Latest motherboard reviews and NEWS
hexus.net tested the ASUS P7H57D-V EVOThe P7H57D-V EVO is a mainboard with SATA3 and USB3 support. This board was compared with an Intel DH55TC (H55 chipset), there wasn't much difference in the benchmark results between the two boards. This review takes you by the hand during a walk through the BIOS screens. Conclusion: Using the ASUS P7H57D-V EVO with Core i3 models doesn't make sense....More 
firingsquad comparedThe Gigabyte X58A-UD7 and P55A-UD6 This review focuses on Gigabyte's 333 design, this is the first site we've seen that tested the 3x power on an old Kingwin USB 2.0 external drive that requires two USB ports for extra power and was now able to run on just ONE USB cable on both tested mainbords. They used the 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT SATA3 Drive and the Buffalo USB3 external hard drive for more '333' testing. Conclusion: USB3 had a huge performance improvement over USB 2.0. but not the 10x as is advertised, firingsquad had an improvement of over 3x. The results for the 6Gb/sec SATA3 were not that good. Burst speeds reached values over 20%, but average read speeds were about 5% higher than 3Gb/sec SATA2. We will have to wait for the NextGen Solid State Disks to take advantage of this new technology. Overclocking: firingsquad did not perform any overclocking, it gives a (large) description of the BIOS OC options and they have some remarks about peculiar settings. Bechmarks: World in Conflict, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, HD Tach, Cinebench, DivX, Lame, Valve Particle Simulation. 
vr-zone previewed the Gigabyte X58A-UD3RA preview of a 'cheaper' (retail price around $200.-) X58 mainboard with SATA3 and USB3 connectors. There are images of the bundle, box and (detailed) pictures of the board itself. Overclocking: Nice to know: The BIOS reset switch is located within reach on the back panel Bechmarks: none. 
hardwaresecrets had a look at the Biostar TH55XEhardwaresecrets explains that the IGP has become part of the processor and so has the memory controller, they are both not on the board anymore. All connectors are reviewed in detail and accompanied with images. Conclusion: This mainboard has a good cost/benefit profile, for $ 10.- more it has a lot more features than for example the Intel DH55TC. Besides HDMI this mobo also has a FireWire connector. Overclocking: hardwaresecrets did not perform any overclocking but it has some text about the Dura-MAX high-end voltage regulator which produces less heat, has a higher efficiency and is better EMI protected, two phases of the DuraMAX can be compared to five standard phases. Bechmarks: none. 
hardwarecanucks tested the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7A high-end mainboard with a 24-phase power design, SATA3 based on a Marvell controller, USB3 and even Quad CrossFireX. There are photographs of an additional heatsink the Hybrid Silent-Pipe module to maximize northbridge cooling. The installation process is covered with many photos, you can see how big CPU coolers interfere with memory modules. Real world USB 3.0 testing is done with a Buffalo HD-H1.0TU3 external hard drive. SLI benchmarks are also available on a dedicated page. Conclusion: A phenomenally good motherboard, packed with features. With the upcoming Gulftown 32nm six-core CPU this mainboard is a must-have for OC enthusiasts. Overclocking: The overclocking results are devided into3 sections.
Bechmarks: ScienceMark v2.0, Everset Ultimate, SuperPi, cinebench, PCMark Vantage x64, Photoshop CS4, Lame Front End, x264 HD Benchmark, Winrar, HD Tach 3.0.4, 3DMark06, 3DMarkVantage, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Street Fighter 4, WiC. 
bjorn3d reviewed the Asus P6X58D PremiumA review with images of the large bundle that include SATA 6 GB/s cables. This review really focuses on Hard Drive testing. The P6X58D Premium was compared to the Asus Rampage II (X58) and the Intel DX58 SO Conclusion: Next to USB3 and SATA3 Asus added 32nm CPU support. The cooling solution for the VRM's and IOH is very good and it overclocks well . Overclocking: A Core i7 920 was OCed@3600.9MHz, BCLK 212MHz and multipier x17. Bechmarks: Atto hard drive performance, HDtune Tune Pro, HD Tach, Crystal Disk Mark, PC mark Vantage, Everest Ultimate, Cinebench, Winrar, Sisoft Arithmatic, Multimedia and Memory, PovRay, Excel, PhotoDex. 
