Review: EVGA P55 FTW (132-LF-E657-KR)

hokiealumnus · Sep 30, 2009

Hot off the presses, here's our review of the EVGA P55 FTW!

EVGA P55 FTW Review
(132-LF-E657-KR)

EVGA needs no introduction. They have now been around for more than a decade. Since the release of the X58 chipset, they have separated themselves as a top-notch enthusiast motherboard manufacturer. As of this writing, their X58 Classified holds two out of the top five world frequency records for i7’s in the CPU-z Hall of Fame. EVGA hopes to continue their dominance with their new lineup of boards based on the Intel P55 chipset.

Today, we are presented with the EVGA P55 FTW motherboard. This is one of quite a few motherboards EVGA has released for the P55 chipset, and is in the top three in terms of features.

Thanks to EVGA for providing the board for this review.

Long story short:

Pros:
* Extensive featureset; and it is all useful, nothing extraneous or useless in the bunch.
* Very strong CPU power section.
* Inclusion of both LGA1156 and LGA775 heatsink mounting holes.
* Inclusion of EVGA Control Panel.
* Detailed, extensive, yet easy-to-understand BIOS.
* Very strong overclocking options.

Cons:
* Entirely too much thermal paste on the P55 chipset.
* Contact on the longer MOSFET heatsink could be improved in the middle.

Here at Gilgamesh Reviews we have a three tier rating system. A Silver Award, an Editors' Choice Award, and our top honor the Gold Award. To achieve the Gold Award a product must demonstrate a performance level above and beyond the normal. This exquisite offering from EVGA does just that. While it is priced at the higher end of the P55 spectrum, its featureset and specifications more than justify that high price, especially when compared to other manufacturers' options at (and above) this price point. Therefore, we are very pleased to bestow another Gold Award upon EVGA for their efforts!

There you go! There is a TON of information in this review; seemed like it took forever to write. Please state any questions, concerns or comments. I'll also be benching this thing properly as I'm able with suicide runs, max BCLK, etc and posting it in here. Cheers! :beer:

jay2182 · Sep 30, 2009

Great review. Did you run with the CPU 2x power connectors and if so do you think that feature is worthwhile?

hokiealumnus · Sep 30, 2009

Thanks! No, I didn't. Heh, there aren't two on my PSU and I don't honestly see the reason for it. The 8-pin harness has eight positive and eight negative 18awg wires. Unless you have a rail-limited PSU, that harness can deliver as much amperage as any CPU could ever pull.

If you have trouble maintaining the full +12v on that lead for any given reason, I could see the point in trying to bolster the supply voltage.

On the plus side, there are several high wattage PSUs that come with two 8-pin leads (Corsair's 1000HX is one). If you have them, you now have the opportunity to use them...might as well!

So, to answer directly, I see no absolute need for the feature based solely on the need for amperage alone, but it can serve a purpose in either of the above cases.

MIAHALLEN · Sep 30, 2009

Nice review Hokie...I liked the P55 to X58 comparo, but would have liked to see more real-world testing in the dept. I wanted to do some comparisions in my recent GB review but didn't have the time... Otherwise outstanding as usual :beer:

hokiealumnus · Sep 30, 2009

Thank you kind sir! I'll be running more benches and posting them here, don't you worry. Unfortunately, I don't have the video to do much real world benching. My little 8800GTX can't keep up any more. That isn't to say I won't post them, just that the comparison may be a little off. You know me - a bencher through and through.

OT - When did you turn blue, did I miss the announcement? Congrats!!

hokiealumnus · Sep 30, 2009

I didn't use these in the review, but here are everest cache & mem runs I ran at each clock speed:

Stock:

3.6GHz:

4.0GHz:

4.2GHz:

Alien432 · Oct 1, 2009

hokiealumnus: Excellent Review ! Nice job. I do like lots of pictures to ooh-gal at.

Hey, when you do a board review like that do you have to return the board or do the sponsors let you keep it?

