shoot. Next page please.