Power Consumption and Conclusions

 

Power consumption

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard Review - Motherboards 65

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard Review - Motherboards 66

The P55M-UD4 gave us the lowest idle and lower power figures out of all three of the LGA 1156 motherboards we tested during our benchmarks for this review. This is a great indicator of this board’s power-saving features, which are a high priority of many consumers looking to save money on their home and office’s energy bills. Saving energy will also help the environment and also provide more efficient power to the entire system, which is something all PC users and enthusiasts can appreciate in a motherboard.


Performance

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard Review - Motherboards 67

The performance results we received in each of our benchmarks concluded that the P55M-UD4 was not only an outstanding gaming and overclocking motherboard, but also a highly flexible board that can handle normal day-to-day operations that truly make this board a great overall performer. Reaching 4.18GHz during our overclocking tests was also another key element to this board’s potential as a hardcore LAN gamer’s next computer upgrade item. With strong results in key areas like overclocking, gaming, multimedia, and general PC tasks, the P55M-UD4 is a sleeper in a saturated micro ATX LGA 1156 market.


Features 

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard Review - Motherboards 68

The P55M-UD4 comes fully stocked with features, including support for dual CrossfireX/SLI graphics card configurations, DDR3 2200 memory, dual BIOS chips onboard, firewire, eSATA, and a host of other features cramped into a micro ATX footprint. The addition of six SATA 3GB/s ports is also a standard option with all P55-based boards, but we would have liked to have an additional chip for USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s support. Gigabyte does have other boards with these options in their stable, but that small yet vital hardware upgrade could have made a huge impact to consumers looking for a “future proof” solution for their next motherboard upgrade.

 

Pricing and Availability

As of Feb. 13, the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 motherboard was available at Newegg.com for $149.99 with free shipping. This board can also be purchased at Amazon.com for $149.91 and Buy.com for $144.99.


Final Thoughts

 

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD4 LGA 1156 Micro ATX Motherboard Review - Motherboards 69

We had great expectations for this P55-based board and the P55M-UD4 did not disappoint us in any aspect of our benchmarks and other testing. The If we had any beef with it, we might have liked it to be a bit cheaper than its $149.99 price tag because smart PC enthusiasts are looking to drop their hard-earned cash on boards with USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s support right now. But, for those users who don’t mind just using an add-on card for these features, the P55M-UD4 is more than ideal for almost every user’s needs. I don’t like to throw words like that around, but we couldn’t have been more pleased with the results we received after numerous runs of our top benchmarks and even during the overclocking portion of this review. Kudos to Gigabyte for creating a solid micro ATX solution that will truly make LAN gamers, HTPC builders, and any PC enthusiast very happy that they chose the P55M-UD4 as their next hardware upgrade.

 

 

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