by Doors4ever
11/17/2009 | 04:57 PM
The last two articles on our web-site devoted to LGA1156 platform talked about ASRock P55 Deluxe and Biostar TPower I55. These were two completely different mainboards, each with its own peculiarities, advantages and drawbacks; however, they did have similarities between them. The first one is more of a virtual similarity than an actual one – both these boards are the top flagship solutions in the product lineup of each manufacturer. The second similarity is totally down-to-earth: it is the price. The recommended retail price of both these solutions is within $180-$185 range and in my opinion these numbers are way too high.
Price is a relative thing. It cannot be an advantage or a drawback, it cannot be good or bad, it is simply a number. If the features and functionality of the solution correspond to its price then it is a good thing, if not- it is not such a good thing. The same $100 price tag may be acceptable if we are talking about a desk or an office chair, for example, and totally ridiculous if we are talking about a toothpick priced at the same $100. We were supposed to be formally pleased with these prices because they are lower than what they ask for flagship Asus or Gigabyte solutions. However, there is one condition that is not met in this case: these two boards had to be exactly as good as those from Asus or Gigabyte, but cost less. This is the indisputable case when we will go for an ASRock or Biostar solution. But this is not the case here that is why their price is way too high.
Far not every use will go and buy a flagship mainboard. But if he or she is ready to spend a substantial sum of money, then the choice will most likely be with an Asus or Gigabyte product. If the user doesn’t feel like spending a lot on a mainboard, he or she won’t go for either of them: neither Gigabyte or Asus, nor ASRock or Biostar. Instead he will be looking for something even more affordable. In my opinion, a good mainboard should be price somewhere between $120 and $150, maximum $160. Of course, a 50-dollar mainboard can also serve you long and well, but there are no solutions for LGA1156 platform in this price range. Besides, you can hardly ever complain about anything related to a mainboard like that. Does it work? That’s all you need!
Today we are going to talk about a mainboard from Gigabyte – GA-P55-UD3R. It is priced at $140 MSRP, which means that it is within the desired price range. But how good it actually is? Can it meet our needs and expectations fully? Won’t it turn out having limited functionality and being priced too high for what it can offer? Or it has all the potential for successful competition against its more pricy rivals and is worth every penny? Our today’s review will answer all these questions for you.
The boxes of all LGA1156 mainboards from Gigabyte have the same design, which makes them very recognizable in stores.
Besides the actual Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R mainboard, there are also the following accessories:
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 mainboard, which we have reviewed long time ago, was the first one to disappoint us with excessively complex and therefore expensive and unnecessary cooling system with excessive functionality. Luckily, this time the developers decided to make things a lot easier that is why the layout of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R is very close to the reference one:
However, you can easily notice some of the peculiarities at first glance. The board will become a good choice not only for those who are purchasing or putting together their first PC. It will also work well for those who are upgrading from older platforms. There are four PCI slots that can accommodate all old but perfectly operational expansion cards, such as a sound card, TV-tuner or satellite signal decoder card. You can connect your favorite printer or scanner using a COM or LPT port that are a pretty rare sight on contemporary mainboards. At the same time, the board doesn’t look archaic. It not only uses the great default functionality of the Intel P55 Express chipset, but also takes it further with a number of additional controllers.
Two PCI Express X16 connectors allow tying up two graphics card into an ATI CrossFireX configuration. In this case it is important to remember that the second card will only be working as PCI Express x4 maximum. Besides, the board doesn’t support Nvidia SLI. The chipset provides six Serial ATA ports, but thanks to the additional Gigabyte SATA2 controller there are two more ports available to you. The same controller provides support for PATA devices. You can connect a total of ten SATA devices to this board, because there are two more ports in the form of eSATA on the back panel.
