ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer review
ASUS is one of the world's leading vendors of motherboards, the Taiwanese company is going all out with the releases of the P7P55 WS Supercomputer motherboard, Built on Intel's P55 platform, the new board has been specifically designed to accommodate the requirements of the workstation users.
Meet the ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer
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Specifications
CPU
Intel Socket 1156 Core i7 Processor/Core i5 Processor
Xeon 3400 series server processor
Supports Intel Turbo Boost Technology
Chipset
Intel P55 Express Chipset
Nvidia NF200*1
4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)*/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
Support Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Memory
Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs. Some hyper DIMMs only support one DIMM per channel. Please refer to Memory QVL for details.
Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lists)
Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (@ x16 or x8)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (@ x8)
1 x PCIe x16 (@ x4 )
1 x PCIe x1 (@ x1)
1 x PCI
Multi-GPU Support
Supports NVIDIA Geforce 3 way/2 way SLI technology
Supports ATI CrossFireX technology, up to Quad CrossFireX
Storage
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Support RAID 0,1,5,10
LAN
2 x Realtek 81112L Dual Gb LAN - Support teaming function
Audio
ALC1200-GR 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Multi-Streaming
Jack-Sensing
Front Panel Jack-Retasking
Coaxial / Optical S/PDIF out ports at back I/O
ASUS Noise-Filer
IEEE 1394
VIA VT6308S controller supports 2 x 1394a ports
USB
14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
Diag. LED
Diag. LED checks key components (CPU, DRAM, VGA card, and HDD) in sequence during motherboard booting process. If an error is found, the LED next to the error device will continue lighting until the problem is solved.
This user-friendly design provides an intuitional way to locate the root problem within a second.
Overclocking Features
vCore: Adjustable CPU voltage at 0.00625V increment
vIMC: Adjustable IMC voltage at 0.00625V increment
vDRAM Bus: 81-step DRAM voltage control vPCH: 2-step chipset voltage control
vCPU_PLL: 4-step reference voltage control
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
PCI Express frequency tuning from 100MHz up to 200MHz at 1MHz increment
Internal Base Clock tuning from 80MHz up to 500MHz at 1MHz increment
Overclocking Protection
ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo port
1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical)
1 x IEEE 1394a
2 x LAN(RJ45) port
8 x USB 2.0/1.1
8 -Channel Audio
Internal Connectors
24-pin EATX Power connector
8-pin EATX +12V Power connector
CPU fan with PWM control
Chassis fan1 with Q-fan control
Chassis fan2 with Q-fan control
Chassis fan3 with Q-fan control
PWR fan
CD audio in
1 x COM port connector
1 x USB connectors support additional 2 USB ports
2 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
20-pin Panel connector
1 x IEEE 1394a port
TPM header
S/PDIF Out header
Front panel connector
1x MemOK! button
BIOS
16 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, Green, PnP, DMI v2.0, Wfm2.0, ACPI v2.0a, SMBIOS v 2.6
Accessories
1 x 2-port USB and 1-port 1394a module
ASUS Q-Shield
1 x ASUS SLI bridge connector
1 x ASUS 3 way SLI bridge board
User's manual
6 x SATA cable(s)
1 x com port cable
3 in 1 Q-connector
1 x Diagnosis Card(Retail version only)
Support Disc
Drivers
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
ASUS Update
ASUS Utilities
Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.5 cm )
Front, inside and rear cover of the packaging that houses the ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer,
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So what's in the Box?
1 x 2-port USB and 1-port 1394a module
ASUS Q-Shield
1 x ASUS SLI bridge connector
1 x ASUS 3 way SLI bridge board User's manual
6 x SATA cable(s)
1 x com port cable
3 in 1 Q-connector
1 x Diagnosis Card
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Let's take a look at what ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer has to offer.
The P7P55 WS Supercomputer Motherboard is a work of art with a blue, white and black colour scheme, it uses an all solid-state 100% Japan-made high quality conductive polymer capacitors that incorporate various power saving features to increase its efficiency and improve electrical stability when overclocked.
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Based on Intel's P55 Express chipset and combined with an NVIDIA NF200 chip, this new workstation motherboard from ASUS has been designed to provide users with support for the latest Core i5 and Core i7 processors, as well as the recently launched, Lynnfield-based Xeon 3400 series of processors.
