Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 Living Review

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Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 Living Review.

The launch of the Lynnfield platform has been one of those oddball occasions where there is a blanket NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) across the industry, yet the motherboards and CPUs have all been available to buy for weeks, so we have ended up with a situation where all the sites are ready to publish their reviews, but can't because of the NDA, and yet people are going out and buying their own gear and publishing the results on-line, making P55 one of the worst kept secrets of recent times!

Today, we will be embarking on a living review of Gigabyte's super high end Lynnfield offering, the GA-P55-UD6. The UD6 is absolutely stacked to the brim with features, as you'd rightly expect from a high end board that's just tickling the £200 mark.

We will be using a newly released Intel i7 860 CPU during this review, it is a retail package, bought in the UK, so there are no engineering sample results or cherry picked CPUs here, and this should keep the results indicative of what you can expect on your own system.

So, let's take a look at what Lynnfield means for us...

Index.

1. Intro And Index
2. Official Specs And Information
3. The Package And Contents
4. The LGA 1156 CPU Socket Area
5. The Cooling Removed
6. A Look At Lynnfield And The P55 Chipset
7. The Accessories
8. The Core i7 860 Processor
9. The BIOS And BIOS Template
10. Test Set Up, Initial Thoughts And Testing
11. Hyperthreading off (Reluctantly)
12. Memory Testing With The Corsair Dominator GT 2000MHz CAS 8 Kit
13. Memory Testing With Patriot Viper II Sector 5 2000MHz CAS 8 Kit
14. Hard Disk Performance
15. Voltage Measuring points
16. Conclusion

Next, official specs and information...

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Official Specs And Information.

• Industry leading 24 phase power VRM design for optimum power efficiency and thermal solution
• Leading quality standard of Ultra Durable™ 3 technology with 2oz copper PCB design
• Innovative Smart 6 technology for Smarter PC management
• Support Intel® Core™ i7/ Core™ i5 processors with LGA 1156 socket
• New Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2 technology enables best energy efficiency
• Support both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI for ultimate graphics performance
• Smart TPM provides 2048 bits key via Bluetooth cellphone
• Smart DualLAN with Intelligent LAN port auto-switching
• XHD technology accelerating hard drive performance with ease
• AutoGreen technology Greening your PC via Bluetooth cellphone
• Integrated eSATA/USB combo connectors for enhanced storage flexibility
• Patented GIGABYTE DualBIOS™ technology delivering highest level failure protection
• Supports Dolby Home Theater audio to create a stunning surround sound listening experience
• Onboard debug LED simplifies motherboard troubleshooting
• The Precision OV provides more precision voltage control for system
• Compatible with Windows 7 to deliver the best operation experience

Introduction.

The GA-P55-UD6 is based on Intel's innovative 2-chip architecture and supports the next generation Intel® Core™ i7 and Intel® Core™ i5 processors with LGA1156 package. With integrated graphics and memory controllers in the processor, the GA-P55-UD6 is able to support up to 6 DIMMs of dual channel DDR3 memory for remarkable memory performance.

The GA-P55-UD6 features the revolutionary 24 phase power VRM design that provides the very best power delivery to the CPU, giving extreme users unparalleled overclocking ability and the lowest temperatures to reach maximum performance levels. With support for NVIDIA SLI™ and ATI CorssFireX™ technology, the GA-P55-UD6 also delivers powerful graphics performance.

The GA-P55-UD6 enables a new level of smart computing with its Smart 6 technologies. Designed with user-friendliness in mind, GIGABYTE Smart 6 features a combination of 6 innovative software utilities that provide easy and intelligent PC system management. Coupled with the unique GIGABYTE Dynamic Energy Saver2™ and Ultra Durable3™ technologies, the GA-P55-UD6 provides outstanding performance with optimized power efficiency and durability.

24 phase power- World's Best Phase Power Design.



Industry's First 24 Phase Power VRM Design.

GIGABYTE's cutting edge 24 phase power VRM design utilizes the highest calibre components to provide unadulterated, smooth power delivery for the CPU. Like a high performance sports car engine, GIGABYTE's 24 phase power design enables the best delivery of power to supercharge your system, giving extreme users unparalleled overclocking ability and the lowest temperatures to reach maximum performance levels.

