• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

i3 530 Motherboard, P55 or H55?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

lundrog

New Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2010
I am looking for recommendations for a i3 530 motherboard. Not sure if I should do a P55 or H55.

I am looking for somthing that I can overclock, and that I do not need to do a bios update to use with the i3 530, as I do not have any other CPU's that would work in the board.

I am looking for a motherboard with room a LARGE CPU cooler,like these, and I need to put in my GTX 285 in the computer.

I have yet to decide if I should put 8 gb of 1600 and do a mild overclock, or put in 4GB of 2000 or 2200 memory and get a larger OC.

If possible, like it to be under $200.

Thanks
 
Motherboards for Intel CPU has a designated space around CPU to accommodate large cooler. So you should be able to use any large coolers without too much issue getting them to fit in. However a few mobo has RAM slots a little too close to CPU and can present a whole different challenges.

The biggest difference between P55 and H55 is that latter has on board video port that connects with integrated graphic chip on 600 series i5, it won't be used with i3 that don't have integrated graphic chip. I do not know much else about H55 chipset to help you though.
 
pretty sure i3 has on-chip gfx solution. basically the h55 will allow use of the on-chip gfx solutions of the new clarkdales. p55 has no such provision.
 
Yeah, the i3 has integrated graphics.

IMO, since you're not going to be using the integrated graphics of your i3 530, then you should get P55. You'll have to do some research on which boards need a BIOS update and which do not.
 
I e-mailed gigabit today, and got this back

"Dear Customer,

I am unable to answer your question. It will depend on the age of inventory from your place of purchase. The i3-530 processor has been validated with BIOS F4. If your motherboard GA-P55A-UD3 has BIOS F4, it will work out of the box. Depending your place of purchase, some retailers offer free upgrading of motherboard BIOSes.

Thank you for choosing Gigabyte products"

so much help!
 
What he said makes sense and was the expected answer...I mean a board shipped out before F4 won't have F4 on it...

If you plan on buying online, then you may just have to wait a while for the older stock to filtered out. If you can buy in-store, then you could look through their inventory for the newest shipments and hope it has F4...that's about all you could do...
 
MSI replied to a similar query that their P55 motherboard would post and allow flashing the BIOS.
 
Thanks, I was hopping for some manufacture dates, shipment dates, recommended stores for exact model's, etc. Then I can contact a reseller, requesting specific information.

I asked about USB flashing, and will do the same for EGVA.
 
if you find a local computer shop that would be willing to update the bios for you or a friend with a different LGA1156 cpu.
 
Back