Choosing the Best H55/H57 Motherboard, Part 2
by Rajinder Gill on February 22, 2010 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
Out of the eight boards we've tested over the past six weeks, there are three we could live with comfortably now that things have matured sufficiently. We're not going to bestow any awards at this point though, because we feel that there have been issues on all test-samples during the review period that should have been addressed prior to public release. Simple things like memory compatibility, bundled software issues, BIOS lockups and basic peripheral problems all reared their head at some point. We're bemused by how these things make it out of vendor test labs in the first place; it has to be down to a lack of in-house testing while precedence is given to being first on retailer shelves—and that's unacceptable.
Nevertheless, we promised to help make a decision on which board to choose so here are the ones we're short-listing as "ready for retail" at this point. Unsurprisingly, the ASRock H55M-Pro, Gigabyte H55M-USB3 and the ASUS P7H55D-M Evo are the three boards we feel most comfortable recommending. Get one of these three, flash it to the latest BIOS, and you should be in for a trouble/frustration-free ride.
There's no absolute winner, although we feel ASRock set the pace by bringing the H55M-Pro in at a price that's hard to ignore. The only thing missing is USB 3.0, but you can always add a PCI-E card to supply a couple of ports at a later date. We have a slight reservation over ASRock's warranty period of 12 months; ASUS and Gigabyte offer 36 months on their boards which is something that's worth bearing in mind.
We'd only consider purchase of the ASUS and Gigabyte models if you have specific overclocking needs and like to have all the tweaking functions at your disposal, or if you have a pressing need for USB 3.0 right now. In the overclocking department, Gigabyte's board surpasses ASUS by a slim margin for raw memory frequency, while the ASUS board appears to be a little more robust for heavier CPU loads and higher CPU freqeuncies (ASUS is using a 188 amp capable VRM vs a guessed 110~120amp VRM on the Gigabyte H55/H57 boards, so we'd pick the ASUS boards for Lynnfield CPU overclocking). Anything else between these two boards is merely a matter of subjective preference. After a few hundred hours of testing, that's all we have to say about it.
Don't let any of what we've said here today deter you from a Clarkdale system entirely though; the i3 series of CPUs makes a tremendous amount of sense for a low cost, low noise HTPC—just be sure to choose the partnering motherboard wisely. Now that most of the teething problems are behind us, there's plenty to like, but next time a new chipset launches we hope to see fewer false starts.
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7Enigma - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
Taft,Why does the MSRP really matter? Unless you are looking to buy in bulk, I don't really see what the benefit would be. For instance the Intel 80gig SSD has been inflated for months now. It's still a great product, and I don't know why someone wouldn't buy something if the price was higher than MSRP. Many electronic products sell below MSRP, and IMO that does't make them any better or worse.
More importantly than MSRP in my opinion is shopping around to get the best price at any given point. 15-30min of googling around to various E-tailers will give you a good ballpark of the price.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
Hi,Unfortunately, I haven't seen or heard of any such resource from any of the sub-vendors - I usually have to fire off emails to ask. I agree with you though, it would be nice to see the figures posted on vendor websites.
regards
Raja
willsonjone - Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - link
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Kid98 - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
(ASUS is using a 188 amp capable VRM vs a guessed 110~120amp VRM on the Gigabyte H55/H57 boards, so we'd pick the ASUS boards for Lynnfield CPU overclocking)Looks like the units used to express the capabilities of the VRM's is incorrect, otherwise I am going to need a really large PSU to run them....
Kid
Swivelguy2 - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
That's 100+ amps delivered at a Vcore of ~1 volt, not 100+ amps drawn from the 12v rail.Earballs - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
I don't understand these Farcry 2 benchmark results.How is this score against the i5 750 being calculated? Did you test all these boards with that processor then average it? :S
If the first result is the 661@stock and the second the 661@4Ghz, why is the comparison to the i5 750 number not the same in both charts? What changed for the 750? The graphics settings appear to be the same.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
The 750 was benched on the EVGA P55 FTW board. Same drives, same drivers, same GPU, same patch version of FC2. Not sure why Lynn (4core) does worse in this bench.later
Raja
Earballs - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
Okay thanks, but that doesn't explain this:If the first result is the 661@stock and the second the 661@4Ghz, why is the comparison to the i5 750 number not the same in both charts? What changed for the 750? The graphics settings appear to be the same.
Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
Hi,The 750 was OC'd to 4GHz in the second chart, which is why the figure is 5FPS higher than the stock number of 68fps.
I can update the graph in about a day with the 750 running in one of the H55 boards if you like - got the Intel JG on the test rig at present and it won't do 4G's with the 750 I suspect..lol
regards
Raja
Earballs - Monday, February 22, 2010 - link
Ok. It might clear things up to have the 750 labeled as OC'd in the second chart. Thanks for the replies.