Asus P7P55D Deluxe Review

[dread77]

Last Friday and after waiting quite some time for customs clearance procedures I finally received a new board from Asus.
P7P55D Deluxe is in the house at last and the anticipation of testing a brand new chipset is great.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1337/p7p55dlx1.jpg

I would like to thank Schumacher Peng from Asus Taiwan for the board and Chris Vourliotis from Oktabit for the i5 processor and his great help for this review.

Well, just from looking this board I could see that once again Asus brought to the market a solid product. That black pcb is always a winner in an aesthetic point of view and features like TurboV Remote Controller, overvolting switches and mem OK button just made me give some extra time in testing this beauty.

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8189/p7p55dlx3.jpg

Except the ROG edition, P7P55D Deluxe along with P7P55D Premium is the top of the crop P55 motherboard of Asus supporting Intel i5 and i7 processors with the new LGA 1156 socket.

This is a pretty solid motherboard with 16+3 power phase, three PCIex x16 slots and 14 USB ports in total.

Let start with some specs and characteristics:

http://forum.oktabit.gr/files/P7P55_specs.png

http://forum.oktabit.gr/files/P7P55_feature.png

[dread77]

Some pretty bad photos...:p:

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/1284/p7p55dlx2.jpg

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8189/p7p55dlx3.jpg

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8122/p7p55dlx5.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4457/p7p55dlx6.jpg

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1411/p7p55dlx7.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9405/p7p55dlx8.jpg

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5615/p7p55dlx10.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7559/p7p55dlx11.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/848/p7p55dlx14.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6310/p7p55dlx16.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/2824/p7p55dlx21.jpg

[dread77]

Setup:

Intel Core i5 750
Intel stock CPU cooler
Asus P7P55D Deluxe
Asus 4890
Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit

Turbo on Idle - Turbo on Full Load - Turbo off Idle

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3112/corei5750turbooneverest.th.jpg (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooneverest.jpg/) http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/6580/corei5750turbooffeveres.th.jpg (http://img180.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooffeveres.jpg/) http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3112/corei5750turbooneverest.th.jpg (http://img269.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooneverest.jpg/)

SPi 1m

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/5052/corei5750turboonsuperpi.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turboonsuperpi.jpg/) http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4458/corei5750turbooffsuperp.th.jpg (http://img180.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooffsuperp.jpg/)

Pifast

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/839/corei5750ocpifastlogot.th.jpg (http://img524.imageshack.us/i/corei5750ocpifastlogot.jpg/) http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2979/corei5750turbooffpifast.th.jpg (http://img215.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooffpifast.jpg/)

Wpirme 32m

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/575/corei5750ocwprimelogo.th.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/corei5750ocwprimelogo.jpg/) http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/575/corei5750ocwprimelogo.th.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/corei5750ocwprimelogo.jpg/)

Cinebench10

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4231/corei5750turbooffcb10lo.th.jpg (http://img36.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooffcb10lo.jpg/) http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4866/corei5750occb10logo.th.jpg (http://img198.imageshack.us/i/corei5750occb10logo.jpg/)

3DMark06

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/724/corei5750turbooff3dmark.th.jpg (http://img401.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooff3dmark.jpg/) http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3704/corei5750oc3dmark06logo.th.jpg (http://img5.imageshack.us/i/corei5750oc3dmark06logo.jpg/)

Vantage

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/724/corei5750turbooff3dmark.th.jpg (http://img216.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooff3dmark.jpg/) http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/6162/corei5750oc3dmarkvantag.th.jpg (http://img2.imageshack.us/i/corei5750oc3dmarkvantag.jpg/)

Max Overclock

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/1931/corei5750turbooncpuz435.th.jpg (http://img137.imageshack.us/i/corei5750turbooncpuz435.jpg/)

Note that all benchmarks were on Vista OS, no tweaks, no special bios settings, just raising the cpu voltage to normal values and not extreme.

I think it's great seing a thermal behaviour like the above in just a simple Intel stock cooler.

... more results to come.:up:

[Leeghoofd]

Looking forward to some nice tips and tricks Dread77...

[sofos1990]

Nice photos Kimona:D
I can't wait to see what results this piece of beauty can produce:D
Will you contain subzero tests in this review?:p

[dread77]

Looking forward to some nice tips and tricks Dread77...