The innovative 24 phase power VRM has been designed and engineered to deliver fast transient response times through quick and seamless power delivery during extensive CPU loading variations. In addition, heat from the VRM is effectively reduced by spreading the load between the 24 power phases, resulting in a cooler and more stable platform.

Ultra Durable 3.



GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 design, featuring 2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers which dramatically lowers system temperature by delivering a more efficient spreading of heat from critical areas of the motherboard such as the CPU power zone throughout the entire PCB. GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable 3 also lowers the PCB impedance by 50%, which helps to reduce electrical waste and further lowers component temperatures. A 2oz Copper layer design also provides improved signal quality and lower EMI (Electromagnetic Interference), providing better system stability and allowing for greater margins for overclocking...more

Benefits Of 2oz Copper PCB.

• Cooler than traditional motherboards
• Enhanced durability
• Improved energy efficiency
• Greater margins for overclocking... more

Smart 6- A Smarter way for PC system Management.

GIGABYTE Smart 6™ is designed with user-friendliness in mind, and offers a combination of 6 innovative software utilities that provide easier and smarter PC system management. Smart 6™ allows you to speed up system performance, reduce boot-up time, manage a secure platform and recover previous system settings easily with a click of the mouse button.



Windows® 7 WHQL Certified.

The motherboard has obtained WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification for Windows 7 from Microsoft® for an Intel-based motherboard, setting the standard for future Windows 7 certified motherboards...more

Smart Dual LAN.

GIGABYTE Smart Dual LAN technology features intelligent LAN port auto-switching between the 2 physical Gigabit LAN chips; offering hassle free, zero downtime, high speed network connectivity.

Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2.

GIGABYTE Dynamic Energy Saver™ 2 incorporates a host of intelligent features that use a proprietary hardware and software design to considerably enhance PC system energy efficiency, Reduce power consumption and deliver optimized auto-phase-switching for the CPU, Memory, Chipset, VGA, HDD, and fans with a simple click of button.

Intel® Core i7/ Core i5 LGA 1156 Processors.

The Intel brand new computing architecture based on the innovation of micro-architecture transforms 3-chip solutions to a 2-chip platform. The next generation Intel® Core i7/ Core i5 ™ processors with LGA1156 package integrate graphics and memory controller to support dual channel DDR3 memory. Supporting Intel Turbo Boost technology and Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel® Core i7/ Core i5 ™ processors provide the overwhelming performance with optimized power efficiency.

DDR3 2600+ Support.

P55-UD6 support Intel Core™ i7/ Core™ i5 processors delivering native support for DDR3 memory up to 2600+MHz by the enhanced design of GIGABYTE, Intel Core™ i7/ Core™ i5 processors feature the memory controller integrated directly into the processor die, rather than as part of the Northbridge as in previous generations, allowing for faster memory performance.

* Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information

Smart TPM - A smarter, better way to protect your data.

GIGABYTE Smart TPM provides the industry's highest level of data protection with 2048 bit hardware encryption. Smart TPM allows users to store their digital key on a USB thumb drive. In addition, Smart TPM allows users to lock the protected data remotely using a Bluetooth® enabled mobile phone.

eSATA/USB combo.

eSATA\USB combo ports provides significant convenience by supporting eSATA and USB devices in one port, and requires no additional power source when connecting eSATA devices through the applicable cable.

XHD (eXtreme HardDrive)-Accelerating hard drive performance with ease.

Accelerating system performance is made easy with the user friendly GIGABYTE eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D). GIGABYTE eXtreme Hard Drive (X.H.D) provides a quick and easy way to boost your hard drive performance simply by adding another hard drive.

AutoGreen- Greening your PC via Bluetooth cellphone.

AutoGreen technology can automatically save power for you simply by your bluetooth cell phone when you are away from your computer

Multi-display support with ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI™.

P55-UD6 supporting both ATI CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI™ delivers the ultimate in graphics performance for gaming enthusiasts who demand the highest frame rates without compromising on resolution.

Thermal Design.

Inspired by the performance and sleek lines of today's modern racing vehicles, GIGABYTE's stylish thermal solution is designed for extreme performance and ultra coolness.

Dolby Home Theater Support.

Delivers vivid surround sound for music, movies, and games, using two to eight speakers or any set of headphones

Norton™ Internet Security.

