Installation
Test Rig:
Intel Core i7 870 LGA 1156 CPU
OCZ Platinum DDR3-1600 7-7-7 Low Voltage Dual Channel Memory Kit
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 Video Card
OCZ Z Series 650 Watt PSU
Ikonik Zaria Midtower
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Extreme caution should be used when working around the CPU socket as the pins are very fragile. Observe the CPU and CPU socket “keys” to determine proper orientation of the CPU. Place the CPU in the socket, close the retainer and slide it under the locking lug located on the motherboard. Carefully lower the locking lever and lock it in place. Prep the CPU by cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and a lint free cloth.
Apply thermal compound per manufacturer’s instructions. Be aware if you are using a CPU cooler with heatpipes that directly touch the CPU surface you will need to physically spread the thermal compound with a credit card or other thin flat item as the cooler base will not properly spread the compound.
Prep the CPU cooler by cleaning with isopropyl alcohol and a lint free cloth.
Install the CPU cooler. Install the system memory. The memory will go into the into the light blue slots. If using four memory modules, install a pair first, then install the others after the system is set up and running.
Install the I/O shield into the case, then install the motherboard.
Wire things up, then install the video card. Double check your work, and you’re done.
Great review, but you forgot one important thing. You didn't mention anything about the bridge (PLX) chip and how it doesn’t provide extra DMI bus bandwidth, which can “potentially” bottleneck anything running off the P55 chipset, ie; anything running of X1's, your OS drive, etc.
Gigabyte's USB 3.0/Sata III solution is really the only viable one, as every other USB 3.0/Sata III mobo maker uses the PLX chip.
Great review, i have same mobo, with I7 in Windows 2003 server 32 bits, i experiment a poor perfomance of this system, what can cause this?, i have a raid 0 with 2 sata of 1 Tera, and 8 Gb RAM. I have windows 2003 r2 32 bits for exchange server 2003 do not support 64 bits 🙁
Note that the P7P55D-E (non-pro) and lower boards in this family do NOT have the PLX chip solution for USB 3 and SATA 3. For those boards, USB 3 and SATA 3 share PCIE bandwidth.