**Official** GIGABYTE 333 Onboard Acceleration P55A Series - P55A-UD6/UD4P/UD3

[Temujin]

This is the official thread to help users get the most out of their P55A-UD6/UD5/UD4/UD4P/UD3/UD3P/UD3R, and P55A-UD3 Motherboards featuring the Intel P55A Chipset and 333 Onboard Acceleration.

Since the P55 Series is very similar, the thread also includes the P55-UD6/UD6-C, P55-UD5, P55-UD4/UD4P, P55-UD3/UD3L/UD3P/UD3R/UD3L-TPM/US3L, P55M-UD4/UD2 Motherboards.


GIGABYTE steps up performance with new platforms sporting the Intel P55A Chipset offering 333 Onboard Acceleration. The 333 Onboard Acceleration supports the very latest USB 3.0 Super Speed 10X, Standard USB Power 3X, and SATA 3.0 to support hard drives like the recently launched Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6 series. Ultra Durable 3 and Smart 6 features continue to deliver the power that users demand.



GA-P55A-UD3 Motherboard - An entry level platform that packs a punch for CPU and 2200MHz DDR3 memory overclocking. The UD3 is specially tuned for supporting the latest ATI CrossfireX configurations and great for single graphic card systems.



GA-P55A-UD4P Motherboard - A performance level platform that flexes a more aggressive 12-Phase VRM for CPU overclocking along with DDR3 memory up to 2200MHz. The UD4P supports both ATI CrossfireX and NVidia SLI graphics cards.



GA-P55A-UD6 Motherboard - The extreme level platform offering powerful 24-Phase VRM CPU overclocking as well as 2200MHz DDR3 memory support. It also offers 3 x PCI-E 2.0 (x16, x8, x4) Graphics Interface slots for ultimate ATI CrossfireX and NVidia SLI graphic card expansion.



To help simplify your searching, you can find your board's latest BIOS by clicking on the names and select your region to download. Don't forget to reset your BIOS to stock settings before flashing. You don't want your overclocked system restarting in the middle of the process.

P55A-UD6 [F6 BIOS]
P55A-UD6 Beta BIOS [F7d Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD5 [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD5 Beta BIOS [F6d Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD4P [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD4P [F7c Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD4 [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD4 Beta BIOS] [F7a Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD3P [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD3P Beta BIOS] [F6a Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD3R [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD3R Beta BIOS] [F6a Beta BIOS]
P55A-UD3 [F5 BIOS]
P55A-UD3 Beta BIOS] [F5c Beta BIOS]

If your motherboard isn't listed, head over to GIGABYTE's P55/P55A Downloads Page and locate your file.

P55A Series Reviews:

P55A-UD6 - TweakTown
P55A-UD6 - Bjorn3D
P55A-UD6 - Motherboards.org
P55A-UD6 - HardwareZone
P55A-UD4P - Techgage
P55A-UD4 - Overclock3D.net


P55 Series Reviews:

P55-UD6 and P55M-UD4 - LegitReviews
P55-UD6 and P55M-UD4 - NeoSeeker
P55-UD6 - HardOCP
P55-UD6 - Motherboards.org
P55-UD6 - TweakTown
P55-UD6 - iXBT Labs
P55-UD6 - Bjorn3D
P55-UD6 - Hardware Secrets
P55-UD6 - Benchmark Reviews
P55-UD6 - Maximum PC
P55-UD6 - Overclockers
P55-UD6 - Overclockers Club

P55-UD5 - Bit-tech
P55-UD5 - Futurelooks
P55-UD5 - Guru3D
P55-UD5 - Legit Reviews
P55-UD5 - NeoSeeker
P55-UD5 - Techgage
P55-UD5 and P55-UD3R - MadShrimps

P55-UD4M - Hi-Tech Legion

P55-UD4P - Hi-Tech Legion
P55-UD4P - Guru3D

P55-UD3 - iXBT Labs

P55-UD3R - PCStats
P55-UD3R - OverClockers
P55-UD3R - Xbit Labratories

Links are continually being added. Stay tuned!

[stasio]

Thanks Temujin,at least this are first "Official" thread about GBT P55 series.

[Chrono Detector]

I heard some people has reported that if you enable SATA3/USB3 on these boards you will lose SLI/Crossfire support and the first PCI-E slot will downgrade from 16x to 8x. Is this true? Will Gigabyte release a BIOS update to resolve this issue?