Fast, comprehensive, and up-to-the-minute protection against online threats. It safeguards your computer, identity, and home network without slowing you down. It sets a new standard for speed and makes online shopping, banking, and browsing safer and more convenient than ever.

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The Package And Contents.

The UD6 comes in a pearlescent white and blue box that has a flap on the front so you can see the board inside. There is a lot of information on the box, most of it is what you see in the post above this one.

The box front.

Inside the main box, we have two boxes, one containing the accessories that we'll get to shortly, and another containing the motherboard itself.

A fine looking specimen, with a turquoise (ish) PCB and blue and white slots and sockets.

The PCI-E/PCI slots are configured as follows:

[table="head"]Slot Number| PCIE Slot Type
1|PCIE-X1 (1)

2|PCIE-X16 (1) (Physical 16x)

3|PCIE-X1 (2)

4|PCI 1

5|PCIE-x8 (1) (Physical 16x)

6|PCI 2

7|PCIE-X4 (1) (Physical 16x)[/table]

Click image for full size.



Apart from the sheer weight of the UD6, the first thing that struck me was the fact that there are six DIMM slots - If you are using two or four DIMMs, you can use single or dual sided memory, however, if you wish to populate all six slots and run in dual channel, then you must use all single sided DIMMs. It's not a biggie, but something to be aware of if you are buying six DIMMs for use in this board.



Just to the bottom right of the DIMM slots are a row of LEDs, these are to show the power phases for the CPU and RAM working and to give you an idea of their status.



Moving to the bottom right hand corner of the board, we have the south-bridge heat sink - The styling on the UD6's cooling is apparently styled on "modern racing vehicles" and you can kind of see where they are coming from. The styling isn't quite as in your face as some boards I've seen, but on the whole, the UD6 is quite pleasing on the eye.

To the right of the photo, we have a whopping ten SATA II ports and then just below those towards the bottom right hand corner is the LED post code display and then the HDD LED/Power/Reset jumper panel. Slightly to the left of the jumper panel is a CMOS clear button and just above the PATA socket, to the right is a blue coloured reset button.

One surprising addition was the floppy port, I was hoping that P55 might have meant the end of that particular legacy device. Also present is a single PATA socket, another legacy item that I could live without.

Along the bottom of the photo, we have two USB 2 headers, each providing two connections and a single firewire header, the latter has some kind of protective cap on the socket too.



Just to the left of the South bridge heat sink-heat pipe, you can see the dual BIOS chips, this is a tried a tested Gigabyte design and can get you out of the occasional scrape when a BIOS flash goes wrong, or maybe a bad memory overclock sends things belly up - The second BIOS chip will allow you to restore order.



Staying with the on-board cooling, the chipset heat sink is quite substantial and appears to be made from cast aluminium. The unusual shape increases surface area which helps dissipate heat more efficiently, however, I can't help wondering if those blue and white aluminium plates might be hindering things slightly - I will check that out later and report back.





On to the PWM cooling now, and as you can see, the PWM heat sinks are both different, each with the dark nickel plated copper heat pipe snaking its way through them.



This is the heat pipe making its way through the left PWM heat sink behind the I/O panel. There doesn't appear to be a great deal of contact between the heat pipe and the heat sink here - Again, I'll check this out and report back.



Here we have a view of the top PWM heat sink, looking down the board - You may notice that the board is slightly bowed, especially towards the right hand edge, it doesn't seem to affect the seating of the heat sinks though.



Moving up to the top right of the board, we have the 24 pin ATX socket and then an on board power switch (which, on the box is called a "Stylish Power Bottom"!) - This is in a rather odd position (no pun) and it would have been nice to have the reset, power and CMOS clear buttons in a more accessible location (no pun), with maybe a cap on the CMOS clear button to prevent any accidental presses.

Round the back of the UD6 lies the I/O panel, its jam packed with goodies:

[table="head"]I/O Connections

8x USB 2 (Including the e-SATA combo ports)

Dual Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 MBit Courtesy Of 2x Realtek RTL8111D Controllers

PS/2 Keyboard or Mouse Socket

Coaxial and Optical Digital Sound Outputs

7.1 Channel Analog Connections

2x eSATA Combo Ports (These double up as USB ports too)

2x Firewire Port (Input/Output)[/table]

There are three SATA II controllers on the the UD6 - The blue ports are controlled by the P55 chipset, the far left white ports are on Gigabyte's own proprietary controller and the two centre, white ports are fed by a JMicron JMB362 controller.

