Choosing the Best H55/H57 Motherboard - Part 1
by Rajinder Gill on January 31, 2010 11:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Overclocking - Dissent in the Ranks
Ok, let's start off with a discrete GPU. When using 4GB configurations, the best board of the bunch appears to be the ASRock.
It's the only board that manages this speed fully stable with our Corsair Dominator kit. This is surprising considering the ASRock board has the least overclocking centric BIOS of the boards we have on test today. Voltage scales are fairly coarse in stepping, and memory sub-timing options are limited together with control over the QPI multiplier, but this does not seem to affect the board when it comes to 4GB memory configurations using the 2:10 memory ratio, even when using "lesser" performance modules.
The H57 EVO manages to take the same components to around 182 BCLK while the MSI and ASUS H55 models reach their limits at around 175 BCLK - around 130MHz lower than the ASRock board for raw memory frequency.
8GB memory overclocking is a different story. The leader in this department is the most expensive board on test today, the ASUS H57M EVO:
ASUS' H57 offering pips the ASUS H55M EVO to the post with our 8GB Corsair memory kit. The H55 model manages around 1580MHz fully stable vs. 1600MHz stable on the H57.
The ASRock's limits come in around 1450~1500MHz because you don't get access to some of the sub-timings needed to run higher memory speeds fully stable when the DIMM slots are loaded with 8GB, nor do you get the option to lower the QPI multiplier. That lands you at frequencies that the IMC cannot handle when loaded heavily.
MSI's BIOS provides plenty of additional sub-timing options, although we could not find a combination of settings to help achieve what we managed on both of the ASUS boards using the same memory modules. The QPI ratio had to be dropped to accommodate, while memory sub-timings needed loosening to achieve full stability.
One thing worthy of mention here, S3 sleep resume will work on the ASUS H55/H57 EVO boards and the MSI board at 200BCLK and beyond if you use lower memory multiplier ratios and QPI multipliers. The ASRock H55M-Pro is limited to a maximum of 190 BCLK for sucessful S3 resume on current BIOS releases.
Overclocking with the IGP Active
This is where things become limited rather quickly when it comes to maximum stable BCLK frequency. Anything over 165 BCLK needs judicious amounts of IGP voltage to facilitate higher CPU core speeds, even if you don't overclock the IGP in tandem. Using our 661 sample CPU and retaining the stock 900MHz IGP frequency, a BCLK of 165 is possible on all four boards using the 2:10 memory ratio and the highest available QPI multiplier. Anything higher and we have to pump an extra 0.1V into the IGP to get to 175 BCLK.
One would think that using a lower the QPI multiplier and memory ratio would increase headroom somewhat, but it appears this is not the case. We tried all QPI multipliers in conjunction with the 2:8 and 2:6 memory ratios and could not find a combination that was stable enough to enter the OS over 175 BCLK. Whether or not this is down to vendors getting to grips with the platform or not is currently unknown to us, although it would not be surprising if that happens to be the case. Time will tell.
We've run out of time to explore every angle of IGP performance and QPI ratios in this article, but we will endeavor to cover this angle in a future article if need be. Right now, we'll say it appears that you're going to be BCLK limited south of 170 MHz with the IGP in tow. Subtract another 20MHz off that for 8GB configurations, and bear in mind that you'll need to use low memory speeds, capping you to a maximum of around DDR3-1333MHz with things in their current state.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
56 Comments
View All Comments
Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Hi Rick,I have not heard of or seen anything that offers 10 onboard SATA ports on H55 yet. If I hear of anything, I'll let you know.
regards
Raja
Rick83 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Many thanks :-)marc1000 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Bottom line: DON'T BUY anything from Intel this generation. If you are not an advanced user who knows exactly what you are doing, then it is best to skip completely the current products.I'm saying this because there is a great chance you will pay more for something that offer less, or will get a crappy product, or will buy something believing it was "awesome" only to latter find it was actually "mediocre".
This is because the RIDICULOUS naming scheme Intel has chosen to use in the current CPU+Chipset.
Like some other user pointed here already: there is not ONE way to know if you are buing a dual or quad-core CPU simply by looking at it's name. You MUST know the exact specification based on model number (that does not mean nothing more than an obscure performance indicator).
And the trend seems to continue with the chipsets... you get a chipset that is more expensive and with less resources but the name makes it "look" like it is better!
HobHayward - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Unless I'm mistaken your description of the instant boot utility is misleading. At least on my ASRock x58 extreme, the instant boot function overrides the standard shut own procedure, and instead causes the system to restart, boot all the way back into windows, and then put the system into sleep mode. This way you have a fresh boot when you return to your computer, without having to wait for a full boot.Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Sorry, you are correct, I've added some text. The latter feature is akin to hibernate (suspend to disc) for fast boot.michal1980 - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
I'm waiting for an editorial. The fact that you had to wait for multiple bios revisions for a STABLE build, is imho unaccetable.I almost bought one of these boards, and then remebered my rule, wait at least 6 months. Because mobo makers release CRAP. And no one in the industry seems to call them on it. People that work for anandtech have an insider edge for support, end users get fu*ked with shitty parts.
Is it really that hard to launch with a stable OS? If the end user is to be a fu*king beta tester, then I want free boards.
YellowWing - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
I am interested in seeing more power figures for these boards with only the IGP. One of the unknowns in building a small HTPC with these boards is sizing the power supply. Many of the smaller cases come with small wattage power supplies.Power figures for each board with only the IGP will help size the minimum supply needed for these boards.
I would also like to see the figures for the i3-530, which may be the most popular CPU for a HTPC build on Clarksdale
Bloodx - Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - link
1080P/24 does not work correct. Until Intel releases a driver that corrects there is no point using this for an HTPC.piasabird - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
So why not just use an E7500 and an integrated MATX motherboard?I have not seen any real comparison between that and an I3 entry level processor. My guess is besides HDMI there is not much difference. One advantage is with an older chipset you have more stability.
hyvonen - Monday, February 1, 2010 - link
Why i3/i5 + H55/H57?1) Higher performance (both CPU and IGP).
2) Lower power consumption at load.
3) DTS-MA/Dolby TrueHD Bitstream support through HDMI.
4) Dual hardware HD decoding.