Lets hope that I will find some...:D



Will you contain subzero tests in this review?:p

No, this will be a topic in the xtreme section...:p:

[railmeat]

ok well lets see air/water results now plz!! =) what cpu do u have?

[dread77]

ok well lets see air/water results now plz!! =) what cpu do u have?

Core i5 750. Most probably, in a few hours all needed screenshots will be ready to upload.:)

For starters just air/overclocked results, since this combo (cpu/motherboard) is able to reach pretty decent frequencies stable for 24/7 use and this is what matters for most users.

[Supershanks]

welcome to the club Dread:up: A few earlier results :) Asus P7P55D Series Discussion (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=232292)

[bluewhale1]

This is one of the boards im thinking of getting its either this or the Evga P55 FTW

[dread77]

2nd post updated with screenshots. :)

@ Supershanks... I saw your work mate. I was pretty surprised that you were not able get it stable above 4GHz with a waterblock. Just by raising the Vcpu, I could bench almost everything in 4Ghz+ and all this by using the stock cooler. Maybe, it's a cpu thing I guess...:shrug:

[crio]

Nice work Kimwn. Hope to see your results with LN2 soon.

[dread77]

Nice work Kimwn. Hope to see your results with LN2 soon.
Thanks. Hopefuly with a good 870...:D

[iraklisvel]

Great job Dread.

Let's get the party started with this one, eh?

[George_o/c]

Wow, 4GHz+ benchable on stock air, that's one hell of a combo. Keep up the good work Kimon :up:

[Supershanks]

Just by raising the Vcpu, I could bench almost everything in 4Ghz+ and all this by using the stock cooler. Maybe, it's a cpu thing I guess... Yes can bench everything you throw at it , just won't run any stability tests for any length of time. Have tried air and triied water in case it's a temp thing, it's not. :shrug:

Maybe, it's a cpu thing I guess Yup :)

New BTA bios BIOS P7P55D-DELUXE-ASUS-0606 (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review-6.html#post70151) with a few new Dram features.

[dread77]

Great job Dread.

Let's get the party started with this one, eh?

Thanks Herc! Since you are coming to Athens, we'll meet and do some overclocking mate.


Wow, 4GHz+ benchable on stock air, that's one hell of a combo. Keep up the good work Kimon :up:

Thanks George. I am sure that this is one of the best combo around and in a very special price as well. Value for money all the way.


Yes can bench everything you throw at it , just won't run any stability tests for any length of time. Have tried air and triied water in case it's a temp thing, it's not. :shrug:
Yup :)

New BTA bios BIOS P7P55D-DELUXE-ASUS-0606 (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review-6.html#post70151) with a few new Dram features.

Sure, it won't pass any hard stability test in that frequency, though I think that using a better cooler will make things better. It's all about heatload...:(
Thanks for the bios mate.

[Supershanks]

I was intrigued today, had been looking at this article Lynnfield's Turbo Mode: Up to 17% More Performance (http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3634&p=5) and noted the 2nd chart where the max I7-860 with 1 core is 3.46GHz with the i5-750 at 3.20GHz. This means in effect that the max muti applied are 26 and 24 respectively.

I got an I7-860 yesterday & started benching it at stock with turbo enabled.
While running nuclearus I say this:


30x133.33 ?? :shrug: running nuclearus
(click to enlarge)
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk///reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860/30xmulti.png (http://www.images.clunk.org.uk///reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860/30xmulti-l.png)

Not sure what's going on has any one seen similar on an I7-860 or I5-750 ?

[unclewebb]

A 30X multi on an i7 860 is not possible. I saw a validation the other day on a Core i7 920 at 6000MHz (200 X 30) which is also impossible.

For CPUs that support Dynamic Acceleration or Turbo Boost, Intel recommends that software should compare two high performance timers within their CPUs to correctly determine the multiplier. Not many programs are doing that.

Give i7 Turbo a try and you'll get a much more honest look at your multiplier.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/Turbo.zip

When running a single threaded task on an i7-860 with turbo mode enabled and C3/C6 set in the bios, you should see the active core cycle between 25X and the full 26X. i7 Turbo reports the average multiplier during each 1 second sample period for each thread. It's very precise.

The less background activity you have going on while running a single threaded task, the more time your CPU can run at the full 26X multiplier. You should see an average somewhere around 25.750 which shows that your multiplier is engaged at 26X 75% of the time and has cycled down to 25X the other 25% of the time.