Next, the LGA 1156 socket area...

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The LGA 1156 CPU Socket Area.

Moving to the all important socket area, we can see that Gigabyte's design leaves this section relatively clear, despite the 24 phase PWM arrangement. For sub-zero insulation, it shouldn't pose much of a problem.



While we are here, it's worth mentioning that the 24 phase power might seem excessive, and probably is, however, Gigabyte promise more efficient power delivery as well as greater stability during overclocking - How effective this actually is, over say an eight phase digital PWM set up remains to be seen, but we will keep a close eye on this and report back later in the review.

Here is a brief overview direct from Gigabyte.

The all new LGA 1156 socket has much in common with its predecessors, there is still a locking arm, a metal hasp and a plastic socket filled with pins and the basic operation is the same, but they have all been redesigned and now the entire socket is held in place by three large Torx screws and gone is the metal surround that was found on the LGA 1366 socket, instead we have just a plastic base, let's take a look at how it works.

Closed with the arm locked in place.

With the arm released.



With the arm all the way back, you can see that the main locking bracket is now free of the single Torx screw to the left of the photo.



Now the bracket can be lifted up to reveal the plastic socket.



LGA 1156 naked.



Drop the processor in place, making sure that you line up the notches in the socket with the cut-outs on the processor.



Close the metal bracket.



Pull the lever towards the left and hook it under the catch. Done.



The rear of the board is quite sparse, but the new CPU backplate assembly is worth a look. It's also worth mentioning that Gigabyte chose to mount the chipset heat sink with proper screws, but the South bridge and PWM heat sinks only feature plastic spring clips - Adequate, but a little disappointing on a £200 motherboard.

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The Cooling Removed.

Removing the cooling is really easy, just pinch all the white pushpins, being careful that they don't fire off into the distance! - Then undo the two Phillips screws that hold the chipset cooler on (as shown here) and the entire assembly should come away like this.

Click image for full size.



Firstly, the P55 chipset itself - The dust is residue from the thermal material that I cleaned off, Gigabyte still use that hard, flaky, cement like stuff. A bit of IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) and some cotton buds removed it.



In previous chipsets, the South bridge has traditionally been a single chip, but now we have two separate chips, one being the JMicron JMB362, and the other one is the proprietary Gigabyte SATA II controller. If you look at the lower, right hand heat sink in the first image, you can see that there are two small protrusions to make contact with these small chips. The smaller JMicron chip has a thicker thermal pad and the Gigabyte SATA II controller has some of the thermal material that I mentioned above.





Underneath the left hand PWM heat sinks...



Underneath the top PWM heat sinks...



Next, a quick look at P55 and the Lynnfield platform...

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A Look At Lynnfield And The P55 Chipset.

Lynnfield - A Whistle Stop Tour.

The Lynnfield platform is quite a departure from previous generations of chipsets. Gone is the QPI (Quick Path Interconnect) of Nehalem and now we have DMI (Direct Media Interface) instead. DMI is much slower than QPI, offering 2 GB/Sec transfer speeds as opposed to up to 25.6GB/Sec, however, Intel claim that this is optimal for this platform.

Another fundamental change for Lynnfield is the moving of the PCI-E controller onto the processor itself. The controller offers one 16x lane PCI-E slot (@16 GB/Sec), or two 8x Lane PCI-E slots (@ 8 GB/Sec each). It's too early to say how this will impact performance from an overclocking standpoint, but we suspect there may be a few problems as far as hitting high BCLKs go - Future BIOS releases will reveal all.

As with the Nehalem generation of CPUs, the memory controller on Lynnfield is on-die, this new dual channel memory controller can transfer data at up to 10.5 GB/Sec as opposed to the 8.5 GB/Sec on Nehalem's triple channel controller.

The current crop of CPUs for Lynnfield come in three flavours, we have the Core i5 750 which has four cores and no Hyperthreading, then we have the i7 860 which boasts four cores plus Hyperthreading, and then we have the i7 870 which is very similar to the 860, only it has a slightly higher multi and so a slightly higher clock speed and a very large price tag.

The other major change is that Turbo mode has been given an overhaul. In a nutshell, Turbo mode will (conditions permitting) take your CPU to much higher clock speeds than was previously possible, more on this later in the review.