The heatsinks are nicely placed on the 16+3 phase motherboard power supply with a thicker copper trace that has been used in the motherboard's PCB to help spread the heat more evenly this helps to decreases the overall temperature of the mosfet's and other ICs improving component life, there is a total of five fan headers on the PCB, one for the CPU.
The four holes around the CPU socket area are spaced differently to the socket 775 and socket 1366 mounting brackets so your old heat sink won't fit.
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There are no power and reset buttons fixed on the P7P55 WS Supercomputer motherboard, but there is the G.P. Diagnosis card that assists users in system checking quickly and effortlessly providing precise system checks right after they switch on their PCs, only problem is though that when the lower PCI-E slots are in use then the panel will not fit so I think it is more intended for use in diagnostics rather than for daily use.
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It has five PCI Express 2.0 x16 video card slots for multi-graphic card's that supports both ATI Quad-GPU CrossfireX and nVidia Quad-GPU SLI, by supporting either 3-way or 2-way multi-GPU solutions via both SLI and CrossFireX technology users can install up to three SLI-capable GeForce® graphics cards at x16, x8, and x8 connection speeds, or two graphics cards at true x16 connection speeds, alternatively, users can also use CrossFireX for a multi-GPU setup.
Users can also count on up to 4 CUDA cards (One of them should be Quadro graphic card) that are plugged into P7P55 WS Supercomputer for intensive parallel computing on tons of data, which can deliver nearly 4 teraflops of performance.
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There are four dual channel DDR3-1600/1333/1066 memory slots which can accommodate up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, Memory can be overclocked to run at DDR3-2133 speeds with compatible module's, The memory slots has retention clips on the DIMM slots at one end, Previously we have seen clip's at either end but now there is just one at the top of the motherboard with a small retention clip at the bottom which make things easier when removing memory modules when large graphics cards are installed.
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The P7P55 WS Supercomputer motherboard has six 3.0Gb/s SATA connectors that can be paired up to make an Intel® Matrix Storage SATA RAID 0, 1.5 and 10 on these SATA connectors, the SATA ports are set at 90 degrees so as not to interfere with larger PCI-e cards.
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There are a total of 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports, 4 plus 2 raised of which are on the board next to the 1394a header plus 8 at the back panel.
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The VIA VT6308S controller supports 2 x 1394a
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There is three switches at the top of the board that can provide extra power to the memory, integrated memory controller and the CPU that allow for over voltages to become available in the BIOS.
The default values are CPU 0.85 - 1.75v, IMC max 1.7v, Dram max 2.0v
Switched OV Values are CPU 1.25 - 2.1v, IMC max 1.9v, Dram max 2.5v
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ASUS Heartbeat is a brightly and vividly lighting LEDs fixture that shines around the ASUS brand name on the motherboard after successful booting process.
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MemOK is a feature that is pretty neat it is a little red button with the purpose to allow the system to boot through running a number of algorithms in order to ensure the memory is stable enough to boot the system at the set values
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On the rear of the motherboard we have the I/O section which has 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo port , 1 x S/PDIF Out (Coaxial + Optical), 1 x IEEE 1394a, 2 x LAN(RJ45) port, 8 x USB 2.0/1.1
8 -Channel Audio.
The IEEE 1394a interface provides a high speed digital interface for audio/video appliances such as digital television, digital video camcorders, storage peripherals & other PC portable devices.
S/PDIF-out on Back I/O Port this motherboard provides convenient connectivity to external home theatre audio systems via coaxial and optical S/PDIF-out (SONY-PHILIPS Digital Interface) jacks.
It allows transferring digital audio without converting to analogue format and keeps the best signal quality.
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T.Probe is a leading Active Cooling Technology
The T.Probe microchip detects and balances power phase loads and temperatures in real-time with optimal power phase functions, this in turn makes the components run cooler which extends the system's lifespan.
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As one can expect from a high-end ASUS motherboard, the new P7P55 WS Supercomputer has been endowed with a significant number of additional features, like the ASUS Hybrid processor – TurboV EVO, 24 Hybrid Phase design, the ASUS Linux-based Hybrid OS (Express Gate ) and a couple of other ASUS features that are essentially meant to provide support for a high-end platform.
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The bios is very nicely laid out with plenty of features' and is not too complicated and offer's full functionality.
Click on the link to see slide show of the Bios.
