Review: EVGA P55 FTW (132-LF-E657-KR)

Hot off the presses, here's our review of the EVGA P55 FTW!

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EVGA P55 FTW Review
(132-LF-E657-KR)

http://overclockerstech.com/images/r...gaboardpic.JPG

EVGA needs no introduction. They have now been around for more than a decade. Since the release of the X58 chipset, they have separated themselves as a top-notch enthusiast motherboard manufacturer. As of this writing, their X58 Classified holds two out of the top five world frequency records for i7’s in the CPU-z Hall of Fame. EVGA hopes to continue their dominance with their new lineup of boards based on the Intel P55 chipset.

Today, we are presented with the EVGA P55 FTW motherboard. This is one of quite a few motherboards EVGA has released for the P55 chipset, and is in the top three in terms of features.

Thanks to EVGA for providing the board for this review.

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Long story short:

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Pros:
* Extensive featureset; and it is all useful, nothing extraneous or useless in the bunch.
* Very strong CPU power section.
* Inclusion of both LGA1156 and LGA775 heatsink mounting holes.
* Inclusion of EVGA Control Panel.
* Detailed, extensive, yet easy-to-understand BIOS.
* Very strong overclocking options.

Cons:
* Entirely too much thermal paste on the P55 chipset.
* Contact on the longer MOSFET heatsink could be improved in the middle.

Here at Gilgamesh Reviews we have a three tier rating system. A Silver Award, an Editors' Choice Award, and our top honor the Gold Award. To achieve the Gold Award a product must demonstrate a performance level above and beyond the normal. This exquisite offering from EVGA does just that. While it is priced at the higher end of the P55 spectrum, its featureset and specifications more than justify that high price, especially when compared to other manufacturers' options at (and above) this price point. Therefore, we are very pleased to bestow another Gold Award upon EVGA for their efforts!

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There you go! There is a TON of information in this review; seemed like it took forever to write. Please state any questions, concerns or comments. I'll also be benching this thing properly as I'm able with suicide runs, max BCLK, etc and posting it in here. Cheers! :)

{Mod/Admin, I'm pretty sure I'm not breaking any rules and am not just going to let this thread die; I'll respond to feedback and update with further results as time allows me to get them. Additionally, it would literally be ridiculous trying to port all of that information into forum posts, so a link is the only option. Please PM me with any concerns. Thanks!}

I didn't use these in the review, but here are everest cache & mem runs I ran at each clock speed:

Stock:
http://www.gilgameshreviews.com/imag...dmem-stock.jpg

3.6GHz:
http://www.gilgameshreviews.com/imag...ndmem-3600.jpg

4.0GHz:
http://www.gilgameshreviews.com/imag...ndmem-4000.jpg

4.2GHz:
http://www.gilgameshreviews.com/imag...ndmem-4200.jpg

come on...go up!!! :up:

Hahaha...I plan on it. Just don't have time right now. Needed to get the review posted and 4.2 was all I had time for. I do plan on seeing how far up it will go on water and seeing what type of Bclk it can get on water. Probably like every other P55, it'll top out between 230 and 235; but that's no reason not to try!

please
Is it possible to keep ratio 24 on i7 870 + EVGA FTW?
the sppedstep cause instability to overclocking (many variations in the ratio)
i used C1E disable, speedstep enable (its necessary to increase 22 to 24 the ratio)
What to do?
thanks

Nice review Hoki, long time no see, it`s been abit:p: too long.

Yes, yes it has; great to see you as well! How are things in the far east?

rbuass - I'm sorry to say that Speedstep must be enabled to use Turbo. Can't find a way around it at all. All we can hope for is a BIOS that doesn't force the feature. Thankfully we're at the beginning of the P55 life cycle and have a maturing BIOS to look forward to.

In board/cpu related news, I'm presently stability testing at 3.8GHz, 1.304Vcore loaded (1.282v failed @ 12min, 1.294v failed @ 42min; hopefully it's the sweet spot).

