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

**hokiealumnus** · 10-05-2009, 12:27 PM

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.

**KURTZ** · 10-05-2009, 12:35 PM

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.

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

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 ...

**RADCOM** · 10-05-2009, 12:46 PM

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

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-05-2009, 01:06 PM

I just got this board with the i7-860...

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

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat

**KURTZ** · 10-05-2009, 02:02 PM

Originally Posted by xXxDieselxXx

I just got this board with the i7-860...

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

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat

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

anyway:

Originally Posted by Shamino

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

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

**hokiealumnus** · 10-05-2009, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by xXxDieselxXx

I just got this board with the i7-860...

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

It has been a while since working on the Intel boat

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?

Originally Posted by KURTZ

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

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=�

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.

**railmeat** · 10-05-2009, 07:12 PM

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.

"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

3.8 is a nice STABLE oc ...gj

**hokiealumnus** · 10-05-2009, 07:32 PM

Thanks very much!

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-10-2009, 07:46 AM

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?

**ElixXx** · 10-10-2009, 08:34 AM

awesome board

love the S775 cooler mount

**hokiealumnus** · 10-10-2009, 10:04 AM

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?

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.

**hokiealumnus** · 10-10-2009, 10:06 AM

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.)

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

)

Aquamark: 280,036

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

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-10-2009, 09:30 PM

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.

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

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:

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-11-2009, 06:43 AM

Here some pics

Here I have the Corsair H50 Cooler sandwiched with 2 fans Push In Fan ---> Radiator ---> Pull In Fan

This CM HAF-932 Case is a dream to work with the P55-FTW

**KURTZ** · 10-11-2009, 10:02 AM

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.)

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

)

Aquamark: 280,036

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

good job Hoki!

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-11-2009, 06:05 PM

There you go so far looking good

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-12-2009, 09:32 AM

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.

**KURTZ** · 10-12-2009, 01:54 PM

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).

**hokiealumnus** · 10-12-2009, 03:55 PM

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.

**KURTZ** · 10-13-2009, 10:38 AM

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.

no problem Hoki

anyway another Q for you

:

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

**hokiealumnus** · 10-13-2009, 11:02 AM

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.

**KURTZ** · 10-14-2009, 02:29 AM

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

**Unseen** · 10-14-2009, 06:29 AM

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

**KURTZ** · 10-14-2009, 08:28 AM

Originally Posted by Unseen

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

**xXxDieselxXx** · 10-14-2009, 11:50 AM

For what is worth

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

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