ASUS SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard Review

[sacha35]

Introduction
THE ASUS SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard



As always ASUS is at the forefront of motherboard innovation and technology, their track record of late certainly speaks for itself still being The No1 Motherboard Manufacturer in the World it is no surprise that they have Brought to use the ASUS sabertoothP55i Motherboard.


Specifications

CPU
Intel® Socket 1156 Core™ i7 Processor/Core™ i5 Processor Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Chipset:
Intel® P55 Express Chipset

Memory:
4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 2000/1800/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs. Some hyper DIMMs only support one DIMM per channel. Refer to Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors List) for details.
Please visit www.asus.com or refer to the user manual for the Memory QVL.

Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)
3 x PCIe 2.0 x1 (2.5GT/s)
2 x PCI

Multi-GPU Support:
Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology
Supports ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology
Storage:

Intel® P55 Express Chipset built-in
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (black)
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10

JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
1 xUltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
1 xExternal SATA (SATA On-the-Go)

JMicron® JMB322 (DriveXpert Technology)
2 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (orange and white )
Supports EZ Backup and SuperSpeed functions
Drive Xpert function is available only when the hard disk drives are set as data drives

LAN
Realtek® 8112L PCIe Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2

Audio
VIA® VT2020 10-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
Absolute Pitch BD192/24 featuring ENVY HD
DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC
Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-Retasking
Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
ASUS Noise Filter

IEEE 1394
VIA® 6308P controller supports 2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel)

USB
14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 8 ports at back panel)

ASUS Unique Features
Exclusive TUF Features
TUF ENGINE!" Power Design
12-phase CPU Power
2-phase Memory Power
2-phase VTT_CPU Power
E.S.P. : Efficient Switching Power Design for 3VSB/1.8V/1.05V
TUF Cap. & MOSFET (certified by military-standard)
Ultimate COOL!" Thermal Solution
CeraM!X Heatsink Coating Tech.
CoolMem!
T.Probe Technology
ASUS Fan Xpert
Safe & Stable!-Guardian Angel
MemOK!
Drive Xpert
ESD Guards
EMI Eliminator

Special Features
ASUS Q-Connector
ASUS Q-Shield
ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
ASUS Q-Slot
ASUS Q-DIMM
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS MyLogo 2
ASUS O.C. Profile
Multi-language BIOS
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard (Purple)
1 x PS/2 mouse port (Green)
1 x Optical S/PDIF Output
1 x IEEE1394a
1 x LAN (RJ45) port
1 x External SATA port
8 x USB 2.0/1.1
10-channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors
3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
1 x CPU Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
2 x Drive Xpert SATA connectors (orange and white)
2 x Chassis Fan connector (1x4-pin, 1x3-pin)
1 x Mem Fan connector
1 x COM port
Front panel audio connector
1 x S/PDIF Out Header
CD audio in
24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
System Panel(Q-Connector)
1 x MemOK! button
1 x Power on switch
1 x Reset switch

BIOS
16 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0a,

Manageability
WfM 2.0,DMI 2.0,WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE

Form Factor
ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )

Front, rear cover and inside of the packaging that houses the ASUS Sabertooth P55i Motherboard.









Accessories .

6 x SATA 3.0 GB/s cables
1 x Ultra DMA 133/100/66 cable
1 x 2-port USB 2.0 and 1 port eSATA module
Driver/support DVD
1x ASUS SLI bridge connector
1x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector kit
1x ASUS Q-Shield
1x CoolMem frame, fan not included
User Guide





The ASUS SABERTOOTH P55 Motherboard.

In the review I will be taking a close look at all the facts and features that the ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i Motherboard has to offer over the rest of the ASUS range of P55 of motherboards, so Let's take a Look around this board and see what it has to offer.

The newly-developed "TUF" (The Ultimate Force) Series socket LGA1156 for Intel® Core™ i7/Core™ i5 Processors, Intel® P55 Express chipset supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and equipped with the new Ceramic heatsink's which delivers exceptional cooling to active components and outstanding system stability even under the most intense operating conditions, designed around the "Marine Cool" concept, the TUF Series triumphs to deliver top notch performance at all times.

The SABERTOOTH 55i motherboard delivers E.S.P. (Efficient Switching Power) to all major components for system efficiency.

