EVGA P55 FTW LGA1156 Motherboard Review

Test Setup and Testing Methodology


Test Setup

Processor: Intel i7 860
Video Card(s): MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr 1GB, EVGA GTS250 512MB
Memory: 4GB GSkill Ripjaws F3-12800CL7D-4GBRH
Motherboard: EVGA P55 FTW
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA II
Power Supply: Tagan BZ 900W
Case: None
Cooling: Swifttech Apogee (CPU), 2 x dual heatercore w/ 4 x 120mm fans
Fans: 2 x 120mm
Operating System: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit




Overclocking Methodology

The following section shows the maximum overclock achieved on an Intel Core i7 860 Lynnfield 45nm CPU. For testing methodology two main tests will be used and several benchmarks will be run at the overclocked speeds. The first of the two main stability tests will be a 5 hour custom test of OCCT v3.1.0 (medium data set, priority normal) which tests CPU, memory, and FSB stability. OCCT is a great test for reviews because it tests multiple core CPUs, creates user friendly graphs of temperatures and voltages, and is very efficient at picking up errors.

The second stability test will be 3 runs of 3DMark Vantage. This tests the 3D stability of the overclock as well as CPU, FSB and memory. Once an overclock passes these tests but fails anything further, this is the point deemed as “stable” for the purposes of this review.

The BIOS used for the OC tests is the BIOS that came pre-installed with the board, 080016 dated 09/09/2009. There are a few releases since this BIOS but we had no issues at all with the stock BIOS so we did not feel a need to flash. After testing commenced, the latest EVGA BIOS A39 dated 10/26/2009 was flashed and this BIOS also worked flawlessly.


General Benchmark Methodology

All benchmarks will be a comparison of the Core i7 860 at stock speed and at maximum overclock to give an idea of how much performance a user can gain when overclocking the EVGA P55 FTW. For SLI tests, the overclocked speed will be used to test performance between one and two GTS250 video cards in 3D benchmarks and games.

The overclocked speed on the Core i7 860 will be 4000Mhz on the overclocked tests and RAM speed will be set to 800Mhz (DDR1600) and 7-7-7-21 1T. Nvidia ForceWare 191.07 drivers will be used for 3D along with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.