Introduction

It’s been almost 2 month since Intel launched LGA1156 socket on 8th Sep. The new platform product line and market position are clearer. LGA1156 is still focus in between high end and middle end

CPU has 3 models so far. The highest is i7-870 and middle is i7-860. They both support HT which make Quad core CPU can simulate 8 cores. i5-750 doesn’t support HT and it’s the most entry model now. The price is around 200USD

MB Chipset is P55 and all MB makers also launched the products at the same time
Currently, the P55 MB price is between 160~280 USD. If you want to buy LGA 1156 platform, i5-750 plus 160USD P55 MB is the best C/P. Certainly, if you need HT and also affordable, you also can consider i7-860. Merely, i7-860 price is very close to LGA1366 platform

The MB this time is GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3P, price is $160. This is entry price level for P55 MB so far.

The Board

First of all, it’s the package. UD3P is not GIGABYTE high end series, so the box is not so big



Product Manual、Smart6/Smart TPM Guide、Driver CD and IO Shield. SATA cables are 2 standard and 2 vertical head



GIGABYTE P55-UD3P Body




Lower Left Corner
2 X PCI-E support CrossFire and SLI technology and the bandwidth is X8+X8
1 X PCI-E X1
4 X PCI
Realtek 8111D LAN Chip
Realtek ALC888 supports 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio



Lower Right Corner
6 X Blue SATAII supports RAID 0， RAID 1， RAID 5 and RAID 10
2 X White SATAII supports RAID 0， RAID 1 and JBOD
Dual BIOS, dual protection



Upper Right Corner
4 X DIMM DDR3 support 800/1066/1333/1600. The maximum DDR3 capacity is 16GB
DD3 2200 is after overclocking spec. DDR3 has extra 2 phase PWM and 24-PIN head near by
1 X IDE, GIGABYTE SATA2


Upper Left Corner
LGA 1156 CPU Socket
UD3P CPU PWM is 8 phase and VTT is 2 phase



IO
10 X USB 2.0
1 X RJ-45 LAN
2 X eSATA/USB 2.0 Shared
1 X S/PDIF Fiber /Coaxial output



Close look to the components surround by CPU



P55 Heatsink



Audio、LAN Chip



Let’s jump into the BIOS ->