Besides delivering efficient power to the CPU and memory, the power design also applies the same level of efficient power to the PCIex16 expansion slots and IC, This intern improves overall power efficiency and reduces the amount of heat generated resulting in cooler and a more reliable operation.


Unique CeraM!X Microfin Coating

The ceramics replace traditional anti-oxidant compounds to create a microfin surface texture for enhanced cooling, This rough surface offers an expanded area for heat induction into the surrounding air and as a result, more heat is rapidly conducted away from the active system—allowing users to enjoy previously unattainable levels of stability, all its capacitors and VRM MOSFETs have been certified for military-level use through stringent testing.





The ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i motherboard, equipped with the new CeraM!X heatsink, delivers exceptional cooling to active components and



The heasink over the PCH on the bottom side of the board



There is also a very good layout around the socket area.



ASUS have included four DIMM Slots which can accommodate up to 4 x DIMM, max. 16GB, DDR3 2000/1800/1600/1333/1066MHz, non-ECC, unbuffered memory Dual channel memory architecture
Supporting Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

The memory retention method is a bit different from what has been used over the past, on one end the locking mechanism pushes straight down rather than rotating into place.



MemOK button.

ASUS has come up with MemOK button, ASUS refers to MemOK as a “memory rescue tool”. Simply push the MemOK button on the motherboard and the technology automatically determines the failsafe memory settings needed to boot the motherboard.




The P55 Express chipset natively support six SATA ports which this board has four black in the sideways facing orientation and two at the bottom of the board, This prevents any large video card from interfering with the SATA ports .



There are also 2 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s JMicron® JMB322 (DriveXpert Technology) ports (orange and white ) which Supports EZ Backup and SuperSpeed functions




There are two full-length PCIEX x16 slots that supports both ATI Quad-GPU CrossfireX and nVidia Quad-GPU SLI PCI Express 2.0 x16 support single at x16 or dual at x8 mode, the board also has three PCI Express x1 slots and two legacy PCI slots.



Nice easy access to the power and reset buttons at the bottom of the motherboard.



Onboard sound on the motherboard is provided
VIA® VT2020 10-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC ,Absolute Pitch BD192/24 featuring ENVY HD
DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC ,Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-Retasking , Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O, ASUS Noise Filter.



The rear Panel I/O Ports

1 x PS/2 Keyboard (Purple), 1 x PS/2 mouse port (Green), 1 x Optical S/PDIF Output, 1 x IEEE1394a, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port, 1 x External SATA port, 8 x USB 2.0/1.1, 10-channel Audio I/O.





The Bios

Click on the link to see the slide show.


Test System
Intel Core i7 LGA-1156 870 CPU Stock Watercooled cooled.
4GB Corsair CMGS2GX3M1A2200C8 ES1 Cas 8 memory running at 2200MHz
ASUS SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard
Single XFX GTX 295
ASUS 4870 X 2 in crossfire
Samsung HD322HJ
Zalman Reserator XT
Acard
Corsair HX1000
Windows 7 32-bit stock install with no tweaks.

Before running any tests I needed to find out what the system and the Intel i7 870 is capable of giving me in regards of clocks and memory speeds as only a standard water-cooling unit is being used to cool the CPU.

Intel Core i7 LGA-1156 870

Maximum CPU stable super pi 1m 4815.7MHz



Now to see what sort of speeds I could get from the Air cooled memory.
2395.4MHz Cas 8, very good for the air cooled sticks as this motherboard is only supposed support a Maximum of 2000MHz



http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=830932





Now for the Tests

• Wprime 1024m and 32m
• PiFast
• Supper PI 32M
• Cinebench
• PCmark 05
• Everest catch and memory
• 3Dmark 03
• 3Dmark 05
• 3Dmark 06
• 3Dmark Vantage


Wprime 32m and 1024m



PiFast



Supper PI 32M



Cinebench




PCmark 05



Everest cache and memory



3Dmark 03 Single XFX 295



3Dmark 03 ASUS 4870 x 2 crossfire



3Dmark 05 Single XFX 295



3Dmark 05 ASUS 4870 x 2 crossfire



3Dmark 06 Single XFX 295



3Dmark 06 ASUS 4870 x 2 crossfire



3Dmark Vantage Single XFX 295



3Dmark Vantage ASUS 4870 x 2 crossfire



Conclusion

What you have with the ASUS SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard is just what is says on the box, it has a good range of features and accessories as you'd expect from any of the Asus Motherboard's on the market today, But where the SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard excels is in the power delivery with the components used, no matter how hard I tried this motherboard just would not fail, pushing it to the limits and beyond with only a cheap water-cooling system being used the board would always post unlike some of the motherboards I have tested that can be a bit awkward at times to say the least.