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Test System
Retail Intel I7 860 CPU
4GB Corsair CMGS2GX3M1A2200C8ES-4GB (2200MHz Cas 8)
ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer
Zalman Reserrtor XT
2 X ASUS Matrix GTX285/HTDI/1GD3A
1 X XFX GTX 295
3 X Samsung HD322HJ (Raid5)
Enermax 1000W PSU
Windows 7 64-bit stock install and no tweaks.
A quick look at the CPU and Memory
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For testing I used a number of Real and synthetic benchmarks.
To start with I wanted to see what Tprobe was like and if it did what ASUS had claimed, for this test I used Wprime at stock settings.
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I wanted to see what Raid5 would offer, I was not expect too much as we all know that Raid 0 is best, but wanted to see what three drives would bring
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For multi tasking I used Badaboom, vReveal, WinRar, Bionic, Windows media Player, Disc burner, Folding and note seen in the screen shot web browsing all at the same time for some 6 hours 54 minutes. This was to see if the claims that ASUS had made about this motherboard were correct.
In this time I Cleaned and encoded with vRevea 6 full length Movies and burned them to disc, enhanced 4 full length Movies and saved to drive with Badaboom, Watched 2 full length films on media player, completed a huge number of calculations with Folding and Bionic and finally processed 68,639 MB of data all in the same space of time as the other tests utilising both the GPU's and CPU.
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For all other tests I used the most common and the ones we all know and love using just the 2 X 2 X ASUS Matrix GTX285/HTDI/1GD3A
For 3D
Next was to see what PcMark vantage would bring using just one Samsung HD322HJ Drive at different speeds from the CPU.
PCmark Vantage stock run
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcmv=245210
PCMarkSuite 7463 PCMarks
Memories Suite 6119
TV and Movies Suite 5138
Gaming Suite 7845
Music Suite 6784
Communications Suite 6720
Productivity Suite 6645
HDD Test Suite 3768
PCmark Vantage at 4000MHz
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcmv=245211
PCMarkSuite 9540 PCMarks
Memories Suite 7408
TV and Movies Suite 5778
Gaming Suite 11689
Music Suite 7997
Communications Suite 9655
Productivity Suite 8648
HDD Test Suite 3671
PCmark Vantage 4400MHz
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcmv=245212
PCMarkSuite 9717 PCMarks
Memories Suite 7643
TV and Movies Suite 5862
Gaming Suite 12259
Music Suite 8939
Communications Suite 10220
Productivity Suite 8924
HDD Test Suite 3715
I feel this is true testament to any system as it shows any weaknesses for items of hardware that had been used; being able to complete the full tests which take on average 50 minutes at the speed of 4400MHz using just water for cooling is a good example of what the platform was like.
Super pi 32M
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PIfast
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Wprime
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WinRar
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Cinebench
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3Dmark05
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3Dmark06
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3Dmark vantage
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Everest catch and memory
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Conclusion.
ASUS have put in a lot of effort in the P7P55 WS supercomputer and the end result is a good all-round motherboard with full funtuality, in my testing the motherboard was a little bit harder than the others I have tested to get the most from in regards high overclocks with stability being an issue which I think had something to do with the NF200 Chip, but nevertheless the end results were still as impressive as ever even if it did take a little longer to find the right settings.
Express gate is something that I have always been a big fan off and grown to love so having this on any motherboard is a must for me as for general use it is so easy and fast to be on the web in seconds.
ASUS has done a masterful job with the ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer it has a bundle of software and accessories, good overclocking and all the extra features a user could ever want putting good use of the NF200 chip, but at the end of the day is it a supercomputer ( in my eyes no is the answer ) as X58 will offer much more when it comes to supercomputing, it is more a Workstation platform suited to users wanting to go the P55 route if they wish with NVIDIA Tesla GPU support, the ASUS P7P55 WS Supercomputer provides the foundation for users to build a personal computer that leverages the NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing architecture for a massive performance boost from four graphic cards( three NVIDIA Tesla cards and one NVIDIA Quadro card) that will generate up to four teraflops of computing power, therefore the P7P55 WS Supercomputer is suited for virtualization and heavy workload computing for the masses, that is not saying you need spend that much on pure graphics power as I found that using the cards I had to hand offered me a lot when compiled with this motherboard.
At the end of the day the ASUS P7P55 WS supercomputer is a very good workstation motherboard that offers more than the average P55 Motherboard, with good features and both overclockability in mind, but one has to ask if the P6T7 WS SUPERCOMPUTER would not be a better option for a few extra $