The back panel of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R mainboard carries the following ports and connectors:
The excellent components layout from the user manual for Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R will give you a better idea of the smart PCB design and allow estimating how convenient it will be to work with this mainboard:
By the way, a while back I shaped up my own empirical rule. If the components layout scheme is picture-perfect, then the board will most likely turn out good. Look at the layout scheme for Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R: everything is clear and precise, all markings, even the tiniest ones are perfectly readable. If the layout scheme looks sloppy, the fonts are poor and the markings are not distinguishable, then you shouldn’t expect much from a mainboard like that. The same is true for the information about the mainboard provided by the manufacturer. If the official web-site is all about marketing slogans and there are no real specifics, then you will hardly like this mainboard. It is a different story when there is detailed description of all mainboard features and functions. Like with Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R: in fact, you don’t need a review anymore – just read the mainboard specs on the official manufacturer web-site.
Gigabyte mainboard lineups for each of the system chipsets are always split into four sub-groups ranging from top models with the “UD6” index and ending with the junior solutions marked as “UD3” series. Intel P55 Express based mainboards appeared segmented even greater, since there appeared a new “UD2” sub-group. So, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R is not the most junior model in the lineup, there are even simpler solutions there, but nevertheless, it is in the beginning of the model list. Despite this fact, there are very few differences between this model and the top flagship solutions. Among them are the absence of an additional IEEE1394 (FireWire) controller, for example. Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R PCB design is excellent, but we did find one drawback. There are no LEDs of any kind anywhere on the board that could indicate if the mainboard receives any power. The Nvidia SLI fans may be upset about the absence of the corresponding configurations support, which appears only by UD4 mainboards and higher.
Gigabyte mainboards have one peculiarity that most Gigabyte users are raving about: the functionality of the junior model in the lineup is always almost as good as that of the top solution. Of course, there are some differences, there must be. If the flagship solution has five additional onboard controllers and the junior model has only two of them, then the settings related to the missing controllers will be removed from the BIOS Setup of the junior board. But all the primary functionality on junior and senior models is intact. It is a great approach from the user standpoint, but if you have already studied the BIOS functionality of one Gigabyte mainboard, then you won’t find anything new in the BIOS of the second one.
When we reviewed Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6, we paid special attention to the major BIOS Setup sections and their parameters. The BIOS of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R looks exactly the same and offers the same functionality that is why we won’t describe its features all over again here. As a bonus, we are going to offer you screenshots not only of the most interesting, but of all BIOS Setup pages without any exceptions. Let me remind you one more time that you should press Ctrl-F1 in the main BIOS menu screen of any Gigabyte mainboard to get full access to BIOS settings.
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BIOS functionality is the same for the entire Gigabyte mainboard lineup, but it doesn’t mean that they cannot be changed. Over the period of time that has passed since we tested Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 and GA-P55-UD3R, Gigabyte introduced one extremely important item into their mainboard BIOS.
By the launch of the new LGA1156 platform Gigabyte for some reason didn’t catch up with the acute tendencies. As a result, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 mainboard was the only solution of all we have tested so far where Intel processor power-saving technologies stopped working once the processor core voltage was changed. However, no one doubted the professionalism of Gigabyte software developers and soon after our GA-P55-UD6 review one of our readers from Brazil told us that the company was testing some of the beta BIOS versions that allow changing the processor Vcore dynamically. Shortly before we got to testing Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R, another reader pointed out to us that this option was already available in the latest official BIOS versions that is why we should take a closer look at “Advanced Voltage Settings” sub-section.
Gigabyte mainboards still can increase the processor core voltage on their own during CPU overclocking if you set “CPU Vcore” parameter to Auto. They will support nominal voltage setting is this parameter is set to Normal. Moreover, we can still lock the processor core voltage at any suitable value adjusting it with a very small increment of 0.00625 V. However, now we have a parameter called “Dynamic Vcore (DVID)”, which allows not to lock the voltage at a certain value but to add a little to the nominal setting. You can use this parameter not only to increase but also to lower the processor Vcore, the boards do allow that. At the same time Intel processor power-saving technologies keep working normally dropping the clock frequency multiplier and core voltage in idle mode and increasing them when the processor gets loaded more heavily. It is a very important although a little belated innovation.
