Intel P55 Launch Activities - We want your opinion!
by Gary Key on August 25, 2009 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
If it has not been obvious based on the number of P55 pictorial previews here and at other sites, Intel and the motherboard suppliers are conducting a full court public relations press for your attention and hopefully dollars in a couple of weeks. Of course we are still under NDA in regards to actual performance results even though the new i5/i7 processors and P55 motherboards have been on sale at various locations throughout the world for the past couple of weeks. However, we are finally entering the home stretch for this product launch. As such, there are a few questions we would like your opinion on before we complete our benchmark testing.
We would greatly appreciate a response to our three poll sections today. Our first section simply asks if you are planning on upgrading to the P55 platform or not. The second section covers component decisions. We want to know if purchasing a P55 platform will drive you to spend additional funds on other components like DDR3 memory, video cards, and power supplies. Also, we would like to know your primary driving factor for choosing a particular motherboard.
The third section is my personal favorite. We
would like to know what information you are expecting in the P55
motherboard roundup on launch day. We have a new and exhaustive
benchmark suite to roll out for this article along with a double digit
count of motherboards for review. We have locked down the motherboard
suppliers regarding BIOS or driver changes and testing has "officially"
started. Besides motherboards, we have several new P55 specific memory
and cooling kits to provide analysis on at the same time. Our platters
are obviously full but we want to tailor this roundup as much as possible to what you find
important when reading through a large roundup.
That said, we look forward to your answers and any comments you might have on these subjects.
Editor's note - We had technical difficulties with the answer all command when this article first appeared yesterday. Unfortunately, we have not solved the problem yet. We have separated the problem questions into individual polls and dropped a few questions based on user feedback. We apologize for any inconveniences.
Are you even interested in the P55?
{poll 156:250}
If you answered Yes in the first poll, please complete this poll.
{poll 144:400}
If you answered No in the first poll, please complete this poll.
{poll 152:400}
If you answered Undecided in the first poll, please complete this poll.
{poll 153:350}
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ClagMaster - Saturday, August 29, 2009 - link
"In terms of performance, I mostly look for any outliers. Is one significantly faster or slower than the others? It seems to me that motherboard performance is nearly identical in most cases, at least until you get into heavy overclocking."Your absolutely right.
When motherboards run at stock speeds using the same processor, unless there is something wrong with BIOS timings or the circuit design, they all have the same performance.
What is important is reliablity and stability. A well tuned BIOS goes a long way in achieving this.
Dynotaku - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Gah, I can't really participate in this poll cause I'm still straddling the fence trying to decide if I want to go i5 or i7. Since I don't mind spending a few extra bucks for the i7 platform, I don't see anything tremendously compelling about i5. It seems it's biggest selling point is lower priced mobos.On the other hand, a serious gaming rig is more defined by it's GPU than it's CPU, right? So maybe I save a few bucks on the mobo and spend it on a better video card? From what I've read, both the i5 and i7 are basically the top dogs and neither is going to leave you hurting for cycles.
Then there's the issue of RAM - i7 is triple channeled so you can put 6GB on a mobo without filling up all the slots. I've heard that if you fill all the slots on a mobo you add some latency to the RAM - I guess that's true since all the sites that do $3000+ ultimate gaming rigs only stick 6GB of ram into their systems when the mobo supports 12 or more. Lloyd Case formerly of Extreme Tech said once that with 64 bit Vista/Win7, 12 GB is this sweet spot where Windows basically stops pecking at the HDD all the time, which sounds really nice, given that my Vista rig never effing stops grinding my HDD away so I don't know what to think. i5 has Dual channel memory which means you can only get up to 4GB of DDR3 without filling up the board - 4GB is probably fine for most games but I've always got Firefox and Winamp and Photoshop and a half dozen other apps open on my other monitor while I'm gaming (then I alt tab out and work in photoshop while I'm waiting to respawn in CoD4) so I'd like to cram as much RAM as possible into my new system.
I'm really curious about the RAM situation. 6-8GB of RAM would work for me, but most i5 mobos only have 4 slots, and given that DDR3 only comes in 2GB sticks (that I can find), I'd be filling the mobo and adding latency. But is it that serious? Would I notice that at all, especially if I go i5 with a cheaper mobo and a better GPU?
Basically I need a really comprehensive bang up review of the new mobos and how a complete i5 system compares to an i7 system. :P
Oh and your poll:
"What primary factor will determine the motherboard you purchase."
How about stability? That's job number 1 for me. That's the other thing that has me concerned. Is this first gen of mobos going to be as solid as the i7 mobos which have had a while to simmer?
So the bottom line is I'm not making any decisions until a few reviews hit.
philosofool - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
You're view reflects what I think benchmarks have been showing for years: video cards are the bottleneck in gaming performance. Spending the price difference between X58 and P55 on a better video card will net better gaming performance than getting the X58 with the lesser card. The big issue for me regarding lynnfield is basically this very one, except that I'm on the fence between a much less expensive AM3 platform and a blingy video card and a less blingy card and P55. The impending release of HD 5000 cards weighs heavily on my mind.zero2dash - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Between X58 and P55, I'd rather have X58.My Core 2's (one Q9450, one E8400, one E2200) still hold up for my needs though.
Tentatively I'm skipping this cycle and waiting for Sandy Bridge in 2010/2011. By then, DDR3 should be where DDR2 is now ($)
makdaddy626 - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
I agree with the other poster that suggested they wanted stability testing. I expect most motherboards with identical chipsets to show similar performance, I also expect the features to work as advertised (real features that is, I will accept some marketing gimickry, but if you claim to have 2 working SAS ports, they should work), I also expect a reasonable level of support. I will OC and but not in any extreme sense so most boards I consider function well enough in this area as well. What I would like to know is how stable is it? Is it worth my $ to get a solid workstation board like the ASUS WS series over the more mainstream performance/over-clocking boards? Maybe, as someone suggested, some 24 hour stability testing as well as some high temp. environment testing. Leave the boards at stock but turn up the heat and see which one dies last.strikeback03 - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
Why is the choice of memory and motherboard vendor choose-only-one? For both of those I would be happy with pretty much any vendor from the list (except Jetway MB) so long as they offer the right features/price/warranty.I also might not go P55 at all, I am waiting to see the results against X58 and the future direction of each. I may or may not buy within 90 days, it will be sometime around the end of this year or beginning of next.
FriendlyUser - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
A major issue with new platforms and motherboards is stability. It is also the most important problem for DIY systems.I certainly don't care paying 10% more or having 5% less performance, but I want my system to be rock solid. And I want all features (not necessarily numerous) to work as advertised.
I don't know how you could do stability testing, but running some 24/7 stress tests would be a good start, together with following basic variables (temp, voltage).
Roch - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
I think the Multi-GPU performance on this platform would also be something to discuss. I've found it difficult to find any definitive answers as to whether 8x 8x will castrate real world gaming performance compared to the X58's 16x 16x. With the next generation GPUs imminent I think it's something worth looking into.KonradK - Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - link
"My current Intel Core 2 platform does not need replacement."is not my option.
My current Intel Core 2 platform DOES NEED replacement, but it should be upgraded to the Core i7.
Mr Perfect - Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - link
Since Zotac is on the list, is it possible that there will be a mITX board? Or are you only focusing on larger form factors? Now that the southbridge is dead, the mITX boards have to be easier to build.