P55 - A Fly Through.

Moving to the actual P55 chipset, we can see that there are a number of familiar features as well as some new and interesting ones - A total of fourteen USB 2 ports are possible on P55 and they all come with a feature called USB Port Disable, this is exactly what the name implies and prevents unwanted data from being transferred to or from the PC.

With the PCI-E controller now being on the processor, this leaves a relatively small amount of bandwidth free for the chipset to have it's own, small controller and this looks after as many as eight PCI-E 1x lanes/slots - These could, in theory be used for anything from physical slots, to on board peripherals.

Other notable features include integrated LAN and Gigabit LAN, Intel High Definition Audio and up to six, SATA II ports that feature the Port Disable function which prevents unwanted data from being transferred to or from the PC.

Finally, we have the SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface), this connects the chipset to the BIOS and other things that rely on the BIOS such as Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility.

That's the summary for the P55 chipset, if you would like more detailed information, please see the Intel website.

Click image for full size.




Features and benefits.

Intel® Management Engine Ignition Firmware support
Provides essential platform functionality such as clock maintenance and thermal reporting

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology
With additional hard drives added, provides quicker access to digital photo, video and data files with RAID 0, 5, and 10, and greater data protection against a hard disk drive failure with RAID 1, 5, and 10. Support for external SATA (eSATA) enables the full SATA interface speed outside the chassis, up to 3 Gb/s.

Intel® Rapid Recover Technology
Intel’s latest data protection technology provides a recovery point that can be used to quickly recover a system should a hard drive fail or if there is data corruption. The clone can also be mounted as a read-only volume to allow a user to recover individual files.

Intel® High Definition Audio
Integrated audio support enables premium digital surround sound and delivers advanced features such as multiple audio streams and jack re-tasking.

Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Hi-Speed USB 2.0, provides greater enhancement in performance with a design data rate of up to 480 megabits per second (Mbps) with up to 14 USB 2.0 Ports.

USB 2.0 rate matching hub
Enables lower power requirements and manages the transition of the communication data rate from the high speed of the host controller to the lower speed of USB full speed /low speed devices.

Serial ATA (SATA) 3 Gb/s
High-speed storage interface supports faster transfer rate for improved data access with up to 6 SATA ports.

eSATA
SATA interface designed for use with external SATA devices. It provides a link for 3 Gb/s data speeds to eliminate bottlenecks found with current external storage solutions.

SATA port disable
Enables individual SATA ports to be enabled or disabled as needed. This feature provides added protection of data by preventing malicious removal or insertion of data through SATA ports. Especially targeted for eSATA ports.

PCI Express* 2.0 interface
Offers up to 2.5GT/s for fast access to peripheral devices and networking with up to 8 PCI Express* 2.0 x1 ports, configurable as x2 and x4 depending on motherboard designs.

USB port disable
Enables individual USB ports to be enabled or disabled as needed. This feature provides added protection of data by preventing malicious removal or insertion of data through USB ports.

Intel® integrated 10/100/1000 MAC
Support for the Intel® 82578DC Gigabit Network Connection

Green technology
Manufactured with lead-free and halogen-free component packages

Next, the accessories...

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The Accessories.



The accessory bundle is standard fare with nothing too out of the ordinary really. We have:

[table="head"]Accessory List

1x Bracket with two eSATA and one four pin molex

2x Black SATA to eSATA Cables

2x Yellow, Right Angles SATA Cables

2x Yellow, Straight SATA Cables

1x PATA Cable

1x SLI Bridge

1x Colour Coded I/O Shield

1x Dolby home Theater Sticker

1x Powered By Gigabyte Sticker[/table]

There's also one of these, it's an external power connector for two SATA drives. It simply plugs into the supplied bracket (see photo above) and then branches off to power any two SATA type devices, avoiding the need for external caddies/enclosures. A great idea.



Manuals, warranty paperwork and driver/software DVD. On the DVD is Symantec's Norton System Works, install at your peril!



Overall, a functional, reasonable bundle of accessories comes with the UD6.

Next, A look at Intel Core i7 860 Processor...

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The Intel Core i7 860 Processor.

The 860 comes in a much smaller box than it's LGA 775 and LGA 1366 cousins, in fact it's around half the size. The stock Intel cooler is much smaller than previous incarnations and to be brutally honest, it looks quite poor so we will not be using it in our tests.

