Budget Micro-ATX P55 Faceoff: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 and ASRock P55M Pro
by Gary Key on October 5, 2009 12:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Software
ASRock provides several software applications with the P55M Pro. We will take a quick look at their OC Tuner, Intelligent Energy Saver (IES), and OC DNA.
OC Tuner
ASRock’s OC Tuner application provides health and hardware monitoring, voltage control, and overclocking capabilities. OC Tuner is actually a solid Window’s based overclocking and monitor tool. We still want the ability to save the settings to the BIOS in real time - or at least a BIOS profile setup more robust than the OC DNA tool below. The version shipped on the driver CD worked correctly, but we always suggest you keep the supplier’s utilities up to date.
Sounding like a broken record, we still prefer to tune our system within the BIOS. However, this application is useful for extracting a decent amount of performance improvement out of the system after booting into Windows. We also found the capability to adjust the CPU and Chassis fan speeds to be handy during the overclocking tests.
OC DNA
The OC DNA application allows you to save your OC profiles to the three provided user profiles within the BIOS. You can then load them from Windows (requires a reboot to set the profile) or share the OC profile with users of this board.
IES
One of the most useful features from ASRock is their Intelligent Energy Saver (IES) power management solution. ASRock provides a Windows-based software application to control IES. After installing the software (we highly recommend downloading the latest version) and a quick reboot, the application is ready for use. The control panel is powered down by default and it is up to the user to turn it on with a simple click of the IES button. IES can also be enabled within the BIOS, doing this will disable Load Line Calibration (No Vdrop).
The IES software is simple to use and easy to understand. A provided power savings meter in the top portion informs the user of current and historical power savings information. Real-time CPU power usage is available along with the processor speed. We generally found the application would save around 4W at idle, and depending up the application in use, around 20W under load conditions that leads to superb results compared to other P55 boards.
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mfs - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
how do you get 4 phase on the GA-P55M-UD2? looks like 6 by the photos? bit-tech says 6 too.andersbranderud - Friday, March 12, 2010 - link
Does anyone have any experiences with overclocking an i7-860 on this motherboard with 1333 mhz or 1600 mhz ram.In that case give me some more details.
Thanks!
Anders Branderud
bloganders.blogspot.com
zoggy - Thursday, February 18, 2010 - link
Was looking at picking up GA-P55M-UD2 for a HTPC, going to pair it with Core i7 860 and a ATI HD 5000 series card. Wanted to know if there was any problems with this board to do the bit-streaming of HD audio or if the UD4 would be better suited?Hrel - Friday, October 23, 2009 - link
Pictures of the Motherboard BIOS, THANK YOU SO MUCH!maomao0000 - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
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Googer - Sunday, October 11, 2009 - link
I don't see how the inclusion of something can be seen as a negative. I am sure there are a few users who still depend on a floppy drive from time to time (retro dos gamers, some drivers, and archiving old files) and it's presence has little to negative impact on the actual usability, functionality, or performance of the motherboard.As for my self, I have tried several times to remove my drive, only to have someone or myself find an unexpected need for it a few months later. So I still keep it installed but the drive it's self remains disabled in the bios until I actually need it. Having it enabled has no noticeable impact on my P4 based system.
Serveo - Friday, October 9, 2009 - link
Hi Gary,Nice review. I am planning to buy a p55 mATX board. There are some on the market but mostly they support only 16x & 4x GPU and thats a pity.
Only the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 and ASUS Maximus III Gene support sli/cross at 8x mode. I would like to your review about these boards soon. The price for the GA-P55M-UD4 is available around € 130.- incl. VAT and the Maximus III Gene around € 170.- incl VAT.
Thats why I probably go for the Gigabyte due to the price an the board colors, but the board layout has some fails and according to the review at bit-tech.net the performance is not that good.
Gary when can I aspect the review about these boards? Or which of these two board would you advice?
Awnold - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
Hi Gary,Great article! Looking at other user's experience w/ the Gigabyte board, I've seen a number of complaints w/ memory compatibility (e.g., Newegg's reviews). Would you mind posting the part #'s of the different memories you tested this board with?
I did see your comment that the F4 BIOS improved memory compatibility, but to my knowledge they haven't updated their qualified memory list yet.
Also, if other users on this forum have experience w/ this board, would you mind posting your memory config as well?
Thanks!
Awnold - Friday, October 9, 2009 - link
I'm mostly curious about the G.Skill memory used. Does anyone have any success (or BSODs/failures) with the following modules:F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH
F3-15000CL9D-4GBRH
F3-16000CL9D-4GBRH
haplo602 - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
stop with this P55 flood and finaly review a few 785G boards !!! please please PLEASE !!!I don't care about intel, I want to build an AMD PC and your site is severely lacking in that part ...