tweaktown tested the Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3tweaktown did not receive the full retail package, so the contents of the bundle are not specified. This mainboard was compared to the ASRock H55M. Conclusion: Many people expect a greater performance from the H57 compared to the H55, tweaktown was not able to diccover any performance gain from the H57 over the H55, except of course for RAID and USB3. The GA-H57M-USB3 is a bit 'cramped' when placing big air coolers and large video cards. Overclocking: With a Core i5 661 tweaktown was able to hit a very decent 4238MHz or 163(BCLK)x26(multiplier). Bechmarks: Sandra, Everest, SYSmark2007, PC and 3D mark Vantage, Cinebench, Auto Gordian Knot, Lightwave, Cryostasis : Sleep of Reason, Far Cry 2, Heat Generation.
hardwaresecrets had a look at the MSI H57M-ED65The difference with the H55 chipset is supportof RAID feature on H57, 2 extra USB 2.0 ports and 2 extra PCIe lanes. Conclusion: Overall this board doesn't have single weak point. A perfect choice for a Home Theater PC, it uses a top-notch audio codec with an impressive signal-to-noise ratio, this board has the 'new video standard for the fututure' DisplayPort. OC genie makes overclocking easy and next to that the VRM uses DrMOS technology to boost overclocking. Overclocking: hardwaresecrets didn't perform any overclocking with this mainboard. The OC Genie button is available on the board as well as the + and - buttons for in- or decrementing the base clock in steps of 1 MHz. The BIOS was not (yet) ready to overclock the IGP you'll have to wait for future BIOS upgrades. Furthermore there is a summary of all the OC options in the BIOS accompanied with a few screens. Bechmarks: none. 
motherboards.org tested the Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5Lots of images of the board and BIOS, besides that a lot of attention is given to all the details of the board. This mobo was compared to the MSI 785GM-E65 and 790GX-G65, Gigabyte GA-790FXT-UD5 (without USB3 and SATA3) and finally the ASRock M3A790GXH128. Conclusion: motherboards.org rated it as a 'hot product'. An AMD mobo with support for SATA3, USB3 and 3-way CrossfireX with more than 36 PCI Express lanes is unique, besides that the overall performance was pretty good. Overclocking: This is an expensive motherboard so you would expect high(er) OC results, however this was not the case, with their Phenom II X4 810 (2.6GHz) they had a 3.04GHz stable overclock. Bechmarks: Sandra, Pifast, SYSmark2007, PC and 3D mark Vintage, WPRIME, Spec View 10, x264. 
guru3d reviewed the ECS H55H-MA review with images of the board, lots of benchmarks and there's a dedicated page for the IGP graphics properties and another page for the IGP performance results. In the benchmarks the focus is on comparing the various processors, you will not find other motherboards in the results. Conclusion:
Overall this mobo is fair and good, performance is as expected, and for the money the features are OK. There is no HDMI connector or DisplayPort that would make it...more
hardwaresecrets had a look at the Intel DH55TCA review with a few images of the board and there is an image of one BIOS screen. This board was not compared to any other board. Conclusion: A very basic motherboard with only three analog audio jacks and no SPDIF connector. This mobo was not designed for overclockers, the voltage regulator circuit could have been designed better and the overclocking options are extremely basic. Above all this board is too expensive for what it delivers, similar motherboards from other companies cost less. Overclocking: hardwaresecrets did not perform any overclocking, the only thing they show is a BIOS screen that only has one option: the adjustment of the CPU base clock . Bechmarks: none. 
bit-tech.net reviewed the MSI 785GM-E65A review with images of the board and BIOS, lots of stress testing and the board's layout is explaind thouroughly. The MSI 785G-E65 was compared to the ECS A785GM-M, Asus M4A785TD-V Evo, Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H and the Asus M4A78-HTPC. Conclusion: This mobo performs good at stock speeds, but was very hard to overclock, it wasn't very stable, and in the end bit-tech got it stable just over 3GHz, a poor result. The IGP is supported by 128MB GDDR3 Sideport memory, this extra memory should help with easing the demands on the main memory, but bit-tech didn't see much benefit. Overclocking: The overclocking results were very poor, bit-tech.net reached 3.12GHz with a Phenom II 720 Black Edition, HTT set to 233MHz and a 14x multiplier, the CPU voltage was raised to 1.488V. Bechmarks: Everest, Sandra, HDtach, GIMP, Handbrake h.264 ,MPC-HC, 7zip, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty 4. 