EDIT - Looks like we have a winner - 3.8GHz stable! (Pending folding stability of course.)

http://gilgameshreviews.com/images/r...e95-3800-t.jpg

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Originally Posted by rbuass

please
Is it possible to keep ratio 24 on i7 870 + EVGA FTW?
the sppedstep cause instability to overclocking (many variations in the ratio)
i used C1E disable, speedstep enable (its necessary to increase 22 to 24 the ratio)
What to do?
thanks

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c1e disable, speedstep enable, turbo enable , cstate disable, vista power optuions = high performance, no problem

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Originally Posted by LardArse

c1e disable, speedstep enable, turbo enable , cstate disable, vista power optuions = high performance, no problem

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I will try this tonight, I was having the same issue with an x3470

cpu mulit's are also not correctly displayed in eleet overclocking tab, they ready 27x, 26x, 24x, 24x across the 4 cores, is this a known issue?

As I understood it, the overclocking tab multipliers are what you want Turbo mode to use. Normal Turbo mode uses the multipliers that are default in that tab. I assume (haven't tried this) you can reduce those if you're having stability problems at the multipliers Turbo uses.

We finally have a stable 3.8GHz. The above OC failed prime at 1hr 52min. Bumped Vcore one notch (1.317v loaded) and set a 6hr OCCT test then went to bed. When I got home from lunch I saw it had passed!

So (still pending folding), I'm going to call this one stable. Loaded up Prime95 & minimized it so voltages were correct and took these screenshots of both the monitoring and voltage tabs. OCCT reports are below as well.

http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...monitortab.jpg http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...voltagetab.jpg

http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...CTrpt-CPU1.jpg http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...CTrpt-CPU2.jpg
http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...CTrpt-CPU3.jpg http://myalbumbank.com/albums/userpi...CTrpt-CPU4.jpg

so bad board or chip you think for oc? i really like this board but your oc has me wondering..

Well, it's not really a bad overclock. I've seen lots of high numbers and suicide runs on many boards, but I've seen very few stable results. Seems OC Nub has me beat by 100MHz at the same Vcore, but it's not a drastic increase. I'm not sure how high these chips will go stable with just 1.3'ish Vcore...on any board. While certainly not omnipresent by any means, I just haven't seen enough stable results to tell you one way or the other. My instinct is that this might just be average, for any given board & CPU. There will probably be a D0 equivalent that will come out and everyone will clock a bit better. But that's all just my instinct; there isn't enough data out there right now to know. Time will tell.

Why did you lower base clock?200 wasn't stable??

superb review! maybe i can get a FTW next week, but i'm still interested in a Asus M3F ... what do you think about?

nb. i've a Xeon X3460 chip ... :D

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Originally Posted by SubZero.it

Why did you lower base clock?200 wasn't stable??

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Well, I couldn't seem to get 4GHz stable (200 x 20) in time to get this review out, so I stopped trying for the time being. 191 x 21 didn't work either, so I think it's more the wrong voltage combination than anything to do with the Bclk. Right now, I've just set the default multi and am taking it one step at a time attempting to improve stable overclocked speeds. I think temps might get in the way before I get to 200 x 21.

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Originally Posted by KURTZ

superb review! maybe i can get a FTW next week, but i'm still interested in a Asus M3F ... what do you think about?

nb. i've a Xeon X3460 chip ... :D

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Thanks for the compliment! I don't have an M3F to compare it to, but they do look like very solid boards. Just don't have enough info to make a recommendation either way. All I can say is that I really like this one, but would welcome the opportunity to compare! :up:

Horray, it really IS stable this time. Twin SMP clients 90% done. Yay. :)

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...table-3800.jpg

Allrighty then. Thanks to Brolloks' suggestions @ OCF, we finally have 4GHz stable (sans HT). Here's a shot while OCCT is running and the temperature graphs for the four cores. Note I was tooling around on the PC, which is why the usage spikes so much; other stuff taking away CPU cycles. :)

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...4ghz1hrrun.jpg

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...4000-core1.jpg http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...4000-core2.jpg

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...4000-core3.jpg http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...4000-core4.jpg

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thanks for the compliment! I don't have an M3F to compare it to, but they do look like very solid boards. Just don't have enough info to make a recommendation either way. All I can say is that I really like this one, but would welcome the opportunity to compare! :up:

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you know mate, you give me a strong reason to buy this EVGA mainboard ... :D

but i've a question: do you think that i should have some troubles with my X3460 Xeon processor? :p i know that right now EVGA don't support the Server processors, but do you think that there are bios' troubles?

anyone have already made a test with it?

edit: just another question: what the max bclock that you have reached with this mainboard?