Packaging And Contents.

Inside the box is the 860 processor, the heat sink and some warranty paperwork.

This end of the box gives a sneaky peek at the processor.



No engineering samples here.

Front.

Rear.



And finally, the stock cooler. They've made it even shallower than the 1366 version so the cooler has to fight that bit harder to dissipate the heat and it still retains those vile push-pins. My advice to anyone buying an i7-860 is to dump this cooler right away and grab something a little more efficient.





Next, the BIOS...

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The BIOS.

The UD6 features a comprehensive BIOS, the layout may seem a little daunting at first, but after using it for a while, I have to say, it is quite a nice way of doing things. Let's take a look what we have...

(By the way, this is a new way of illustrating the BIOS that I'm testing, I'd love to hear your thoughts!)

BIOS Template.

Advanced Frequency Settings:

CPU Clock Ratio 21x

Advanced Core Features [Press Enter]:

Intel(R) Turbo Boost Tech. [Disabled]
CPU Cores Enabled [All]
CPU Multi-Threading [Disabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) [Auto]
C3/C6/C7 State Support [Auto]
CPU Thermal Monitor [Auto]
CPU EIST Function [Auto]
Bi-Directional PROCHOT [Auto]

QPI Clock Ratio [Auto]

QPI Link Speed 6.4GHz
Uncore Clock Ratio 18x
Uncore Frequency 3600MHz

>>>>> Standard Clock Control <<<<<

Base Clock (BCLK) Control [Enabled]
BCLK Frequency [200]
Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) [Enabled]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) [Disabled]
Memory Frequency (MHz) 1333 2000
PCI Express Frequency (MHz) [Auto]
C.I.A.2 [Disabled]

>>>>> Advanced Clock Control <<<<<

CPU Clock Drive [ 800mV]
PCI Express Clock Drive [ 900mV]
CPU Clock Skew [ 0ps]

Advanced Memory Settings:

Extreme Memory Profile (X.M.P.) [Disabled]
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) [10.0]
Memory Frequency (MHz) 1333 2000
Performance Enhance (SPD) [Turbo]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) [Expert]
Profile DDR Voltage 1.5v
Profile QPI Voltage 1.1v
Channel Interleaving 6 [Auto]
Rank Interleaving 4 [Auto]

>>>>> Channel A

Channel A Timing Settings [Press Enter]:
Cas Latency Time 9 [8]
tRCD 9 [8]
tRP 9 [9]
tRAS 24 [24]

>>>>> Channel A Advanced Timing Control

tRC 34 [Auto]
tRRD 5 [Auto]
tWTR 5 [Auto]
tWR 10 [Auto]
tWTP 21 [Auto]
tWL 7 [Auto]
tRFC 74 [Auto]
tRTP 5 [Auto]
tFAW 25 [Auto]
Command Rate (CMD) 1 [Auto]

>>>>> Channel A Misc Timing Control

B2B Cas Delay - [Auto]
Round Trip Latency 53 [Auto]

Channel A Turnaround Settings [Press Enter]:
Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
Different DIMMs 5 [Auto]
On The Same Rank 1 [Auto]

>>>>> Channel A Writes Followed By Writes

Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
On The Same Rank 1 [Auto]

***>>>>> Channel B

Channel B Timing Settings [Press Enter]:
Cas Latency Time 9 [8]
tRCD 9 [8]
tRP 9 [9]
tRAS 24 [24]

>>>>> Channel B Advanced Timing Control

tRC 34 [Auto]
tRRD 5 [Auto]
tWTR 5 [Auto]
tWR 10 [Auto]
tWTP 21 [Auto]
tWL 7 [Auto]
tRFC 74 [Auto]
tRTP 5 [Auto]
tFAW 25 [Auto]
Command Rate (CMD) 1 [Auto]

>>>>> Channel B Misc Timing Control

B2B Cas Delay - [Auto]
Round Trip Latency 53 [Auto]

Channel B Turnaround Settings [Press Enter]:
Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
Different DIMMs 5 [Auto]
On The Same Rank 1 [Auto]

>>>>> Channel B Writes Followed By Writes

Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
Different DIMMs 6 [Auto]
On The Same Rank 1 [Auto]

Advanced Voltage Settings:

