In this little sneak preview, we’re checking out the upcoming P-55-UD5 motherboard from Gigabyte. The board is said to be one of the better choices in the P-55 class and is meant for the Intel i5 CPU’s, who uses the Lynfield architecture and therefore can’t be used with the existing X58 motherboards for Intel i7 CPU’s.
Introduction
In this little sneak preview, we’re checking out the upcoming P-55-UD5 motherboard from Gigabyte. The board is said to be one of the better choices in the P-55 class and is meant for the Intel i5 CPU’s, who uses the Lynfield architecture and therefore can’t be used with the existing X58 motherboards for Intel i7 CPU’s. This is because of a new socket type, named LGA 1156, and as the name states it has less pins available than the socket used for Intel i7 CPU’s, meaning that the performance will never reach the i7’s that have more memory bandwidth.
Some specifications for the i5 CPU’s are available, but there isn’t much information out there yet. However we do know that the i5’s will have 4 cores, supporting Hyper-Threading. Also, the i5’s and the P-55 motherboards will feature dual channel memory instead of triple channel, decreasing the memory bandwidth compared to the “big brother kit” you get with an i7 CPU and an X58 motherboard. The memory frequencies will be DDR3-1066 and DDR3-1333 at standard CPU frequency. A boost in memory frequency will require you to overclock the CPU as well. Finally, the CPU’s will have 8MB of L3 cache and support Intels Turboboost technology.
At first, 3 versions of the i5 CPU will be released, running at a frequency of 2.66GHz, 2.80GHz or 2.93GHz. Prices are set at $196, $284 and $562. We expect the i5’s to hit the Danish market in Q3 2009, but it might be delayed to November Q4 if Intel or the motherboard manufacturers run into problems with the new architecture.
According to Intel, the upcoming Havendale CPU will be supporting the P-55 chipset and LGA 1156 socket as well. This CPU will feature a built-in graphics chip, sparing the user the hassle and extra money to buy a dedicated graphics card. Furthermore this graphics chip should be much more powerful than the existing onboard graphics solutions, which is a technology that is likely to disappear. Graphics performance is unknown at the moment, but rumor has it that it will be in the GTX 280 range, which is very impressive.
Specifications
We haven’t received any specifications or an instruction manual for Gigabytes P-55 motherboard, but many of the specifications is already available on the Internet. The P-55 motherboard uses PCI-E 2.0, and will be able to handle a single graphics card using 16X bandwidth, or 8X + 8X if using two cards. 3-way SLI is not very attractive on P-55 motherboards, as the bandwidth will be 8X + 8X + 4X. We’re almost a 100 % sure that this version of the Gigabyte motherboard will be supporting both Nvidia SLI and ATI Crossfire.
When it comes to the USB-interface, it’s still unclear whether the manufacturers will be using the USB 2.0 standard or the new USB 3.0 standard. Today we use the USB 2.0 standard and even though some people might disagree, it is enough for current use. This is why Gigabyte has chosen to go with the “old” standard for now.
But one thing is for sure, the Gigabyte P-55-UD5 motherboard will be using the new SATA 3.0 interface, capable of delivering twice the bandwidth of SATA 2.0 (6 GB/s vs. 3 GB/s). Gigabyte also uses their “Ultra Durable” standard on this motherboard, which provides thicker cobber layers, meaning better heat dissipation and better overclock results.
- Chipset P55 - Graphics 1x16\\2x8
- PCB layer 8
- SAS Marvell 6320 NA - Smart TPM (USB drive) Yes
- Smart Dual BIOS Yes (16M Main BIOS, 16M Backup BIOS) |