As to the Xeon, I'd hate to tell you wrong and can't say one way or the other. Sorry for the noncommital answer, but the fact is I have no idea.

Max bclk I've booted with was 209; but I haven't had time to try very hard.

OK Hoki, EVGA has answered to me about the Xeons, Shamino has tested it, but right now they aren't supported officially ... :)

anyway, what about the BIOS? i've read that with the latest release there are too much troubles ...

Definitely stay away from the newest one (A29). Looking forward to the next release whenever it comes. It can't hurt to flash it in one of the three BIOS chips if you want to play, but here's my fun experience with it:

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This bios has a very interesting bug I ran across when reviewing this board, just thought I'd point it out. It probably won't affect many, but if you run Prime95 Blend test, the second you start the test, the system begins going absolutely bonkers on the HDD. It's doing so much accessing the system slows to a crawl.

I didn't believe it either, but after testing it three times, the ONLY variable in the equation that was not equal was the BIOS. All other settings were the same. It was just a simple switch of the BIOS switch (flashed this one on #3).

If anyone feels like testing this, I'd be grateful to know if someone can reproduce it. Could be a bad flash, but I did it from DOS and it completed flawlessly. Cleared CMOS as well. Strangest BIOS bug I've ever seen.

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really interesting :)

anyway, i'd asked @eVGA about the BIOS downgrade, but i don't understand one thing, if i can't boot cause i flash a bad BIOS, how i can recovery that chip without booting? is possible to clone a bios into another?

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Originally Posted by KURTZ

really interesting :)

anyway, i'd asked @eVGA about the BIOS downgrade, but i don't understand one thing, if i can't boot cause i flash a bad BIOS, how i can recovery that chip without booting? is possible to clone a bios into another?

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You should not have any non-post issues, but just in case you do;

Keep your working BIOS on one chip. Flash the second or third chip. If it does not work, move the slider back to the working BIOS. Use that working BIOS to post and then slide the switch over and reflash the BIOS chip that was not posting. No need to worry.

as raja said just need to switch to second or third bios
http://forum.nexthardware.com/galler...hp?n=11010&w=o

Yep, raju is correct. It's just like hot-flashing a removable BIOS chip. Boot with the good one, flip the switch to the bad one and flash the bad one. The BIOS boots fine. Unless you have a bad flash, it will operate. It just has bugs once it's loaded.

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Originally Posted by raju

You should not have any non-post issues, but just in case you do;

Keep your working BIOS on one chip. Flash the second or third chip. If it does not work, move the slider back to the working BIOS. Use that working BIOS to post and then slide the switch over and reflash the BIOS chip that was not posting. No need to worry.

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Originally Posted by hiwa

as raja said just need to switch to second or third bios
http://forum.nexthardware.com/galler...hp?n=11010&w=o

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so if i've understand i need to post with my working bios, but before that win is completely charged i should switch, correct?

sorry guys, but i'm coming from Asus ... :)

two extra bios chips on board has got to be worth £20 so I guess it was worth the premium price :)

I just got this board with the i7-860... :D let's see how it goes...

Question regarding the memory. Did you place the Dimm's in sockets 1 and 3? I have 2-2gigs (Total 4Gb) Dimms and want to make sure I'm doing this right :D

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat :D

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Originally Posted by xXxDieselxXx

I just got this board with the i7-860... :D let's see how it goes...

Question regarding the memory. Did you place the Dimm's in sockets 1 and 3? I have 2-2gigs (Total 4Gb) Dimms and want to make sure I'm doing this right :D

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat :D

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dunno mate, i'm waiting my board ... :D

anyway:

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Originally Posted by Shamino

PCIE Frequency – can go to around 109, 112 when combined with high BCLK

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isn't too much?

@Hoki: why you don't followed the Shamino tips for your ocing?
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=...ey=&#100927152

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Originally Posted by xXxDieselxXx

I just got this board with the i7-860... :D let's see how it goes...

Question regarding the memory. Did you place the Dimm's in sockets 1 and 3? I have 2-2gigs (Total 4Gb) Dimms and want to make sure I'm doing this right :D

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat :D

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Mine are in 1 & 3. It shouldn't make much of a difference, if any, as long as your two sticks are in DIMMs 1 & 3 or 2 & 4. Remember...for dual channel on Intel, DIMMs are NOT side by side!

