Conclusion:

This mobo is a mid-range product with TurboV software, O.C. Profiles, Express Gate, 7.1 audio and EPU-6 software. Although it does clock well, it's not a high-end board, but an inexpensive base for your system.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i5 661 was OCed @ 4.415GHz with a base clock of 176MHz and 25x multiplier.

Benchmarks:

HyperPi, Lightwave 3D, AutoGK, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, SIMS 3, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Temperature, Power Consumption, 3D Mark Vantage, Cinebench, Far Cry 2, Lavalys Everest Ultimate, PC mark vantage, PC mark vantage x64, Sisoft Sandra. In the gaming benchmarks an AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB was used.

Compared to:

• ASRock H55M PRO
• ASUS P7H55D-V EVO
• EVGA P55 FTW
• Foxconn H55MX-S, A9DA-S, 880GM Deluxe
• Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H.GA-H57M-USB3

Test Setup:

• Memory: 2x2GB Kingston KXH12800D3T1K3/6GX.
• SSD: Kingston SSDNow 80GB.
• Air Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 with 2 fans.
• PSU: Cooler Masrer UCP1100.
• OS: Windows 7 x64.

Conclusion:

This board has almost the same features as the more expensive ASUS P7H57D-V EVO, except for CrossFireX/SLI support and some extra expansion options. However, they both have a robust VRM area, great on-board cooling and USB3. it couldn't match the H57 model in overclocking, allthough they both use the Xtreme Design and share a very similar VRM area. With 4.3GHz the P7H55D-M EVO was 200MHz behind. This mobo has a strong performance at a reasonable price, but lacks raid support.

Overclocking:

An Intel Core i5 661 was OCed @ 4298.8MHz with the memory at 1652MHz.

Benchmarks:

WinRAR, Office 2007, POV Ray 3.7, PC Mark Vantage Professional, Sisoft Sandra, ScienceMark, Cinebench R10 , HD Tune 2.55, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, 3DMark 06 Professional, 3DMark Vantage. In the gaming benches an XFX Radeon HD5870 graphics card was used.

Compared to:

• Gigabyte H55M-USB3
• ECS H55H-I
• ECS H55H-CM
• ECS H57H-MUS

Test Setup:

• CPU: Intel Core i5 661
• RAM: Mushkin Blackline PC 12800 DDR3 1600MHz
• PSU: ZALMAN ZM750-HP 750W
• HDD: Seagate 750GB 7200.11
• Operating System: Windows 7 Pro
• Case: Microcool Banchetto 101
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H50 dual-fan

Also have a look at the youtube videos below. This mainboard was compared to the Asrock H55M.

Conclusion: This is a great board for both Media and Gaming, the P7H55D-M EVO really shined when it got to overclocking. The USB 3.0 support was not tested.

Overclocking: With a Noctua NH-D14 air cooler they OCed an Intel Core i5 - 661 Clarkdale CPU @ 4.4GHz (used in the benchmarks). In their conclusion they even claim an incredible 4.76GHz.

Benchmarks: Apophysis, POV Ray, Sisoft Sandra, Photoshop, x264,SuperPi and a video (see below) containing more results from Cinebench, Future Mark Benchmark results, and various games.

This is actually not a review about the P7H55D-M EVO but it's about Intel's Core i5-661 and the integrated GPU. There's also a newer review where the P7H55D-M EVO is compared to the Intel DH55TC.

Conclusion: This board overclocks really well, without increasing the vCore voltage an increase of 20-25% was reached in the CPU benchmarks, the GPU was OCed 233MHz above the stock speed of 900MHz, almost 40FPS was reached with F.E.A.R. 2.

Overclocking: The max stable overclock of the Core i5-661 processor was around 4.33GHz, 173MHz(BCLK) x25(multiplier) using powerful air cooling.

Bechmarks: Autodesk 3ds Max 2009, Cinebench R10, POV-Ray 3.7, Adobe Lightroom 2.0, TMPGEnc Xpress, ProShow Gold, Sandra Arithmetic and Cryptography, Excel Monte Carlo Big Number Crunch.

1. CPU Load + GPU Load (Turbo)
2. CPU Load (Turbo)
3. CPU Load + GPU Load
4. CPU Load