This motherboard has a superb layout and all the connectors on the board are just where you'd expect to find them, the features and technology coupled with the new VIA VT2020 10-channel audio chipset delivers some of the most realistic and accurate audio from a PC.

The performance is there just like the recently reviewed ASUS Maximus III and the Asus P7P55D Deluxe I did , it may not have the bling factor or all the extras the other boards have to offer, but when it comes to performance it is truly impressive and is right up there with the best.

To be honest I thought this motherboard was just going to be a marketing gimmick with the Ceramic heatsink's and resilient components that pass demanding military-style testing but once again Asus have proved me totally wrong.

Overall, for the serious overclocker going the P55 route the ASUS Maximus III is still the board to beat, but the ASUS SABERTOOTH P55i Motherboard is no slouch ether as the results in all the tests that I did with this motherboard speak for themselves and most of all it did not falter once.

The motherboard coupled with some newer GFX cards and some better cooling and world records could fall very easily and quickly in the P55 range with this board and for that reason alone I highly recommend this item.

[TheKarmakazi]

Nice review...

I really like the idea of a "Mem OK" button. More convenient than resetting bios, when pushing memory to the max

[BeepBeep2]

LOL I remember when this first came out in the news section and everyone said crap about it and look what it does...looks nice.

[Vivi]

WOOOW!

would you say i would get more out of my i860 with this board vs the maximus iii gene and p7p55d premium (32 phase) ?

And wow dude. 4.8 HT on only on water!!!!!!!!!

Good cpu that is

[lasty]

Very nice review, and impressive results!

[Viss]

Nice review Paul, board looks very promising.

[youngpro]

so what happened to kingston? lol

[massman]

How does it compare to the other overclocking boards? GD80, UD6, possibly the DFI?

[sacha35]

so what happened to kingston? lol

Corsair and Kingston are my main two sponsors, it is called diversity, I like to use these different bands for different boards.

How does it compare to the other overclocking boards? GD80, UD6, possibly the DFI?

As for The other brands I cannot say at this time but will let you know in a few weeks time when this boards get some cold, but early testing has looked very good from the results you can see for yourself, there is even a World record in this mix and that was only using water-cooling on the CPU so what will it be like when it goes cold is anyone's guess.

Nice review Paul, board looks very promising.

Thanks mate, yes the board is looking very good at the moment, will see how well it does with some extreme cooling in a few weeks time, if the early water results are anything to go by then it should fly when cold.

WOOOW!

would you say i would get more out of my i860 with this board vs the maximus iii gene and p7p55d premium (32 phase) ?

And wow dude. 4.8 HT on only on water!!!!!!!!!

Good cpu that is

It is hard to say Vivi, the gene is a good board that offers very good overclocking and one of the boards I do not have at the moment to test so would be very hard to say if it is better or not, the sabertooth was not made to be an extreme overclocking board as it's real purpose in life is to be run very quietly in a system case with the high spec components used it does not need all the extra cooling the other boards must have to be reliable.

I must say though I was as shocked as everyone else here to see what the Sabertooth can do, and the best bet was that every time I started the board it booted first time every time.

[chinaguy]

ops

[massman]

As for The other brands I cannot say at this time but will let you know in a few weeks time when this boards get some cold, but early testing has looked very good from the results you can see for yourself, there is even a World record in this mix and that was only using water-cooling on the CPU so what will it be like when it goes cold is anyone's guess.

I'm confused. How can you make underneath statements based on sole Asus-experience?

and is right up there with the best.