bit-tech.net tested the MSI Big Bang-FuzionA review that has images of the Quantum Wave HD audio sound card, OC dashboard and theLucid Hydra 200 chip. This board was not compared to any other board, instead it focuses on the Lucid Hydra and all kinds of combinations with two (different) graphics cards, using four games for testing. Conclusion: The conclusion is almost completely dedicated to the Lucid Hydra. The Good: It works! Well, to some extent. The setup was less frustrating than they were used to with SLI or CrossFire. The Bad: it's really fussy. For example there's no Modern Warfare 2 support the biggest PC game in the last few years. What works very well is 3DMark, but 3DMark isn't a game ! The Lucid Hydra is too complicated and too dependent on driver support, the Lucid Hydra just simply doesn't provide a performance boost ! bit-tech.net gave it a 2 out of 10 for performance and a 3 out of 10 for the overall. Overclocking: bit-tech.net did not perform any overclocking, they had a look at the OC Dashboard though. Bechmarks: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2. 
xbitlabs reviewed the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4A detailed review of most of the BIOS features with images of the board and bundle. The GA-P55M-UD4 was compared to the GA-P55M-UD6, GA-P55M-UD3R, ASRock P55 Deluxe, Biostar TPower I55, Intel DP55KG, DFI LANPARTY DK P55-T3eH9, ASUS Maximus II Formula, ASUS P&P55D Deluxe. Conclusion: Allthough its size is small this mobo has all the features of a typical Intel P55 Express mainboard. The BIOS is very complete and overclocking fine-tuning will b no problem. Moreover, the test CPU was OCed to its maximum, quite an achievement for such a small board. Overclocking: With a 210 MHz base clock and the CPU (IMC) to 1.37 V, the GA-P55M-UD4 hit 3.95 GHz with a core i7 860. Bechmarks: CineBench, SuperPi, 3D mark Vantage, Fritz Chess, Resident Evil 5, PCbench 2007, Far Cry 2. 
Baltic Hw tested the MSI 785GM-E51A review that diggs deep into the board's details, BIOS and 785G chipset. This board was compared to the ASRock A780GXE-128M . Conclusion: The performance of the 785G and 780G chpsets are about the same. In games the HD4200 is hardly better than the HD3200, perhaps in DirectX 10.1 titles in future. The he SB710 could be useful to overclockers and has a better USB performance. The MSI 785GM-E51 has a nice component layout and is a decent overclocker, integrated audio is mediocre however. Overclocking: A Phenom II 910(2.6GHz stock) was overclocked @3432 MHz , vcore was set to 1.45 V, northbridge to 1.2 V and the southbridge to 1.3 V, Hyper Transport was 2112 MHz. Bechmarks: Everest 5.03, HDTAch 3.01, 7zip 4.65, WinRAR 3.91, Cinebench R10, sciencemark, Techarp, Paint .NET, 3Dmark Vantage, Resident Evil 5, Unreal Tournement 3, Left 4 Dead, Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead. 
iXBT Labs had a look at the ASUS P7P55D LEA review with a few images from board and box. The ASUS P7P55D LE was not compared to any other board, and except for Rightmark no benchmarks were tested. Conclusion: The P7P55D LE can be considered a mid-end motherboard with a high-quality power supply system (8+2 Phase) for a reasonable price. This board has no unique features for a specific target audience. The P7P55D LE has two PCIE X16 slots but the downside is that the second slot only works as PCI Express 1.1 x4, so there's no way you'll receive the full bandwidth with (Quad-GPU) CrossFireX. Overclocking: iXBT Labs did not perform any overclocking. The bundled overclocking software ASUS TurboV is installed without EVO, that means a limited capacity for increasing CPU, PLL and PCH voltages. Overclocking profiles can be used in TurboV as well as in Turbo Key. Bechmarks: RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0. 
