EVGA P55 FTW LGA1156 Motherboard Review

Manufacturer Product Page: EVGA P55 FTW
Manufacturer Part Number: 132-LF-E657-KR
Warranty: 3 Year Limited Warranty w/Registration
Buy from: NCIX | DirectCanada | BestDirect


In the last few years there has been a revolution of sorts in motherboard manufacturer attitudes and products. As recent as three years ago manufacturers did not want users overclocking their hardware and would not comment about overclocking whatsoever to the point where the response you would get was the usual “overclocking voids your warranty”. Back then enthusiasts and overclockers had to use their soldering skills to modify boards to overclock to their liking (yes, some of us actually miss those times). Today, nearly every motherboard manufacturer –including EVGA- has made a huge push to cater to an expanding enthusiast market. Now boards are made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. You don’t have to volt mod to get the voltages you need, you don’t need a degree in electrical engineering to figure out where to probe with your multi-meter and PWMs are more powerful and durable than ever. Indeed, EVGA’s latest series of boards are what enthusiasts have been waiting for and it seems EVGA did a great job in adding everything that has been missing from boards for the last few years.

This review will be of a recent release by EVGA: the P55 FTW. If you are a geek like us (and you probably are) then you know that FTW is geek speak for “for the win” and is quite an amusing moniker for describing a product. Unlike many other more budget-friendly P55 boards, this one caters to a high end user or extreme enthusiast who not only overclocks, but overclocks to extreme levels in sub zero conditions. The FTW features 12 Phase PWM, 2x8pin CPU connectors that can provide up to 600w of power for the CPU and high quality LICC capacitors in the CPU cavity. Mess up a BIOS flash or corrupt a BIOS? No problem, there are three accessible BIOSes on the FTW which are all accessible by the simple flick of a switch. There are even voltage measure points and jumpers on the board for sub-zero conditions.

Even though all of the extreme features are a huge bonus for discerning enthusiasts, the EVGA P55 FTW will also suit the needs of a gamer or builder who does not plan to overclock at all. Using LGA 1156 i5 and i7 processors, the P55 chipset provides up to 8-threads of performance to handle massive throughput and Hyper-Threading Technology to optimize performance on highly-threaded applications. This means even at their stock speeds, these processors can pile on the performance. Meanwhile, the FTW can run both CrossFire and SLI and dual channel DDR3 memory which not only offers higher bandwidth than DDR2 but its lower voltages means increased efficiency as well. Also unlike some first generation i7 boards (socket 1366), P55 boards are actually affordable.

We should also mention that EVGA’s warranty for motherboards is among the top in the industry at 3 years if you register the product online. But that’s enough talk already, let’s take a closer look at the P55 FTW and see if it lives up to its reputation!