Overall, for the serious overclocker going the P55 route the ASUS Maximus III is still the board to beat

[Leeghoofd]

I would love to try that cpu on another brand, think it will rock there too... there has to be at least one negative aspect Sascha35 on this board, even if it's just the colours scheme :p

[sacha35]

I would love to try that cpu on another brand, think it will rock there too... there has to be at least one negative aspect Sascha35 on this board, even if it's just the colours scheme :p

Yes the CPU is good, but the board was able to pull of the power delivery to the CPU of up to 22AMPs at some of the tests so hats off to the board for delivering clean stable power.

As for the bad points, well it does not have as said all the extras that many other boards have which would have made this board to expensive considering the parts that have been used already.

I don't know if it will affect things but the Heat sinks I think could get dirty very quickly as they are very course with the special coating on them so if used in a System case then dust ECT could get court up and start to make things get a little hot.

But to be honest the points I have made are very true I was amassed at just how well the board would boot everytime even if I had got something wrong in the bios it would always boot letting me go back to make adjustments within the bios rather than having to shut down and clear the com's.

There are so many P55 Boards on the market so it would be very hard to say what one was the very best as we all have different CPU's that have been used so never can there be a true compare unless all the boards have been tested with the same setup and CPU, all I can say though is this Board is very high on my list, I have some other P55's to tests so will make my final decision on what I think was the best and worst out of the bunch that I have tested when all the testing has been done.

[\/icious]

i would like to see how a regular retail cpu clocks on this bad boy but great review!

[humeyboy]

Hmm seems like buying toothpaste, 1 type of Colgate boasts this and another type of Colgate boasts something else.

Someday I hope for an all in one, same as Asus someday may finally make 1 good Mobo with all functions on it, not 1 with some and lacking in others and a cheaper Mobo with more functions.

I seen the Maximus III Formula Extreme (P55) today and its getting there but they need do more TBH.

[sacha35]

Hmm seems like buying toothpaste, 1 type of Colgate boasts this and another type of Colgate boasts something else.

Someday I hope for an all in one, same as Asus someday may finally make 1 good Mobo with all functions on it, not 1 with some and lacking in others and a cheaper Mobo with more functions.

I seen the Maximus III Formula Extreme (P55) today and its getting there but they need do more TBH.

This is done for a good reason, it offers the end user choice with different begets in levels taken into consideration, having one Motherboard with everything is also not the best option, letting users have a choice to pick from is the way to go because at the end of the day it is the user that is paying for a product and they have to keep within their budget whatever that could be.

[humeyboy]

Yes but all there Mobos are lacking in real long term OC Stability and support and are overpriced.

They do not have a high end Mobo for gamers with 2 ESATA Ports now, the 680I had it so its a step backwards, now they even take 1 more adding only 1 GIG Lan Port on the gaming rigs when all before has 2.

The I/O Panel is really bare now, esp as they do not even need space for the Audio like other vendors as they use a 3rd Party Audio Card.

Look at the joke in my Sig and go read the new thread in here by the Asus Rep (I so far have not edited my post as its a waste of time as they will fix nothing).

[Salsoolo]

is there a rear photo of this board?

[NanoBullet]

I heard that the vdrop when running prime95 can go up to 0.1v is that true? Because i read somewhere that, with such a huge vdrop sometimes it can cause instability.

Can anyone help me with this question? Because i want to order mine.

If possible i would like to know the vdrop with LLC off, and LLC on please

[DAK1640]

Being a Sabertooth owner myself (along with Maximus III) I can totally agree with sacha35 review and conclusions. It IS a GREAT mobo

[NanoBullet]

But can't you answer me any of my questions, please?

I know that's a great board but i really need to know those details, because i don't want to go for maximus III.

[darthcani]

Nice review, nic results too, how about foxconn socket?

[namegt]

Foxconn is the SABERTOOTH P55i socket.

i5-661 BCLK235 BOOT
M/B : ASUS Sabertooth 55i
Water Cooling
http://tvpot.daum.net/clip/ClipView.do?clipid=20906750

Water Cooling / BCLK 251

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=946872

[Simonzi]

Nice review. This motherboard was on my list, but ended up going with the Maximus III Formula.

[Mescalamba]

Foxconn socket can be issue only with L2N and super-hard-tightening.. or maybe with some hardcore pressure mode. And anyway, if Im correct, its backplate issue, not socket.