iXBT Labs tested the DFI LANParty DK 790X-M2RSA review with a few images of the board and package, there are no BIOS screens. This board was compared to the Biostar TA785GE-128M. Conclusion: iXBT Labs has mixed feelings about this board, it lacks the necessary overclocking tools and there's no direct control for the CPU NB voltage in the BIOS, the reset-to-defaults feature is not reliable. Overclocking: A Phenom II X3 720 (2.8 GHz stock) was OCed @3900MHz and Phenom II X4 810 (2.6 GHz stock) @3770MHz. Bechmarks: RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.2.3, 7-Zip 4.65, WinRAR 3.80, XviD 1.2.1, x264 r1129 x64, FarCry 2, Crysis, Devil May Cry 4, World in Conlict. 
techwarelabs reviewed the Asus P7P55D PremiumA review with images of the Express Gate software and a few pics from 'inside the case'. This board was not compared to any other motherboard, it was compared to its own overclocking results. Conclusion: Excellent performance and a great feature set, the tweaking ability and OC Tuner utility make it a fantastic overclocker. Overclocking: Using Asus’s built-in OC utility and a core i5 750 the CPU speed went from 2.67Ghz to 3.71Ghz(39% ). The ram had a 17% in crease and went from 1333MHz to 1560MHz. The CPU reached 61 degrees Celsius. The TurboV Remote is also reviewed. Bechmarks: Sandra, Furmark, CrystalMark, PCmark, 3Dmark. 
pro-clockers tested the Asrock M3A785GMH/128MLots of images of the board's details and BIOS. This board was compared to the Jetway 3785GP-LF Conclusion: pro-clockers gave it a recommended award because this mobo is a good choice for a home theatre PC, the onboard HD 4200 is an adequate solution for blu-ray playback and for basic gaming with older games the IGD is OK. Overclocking: An AMD Phenom II 965 C3 was OCed @4114MHz with a 242MHz BCLK. Bechmarks: PC mark vantage 64 bit, 3D mark 06 and Vantage, Cinebench, Everest, SuperPi, Street Fighter IV. 
elitebastards reviewed the ASRock H55M ProA review with lots of images from bundle, board and BIOS, unfortunately the board has not been tested in conjunction with a core i3 or (dual) core i5 6xx, instead elitebastards used a core i5 750. This mobo was compared to the ASUS P7P55D and the Biostar TPower i55. Conclusion: If you don't need a lot of SATA or USB ports then the H55 chipset is a good performer. For overclockers there's still a fair amount of headroom available. Overclocking: With a Noctua NH-U12P cooler elitebastards reached a stable overclock in between 3.5 and 3.9GHz(Turbo) with a Core i5 750 CPU and a base clock of 165MHz. Bechmarks: Everest, Paint .NET, x264 library., Lame, Winrar, IO testeing, DUmeter, USB2.0 filecopy. 
guru3d tested the MSI Big bang FuzionThis review focuses on the Lucid Hydra 200 chip that is able to support multiple video cards of different manufacturers and models at once. Older and newer cards can be combined, even NVIDIA and ATI can be mixed. The Lucid Hydra 200 chip functions as a load balancer in between GPUs, it catches calls from the graphics API (DirectX), and devides the workload between the GPUs. Conclusion: The Lucid Hydra 200 chip is a nice additional gimmick that only works with a limited amount of games. The overall performance of this P55 mobo is top notch, and one of the fastest boards guru3d has tested to date. Overclocking: Manually a Core i7 870 was OCed @4125 MHz with a 22x(multiplier)187.5MHz(BaseClock) @ 1.42 Volts. With the OC Genie the i7 was clocked at 4 GHz. Bechmarks: Sisoft Sandra, Everest, 3D Mark 06 and Vantage, Handbrake, Cyberlink Espresso, AES data encryption, Crysis WarHEAD, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, Resident Evil 5, Far Cry 2,Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Mass Effect. 
techgage overclocked the Core i5-661 using the ASUS P7H55D-M EVOThis 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 one photograph of the board and there are two BIOS screenshots, one of the Uncore Configuration section (GPU) and the other of the AI Tweaker menu. 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. 