We performed all our experiments on the following test platform:
We used Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (Microsoft Windows, Version 6.1, Build 7600) operating system, Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility version 9.1.1.1019, ATI Catalyst 9.9 graphics card driver.
Usually each mainboard has its own unique peculiarities. Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R also has a peculiarity – zero issues and problems. The board powered on, BIOS reflashed successfully, the OS installed fine, all programs and utilities were working normally, the CPU was successfully overclocked, all performance and power consumption tests were completed successfully – all this happened without a hitch. Even the adjustment of the processor fan rotation speed worked right from the start, didn’t require any corrections and ensured efficient cooling not only in the nominal mode but also during processor overclocking.
As far as overclocking is concerned, I have to remind you that the basics, terminology and approximate algorithms have already been discussed in detail in our article called “Guide: Lynnfield Overclocking on Asus P7P55D Deluxe Mainboard”. Of course, we focused on Asus mainboard and Intel Core i7-860 processor in that article, but the basic principles of LGA1156 platform overclocking remain the same and you will easily find the corresponding parameters and settings we refer to in regards to your particular mainboard and CPU.
First of all, we are going to find out maximum base clock frequency, at which our mainboard can work. Therefore, we are lowering the processor clock frequency multiplier and memory frequency and increase the voltage on the part of the North Bridge integrated into the CPU – “OPI/VTT Voltage”. We didn’t have to do anything else, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R mainboard worked perfectly fine at 210 MHz base clock, which is more than enough for successful overclocking of our Intel Core i7-860 CPU.
As far as actual CPU overclocking, we did have some doubts in the beginning. The thing is that the last two mainboards we tested, ASRock P55 Deluxe and Biostar TPower I55, could only overclock our CPU to 3.9 GHz, while a little earlier Asus P7P55D Deluxe and Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 easily pushed the CPU frequency to 3.95 GHz. The difference is really small, but it is in fact pretty troubling. Maybe the problem lies not with ASRock and Biostar mainboards, but in our actual CPU, which potential may have degraded, or with our cooling solution, for example? However, all these questions have been eliminated altogether because Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R allowed us to easily overclock our processor to 3.95 GHz.
However, this time we had to slightly correct the overclocking settings. The processor Vcore was initially increased by 0.11875 V, i.e. the CPU received 1.2875 V – this is the exact voltage used during our overclocking experiments on Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6. However, it turned out that Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R responds more aggressively to processor Vcore drop under heavy load, pushing it even higher up. During our first tests CPU core voltage increased almost to 1.35 V under maximum processor load. In this case the core temperature quickly rose to 92 °C and we had to terminate the test in order to lower the voltage. As a result we found out that we only had to increase Vcore by 0.1 V to ensure stability. Also do not forget that now all Intel processor power saving technologies keep working normally in idle mode: they lower not only the clock frequency multiplier but also the core voltage.
After that we increased the memory frequency to 1800 MHz, lowered all timings to 7-7-7-20-1T and Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R passed all tests with flying colors. Since everything goes on so smoothly, let’s see how high the mainboard’s performance is going to be in nominal mode and during CPU and memory overclocking.
Now it is time to check the performance in two different operational modes – in nominal mode and during overclocking. First of all we would like to check out the mainboards in nominal mode, when both solutions set the most optimal system parameters on their own without any help from the user. Due to Intel Turbo Boost technology the clock frequency multiplier of our Intel Core i7-860 processor could increase to 26x. Our today’s hero is going to compete against previously reviewed Biostar TPower I55, ASRock P55 Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 and Asus P7P55D Deluxe. On the results charts the mainboards are sorted out from the best to the worst. Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R results are marked in darker color for your convenience.
