Intel DP55KG and DP55SB - Two P55s Reviewed
by Rajinder Gill on April 6, 2010 7:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Board Features
The extra expansion slots and SATA/E-SATA ports of the DP55KG are very much tacked onto the same foundation of the DP55SB.
* DP55KG only.
** DP55SB specs - In place of previous specs statement
The only notable element of component choices on the two P55 boards is that you get Intel’s 82578DC NIC, other than the standard Realtek offering included by most vendors at this price point. Realtek is not absent from Intel’s choices altogether though, the ALC889 codec is used to supply 7.1 HD audio, although you don’t get any bundled Dolby upscaling software.
Included with the boards you get the following peripherals/items:
DP55KG:
4x Blue UV reactive SATA cables
2x Blue normal SATA cables
DP55SB:
4x Blue UV reactive SATA cables
Both:
- 1 X I/O backplate
- 1 x fixed 3-slot SLI bridge
- 1 x Bluetooth antenna
- 1x BIOS Post code sheet
- 1 X User manual
- 1 X Driver CD
There’s nothing exciting on the software CD either, unless free trials of DivX and Norton 360 float your boat. This disk contains system drivers and Intel’s “Silent Install” GUI which is very much along the lines of Gigabyte’s “InstallALL” for making driver installation quick and easy - you just tick the drivers you want, provide the software with your Windows login (if need be) and leave the machine alone for the rest of the installation process.
BIOS
BIOS options for overclocking are provided, but somewhat minimal. Intel have decided to group the “Overrides” by the component they affect – a logical choice, but it does mean that your access to the CPU Vcore, CPU VTT, VDIMM and PCH voltages are on three different BIOS sub-menus. We would prefer the component groups to remain, but to add a fourth option for “Voltage Overrides” so they could be grouped together.
One option that we highlighted in the DH57JG review was that in the performance section of the BIOS, Intel has put the CPU VTT and VDIMM options in the advanced menu of the DRAM timing page which means that you have to not only access, but set memory timings including a number of sub-timings without ‘auto’ options just to specify voltages. This is unfortunately the same with both P55 boards and something we hope Intel will agree needs to be changed.
The DP55KG and the DP55SB both have a number of fall-back mechanisms in order to catch an over-enthusiastic user asking for a little bit too much from their hardware.
The primary recovery option is Intel’s Failsafe Watchdog which tried to detect a failed POST, and when successful, POST’s with default settings and allows you into the BIOS to give you a chance at trying a different set of options. This feature worked pretty well in general, catching failed POST when you went slightly past what was possible – I would hazard a guess of about 8/10 times.
The other 2/10 scenarios were usually down to memory timings or large steps in bclk – in this instance, the board would get locked into a failed boot cycle. This was where the Back2BIOS switch on the IO Panel came in exceptionally useful. If you press the button, it will light up in red and the board will POST with default settings. One significant upside to this is all your BIOS changes are still remembered so you can just change the ones you need, save, power off, unpress the Back2BIOS switch and POST.
There was a one or two occasions where even the Back2BIOS switch failed to boot and we had to resort to the jumper next to the SATA ports but we don’t expect this to be a common requirement – it’s not happened since I’ve got a better idea of how the boards work.
Fan control is automatic and varies according to CPU core temperature. You get two options to control the speed ramp and damping slope which can be set to more aggressive for lower efficiency heatsinks. The system fan header speed is also controlled by a temperature setting, probably CPU, and works with 3-pin fan connectors.
BIOS flashing is made very easy by Intel, a built in flash routine is included in the BIOS that can be used with USB pen drives or HDD’s. If you head over to the Intel support site, you get no fewer than four different flashing options, ranging from burning a CD image to downloading an executable file that instigates a BIOS flash from the OS. Unlike other OS level flashing routines though, Intel’s utility reboots the motherboard and automatically flashes the BIOS outside the OS for you – it’s very slick and very simple.
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Richard Pawley - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
Hi,While I only have the i7 870 and i5 670 to test against at the moment, this is likely to be common to the Clarkdale CPUs. Without testing, we can't say for certain though.
Yes, the Bluetooth module is next to the SATA ports and it comes with an antenna in the box - a wire with a sticky pad at the end.
Regards,
Richard
mrmitch9 - Friday, April 9, 2010 - link
The PCIe x1 issue is not a bug, it is because of the differences in the PCI controllers in the 2 families of CPUs. If you put in a Lynnfield and boot into the BIOS, it shows x16. If you then shut down and put in a Clarkdale and then boot into the BIOS, it shows x8. Then Save & Exit, reboot into the BIOS again and it is at x16 from then on.I think you were booting into Windows with the Lynnfield and it was working fine, then shuting down swapping to a Clarkdale and then booting into Windows without going into the BIOS first. That was when you saw the error.