Congrats on the order, report back and let us know how it goes. What are you going to use to cool the little furnace?

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Originally Posted by KURTZ

dunno mate, i'm waiting my board ... :D

anyway:



isn't too much?

@Hoki: why you don't followed the Shamino tips for your ocing?
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=...1&key=�

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I just haven't had the chance to yet. Did see that post though; an excellent walk through of all the BIOS options. Anyone that has an EVGA P55 board should read every word of it.

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Well, it's not really a bad overclock. I've seen lots of high numbers and suicide runs on many boards, but I've seen very few stable results. Seems OC Nub has me beat by 100MHz at the same Vcore, but it's not a drastic increase. I'm not sure how high these chips will go stable with just 1.3'ish Vcore...on any board. While certainly not omnipresent by any means, I just haven't seen enough stable results to tell you one way or the other. My instinct is that this might just be average, for any given board & CPU. There will probably be a D0 equivalent that will come out and everyone will clock a bit better. But that's all just my instinct; there isn't enough data out there right now to know. Time will tell.

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"but I've seen very few stable results."

these guys dont care about stable.if u open up a real game and try and play with %95 of overclocks i see here there pcs will crash in the first 30 seconds:rolleyes:

3.8 is a nice STABLE oc ...gj:up:

Thanks very much!

Guys I'm stuck!

I love this board nice lay out but...

I'm not able to do a clean Win7-64 install. When I run the installer it will ask to load SATA AHCI drivers. I have downloaded all the new drivers from this site and copied them into a CD but still nothing no luck.

I get this error:

The Intel PCH SATA AHCI controller iaAHCI.inf device driver could not be installed. Contact your vendor.

Any clues guys?

http://power-swe.kicks-ass.net/upload/i5/i5_4000.jpg

awesome board :D love the S775 cooler mount

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Originally Posted by xXxDieselxXx

Guys I'm stuck!

I love this board nice lay out but...

I'm not able to do a clean Win7-64 install. When I run the installer it will ask to load SATA AHCI drivers. I have downloaded all the new drivers from this site and copied them into a CD but still nothing no luck.

I get this error:

The Intel PCH SATA AHCI controller iaAHCI.inf device driver could not be installed. Contact your vendor.

Any clues guys?

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If you're trying to run RAID, I am not versed in that at all; never tried it myself, sorry. Just don't have the urge. If you're not trying to RAID HDDs up, just select "Load Optimized Defaults", set your RAM voltage, put the DVD in and see if it will install.

Well, I finally had a few minutes to try some benching. Time was limited, but here are SP1M, WPrime & Aquamark at 4.388GHz. Please remember Aquamark was run with a mere 8800GTX that isn't a very good clocker (still, it's #28 on HWBot for 8800GTX results).

SP1M: 9.454s (Still not beating my best at 4.974GHz on the old E8400 of 9.313s, but getting there.)

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...b_sp1m4388.jpg

WPrime32M: 6.938s (#11 on HWBot ...out of 14 ;) )

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...ime32-4388.jpg

Aquamark: 280,036

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...score-4388.jpg http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...etail-4388.jpg

That's all there is time for now. Will continue turning those screws whenever there is an opportunity. Thanks for looking!

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

If you're trying to run RAID, I am not versed in that at all; never tried it myself, sorry. Just don't have the urge. If you're not trying to RAID HDDs up, just select "Load Optimized Defaults", set your RAM voltage, put the DVD in and see if it will install.

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Thanks buddy... I ended up installing Vista 64 then Windows 7-64 over it and it did the trick :D

I have to say this is one of the nicest mobos I have ever seen... such great board to work with. I paired it with a Corsair HD50 cooler using the LG775 brackets and it works like a charm. Temps are really cool at default clocks. I will start doing some OC soon and will post results.

So far this is what I have:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8922/p55default.png

Here some pics :D

Here I have the Corsair H50 Cooler sandwiched with 2 fans Push In Fan ---> Radiator ---> Pull In Fan
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/2631/clmobofan.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1889/clmobo.jpg

This CM HAF-932 Case is a dream to work with the P55-FTW
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5925/caseo.jpg

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Well, I finally had a few minutes to try some benching. Time was limited, but here are SP1M, WPrime & Aquamark at 4.388GHz. Please remember Aquamark was run with a mere 8800GTX that isn't a very good clocker (still, it's #28 on HWBot for 8800GTX results).

