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-
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McDaniel - Sunday, November 8, 2009 - link
Gigabyte is always ahead in cooling trend.. nice review anyway.. is it possible to set my old processor(core2duo) on this main board? & by the way where i should go for it?darkslyde - Monday, November 9, 2009 - link
you can't use socket 775 CPU in a socket 1156 board.but AFIAK, you can use socket 775 cpu cooling (heatsinks, cpu waterblocks) on the P55 evga boards. it has mounting for both 1156 & 775. that's one thing you can save on...
if you want to re-use your c2d (i.e e6600) there are good intel G/P/X 4X series and nvidia geforce 7000/9000, nforce 700 boards.
i'm reusing my old E6600 on an ASUS P5N7A-VM for media pc use. i get to use my old ddr2 dominators too.
techraze - Sunday, November 8, 2009 - link
Yes, you certainly can use it for core 2 Duo. but as this main board is designed for core i7/core i5 & their over clocking performances it's wise to have a new processor for this main board. i also did it recently & http://micropartsusa.com">http://micropartsusa.com can be a site for u also..anyway good luck dudeyyrkoon - Sunday, November 8, 2009 - link
As a matter of a fact. Doing some looking around I saw . . .LGA 1366 == i7 only
LGA 1156 == i5 only
LGA 775 == Core 2 duo, core 2 quad, core 2 extreme ( just another core 2 ), Pentium 4, and Celeron ( could be based on core2, P4, or others, but so long as LGA 775 pin layout).
Of course, with LGA 775, some manufacturers do not allow all CPU types, but it is possible for them to do, if they wish.
erple2 - Monday, November 9, 2009 - link
Technically,LGA 1366 == Certain i7 (9xx parts).
LGA 1156 == i5 and SOME i7 (8xx parts).
LGA 775 == Core2Duo, Core2Quad, and some Pentium 4 parts (any after "Northwood"), and some Celeron parts.
yyrkoon - Sunday, November 8, 2009 - link
Uh, you know I have not really looked into it, but I am fairly sure a socket 775 CPU would not fit into these newer sockets. Unless Intel took extreme precautions they normally have not in the past. I7 is what? 1368 pin ? Socket 775 is . . . 775 pin . . .MrCommunistGen - Saturday, November 7, 2009 - link
In the first paragraph of page 8 (the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 page)you mention cooling on the "ICH10R". It should probably say "PCH" instead.leexgx - Saturday, November 7, 2009 - link
even past reviews never seen these types of problems before guess P55 is an no go until they fix the socket issues (overclocking or not)yyrkoon - Saturday, November 7, 2009 - link
"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."Does this mean that all boards use this socket ? Or does it mean that the ones you wish to be winners use this socket?
I also find it odd that you would mention the Gigabyte board is good, but costs too much, where surely it is fairly priced compared to many Asus boards of the past. Yeah, the same company who seemingly wins all of your top awards, and comparisons.
Asus is *not* that good. EVGA is definitely not that good. and Gigabyte while not perfect definitely is not as bad as you make it seem. Not only that, these three companies are definitely not the only three in the motherboard business. Why is it that MSI, DFI, and other board makers are no longer sending you samples for review ? Hmm . . .
Rajinder Gill - Saturday, November 7, 2009 - link
Gary has the MSI board already; it was not tested in this compare because of CPU damage. The too expensive comment is aimed at the EVGA Classified 200 which does not deliver a significant advantage over the other boards in terms of CPU/memory overclocking even for the extreme crowd. DFI's board was not ready as early as the 4 boards we have tested here.The socket comment was made because in light of the failures we experienced during testing. Our failures have been all related to Foxconn sockets, but there is now a confirmed user case having issues with a LOTES socket too. In light of this, it's hard to give any board accolades for raw overclocking until we know for sure that the 'problem' is fixed. Out of all the boards, the EVGA P55 FTW was the most consistent and easy to use. Also note, this article is in no way reflective of 24/7 PC's and what matters in typical usage scenarios.