[lasty]

Is there a special reason why the P55A-UD3R / P55A-UD3P / P55A-UD4 / P55A-UD5 are not mentioned? :p

I've ordered the P55A-UD4, and hope for it to arrive tomorrow for some testing. Will be testing with Core i7 860 & KHX2000C8D3T1K2/4GX memory kit, and a TRUE rev.C. Will post here once i get something up and running.

[stasio]

Is there a special reason why the P55A-UD3R / P55A-UD3P / P55A-UD4 / P55A-UD5 are not mentioned? :p

I've ordered the P55A-UD4, and hope for it to arrive tomorrow for some testing. Will be testing with Core i7 860 & KHX2000C8D3T1K2/4GX memory kit, and a TRUE rev.C. Will post here once i get something up and running.

And also upcoming GA-P55A-UD7
Btw,new BIOS is out (no link yet)
GA-P55A-UD6 - F6b
GA-P55A-UD5 - F5b

[eva2000]

I heard some people has reported that if you enable SATA3/USB3 on these boards you will lose SLI/Crossfire support and the first PCI-E slot will downgrade from 16x to 8x. Is this true? Will Gigabyte release a BIOS update to resolve this issue?

incorrect somewhat you don't lose SLI/CF support

what happens on Gigabyte P55A boards is

1. either USB3.0 or SATA3.0 can run at full speed but not both, the other device will run at 250MB/s reduced speeds
2. when either USB3.0 or SATA3.0 is used PCI-E 1st slot bandwidth reduced from x16 to x8
2. SLI/CF will reduce both USB3.0 and SATA3.0 speeds to 250MB/s

[Temujin]

Is there a special reason why the P55A-UD3R / P55A-UD3P / P55A-UD4 / P55A-UD5 are not mentioned? :p

I've ordered the P55A-UD4, and hope for it to arrive tomorrow for some testing. Will be testing with Core i7 860 & KHX2000C8D3T1K2/4GX memory kit, and a TRUE rev.C. Will post here once i get something up and running.

You're very correct. All P55 and P55A motherboards are naturally included. There are a handful more boards that are on the Taiwan site not released every where just yet. I'll do a little editing since the active list will change.

And, eva2000 is exactly right about the PCIE bus sharing. CrossfireX/SLI are not lost. There is very little real world performance differences, if any, when switching from x16 to x8. The P55/P55A Chipset is a strong performer.

[Temujin]

I wondered how the first back of P55A-UD6 performed being a curious consumer at heart. I wanted to see where the board and Core i7 870 would go on F3 BIOS, voltages, and using XMP Profile 1 settings. Of course, Speed Step and Turbo were disabled just to make sure there's no extra help. So easy, anyone can do it!

[Buckeye]

I had a chance to test out the GA-P55A-UD6 also, but with a rather poor 860 which has seen some use before I recieved it. Over all it was a battle to over clock and I am sure that better RAM would help but here goes.

These tests were run on SS Phase, with a no boot on Cascade because of cold bugs at those temps.

This is a very nice board and I did OC better than on earlyer boards with the same CPU's.

Runs at 4.0ghz




Then 4.4ghz


4.5ghz


4.6ghz


4.7ghz


Max Over Clock I was able to get



And I had 2x 32gb MTRON PRO SSD's setup in Raid 0 with OS installed on that and using XHD this is what I recieved for that

[lasty]

I've just finished booting up my new GA-P55AUD4;




very easy to work with

[Temujin]

Nice little clocks there Buckeye. Yeah, at 4.7GHz max really might be that chip's internal max being used and all. Most of my posts will involve TEC or liquid cooling of some type. Got a Boreas to throw on there a little later this week.

Lasty, the P55A-UD4 is a beefy little performer especially for the price. You could probably get higher. But, for a quick easy 1GHz overclock, that's the perfect level for stability and less wear and tear.

[Buckeye]

Nice little clocks there Buckeye. Yeah, at 4.7GHz max really might be that chip's internal max being used and all. Most of my posts will involve TEC or liquid cooling of some type. Got a Boreas to throw on there a little later this week.

Thanks, I really did not wish to have to throw so much vcore on this chip but it was the only way to get it to clock up. The P55A-UD6 can supply the power thats for sure. Hopefully a better chip will make a dif and get this rig really moving with colder temps.

