Asus P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard Preview

Asus P7P55D Deluxe Preview

There are times in reviewing that you will always remember, this is one of those times. A freshly minted yet to be released P55 LGA 1156 Lynnfield motherboard beckons and there are few feelings that can compare to holding a newly minted Asus Deluxe Motherboard for the first time. Knowing that the feature packed Asus board is safely tucked away awaiting a Core i5/i7 for LGA 1156 to arrive so you can make the newest offering from Intel scream for mercy. The Asus P7P55D Deluxe offers more than most enthusiasts will ever need, packed with a ton of Asus special features and a few extras even we didn't expect.

Lets get right to this beautiful board. (This is directed to Juan at Asus; the firstborn child you requested, he's on the way, it was worth the trade.)

The Asus P7P55D Deluxe arrived in a bright blue box with plenty of protection for the prize you'll find inside. Proclaiming 16 + 3 Phase power that should allow for a Bclks (FSB) speed of approximately 245 your sure to have plenty of Bclks (FSB) speed on this board. Also shown (which we'll save for a little later) a TurboV Remote and TurboV EVO. Gotta love Asus Deluxe boards, when Asus says Deluxe they mean Deluxe. Drool towels can be obtained from any passing family member dependent on availability.

Before we get started on the flap on the box yes that's a dogs tail just past the end of the water cooled rig we have open for testing. It's ok he feels left out if he doesn't at least get into the action a little. The Asus P7P55D Deluxe has so many features that they couldn't list them all on the outside of the box so they included a flap with more features listed.

They included one of our Asus favorites on the P7P55D Deluxe, Express Gate, without booting the OS you can access the internet in about 5 seconds. The built in Linux based OS puts the internet at your fingertips in a mere 5 seconds. You'll also find a Picture manager, and instant messaging. You'll also enjoy the EPU energy saving feature of the P7P55D Deluxe as well as the Asus Q-Design feature collection which provides easy ways to update the BIOS or back up your favorite settings. No need to short pins on this motherboard, you'll find onboard power, reset and Clear CMOS buttons on this beauty.

Then you'll get Turbo Evo which is an Auto Overclocking feature suitable for beginners and seasoned overclockers alike, Auto tuning intelligently pushes the systems fastest clock speed while still maintaining stability. Part of the auto tuning included stability testing. Even OCing beginners can achieve extreme yet stable overclocking results with Auto Tuning. While the software overclocking utilities we've seen in the past have fallen far short of the mark this setup is totally different and represents an evolution in Auto Tune Overclocking. The P7P55D Deluxe has a hardware chip that operates in a BIOS environment. It actually makes the changes to BIOS and while you can initiate those changes inside Windows the values are actually changed in BIOS so it's not a software overclocker as such. There are software components but it's a hardware based OC. Auto Tune Overclocking can also be initiated from within BIOS and it's not just some funky algorythim taking a best guess stance. The system is tested for stability as the Auto Overclocker does it's magic. Results from this new hardware based wonder have driven 2.8GHz chips to a stable 3.5GHz and while manually tuning a board will most likely result in a higher overclock this give the non-overclocking people a utility to use to gain some advantage from overclocking without extensive know how. We will of course test the Turbo Evo when the Core i5 CPU's arrive.

A feature we're seeing for the first time called T-Probe is a microchip that detects and balances power phase loading and temperature in real time, it optimizes the power phase functions allowing components to run at lower temps and extends their lifespan. Lower temperatures can also lead to higher overclocks.

Drive Xpert is a feature that offers to secure data on the hard drive or enhance hard drive performance without the hassle of complicated configuration.

Xtreme Design is a design philosophy that encompasses Turbo V, Turbo Key, Xtreme Phase, Anti-EMI, and StackCool 3+ features and we'll cover those more when the board goes public and we have a new i5 setting on the board. For those of you wondering, there's nothing like the smell of a freshly minted motherboard with a soon to be released CPU setting on the bench. If they made a coffee with that smell and flavor we'd never come up for air.

On the Back of the box you see a few features we've already covered and what's that below the motherboard picture, a specifications list.

You can check the image of the specifications panel we provided by clicking on it to double check the above tables specs. With the short notice to get the preview online and long hours we put in on it we might have had a mistake. If you find one notify us in the forum thread and we'll make a correction.

Bear with us just one more shot after this and we'll actually show you the board. We looked at some previews on other websites and found them woefully inadequate and would rather not do a preview than skip over as much as the other previews we've seen on the Asus P7P55D Deluxe.

Once you get the box open you get a glimpse of the more than adequate bundle included with the board.

Included in the bundle you'll find:

• 1 - Manual
• 1 - Driver Disk (Not Pictured)
• 1 - SLI Bridge
• 1 - Asus Quick Connector set
• 1 - I/O Plate
• 1 - IDE Cable (UltraDMA 133/100/66)
• 1 - Expansion Bracket (USB 2.0 x 2, 1 E-Sata)
• 6 - Sata Cables
• 1 - TurboV Remote