SP1M: 9.454s (Still not beating my best at 4.974GHz on the old E8400 of 9.313s, but getting there.)

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...b_sp1m4388.jpg

WPrime32M: 6.938s (#11 on HWBot ...out of 14 ;) )

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...ime32-4388.jpg

Aquamark: 280,036

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...score-4388.jpg http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...etail-4388.jpg

That's all there is time for now. Will continue turning those screws whenever there is an opportunity. Thanks for looking!

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good job Hoki!;)

There you go so far looking good :D

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2207/firstclockat4.jpg

Guys I have a question... it's kind of killing me and I'm not getting answers from the official eVGA forums nor I can find it in the user manual.

Is there a way to boot up the PC using the keyboard? In the past I have used Asus boards and I can always configure in the Bios to boot up PC with the keyboard instead of reaching out for the power button from the case.

guys need feed-back quickly :P

i've settled my single Raptor HDD (74gb) onto AHCI in the BIOS, and all is recognized correctly, BUT when i shut down the system, and reboot i've always a 'fake boot' ... with the IDE setting all runs smooth ... someone can confirm this?

ps. tried with the stock BIOS and the latest (A35).

Wow, you both have questions I certainly can't answer. Sorry Diesel, I've never had a computer that doesn't run 24/7. And Kurtz, I have nothing as good as a Raptor to help out. Bump for anyone who knows how to answer either of these, please help. :)

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Wow, you both have questions I certainly can't answer. Sorry Diesel, I've never had a computer that doesn't run 24/7. And Kurtz, I have nothing as good as a Raptor to help out. Bump for anyone who knows how to answer either of these, please help. :)

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no problem Hoki :)

anyway another Q for you :D:

in the CPU Config there is the A20M (Legacy OSes and APs may need enabled) option ... what means? (i've W7 64 installed)

I have no idea what it does, but if you're running fine with W7 (as I am) and it's disabled (as mine is), I'd leave well enough alone. I also have an XP install (two actually) on this system and it is fine disabled. Unless you're running something pre-XP, the option is likely unnecessary.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1949/immag412.th.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9234/immag413.th.jpg

with the Asus MIIIF a friend can set manually the 22x multiplier ... so i just tried to make the same thing with our board but the multiplier is stuck @ 21x ... weird thing ... someone can explain it?

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?id...15,42932,42931,

edit: Hoki can you try with your 860? thanks

Does anybody using the stock heatsink for tests? If yes what temps are you getting?

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Originally Posted by Unseen

Does anybody using the stock heatsink for tests? If yes what temps are you getting?

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http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1058/linx.th.jpg

For what is worth :D

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7996/final3dmark.jpg

seems a lot of mixed feelings with this board.. im torn now a lot of people around the www seem to dislike this as well as some love it.. very mixed feelings it seems

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KURTZ

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1949/immag412.th.jpg
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9234/immag413.th.jpg

with the Asus MIIIF a friend can set manually the 22x multiplier ... so i just tried to make the same thing with our board but the multiplier is stuck @ 21x ... weird thing ... someone can explain it?

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?id...15,42932,42931,

edit: Hoki can you try with your 860? thanks

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Doesn't work with mine. Looks like a BIOS glitch. Does it maintain 22x after booting? I tried with and without speedstep and turbo. Also tried only using two cores with no luck.

if you look at bios you will see your calculated cpu multiplier to be 22x if you have turbo enabled. so 21x selection + turbo enabled = 22x.
asus just shows 22x as the target multiplier, just terminology difference.

if u disable cstate, c1e, enable speedstep and turbo, you should see 22x all the time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LardArse

if you look at bios you will see your calculated cpu multiplier to be 22x if you have turbo enabled. so 21x selection + turbo enabled = 22x.
asus just shows 22x as the target multiplier, just terminology difference.

if u disable cstate, c1e, enable speedstep and turbo, you should see 22x all the time.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Doesn't work with mine. Looks like a BIOS glitch. Does it maintain 22x after booting? I tried with and without speedstep and turbo. Also tried only using two cores with no luck.