I had a lot of stability issues as I clocked up and tried 3 different sets of RAM but that didn't help much. I think I was RAM limited but I am not sure. These were just 1600 Dominators so nothing fancy, tho they have clocked very well at times, on my 920 I had them over 2000mhz but that might have done them in LOL.

I have allways wanted to give a Boreas a try and see how it performs, mainly for a 24/7 rig.

[lasty]

Lasty, the P55A-UD4 is a beefy little performer especially for the price. You could probably get higher. But, for a quick easy 1GHz overclock, that's the perfect level for stability and less wear and tear.

Yeah i think i can do better, but i'm not familiar with all the right voltages etc. Also my temps are maxing out a bit (upper 70's).

[ezaleina]

my 1st try oc with water.,can run 1MB PI only.,don't know why cannot run 32MB.,any idea?

[stasio]

New BIOS released:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/giga...st-bios-28441/

[lasty]

Can anybody give some indications of safe voltages for a 24/7 4ghz clock with an i7 860 & memory at 1900mhz? I'm now using around 1.35 vcore / 1.30 vtt / 1.05 pch / 1.8 pll, and its not 100% stable..

[punx223]

Hey guys, I had a chance to play with a P55A-UD6

Heres my review:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...99#post4122399


And heres the one i did on the P55M-UD5 micro ATX board:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...99#post4122399


Both very impressive boards. very nice runners

[Temujin]

Nice little review there. And, you got all that with dry ice and acetone? I guess phase would offer very similar results. I saw some comments that a cold bug presents itself at some point on the 860/870.

I'm about to see how the UD6 does on dual GTX295s. Predicting some interesting results versus the X58 setup.

[ezaleina]

is it safe to enable LLC guys..?

[Buckeye]

I saw some comments that a cold bug presents itself at some point on the 860/870.

Wll with the ES chips I have they have major cold bug issues. I believe Punx's is a retail chip and those are much better from what I have seen.

[Temujin]

That makes sense, Buckeye. I rarely get any retail chips which would be nice on occasion. But, I have also been given some leaky ES chips which a more experienced LN2 friend used to drop some records.

Speaking of leaks, here are a few pics of the P55A-UD6 demo system from Intel's Infernalan up here in Washington state. While I like the stream lined appearance of an integrated liquid cooling systems, you're stuck using it till you move over to something new. The external Koolance Exos 2.5 comes in handy since I can move it over like with this customized Antec P183. Hope we can get one with a black interior chassis for future events. :o



I had the Kingston HyperX 2133MHz Dual Channel at 2225MHz 9-9-9-30 which pushed this 870 in to really hot territory. Coupled with the GTX295, it played everything over 60 frames on a 1920 x 1200 monitor.



I'm going to give this latest BIOS a try for some crazier frequencies. It's SuperPi stable when I push more than 4.3GHz, but 3D is a little sporadic. Some of the Auto settings aren't cutting it. Maybe drop the Uncore a bit today and see what happens.



By the way, PugetSystems.com are currently offering the P183 and P193 cases all customized with windows and integrated Koolance systems. The P183 costs something like $140 to $150 with the window. Good prices.

[Buckeye]

Nice looking setup.

I should give Water Cooling a try and I am getting tired of SS Phase 24/7

[Temujin]

Alright, since this machine is water cooled and can dissipate 1400 watts of heat, it must be pushed. I flashed the system with the latest (GBT USA listed) F5 BIOS which yielded some interesting results. First, the Auto settings were more stable to 4.1GHz, which isn't much more than the F3.

However, the F5 quickly and easily accepted 4.2GHz with manual CPU, PLL, and VTT voltage settings (set just a bit more than where it should be when at this frequency in Auto). The CPU voltage was set to 1.42 volts. CPUZ and a couple utilities confirmed that there's no V-droop at these frequencies.

Here's a screen shot of the nice performance gains. The Single CPU test in Cinebench just broke 6,000.

[stasio]

GA-P55A-UD6 - F6 is latest BIOS.

[Temujin]

You're right. I grabbed it off the GIGABYTE-USA site which I assumed would have the latest. *de de deeeee* And, the latest on file there is F5. Still is at this moment...grrr....Guess I should have looked at Taiwan's latest first. Thanks a lot for pointing that out - have to start all over.