******Mother Board Voltage Control ******
Voltage Types............Normal......Current
--------------------------------------------

>>> CPU
Load Line Calibration...................[Level 2]
CPU Vcore..................1.19375v..[1.41875v]
QPI/VTT Voltage..........1.100v.....[1.400v]
>>> MCH/ICH
PCH Core....................1.050v.....[Auto]
CPU PLL......................1.800v.....[Auto]
>>> DRAM
DRAM Voltage..............1.500v.....[1.660v]
DRAM Termination.........0.750v.....[Auto]
Ch-A Data VRef............0.750v.....[Auto]
Ch-A Data VRef............0.750v.....[Auto]
Ch-B Data VRef............0.750v.....[Auto]
Ch-B Data VRef............0.750v.....[Auto]

Miscellaneous Settings:

Isochronous Support...................[Enabled]
Virtualisation technology..............[Enabled]

Next, test set up and initial thoughts...

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Test Set Up And Initial Thoughts.




The UD6 test bed is slightly different from our usual set up, in so much as we are using a CoolIT Domino A.L.C. and a Noctua NH-U12 SE2 for cooling duties. Why? Well, we have both units in for review and they've both proven to be relatively good performers. We also have a set of Corsair Dominator GT 2000MHz memory modules that will be our reference kit for the duration of P55.

The test bed is as follows:

• Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6
• Intel i7 860
• Corsair Dominator GT 2000MHz CAS 8 4GB Kit
• Samsung FJ400GB
• CoolIT Domino A.L.C.
• Noctua NH-U12P SE2
• Powercolor PCS+ HD4870 (@stock)

To move with the times, we have shifted the test rigs over to Windows 7 and we will use that wherever possible for future tests. The UD6 has "Windows 7 Support", so now seems as good a time as any to make the leap.

There were only a couple of minor issues during the build and they were admittedly my own doing - Firstly, the board wasn't detecting my Raptor, but it was only after an hour of choice swearing that I remembered that I had enabled AHCI and the Raptor didn't support AHCI! It was a senior moment, what can I say?

The Windows 7 install was as easy as could be, up until the point that it started to install the various driver updates - this is not a good idea for the UD6 at the moment as the Realtek LAN drivers that are available from Windows update do not work. As soon as they are installed, the NIC stops working, so if this happens to you, just grab the DVD that comes with the UD6 and install from there.

First Overclocking Escapades.

I've had a few days to get to grips with how the UD6 behaves and at the time of writing this, it hasn't missed a beat - Not a single problem anywhere and this is on the shipping BIOS! I decided to try a few lower clocks first to get into the swing of things, after all, this is my first outing on the P55 chipset...

These first few clocks were relatively simple to achieve, but these i5 and i7 8 series chips are really voltage hungry, not only for the Vcore, but also for the memory controller voltage (QPI/VTT) too. Also, I should point out that I've left Turbo mode on and all the energy saving settings on too.

3360MHz - 150 BCLK x22 @ 1.18v 1.1v QPI/VTT

Dead easy, only a tiny amount of Vcore needed to get here - Load Line Calibration wasn't even on either.

Click image for full size.



3740MHz - 170 BCLK x22 @ 1.3v Vcore 1.2v QPI/VTT

This one was relatively straight forward too, although unlike its 920 D0 cousin, the 860 seems to need a relatively high amount of extra QPI/VTT voltage at this point.

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3960MHz - 180 BCLK x22 @ 1.3875v Vcore 1.26v QPI/VTT

This one took a little more patience but after a little tweaking of the voltage, we got to 3960MHz.

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190 BCLK Onwards With HyperThreading And Turbo.

Moving up to 190 BCLK was a futile exercise with Turbo and Hyperthreading on, no amount of Vcore and QPI/VTT voltage would give any stability, so it was time to turn off Turbo.

Turning off Turbo had absolutely zero effect on anything, I piled on the voltage and it was still unstable at 1.45v Vcore for 4GHz. Time to reluctantly turn off Hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading was indeed the killer here, yet heat wasn't the issue, I'm not entirely sure what the issue was, other than the chip was at its limit. Turning off Hyperthreading is quite a disappointing milestone as it takes us into the performance bracket of the i5-750 which is anything up to £80 cheaper.

That's as far as we can go with the current cooling and this particular 860 for now.

Next, Turbo and HT Off...