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yes i can confirm that :)

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/152/turbox22.th.jpg

just disable the C State options and we can get the 'Static Turbo' ... :)

however, now i can understand one thing with my Tridents 2000 DIMMs ... i settled the XMP profile (2000mhz cl. 9 2T) w/1.65 vDIMM but i can't enter in the OS (always a BSoD) ... maybe i missing something? (also tried w/XMP @1600 but nothing to do)

my rig is all @default ... just trying to play and understand the BIOS settings ... no ocing at this time :)

(obviously with the STD profile - cl.11 1T 1.50 vDIMM i haven't any trouble)

Thanks for the review.

Thanks very much for the tip LardArse, makes perfect sense now.

KURTZ - which BIOS are you using? The latest version improves XMP support. Never tried it myself. I'm ridiculous about manually setting RAM and very rarely even boot with SPD settings.

Asylum1, you're welcome. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thanks very much for the tip LardArse, makes perfect sense now.

KURTZ - which BIOS are you using? The latest version improves XMP support. Never tried it myself. I'm ridiculous about manually setting RAM and very rarely even boot with SPD settings.

Asylum1, you're welcome. :)

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yes Hoki, i use the A35 BIOS ...

http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

i've the LOTES and you? :P

edit: about the XMP

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5213/xmp.th.jpg

the only way that i can run the XMP is when i 'move' up the BLCK to 166 w/XMP @ 1600 so the DIMMs goes @ 2000, obviously i need to set the vCC & vTT ... if i leave the BCLK on AUTO (vCC & vCC same) i can't boot ... it's normal?

so in anyones opinion would there be a reason to buy a different similar priced mobo over this one or things you very much dislike?

At its price point, I think it is a superb motherboard. Definitely one of the higher-end P55 boards, and the price does reflect that. With its particular featureset, I think it's well worth the money. If you don't think you'd use all of the features (or at least most of them), there are other boards that are a bit less expensive that could meet one's needs. Can't really compare apples-to-apples because I have no other P55 boards ...yet.

im actually comparing to more $$ board like max 3 and ud6 or the msi gd80. all of those in fact add more than this has in most areas. one thing i like about most other board is the extra sata ports. with this only having 6 total. i use all 8 on my dfi now. i run 4 burners and 4 hdd's so i would have to cut 2 out of the loop with this one, also most seem to offer better overall cooling? with the lack of the heatpipes with this does that make a difference at all really? overall though i really like this layout with just a couple exceptions besides i always hear evga support is top notch unlike some other companies..

The lack of a heatpipe is definitely not a problem. Look at the VREG temp when stressing 3.8GHz with HT....only 47C. 4.0GHz without HT but with more Vcore... 45C. Believe me, you won't miss it. These temps are with the stock thermal pad removed and MX-2 put in its place though, so do keep that in mind if you end up with higher temps than I got.

The layout is stellar. If losing two SATA ports isn't a deal breaker, I like this one. But you may need them...so that would make this board a nonstarter for you unfortunately.

totally agreed with Hoki :)

Great review, thanks, very helpful!

Thank you kind sir (or madam). :)

New BIOS out - A39. Original post, quote here:

Quote:

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This BIOS is ONLY for the EVGA P55 FTW Motherboard (part number 132-LF-E657- )

A39 Updates:

* Improved XMP Support
* Supports New 1.35v DRAMs
* Improves Xeon CPU Support

This package contains the necessary Flash Tool and ROM file to Flash your EVGA Motherboard. Please check to ensure that you downloaded the right package for your motherboard.
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This flash is designed for Windows 32Bit/64Bit or DOS mode.

* Download the following .zip file: E657_A39.zip
* First go into your BIOS and load defaults, save and exit
* Go into the folder where you unzipped this package and run the appropriate batch file.
o For Windows XP, Vista or 7 32Bit: AFUWIN32.BAT
o For Windows XP, Vista or 7 64Bit: AFUWIN64.BAT
o If in DOS Mode: AFUDOS.BAT
* Press Y in CAPITAL LETTERS to start the flash process
* DO NOT TURN OFF POWER OR RESET DURING THE FLASH PROCESS
* After the flashing is finished, shut down the computer. Then power on again and go into BIOS, Load Defaults, Save and Exit.