Richard Pawley - Saturday, April 10, 2010 - link
Hi,I'm afraid you're mistaken. This is a bug which happens all the time, i.e repeatable, and not a one-off.
I had tried what you suggested previously, but I have just tried it again, and it remains at 1x.
I also tried clearing the CMOS with the CPU removed, installing different nVidia WHQL and Beta drivers and even the Windows 7 WDDM show up in GPU-Z as 1x.
The only thing I am unable to try is using a different CPU as I only have one Clarkdale CPU.
Regards,
Richard
mrmitch9 - Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - link
Strange. I was using BIOS 4816 with a Clarkdale & Lynnfield with Windows 7 x64 in AHCI. I only saw the issue you were mentioning when I swapped CPUs. I had a EVGA Geforce 9500 512MB PCIe card as well. CPU-Z and GPU-Z always showed the correct speed.LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
It appears both boards have a USB port internally, between the rear port cluster and the MOSFETs. I haven't seen an explanation for this yet --does anyone know what Intel had in mind here?Richard Pawley - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
Hi. Raja asked Intel about the internal USB a while ago but didn't get a direct response.Off the top of my head, I'd suggest you could use it for a permanent Windows ReadyBoost with a USB Pen Drive? Or, IIRC, aren't there some 5.25" bay devices like fan controllers that hook up via USB connectors and normally route out through a PCI slot?
Sorry I can't give a definite answer - ReadyBoost seems the most logical.
Regards,
Richard
strikeback03 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
There are some card readers and such that go on the front panel but connect through a USB port, not a header. But that location isn't where I would expect for that functionalitymarraco - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
My experience with Intel motherboars cannot be worse.(Only PCCHIPS do worst)
I had all kinds of issues:
- Memories that don't work on Intel mothers, because they are "not registered", but work perfectly on ASUS/Gigabyte. And don't even try to mix different modules...
- Hard disks that did not worked with Intel, but worked OK on ASUS/Gigabyte.
- USB ports that did NOT worked at all under windows, but worked correctly under Linux. (D865GBF mobo), and Intel provided no drivers.
I had those problems frequently, and the only answer that Intel gave me was to download BIOS editors, to fix it myself. What??? 8-0
- The 4 slots for the triple channel X58, WHY??
- Non solid state capacitors today??? please.
- Intel's are too expensive, and do not justify the price at all.
- Very BAD BIOS design. Too poor.
- Bad overclockers.
- Bad driver support. Some drivers are unavailable on Intel web site, because they "are included in windows CD", altought they had bugs only available in same chipsets Asus/Gigabyte, and those bugs blocks installation of windows. So I needed to use gygabyte drivers, with text files hacking.
- Had you tried to download drivers from Intel??? A trip to hell. Instead of having a list of links to click and download, you need to little-dog pet-jump along 3 or 4 pages for each driver, and the go back 2 or 4 pages to get the next driver download link. ASUS is also annoying, altought far less annoying.
- Wrong SATA orientation (they fixed it on this article mobos).
- Wrong spacing between memory sockets and video card.
I hate when retail vendors try to sell me Intel motherboars, (they like it because are more profitable), by pretending that they are "better", and are completely incapable of answering WHY they "are better".
ClagMaster - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
Sorry you are so bitter about Intel motherboards.I have been using Intel Media Series motherboards for nearly 10 years and have been satisfied. For mainstream usage, the offer stable rocks solid performance. They are well designed and well made to last. Intel uses high quality components where they are actually needed. I would note there are polymer capacitors around the power supply, memory and northbridge where loading and heating are the highest. For less demanding locations, alumimum electrolytic capacitors are used. However, my experience is these will be high quality Nichelson or Rubicon capacitors.
Intel boards are generally finicky with memory. You need memory operating at standard timings, latencies and voltages to work. What works will work very well.
BIOS support is also very good. Intel will find and correct all defects given time.
The DP55KG costs too much money for the features and performance it offers. For a little less money and more performance I would purchase the GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P which is an excellent overclocker.
PR3ACH3R - Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - link
I am one of many to appreciate the inclusion of the DPC tests.However, To make them mean anything, you must test them under two scenarios:
1. Heavy Disk IO, especially writing.
2. Software Video Playback with at least 5.1 Audio.
3. Heavy Onboard NIC Network Usage
Building Pro Workstations for the last 13 years,
These are the 3 most common cases I have always seen the DPC raise it's ugly head more then any other scenario.
Almost any motherboard will show the numbers you posted when idle,
(In fact your results are not that great for an idle board),
but the DPC problem can arise under these scenarios even when idle there appears to be no sign of it.
Thank you.