Intel has a long history of making processors and motherboards to support those processors. Intel launched their P55 Express chipset and LGA-1156 CPUs earlier this month. We’ve already reviewed a few of the boards on the market using this chipset, but haven’t gotten around to reviewing Intel’s own reference boards until today. Intel has three models of their P55 motherboards available today including the DP55KG Extreme board on the review bench today, the DP55SB, the DP55WG and the DP55WB media motherboards. Today I’m reviewing the reference board that was tested during the initial Core i7 870 and Core i5 750 reviews.
- Support for the Intel Core i7 and Intel Core i5 processors in the LGA-1156 package
- Intel P55 Express Chipset
- Dual-Channel DDR3-1600+ (OC)/1333/1066MHz memory support
- One PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot
- One PCI Express 2.0 x4 slot, two PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and two PCI slots
- Intel Matrix Storage Technology
- Eight SATA 3.0GB/s ports with two additional external SATA ports
- Six-phase improved voltage regulator
- Exclusive voltage regulator thermal solutions
- Consumer infrared receiver and transmitter
- One IEEE-1394a port with one additional port via internal header
- Eight USB 2.0 ports with four additional ports via two internal headers and one onboard port via one internal header
- Dolby Home Theater with 10-Channel Intel High Definition Audio (7.1) and S/PDIF In and Out
- Intel PRO 10/100/1000 Network
- Lead-free
- ATX 9.6X11.6
- Post code decoder
The Intel DP55KG Extreme motherboard is their top of the line P55 Express based motherboard. The move to the LGA-1156 Socket moved the PCI Express lanes for the graphics cards to the CPU die itself, removing the need for a Northbridge chip as previous motherboard chipsets from Intel required. The current lineup for Intel CPUs includes the Core i7 870 (3.2GHz), the Core i7 860 (2.93GHz) and Core i5 72.93GHz) and Core i5 70 (2.66GHz with HT disabled).
The memory controller on the new platform is also on the CPU, meaning that the memory support will be limited to 1333MHz unless the memory is overclocked. DDR3-1600MHz is supported when the system is overclocked. Note that with the advent of Intel’s Turbo Boost technology on their LGA-1156 CPUs automatic overclocking of the CPUs is the norm.
