P55 Boards?

[pdonket]

Hey all, it's been a while now since I last was looking around for computer parts and so I know that you guys will probably have a better idea than me about which boards would be ideal if I'm looking to build a new P55 core i5 system.

I've been looking around myself on newegg and a bit on the forums here as well and from what I can see, there are a ton of stinkers out on the market right now, seems like far too many DOA boards are slipping by the companies as well. What would you guys suggest for a good motherboard with the P55 chipset? Normally I'd just dive in and pick a board and try to RMA it or play around with it to get it working, but right now i'm a full time EE student and in ROTC haha, so I don't have as much time to play around with tech issues.

Thanks everybody!

 

[Bragarb07]

same here, there seems to be no cons about the cheap gigabyte ud-2

 

[Tobe]

I've always trusted the gigabyte series p55 boards. Running 3 right now in the office /w no issues.

 

[PinkFloyd]

My last build (E6400) was an MSI board, but I decided this time to give Gigabyte P55-UD3R a try for my new i5.

It was DOA (would not post). http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1469182

Hope the new one works.

 

[lord_citan]

anyone have opinions on Giga P55 mAtx boards?

 

[IndieSnob]

I've done builds with both the Gigabyte P55-UD2 MATX boards and the P55-UD3R boards.

They have been great but remember they are very picky about memory. I tried running a few different sets of Corsair on them and while they would boot, I got random BSODs etc. etc.

I switched over to A-Data (yes, not a killer brand, I know), and everything worked like a charm.

 

[lord_citan]

Thanks,
I'm deciding between the UD2 vs UD4 matx boards....
any suggestion?

Seems like UD4 has xFire, but 16x and 8x
is this inferior to X58 dual 16x or is it not a big deal?

 

[spintroniX]

Thanks,
I'm deciding between the UD2 vs UD4 matx boards....
any suggestion?

Seems like UD4 has xFire, but 16x and 8x
is this inferior to X58 dual 16x or is it not a big deal?

the p55 series has the pcie controllers directly on-die. This means that when you are running dual cards, each card gets x8 bandwidth. There is a difference, however it is on the order of a few percent. From the benchmarks I have seen, it will not affect the gameplay quality - but if you benchmark it will be visible.

 

[lord_citan]

thanks,
i was worried about adding a 2nd card down the road. I don't really care about benchmarks as long as gameplay fps are not affected.