windwithme

It’s been almost 2 month since Intel launched LGA1156 socket on 8th Sep
The new platform product line and market position are clearer
As my previous review, 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 5200NTD
This is entry price level for P55 MB so far
First of all, it’s the package. UD3P is not GIGABYTE high end series, so the box is not so big


Accessories
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 CrossFireX and the bandwidth is X16+X4
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

geoffrey

mosfet heatsinks make this board look like a football stadium: Gigabyte P55-Arena wouldn't sound that bad

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windwithme

P55 Heatsink


Audio、LAN Chip



P55-UD3P Boot Screen


M.I.T. Menu


CPU.DDR3 Clock current status


Adjust CPU clock ratio, QPI clock ratio and BCLK


CPU Core Feature
Turbo Boost Tec is auto OC feature in Intel Core i7/i5


DDR3 Setup


DDR3 parameters page
B2B CAS Delay is the P55 exclusive item for DRAM performance
The range is 1~32 and Auto is around 1~3
The higher number means looser. Sometimes, you even see 1xxx MB/s which is lower bandwidth than DDR.
However, it’s also the key factor for pulling DDR3 clock


Voltage page
Load-Line Calibration Disable will raise CPU voltage as full speed/Enable will lower CPU voltage as full speed
CPU Vcore 0.50000~1.90000V
QPI/Vtt Voltage 1.050~1.990V
PCH Core 0.950~2.000V
CPU PLL 1.600~2.540V
DRAM Voltage 1.300~2.600V

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PC Health Status


All above are BIOS screen and also my OC setting for P55-UD3P
XPU/DDR3 is 200/200 ratio.
The OC setup may be different as depending on your components combination
Even the same model and period Core i5-750, the OC ability are vary.
Users need to find your best voltage setup by your own.


Configuration
CPU: Intel Core i5-750
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3P
DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMG4GX3M2A2000C8
VGA: MSI R4890 CYCLONE DDR5 1GB
HD: CORSAIR CMFSSD-64GB2D (RAID 0)
POWER: Antec TruePower New TP-750
Cooler: Mega Shadow(Deluxe Edition)


CPU 200 X 20=> 4000Mhz 1.35000V
DDR3 2000 CL8 8-8-24 1T 1.500V

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 9m 57.216s
CPUMARK 99=> 621


Nuclearus Multi Core => 7618/11364/33466
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 24.76/11886


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 313013


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 5707
x CPU=> 20405


PCMark Vantage => 14916


3DMark Vantage => 13038


P55-UD3P can reach 200/2000 easily. Of course, CPU and DDR3 quality is also very important
UD3P doesn’t lower the OC ability as the price is cheaper.
The OC range is very wide

DDR3 OC ability
Combine with the professional extreme memory maker CORSAIR latest product which supports P55 dual channel
DOMINATOR-GT CMG4GX3M2A2000C8
Black and Red collocate makes GT be more attractive


Clock is DDR3 2000, parameter is CL8 8-8-24 and voltage is 1.65V

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DDR3 2000 CL8 8-8-24 1T, BIOS set as 1.500V
SP2004 2 X Blend mode, 3.91GB full load stabled


Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24479MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 18556MB/s


DDR3 2160 CL8 8-8-24 1T，BIOS set as 1.600V
SP2004 2 X Blend mode, 3.90GB full load stabled


Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 25230MB/s
EVEREST Memory Read - 19354MB/s


DRAM doesn’t need 1.8-2.1V as LGA775
As Core i5/i7 bulit-in Memory Controller, the new DDR3 platform only needs 1.65V
DDR3 2000 CL8 needs only 1.50V and DDR3 2160 CL8 also needs only 1.60V
Above DRAM test, DDR3 quality is key factor, but also need good DDR3 OC MB to bring it out

Pull up both CPU/DRAM
CPU 216 X 19 => 4104Mhz
DDR3 2160 CL8 8-8-24 1T

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 9m 45.063s
CPUMARK 99=> 638


Nuclearus Multi Core => 7816/11660/34409
Fritz Chess Benchmark => 25.42/12200


CrystalMark 2004R3 => 319963


CINEBENCH R10
1 CPU=> 5851
x CPU=> 21272


PCMark Vantage => 16033


3DMark Vantage => 13119


Compare to 200/2000 test, CPU only raise from 4G to 4.1G, so the CPU performance is not big jump
However, as DDR3 2160 and also raise CPU clock and frequency, the overall performance still enhance quite much
CPU clock can pull to 219Mhz, but it’s not very stable. So I don’t put in this report

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GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD3P
Good
1.GIGABYTE parity P55 product still have good package and components quality
2.2oz PCB, 100% Japanese made solid capacitors, and plenty of software
3.Rich BIOS items, wide voltage range and great OC ability in CPU/DDR3
4.Built-in 8 SATAII, 10 USB and 2 USB/eSATA combo ports

Bad
1.SATAII position will interfere with long VGA card as GTX260
(Even though GIGABYTE has 2 vertical SATA cables for compensation)
2.Just launched platform has less CPU for choice. Currently, there are only 3 CPU



Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆
Components ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Specification ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Outlook ★★★★★★★★☆☆
C/P Value ★★★★★★★★★☆

GIGABYTE has launched 4 P55 models in the market which are UD3P/UD4P/DU5/UD6
The price is between 5200NTD to 9000NTD that equal to 160~278USD
UD3P is the current lowest price model, however, the OC ability is not far away from the others
During the performance test, UD3P performs in pretty high standard in OC

P55-UD2 is GIGABYTE Micro-ATX P55 product but still don’t see any in the market yet
For this kind of mid-high segment, Micro-ATX is always launched slower
I do hope see this kind of product more. The full product line is also a good weapon to compete with the other brands

Core i5-750 plus P55-UD3P is the cheapest LGA 1156 combo so far
For LGA775 users, upgrading to Q8400 and Q9550 is the cheaper solution.
However, if you are looking for new middle end PC, Core i5 is your must consideration
The future CPU and 32nm manufacturing technology will bring you more visions