![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Friday , March 12, 2010
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P7P55D-E Premium Motherboard Review
ASUS has updated its line up once again with yet another addition to the P7P55D family of motherboards. The P7P55D-E Premium brings the highly anticipated USB 3.0 and SATA 6G features to Intel's LGA1156 platform but what does that mean for the enthusiast?
BIOS
For the P7P55D-E Premium ASUS chose the American Megatrends Inc, BIOS better known as AMI in enthusiast circles. BIOS version 0608 was used for all screenshots and testing.
The BIOS is organized by category. There are "tabs" for lack of a better word at the top of the BIOS screen. These are basically categories for certain settings and sub-menus for adjusting those settings. The first of which is the "Main" menu which contains the basic time and date settings as well as two additional submenus. These two sub-menus are the storage configuration and the system information screen. Within the storage configuration menu you can set the P55 Express chipset SATA controller's operating mode. Legacy IDE, AHCI, or RAID modes are selectable. Hard disk write protection, and SATA RAID Boot ROM are also configurable. The system information screen provides just that, system information. BIOS version, build date, processor type, speed, and installed memory information are all displayed here.
The Ai Tweaker menu is where all the fun settings are located. This is where all the performance oriented values are found. The Ai Overclock Tuner can be set top manual, auto, D.O.C.P, XMP, or CPU level up. Other settings such as OC From CPU Level Up, CPU Ratio, Intel Speedstep Technology are found here. Among these settings is the Xtreme Phase Full Power Mode. This activates all power phases for maximum stability which should allow for greater overclocking head room. BCLK, PCIE frequency, DRAM frequency, and QPI frequency are all adjustable. Additionally there is a ASUS/3rd Party UI Priority setting. Essentially this either allows third party overclocking tools to run, or allows ASUS utilities to run. I have no idea why this is needed, or why this is here. Next is the OC Tuner which is for automatic overclocking. You essentially set which profile type you want to use and then start the auto tuning. DRAM timing control is here as well, but this setting actually leads to a sub-menu to control the applicable settings. Below this line are all of the motherboard's voltage settings. CPU, IMC, DRAM, CPU PLL, PCH voltage, etc. On some boards these are essential as quite a few adjustments need to be made in regard to voltages. Load-line calibration and spread spectrum settings are down at the very bottom.
DRAM timing control accesses the memory's CAS latency and other applicable timing settings. Base line information on your RAM's SPD values are shown in between each group of settings so you have a reference for all your changes. As you can see from the screen shots, there are more than an adequate amount of adjustable latency settings to work with for most enthusiasts.
Under the advanced menu you'll find a list of sub-menus. CPU Configuration, Uncore Configuration, Onboard Devices Configuration, and USB Configuration. Intel VT-d and T-Probe settings are represented here as well. The last two items are actual settings rather than submenus. Those two settings can be either enabled, or disabled. Under the CPU configuration submenu, CPU information is displayed at the top, and the remainder of the settings are all applicable feature settings for the Core i5/i7 LGA1156 CPUs. These features can be enabled or disabled as needed. The Uncore configuration actually doesn't offer much in the way of configuration options. Memory remaping can be enabled or disabled here.
Onboard devices configuration is usually self-explanatory. It allows you to configure options, or enable/disable onboard and integrated devices. USB configuration allows you to set legacy USB support, BIOS EHCI handoff, PnP/PCI devices configuration contains a simple Yes or No setting. "No" lets the BIOS configure system device resources, while "Yes" allows the Plug and Play aware OS to do so.
The Power menu contains standard suspend, ACPI, and APM settings. Also accessible through here are two additional sub-menus; APM Configuration, and Hardware Monitor. The APM configuration contains basic power management settings while the hardware monitor allows you to monitor voltages, fan speeds, temperatures, etc. You can also adjust fan speeds, and configure temperature thresholds in order to control fan speeds by temperature conditions. Boot settings contains boot device priority settings, hard disk priority ordering, and a separate submenu contains full screen logo and other startup configuration items. The Tools menu contains the ASUS O.C. Profile manager as well as ASUS EZ Flash 2, Express Gate, and ID LED settings.
The BIOS is pretty much standard for ASUS boards. However I have two issues with the BIOS. Using BIOS versions 0602 and 0608 the EZ Flash 2 utility wouldn't launch from the BIOS. I had to flash the BIOS using the ASUS Update software in Windows. The other problem I had was with the Express Gate settings. By default anytime you boot the system it brings up the Express Gate menu. A 10 second timer counts down before proceeding to the OS. You either have to wait, or you have to exit Express Gate to continue and load the OS. You can also select one of the Express Gate options. Skype, power off, etc. should you wish to use those features. This should default to being off rather than enabled. I'm nit-picking but I found it annoying.