Power Consumption and Conclusions
Power consumption
The P7P55D Deluxe pulled a little more power during idle and load conditions than its P55 counterparts, but the board’s overall power-saving features could clearly be seen against our X58 competitor that was paired with an i7-920. Having scores under 100 watts at idle is pretty efficient for this type of enthusiast board and ASUS put a lot of thought and effort into incorporating other power features like power switching to help reduce power during tasks that required less wattage.
Performance
The P7P55D Deluxe was superior to every board we pitted against it accept Gigabyte’s UD6 in most of our synthetic and real-world benchmarks. The default settings between the P55-UD6 and P7P55D Deluxe vary a bit in terms of the base clock, which has been confirmed to run a few megahertz higher on the P55-UD6 while the P7P55D keeps Intel’s specs for the processor’s base clock. This board proved to be a strong performer in several key areas that most consumers look for in a high-end motherboard solution. While this board handled overclocking and gaming at high levels, it also produced strong scores in many of our general productivity tests, which is also a good sign of a well-rounded motherboard.
Even though we didn’t have a lot of luck using the auto tuning feature in TurboV, its still worthy to note that the rest of this utility was extremely helpful is giving power users and basic overclockers access to all the components they need to get a stable overclock from their i5 or i7 CPU. The TurboV remote was also a nice touch and gives users something outside of their system so they can give themselves a quick speed bump just by increasing the BCLK and voltage without having to adjust the BIOS settings.
Features
Where should I start with this P7P55D Deluxe when it comes to performance? Should I start with its support for quad-GPU SLI and CrossfireX? How about its support for dual-channel DDR3 2133 memory? One of my favorite features on the P7P55D Deluxe was its 16+3 phase power design that helps balance power phase loading and temperatures. This feature alone allows the board’s components to run at lower temps that will extend the lifespan of these parts.
This feature-rich, high-end motherboard comes fully stocked with tons of custom features that users won’t find anywhere else like Express Gate, ASUS’s exclusive OS that allows users quick access to the internet and other apps without having to boot into Windows. ASUS also threw in a MemOK! module on board for users to check their system memory compatibility. Lastly, ASUS spend a lot of time building the board’s energy saving features and also providing a fanless heatpipe solution to ensure the board stays quiet and cool during operation.
Pricing and Availability
As of Nov 2, 2009, the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe is available at Newegg.com for $219.99 with free shipping. This board is also available at TigerDirect.com for $229.99 and Buy.com for $218.79.
Final Thoughts
We’d like to thank our friends at ASUS for providing the P7P55D Deluxe for our review today. This is ASUS’s premiere P55 motherboard and it didn’t disappoint in any facet of our testing and evaluation. We initially had a few hiccups with some of our performance results being under par, but after a bit of research and tweaking, we were able to get strong results from this well designed motherboard. I’m sure as the P55 board matures and the technology gets a little more time out in the field that we will see improvements to drivers as well as other updates that will make the user experience that much better.
For its superior performance during our P55 overclocking and performance tests, we award the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe with our PC Perspective Gold Award.