First we would like to compare the performance of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 and Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R. You can easily notice that the boards often split the second and third prize and there is a very logical explanation for that. As we have already said, GA-P55-UD6 and GA-P55-UD3R mainboards have almost identical BIOS functionality that is why their system parameters are the same, up to the secondary memory timings. Both mainboards increase the base clock to 136 MHz in nominal mode that is why they outperform Asus and Biostar solutions, but fall behind ASRock, which pushes the base clock even higher.
The second type of comparison we are going to discuss today is the mainboards performance during maximum CPU overclocking. This time we disabled extended “C-STATE” processor power-saving modes in the BIOS and thus limited the maximum processor clock multiplier by 22x. In this case the CPU can work at higher base clock than with a 26x multiplier, which produces higher resulting performance. Even though the price is higher power consumption in idle mode.
And again Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 and Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R mainboards are often next to one another, as they overclocked the CPU and the memory the same way that is why they perform equally in any operational modes. Certain differences can be explained by imperfections of test programs, but on average they are never more than 0.5%. Overall, the benchmark results show that a system built around Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R is pretty much as fast as any other similar system.
We measured the power consumption using Extech Power Analyzer 380803 device. This device was connected before the system PSU, i.e. it measured the power consumption of the entire system without the monitor, including the power losses that occur in the PSU itself. When we took the power readings in idle mode, the system was completely idle: there were even no requests sent to the hard drive at that time. We used LinX program to load the Intel Core i7-860 CPU. For more illustrative picture we created a graph showing the power consumption growth depending on the increase in CPU utilization as the number of active computational threads in LinX changed in nominal mode as well as during overclocking. Besides Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R, we also included the results for all other LGA1156 mainboard we tested before.
Against the background of Biostar TPower I55, the power consumption of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R in nominal mode seems a little high. However, do not forget that Turbo Boost technology barely works on Biostar mainboard under heavy load. Core voltage doesn’t increase that is why power consumption is low, but the processor clock frequency multiplier also doesn’t increase that is why power-saving occurs at the expense of performance. If we compare the power readings of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R against those of other mainboards, it will even seem a little more energy-efficient. The results comparison will be much more illustrative during processor overclocking when Biostar TPower I55 behaves exactly the same way as other solutions and doesn’t affect our perception of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R results.
Yes, now we see clearly that during overclocking Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R mainboard is quite energy-efficient in all cases except maximum CPU utilization. We have already pointed out that this mainboard is pretty aggressive when it comes to opposing the voltage drop, it increases the voltage more and thus shows less appealing power consumption readings but only when all CPU cores, including virtual ones, are utilized.
In our Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 review we didn’t pay any attention to the company’s brand name software tools and utilities. But they do mention “Smart6” utility suite not only on the box but also on the boot-up logo image.
“Smart 6” is a suite including six completely different applications sharing an installation and launch system.
“SMART QuickBoot” is a tool that will help accelerate OS booting. It works the same way as “ASRock Instant Boot”, which we have discussed in detail in our ASRock X58 SuperComputer review. When you power on the system the board starts, boots the operating system and then goes into sleep mode (S3 state) or hibernation mode (S4 state). Of course, upon the next power-on the system will be ready much faster.
We are already familiar with the way “SMART QuickBoost” window looks, as it is similar to one of the windows of “EasyTune 6” utility. One mouse click allows you to easily overclock the system to one of the three preset levels.
“SMART Recovery” is a program for saving backup copies and restoring files.
My biggest hopes were pinned upon “SMART DualBIOS”. I expected that this utility would allow us to manage two BIOS chips available on Gigabyte mainboards. However, it turned out to be a completely different program. It can work as a password manager remembering up to 12 passwords. Moreover, this utility can also function as a scheduler reminding you of important things.
“SMART Recorder” is a program for special agents and paranoid users. It records all power on and off incidents as well as all cases when large amounts of data have been copied.