pcstats tested the MSI Eclipse PlusAn in-depth review on the X58 chipset and lots of attention for the Eclipse's extras like the power monitoring solution Green Genie, the auxiliary LED display MSI D-LED 2 and the Sound Blaster X-fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express audio daughtercard. Conclusion: This board has a lot of storage options including eSATA, but there are no IDE ports. There are also lots of features like the on-board indicators, dials and lights, a three-way SLI and MSI Green Power Genie. On the other hand this mobo costs round and about $400 USD which is pretty expensive. Overclocking: pcstats tried to reach the highest possible Base Clock (BCLK) result, they ended up with a healthy 215MHz BaseClock, after setting the CPU multiplier to x12, the lowest possible setting. Bechmarks: SYSmark 2007, PC and 3D Mark Vantage, Sandra 2008, 3D Mark 06, F.E.A.R. 
xbitlabs reviewed the Asus Maximus III FormulaA very extensive review with two dedicated BIOS pages including a lot of explanation. The Maximus III Formula was compared to the Asus P7P55D Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6, Biostar TPower I55, Intel DP55KG, ASRock P55 Deluxe, DFI Lanparty DK P55 T3eH9 and the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R Conclusion: The Maximus III Formula 'sees' a new processor after every start-up following power off and has an extremely high power consumption in nominal mode. It is overloaded with features and technologies which lack a good description, besides that it's hard to work with and tricky to overclock. The Maximus III Formula is not a bad solution, but not a very good one either. Overclocking: A Core i7-860 CPU was OCed @ 3905.3MHz with a 177.5 MHz BCLK and 22X multiplier. Bechmarks: Cinebench, Fritz Chess, SuperPi, 3dmark Vantage, Far Cry 2, Resident Evil 5, Custom PC Bench, all benchmarks for every board are also tested with an overclocked CPU. 
motherboards.org tested the Intel DH55TCThis is not only a test of the new Intel H55 motherboard, but this review also gives you an impression of Intel's new Core i5-661 CPU with integrated graphics the Graphics Media Accelerator High Definition. The Intel DH55TC was compared to the ASUS P7H55D EVO. Conclusion: The GMA HD graphics frame rate for Crysis was too low to get a good gameplay, with 40 FPS (1024X768) Left4 Dead was playable on the integrated graphics. With full support of Blu-ray playback this board and CPU are an excellent choice for people who want to buy a Home Theater PC. Overclocking: The Core i5 661 CPU was tested at standard speed and no overclocking was performed. Bechmarks: Sandra, x264, SYSmark 2007, PCmark Vantge, 3Dmark Vantage, WPRIME, Specview 10, Cinebench. 
bit-tech.net reviewed the Asus P6TD DeluxeThis review is also focused on Core i7 Overclocking. The Asus P6TD Deluxe was compared to the gigabyte GA-EX58 Extreme, Asus P6T Deluxe V2, MSI X58 Pro-E, Biostar TPower X58 and the DFI LANParty UT X58-T3eH8. Conclusion: At stock and overclocked settings the P6TD was faster than the P6T Deluxe V2. The P6TD has the same excellent BIOS as the other high-end boards produced by ASUS, with easy navigation and precise control over your hardware. Overclocking: A Core i7-920 was OCed at 4.2GHz for a few hours while testing the benchmarks. A torture test with Prime95 resulted in the 3.8GHz mark. Bechmarks: Gimp Image Editing, Handbrake, Multitasking Performance, Crysis. 
hardwaresecrets tested the Gigabyte P55A-UD6Lots of photographs from the board and bundle. The heatsinks were removed and there is an image of the board where you can see the chipset. The Gigabyte P55A-UD6 was not compared to any other board. Conclusion: The Gigabyte P55A-UD6 is a very complete motherboard with lots of bells and whistles. The new SATA3 interface does not improve performance with hard disk drives that are currently on the market. It's the same thing with USB3, we will have to wait some time before the first devices arrive, especially external storage solutions. Overclocking: hardwaresecretss did not perform any overclocking.. Bechmarks: No benchmarks were tested. |
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