Warning:
**Do not restart or interrupt your PC while the flash is ongoing
**Do not Flash BIOS on overclocked settings
**It is always recommended to power-down after flash

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On a side note, next week is an OC competition at TRP so I'll have some new benchmarks to post. :)

Did some stability testing with the new BIOS tonight. Stable as it was with the original BIOS at the same Vcore. 1.317v loaded @ 3.8GHz.

http://www.myalbumbank.com/albums/us...ble-A39-sm.jpg

More benching sometime next week!

nice run Hoki :) also really interesting Ts ;)

however i saw an interesting thing, i've upgraded my 2nd bios (the 3rdd has the A37) and i saw that when i switch to the older, the XMP settings are still settled ... but the older bios haven't the XMP improvements ...

Hey guys, this is my first post here...I got a EVGA P55 FTW and it runs great, the only thing that I can't figure out is that the Debug LED reads C8 after loading windows, it doesn't show the motherboard's temperature like it was supposed to.

I hope it's something related to BIOS options or jumpers, C8 code isn't in the manual, I've googled it and found nothing interesting also..

Can anyone help me? :confused:

Thanks!

Did you select "Load Optimized Defaults" in BIOS? There is a setting in there to set the CPU temp monitoring, though I can't remember where.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Did you select "Load Optimized Defaults" in BIOS? There is a setting in there to set the CPU temp monitoring, though I can't remember where.

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Yes, I've tried a couple times and also looked for BIOS options and wasn't able to solve it.. I don't know what could be wrong...i'm updating BIOS atm...

EDIT: BIOS updated to A39 and problem wasn't solved...any solution?

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/8686/36001164.th.jpg

very first run with my chip ... i saw that this M/B have some vdroop/vdrop

BIOS 1.150
OS idle 1.164
OS load 1.176/1.188

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sublime

Yes, I've tried a couple times and also looked for BIOS options and wasn't able to solve it.. I don't know what could be wrong...i'm updating BIOS atm...

EDIT: BIOS updated to A39 and problem wasn't solved...any solution?

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i think your x-cool jumper is flipped to the xtreme-cooling position just put jumper back to original position

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7974/40001305.th.jpg

4.0ghz

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LardArse

i think your x-cool jumper is flipped to the xtreme-cooling position just put jumper back to original position

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Hey Lardarse, thanks for helping, I've looked into my motherboad and wasn't able to find this jumper..could you upload a picture of the mobo with the jumper's place marked on it so I can try changing jumper's position?

Lol, sorry for being such a noob.. :p:

Kurtz, you have a champion chip there. Very nice overclock!

Sublime - I'd contact EVGA support and ask about the problem. C8 isn't even a POST code listed in the manual. I'm not at the PC, so no idea about the X-cool jumper, sorry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sublime

Hey Lardarse, thanks for helping, I've looked into my motherboad and wasn't able to find this jumper..could you upload a picture of the mobo with the jumper's place marked on it so I can try changing jumper's position?

Lol, sorry for being such a noob.. :p:

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http://pctuning.tyden.cz/ilustrace3/...d/detail10.jpg
http://forum.nexthardware.com/galler...55_FTW_004.jpg

pins 1-2 means default
pins 2-3 extreme position

4750 validated! :D

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=808016

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5401/sp1m.th.jpg

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5...perpi32.th.jpg

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3963/wprime32.th.jpg

Kurtz, what VTT & PLL are you running?

By the way everybody, Gilgamesh Reviews is no more. We have completely revamped the site and are now known (much more aptly) as Overclockers Tech. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Kurtz, what VTT & PLL are you running?

By the way everybody, Gilgamesh Reviews is no more. We have completely revamped the site and are now known (much more aptly) as Overclockers Tech. :)

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for what? 4500? 1.500 vCC and 1.500 vTT if i remember correctly ...

Thanks, I'll have to try that. Hit a pretty hard wall @ 4.4. Looks like more VTT may be the answer. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hokiealumnus

Thanks, I'll have to try that. Hit a pretty hard wall @ 4.4. Looks like more VTT may be the answer. :)

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Hoki, these chips need too much vTT ... :)

You guys have an issue with this board POSTing? Mine will sometimes POST and sometimes not with the same settings. It also take 3-4 reboot cycles before POSTing. Works well once I get it started

Never had that problem with mine. Have you tried one of your other BIOSes?

Yea I tried 3 different BIOS, flashed the latest last night. Trying to figure out the issue now.