ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Lynnfield Motherboard Review

Conclusion

After having preview the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe back in mid-August, and having it sit on our workbench for a few weeks while we reviewed the Intel Lynnfield processors, it was nice to finally be able to boot-up and spend some quality time with this motherboard. Now that we are done with this review, we can state that it has been worth the wait.

For starters, from a specifications standpoint, this motherboard certainly does not leave us wanting. With a robust 16+3 phase power design, four DDR3 memory slots supporting DDR3-2200 (O.C), three mechanical PCI-E x16 slots and many other features, this model comes equipped with all the goodies that power users want and need.


ASUS is really putting an emphasis on overclocking with the P7P55D series, and nowhere is this more evident than on this Deluxe model. Those who like a more hands on approach to overclocking obviously won't be disappointed since this motherboard encompasses everything that we have come to expect from a high-end ASUS motherboard: a user-friendly BIOS, wide assortment of tweaking options, superior voltage output & regulation, excellent stability at the limit and just high limits in general. These are aspects that we have come to expect from a good motherboard though. What's new are the two most competent automatic overclocking solutions that we have come across yet. While the Auto Tuning feature in the TurboV EVO utility achieved good results, albeit slowly, the BIOS-based OC Tuner was downright amazing, overclocking our i5-750 to 3.6Ghz and our i7-870 to 3.8Ghz in a matter of minutes. And these were stable overclocks, which was perhaps the most surprising part.

The included TurboV Remote worked just as it should, but it's a little too limited for us. From an overclocking point-of-view, all you can really do with this device is select overclocking profiles or adjust the BCLK up or down. At minimum we would like to be able to control system voltages as well, maybe in coordination with an on-screen GUI. Otherwise, the most use this remote will likely get is as a means of powering the system on/off via the power button. With this in mind, for those who don't care about the remote, and don't mind losing 4 CPU phases, the P7P55D EVO may be a slightly better alternative, especially since it's $20-30CDN less.

While we can't specifically state whether we saw any direct benefit from the 16+3 phase power design or the new T.Probe load-leveling feature, the CPU core voltage regulation was perfect even under the stress of a generously overclocked and overvolted 4.0Ghz Core i7-870, and the the MOSFET heatsinks did remain surprisingly lukewarm. Can 8 phase power designs like the one found the on the MSI P55-GD80 perform as well? We will testing out that shortly.

While we have not yet tested enough P55 motherboards to be able to proclaim which is the very best, we do know that the P7P55D Deluxe is a very good product, and we have no qualms recommending it to the enthusiast crowd. In summary, this is a feature-rich, mature, stable, overclockable, high performance P55 motherboard.



Pros

- Solid performance.
- Eye-pleasing theme & heatsink designs.
- Well thought out layout.
- Nice spacing between the PCI-E slots.
- 2-Way CrossFireX & 2-Way SLI capability.
- Excellent manual overclocking capabilities.
- Impressive (& constantly improving) automatic overclocking features.
- Effectively flawless voltage regulation & output.
- Good SATA II & USB 2.0 connectivity.
- 10-channel HD audio CODEC
- Comprehensive, user-friendly BIOS.
- Rich software suite.
- Socketed BIOS chip.


Cons

- Only one BIOS chip, no backup or fail-safe.
- Large CPU coolers + tall memory heatspreaders can cause installation annoyances.
- No eSATA port(s) on the rear I/O panel (have to install an expansion bracket).
- TurboV Remote header & connector are a little fragile (+ the header should also be on the I/O panel).
- BIOS needs more voltage readouts.

Our thanks to ASUS for making this review possible!