More P55: Gigabyte's MicroATX Board And Asus' Flagship

[cangelini]

Asus and Gigabyte are again previewing upcoming P55-based motherboards. A recent visit from Asus left us with the company's P55 flagship, and Gigabyte sent over the first microATX board we've seen. Both reflect maturing designs and an impending launch.

More P55: Gigabyte's MicroATX Board And Asus' Flagship : Read more

 

[stray_gator]

I'd switch between the PCI / PEGx4 so it'd be possible to use a dual slot primary display card and an additional, low(er) bandwidth PEG card (storage, physics) without cutting half of the primary card's lanes.
but that's me. i believe gigabyte has better understanding of the cuntemporary expansion card assortment than me.

 

[freak77power]

Get Evga x58 SLI Micro and i920.

 

[1haplo]

I love that on the last picture the socket cover says FOXCONN.

 

[scook9]

Socket covers have said foxconn for ever...as do the metal housing around USB ports at rear I/O and many other parts. This is nothing new.

Unless these are much cheaper, I still don't see why one should just avoid x58 and an i7 920 given how cheap 920's can be found now (as low as $200)

Anyone else notice that all of these models have a huge amount of voltage regulators......so far much more than is common on x58 boards 🙁 (my Asus Rampage II GENE only has 6 vs 14 on that gigabyte board!?)

 

[stray_gator]

P55 will be (hopefuly) much cheaper than X58 boards. entry/mid models at least. given that all sources hint that the difference in performance between i7/i5 is negligible (bar memory-bandwidth hungry apps. namely, sandra), i think that lower platform cost will make i5 the best option for anything between midrange and high-end systems, with i7 reserved for competitive benchers/OCers, uncle scrooge and the such.

 

[mergatroid]

I really enjoy reading the articles you have here. I'm not a very participatory member, but I do read a lot and I have always enjoyed the articles here.

I always check your site before upgrading my computers. Very informative.
I love these two boards from two of my favorite manufacturers. When I can finally afford a second video card, I will look into these boards further.

 

[cangelini]

Thanks for chiming in Merga--it's appreciated!