P55 Overclocking Showdown - ASUS, Gigabyte, and EVGA at the OC Corral (Page 6 Updated)
by Rajinder Gill on November 6, 2009 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
We are going to keep this simple. Hold our feet to the fire and we’ll tell you that of all the boards we tested, the most consistent performer was the $230 EVGA P55 FTW SLI E657 (using a Tyco AMP Socket). At its price point, there’s nothing available on the P55 platform that truly beats it for raw overclocking capabilities. Otherwise, the ASUS Maximus III Formula was high on our list in early testing as a great overall choice until we started experiencing the socket burn problems that really plagued our review samples. We have a retail board with the revised Foxconn socket in testing now and will provide updates shortly.
The Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 is a very good choice in the top end P55 market for those looking for a balance of features along with great overclocking abilities. We are not thrilled with the six memory sockets as it just seems to be a marketing feature. We just cannot recommend the EVGA P55 Classified 200 E659 motherboard due to its price point near $340 regardless of its capabilities, features, or even looks. Unfortunately, any jubilation for a platform winner ends here until we know the exact cause of the issues we experienced on motherboards using the Foxconn 1156 sockets.
Behind the scenes, Foxconn admitted there was a socket update in June that was approved by Intel with planned implementation in the August time period. We have the test report papers and the revised Foxconn socket passed all of Intel’s stress tests before it was placed into production, which raises questions as to why there has been problems post retail release. Intel has only commented that they believe the problems can occur with improper force being placed on the socket. However, that does not explain the lack of pad contacts with a retail CPU cooler and new processor that we have experienced in several situations.
Whether the reported socket issues were down to poor contact, improper clamp force, or a limitation in design (limited tolerances beyond stock specifications) is unknown to us at present. We’ve spoken to a few board engineers and nobody has been able or willing to put a firm conclusion on the matter, at least on the record.
Off record, early results from failed boards or user reports appeared to be a serious enough problem that most of the manufacturers moved to the Lotes or Tyco AMP sockets in their high-end boards or others for that matter. We have to stress that our problems and those of others we have dealt with directly occurred under extreme overclocking conditions. Out on the forums, we’ve heard of one reported case where a user claims a failure has happened at stock operating frequency using an Intel air cooler. We also have verification of a Lotes socket failing recently, which does put a new light on this problem.
Socket issues aside, the margin of overclocking variance shown in our benchmark results are very small. We can assure you that any of these clock speed differences won’t show up when these boards are used with air or water cooling solutions. And even with the socket burn out problems, we just have not had any direct experiences with failures after close to nine thousand test hours on over a dozen retail boards with air or water cooling at this point. Based on that testing, we still feel confident about the P55 platform.
For the sub-zero benchmarking crowd, you’re not likely to upstage socket 1366 based processors by using any kind of budget purchasing angle with the P55 platform. Just be aware and realistic of what this platform is designed to do before you commit to purchase it with thoughts of setting overclocking records in mind.
Gallery of Additional Performance Results-
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
52 Comments
View All Comments
spacedude - Thursday, January 7, 2010 - link
Just wanted to comment that I just ordered a EVGA P55 SLI (NOT FTW) from newegg and received a foxconn socket...Though on the forums, the evga reps are insistent that there is no problem with their boards.... Who knows if I even have a revised socket........
ARGHHHHHHH
johnyfriend - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - link
Saw recently a number of boards from asus and gigabyte with Usb3 and Sata 6gb support.Are you guys planning to include those boards in your upcoming p55 board reviews?groove420 - Saturday, November 21, 2009 - link
The new Gigabyte boards will be designated as "P55A-UD6" for example, along with a "333" designation on the box.The feature that caught my eye on these is that they have been refitted with a LOTES clamp instead of the Foxconn.
They remain fitted with a Foxconn socket apparently though.
Whether the fix for the "hot socket" was just a better clamp, or indeed the socket is a revision as well remains an unknown from what I've gathered.
johnyfriend - Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - link
Think they went with the more afordable way to change the clamps than the entire socket.got to wait and see if it pays out..incase those who are willing to buy decide to dump $$$$$$$$ in thatArbie - Monday, November 9, 2009 - link
"Be warned the results are geared more towards benchmarking fanatics and are not in any way indicative of your everyday web browsing PC needs... "Is this a benchmarking fanatics website? Or is it aimed at folks who want high-performance gear for day-in, day-out use? I am in the latter group, which is why I visit AnandTech practically every day. But I won't even bother clicking through a report like this.
In fact, probably only 0.1% of your readers are going to build on the edge (sub-zero cooling?), and there are plenty of websites for them. I'd rather see the same time and effort spent on something more relevant to the other 99.9%.
My opinion...
dingetje - Monday, November 9, 2009 - link
fail troll, stop whining or go to tomshardwarematthewfoley - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - link
I happen to agree 100% - I am interested in the high-performance gear for day-in, day-out use idea.Anybody who wants Lynnfield for breaking OC benchmarks is wasting their time.
dia - Tuesday, November 10, 2009 - link
99% of the articles here are for regular users. This happens to be an article that is not for everyone. So what's the big deal if the minority audience occasionally gets a hearing every now and again? When I see articles like this going up every single week I might start to ask questions, but not before that.AstroGuardian - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
Guys and gals,This article is 100% for everyone despite what other ppl say.
You are totally missing the point of this post. This post is not about manufacturers and main boards. This post is about P55!!!
I am sure everyone (including benchmark fanatic) would like to hear about P55's capabilities. This article says about P55's abilities and gives insight about possible scenarios when pushing the P55 to its limits.
So what do you want to say? Do you criticize this site or what? Not all of you are IT professionals. As a matter of fact so few of you are IT professionals. And as professionals you musk know as much as possible about your area of expertise. I would like to know everything Anandtech has to say about everything. That's the beauty of it
cyclo - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 - link
+1. I rarely overclock myself but I still am interested in what the capabilities of this CPU/chipset combo are. I like seeing systems pushed to their limits until weaknesses become apparent. Extreme overclocking in my opinion is like stress testing... if there is any weakness in a design overclocking can expose it. In this case it could be the Foxconn socket, the lesser number of pins on the CPU itself (compared to previous gen i7s), the interface, or all of the above.