[Supershanks]

hi unclewebb,
thanks for answer:up:
Yes I thought something was up with that :)

re-ran test and got results from log as expected:-
3x runs of Nuclearus gave (Averaged from log file):
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk///reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860/turbo.png
those results lok much more like what i expected.
What i have done today though since 1st test, is a fresh install of win7 64, which may have cured some glitch i was getting in CPU-X ?

anyway thanks for the turbo :up:

[unclewebb]

I'm still learning about these new CPUs myself. If you can, run about 2M of SuperPI and have i7 Turbo running and nothing else. Turn off as much background fluff as possible.

About half way through the bench, push the Print Screen button on the keyboard and Paste it into an image file so I can have a look at how the load is being distributed and what sort of multis you are getting across the cores. With C3/C6 enabled in the bios, I'm interested to see how high you can get the multi on the core that is running SuperPI. Default BCLK would be great.

Typically it is very obvious that the core doing the work is using the highest average multiplier like in this screen shot of an i7 870.

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9861/turbov.png

[stasio]

Anybody notice this on CPU-Z 152.2:

Asus P55 Rev.04

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5281/20090911100304.png

Gigabyte P55 Rev.05

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9695/20090911100323.png

[Supershanks]

Anybody notice this on CPU-Z 152.2:


Oh right interesting :)

There u go
(click to enlarge)
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk///reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860/turbo2mpi.png (http://www.images.clunk.org.uk///reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860/turbo2mpi-l.png)

[unclewebb]

Thanks supershanks. That's what I was looking to see.

CPU-Z reporting a multiplier of 25.0 is accurate but it doesn't tell the whole story. You can see how SuperPI is being mostly scheduled to one thread and that is allowing the other 3 cores to go into the C3/C6 sleep state so the one active core can use the 26X multiplier. It constantly cycles between 25X and 26X. At an average of 25.401, it is using the 26X multiplier approximately 40.1% of the time while running SuperPI. CPU-Z loads your CPU a lot more than i7 Turbo does and when it does, a second core will become active and this will drop your maximum multiplier down to 25X.

When benching, it's always important to minimize the number of background tasks running on your computer but with these new chips it's even more important. Less background activity directly equals a higher percentage of time that your CPU can use its highest multiplier which should improve your bench scores. Thanks for sharing. :up:

The latest version of i7 Turbo is available here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/3/1794507/Turbo.zip

If you disable 3 cores in the bios, you should be able to get the 26X multiplier full time. That might be a handy trick for a CPU-Z Validation which should also show the full 26X multi.

[G-UNIT91]

thanks for sharing my friend:clap:

[Supershanks]

cheers Unclewebb :D

[Chri$ch]

Anybody notice this on CPU-Z 152.2:
hmm.. the asus must be a older sample. my boards are all rev. 05

http://www.abload.de/img/pchy78z.png

[Supershanks]

I7-860 wasn't great, see main index (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review.html) for clocks, maybe I was unluck for once. At least I5-750 is reasonable 4.2Ghz both at 1,600Mhx & 1,900Mhz:-
At least managed a sub 9m Pi 32m:)
I5-750 4.2Ghz 21x200Mhz Ram x10 1,900Mhz 8-8-8-22 (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review-8.html#post70577)

[Porksmuggler]

big thanks to Supershank & dread77 for the review threads, and Supershank for the template :clap:

I can't wait to get going, but decided to wait on benches until Friday, when I should have a Hyper 212 Plus
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2419

She's running a might bit warm on the stock cooler :(

I've been using Gigabyte for client builds lately, but liked the ASUS P5Q so much, I had to come back for more :)

[Supershanks]

I can't wait to get going, but decided to wait on benches until Friday Great stuff, will look forward to that :up:

[Supershanks]

Just started on my 2nd I7-860 seems to be playing nicer than my 1st did:-
Click pictures for Bios settings & full benches
http://www.images.clunk.org.uk//reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860v1/21x182@10.png (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review-10.html#post71374)

http://valid.canardpc.com/cache/banner/727470.png (http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=727470)

http://www.images.clunk.org.uk//reviews/asus/Asus_P7P55D_Dlxe/clocks/i7-860v1/21x186@10.png (http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/24295-asus-p7p55d-deluxe-living-review-11.html#post71444)