MIAHALLEN · Oct 1, 2009

hokiealumnus said:
OT - When did you turn blue, did I miss the announcement? Congrats!!

Today...you're right on time :beer:

hokiealumnus · Oct 1, 2009

Alien432 said:
hokiealumnus: Excellent Review ! Nice job. I do like lots of pictures to ooh-gal at.

Hey, when you do a board review like that do you have to return the board or do the sponsors let you keep it?

Thanks for the compliment. We always enjoyed lots of pictures as well.

As far as keeping the equipment - it depends on the manufacturer. We've been allowed to keep most equipment reviewed so far, but in looking for other sponsors / review samples, there are those that want it sent back to them. Retailers sometimes also lend equipment for review, which they do want back. So...it depends.

Brolloks · Oct 1, 2009

Excellent review, nice work

hokiealumnus · Oct 1, 2009

Thanks!

They weren't kidding about these things being power hogs. I was just stressing 3.7GHz at 1.282Vcore loaded. It was pulling 313W from the wall. I just increased the OC to 3.8GHz to stress test. It is now pulling 360W from the wall. That's crazy!

OC nub · Oct 1, 2009

Great job with the review.
Excellent results as well. :beer:

hokiealumnus · Oct 1, 2009

Thanks much. Working to stabilize a slightly higher 3.8 now. Failed after 12min; bumped Vcore one notch. Up to 1.294v loaded (one step from where I was). Having an OS clocking utility that actually works is very, very handy. Should have mentioned it in the review. My last experience was with TPower from Biostar...that thing was a piece of junk; never did work right. E-LEET is superb.

EDIT - Crashed at 42min (much better than 12!) Up to 1.304v loaded; getting closer.

EDIT2 - Looks like we have a winner - 3.8GHz stable! (Pending folding stability of course.)

Brolloks · Oct 2, 2009

You'll find that some 750's are much easier to get stable than most 860's at higher OC's, most 860's hate HT enabled above 4.2 and that is about the peak with HT on air it seems.

hokiealumnus · Oct 2, 2009

You aren't kidding...these things are rough. We finally have a stable 3.8GHz. The above OC failed prime at 1hr 52min. Bumped Vcore one notch (1.317v loaded) and set a 6hr OCCT test then went to bed. When I got home from lunch I saw it had passed!

So (still pending folding), I'm going to call this one stable. Loaded up Prime95 & minimized it so voltages were correct and took these screenshots of both the monitoring and voltage tabs. OCCT reports are below as well.

Brolloks · Oct 3, 2009

Do me a favor and bump it up to 1.375v on the core and 1.45 IMC at 20x200 (disable Turbo)...lmk know if that works

hokiealumnus · Oct 3, 2009

Horray, it really IS stable this time. Twin SMP clients 90% done. Yay.

Brolloks, I'm going to restart and try that right now.

EDIT - Stressing 1 hr OCCT. Will report back whether it passes.
EDIT 2 - (3 min later) That was fast. Failed at 3min 18sec. Will try w/out HT.
EDIT 3 - A few minutes after that. Stressing 1 hr OCCT. I can say this though - HT is a ridiculous heat generator...my temps instantly went down 5-8C.

Brolloks · Oct 3, 2009

Yeah, these 1156 chips are not HT friendly at all, got to be the fact that you have two other processing buses (IMC and PCIe) sitting next to the core :screwy:

hokiealumnus · Oct 4, 2009

Allrighty then. Thanks to Brolloks' suggestions, we finally have 4GHz stable (sans HT). Here's a shot while OCCT is running and the temperature graphs for the four cores. Note I was tooling around on the PC, which is why the usage spikes so much; other stuff taking away CPU cycles.

Thank you kind sir!!

Brolloks · Oct 4, 2009

You're welcome, glad to see you stable at 4 G's

Review: EVGA P55 FTW (132-LF-E657-KR)

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