ASUS P7P55D Deluxe motherboard review

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The ASUS P7P55D Deluxe

 

The ASUS P7P55D Deluxe

The motherboard we'll review today is the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe, and it promises to be a red rose of a motherboard based on that p55 chipset.

Check it out, the motherboard is featuring a 16 + 3 phase design rather than 12-phase. It offers four DDR3-2133 (!) memory slots.

This board has a lot  of overclocker-friendly features, such as on-board DIP switches to control voltages. You'll notice in the photo shoot that is comes with 3x 16x PCIe slots 2.0 two of which are split off from the main PCI-E bus coming directly from the CPU. When a single slot is populated, it will run at x16 but for SLI and CrossFire, the slots will run at x8/x8/x4.

The board features eight SATA II 3.0Gbps ports as well as dual gigabit Ethernet, as well as a Via VT2020 10-channel (9.1) hi-def audio codec and the Express Gate instant-on OS feature. The board also comes bundled with a TurboV overclocking remote and corresponding software, Turbo Key, Xtreme Phase, Anti-EMI, and StackCool 3+  The board comes with what is called their 'Hybrid' TurboV EVO processor, it makes overclocking easier. It works together with ASUS Auto Tuning, TurboV and Turbo Key technologies.

Next to the six standard SATA II ports additional JMicron controllers provides additional SATA ports, and one IDE connector. Two Gigabit Ethernet connections, 8-channel audio, Firewire, and 14 USB ports make for the rest of the package.

Onboard sound is provided by a new VT2020 CODEC from VIA and not the normal Realtek CODEC that I've come to expect from ASUS. ASUS feels that the onboard sound provided by the VIA solution is superior to the latest Realtek CODECs, and after fooling around with the audio I would have to agree. The VT2020 supports 10 channel audio with 7.1+2 channel multi-streaming and is DTS compatible with features as DTS Surround Sensation and the ASUS Noise Filter feature. The DTS features by the way, are not exclusive to this VIA VT202 codec at all. It will be introduced on all ASUS motherboards, including integrated Realtec codecs.

BTW, there will be an ever more exclusive model called the 'Premium edition', which comes with a SATA 6 Gigabit controller helped by a Marvell 9123 6G SATA controller. Instead of connecting directly to the PCIe Gen 1 lanes available in the P55 chipset, the Marvell 6G SATA controller is linked to the chipset via a PLX8613 PCI Express Gen 2 bridge. The PLX8613 connected to the P55 via four Gen 1 PCIe lanes, allotting for the bandwidth needed.
 

P7P55D Deluxe Specifications CPU LGA 1156 Socket for Intel Core I7/Core i5 ProcessorsChipset Intel P55 Express ChipsetMemory 4x Dimm, Max 16GB, DDR3 2133(OC)/1600(OC)/1333/1066
Unbuffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory
Hyper Dimm Memory Support is subject to physical characteristics of the CPU
Expansion Slots 2x PCI-E 2.0 Slots x16 (One at 16x or Two at 8×8x)
1x PCI-E 2.0 Slot x16 (At 4x, 2.5GT/s)
2x PCI-E 2.0 Slots 1x (2.5GT/s)
Multi GPU Support Nvidia Quad-GPUSLI
ATI Quad-GPU CrossfireX
Storage

6x Sata 3Gb/s Ports (Intel Matrix, RAID 1,0,5 and 10)
JMicron JMB363 Sata & Pata Controller
1x UltraDMA 133/100 Pata (up to two drives)
1x Sata 3Gb/s (Black Port)
JMicron JMB322 (Drive Xpert Technology)
2x Sata 3Gb/s (Navy Blue & Grey)
Supports EZ Backup and Super Speed Functions*
*Drive Xpert functions only available if drives are designated as Data Drives.

LAN Dual Gigabit Lan Controllers
Realtek 8112L/8110SC Gigabit Lan Controller featuring AI Net 2
Audio VIA VT2020 10-Channel Hi Def Audio CODEC
Absolute Pitch BD192/24 featuring ENVY HD
DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC
Supports Jack Detection, Multi Streaming, Front Panel Jack Retasking
Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF at back I/O
IEE1394 (Firewire) VIA 6308P Supports 2 ports one Rear I/O one MidboardUSB 14 Ports 8 Back Panel 6 MidboardForm Factor ATX Form Factor 12×9.6 Inch (30.5cm x 24.4cm)

 

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