“SMART TimeLock” utility will help better organize computer time for you or your kids. Now they won’t be able to play games all night long, as the system will shut down at a preset time (after sending you several warning messages and saving all data), despite all protests.
Frankly speaking, I personally, didn’t find anything especially unique about these utilities and tools. You may have a different opinion, of course, and you may find “Smart 6” suite very helpful. As for Gigabyte, they not just provided this suite with a detailed description, but even offered a “Smart 6” inspired contest with pretty serious prizes like processors and mainboards on their official web-site.
Let’s take a quick glance at a few other Gigabyte brand name tools, as we are already pretty familiar with them from our previous reviews. You can use a special utility for BIOS reflashing from Windows OS.
“Dynamic Energy Saver 2” will help you adjust power-saving modes to your liking and monitor the amount of saved energy.
The functionality of the “Auto Green” program seemed pretty interesting and unique to us. It provides security and energy-efficiency through a mobile phone with Bluetooth support and a Bluetooth module connected to the board. As you know, this technology only ensures connection at small distances. While you and your mobile phone are close to the computer, it is up and running. As soon as you walk away and connection gets lost the system switches to a certain power-saving mode: goes into sleep mode (S3) or shuts down after saving all data on the hard drive (S4).
As for “EasyTune 6”, we have already discussed it in detail in our Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R review.
The only thing we haven’t touched upon back then were the icons at the top of the application window. The “i” button tells you the version of the utility, the “?” shows help topics, “@” searches for updates, while a button with a sheet of paper will display brief system information.
Since you are reading this review, I assume that you are interested in the new LGA1156 platform. Frankly speaking, I also used to be very optimistic and positive about this platform. Of course, since the new chipset and new processors promised almost the same functionality as LGA1366 systems could offer, only at a lower price and with higher energy-efficiency. However, as time went on, my attitude changed and I have become pickier about new mainboards because during the tests I faced an unrealistically substantial number of issues and problems. Some of them are quite understandable, while the others still remain a mystery.
I started working with the new LGA1156 platform on Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 and Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3 mainboards. However, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 was a very early engineering sample, so that we couldn’t even reflash the new BIOS into it. As for Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3, it turned out defective right from the start: the board worked but some of the processor voltage regulator components heated up extremely badly. Unfortunately, I noticed it too late and even the PCB textolite got darker from the high heat.
Asus P7P55D Deluxe mainboard was a true breath of fresh air. It was an excellent mainboard and the first one to be reviewed on our site. The mass production Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 definitely didn’t have any of the early sample problems any more, but for a number of reasons didn’t make the best impression. After that we were planning to check out a very promising MSI P55-GD65 mainboard, but it failed in the very beginning of our test session right after we reflashed its BIOS using M-Flash utility.
The next reviews on our site were ASRock P55 Deluxe and Biostar TPower I55. Each mainboard has its advantages, but also quite a few drawbacks. We checked out Foxconn Inferno Katana but put it aside right away. It was a very beautiful mainboard but we decided to wait for the new BIOS updates, so that we could write a positive review. DFI DK P55-T3eH9 also required some extra effort to get working properly, because during the attempt to reflash its BIOS we experienced the same exact issue that sent MSI solution to rest in peace.
This list of issues is already fairly long even for a new platform, but we could continue it by saying that we had to replace the memory modules and the cooling system, too. At this point I am sure you understand very well why I was so excited about Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R, which review went on smoothly and without any issues. It is the greatest luck for the user as well as reviewer when the board responses adequately and predictably to your actions; when its performance, power consumption and overclocking potential are just as good as those of its more expensive competitors. Like any other mainboard, Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R is not totally ideal. Some may be upset about the absence of NVIDIA SLI support, some will need an additional IEEE1394 (FireWire) controller. If the functionality of Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R is sufficient for your needs, then I hope doesn’t disappoint you and maybe even impresses you, like it impressed me.
