The Intel P55 express chipset based motherboard from Asus comes with an LGA
1156 socket which supports Intel core i5 and core i7 processors. The board has
USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps connectors on board. There is support for SLI and
CrossFireX too and comes with a turbo V controller which may not be of great
importance in everyday usage.
The board scored an impressive 13,307 in 3DMarks 06, which means a great
graphics performance. In PCMark 05, the score was 8938 which means the
motherboard is no mean performer when it comes to basic Office apps. In
CineBench, the score was 9077 CB-CPU, while in POV-Ray, the motherboard scored a
rendered average of 80273 PPS over 2.45 secs; which means more than decent
display. It gave 59.79 FPS in UT benchmark, which ensures a smooth gaming
experience. We also performed USB 3.0 file transfer rate test using the HD Tune
benchmark. The board was able to garner speeds of up to 110 MB/sec over 16.3 ms
which is at par with any other motherboards available on shelves today. An
average transfer speed of 110 MB/sec was again observed with an access time of
16.2 ms when connected with SATA 6 Gbps connector. These scores are at par with
some of the other boards reviewed in this issue, but at a higher price tag.
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Bottomline: Good on performance but the price tag may prove to be a
downer for this.