HARDOCP - Subsystem Testing - ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard Review

Date:: Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Author:: Daniel Dobrowolski
Editor:: Kyle Bennett
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ASUS P7P55D Deluxe Motherboard Review

When Intel launches a new processor ASUS is among the first companies with products ready to go that will support it. Among the first boards based on the Intel's new LGA1156 socket is the ASUS P7P55D Deluxe. This is a feature rich design based on the Intel P55 Express chipset, supporting Intel's new LGA 1156 Core i5 and Core i7 processors.

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Subsystem Testing

NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel Core i5 750 (2.66GHz) and 2 x 2048MB Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1866C7GT ver 2.1 DDR3 1866MHz (7,8,7,20,1T @ 1.65v) memory modules running at DDR3 1333MHz were used. The CPU was cooled with a home brew water cooling setup consisting of a Swiftech MCR320 triple radiator, 3x120mm fans, Swiftech MCP655-B pump, and a Swiftech Apogee GTZ water block which was modified to work with socket LGA1156 motherboards.

Sound Hardware

ASUS surprised me on this one. They chose the VIA VT2020 10-channel audio codec instead of the typical Realtek or ADI SoundMax solutions I normally see. Those other solutions I mentioned are typically 7.1 channel or 8-channel solutions. So at least on paper the VIA VT2020 should be better being a 10-channel audio solution. This solution supports DTS and a few other features.

Audio – Subjective Listening

For subjective listening you want to listen to something that covers a range of sound types. For this portion of the review I went with Disturbed, Indestructible.

CD audio playback was flawless and indistinguishable from any other boards I've tested.

Audio – Microphone Port Testing

The onboard audio MIC-IN port was tested using a Logitech Internet Chat Headset. Spoken words were recorded from the Windows Sound Recorder found under the Accessories\Entertainment folder in the start menu within Windows XP. The recording was made with the Microphone Boost option disabled, then enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the advanced menu under the microphone section with in the Volume Control Menu.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I don't recall ever seeing this exact audio codec integrated into any other boards. The recording sample was generally distortion free, but it was almost inaudible. It was clear but again the levels were too low. With the microphone boost option enabled the sample was fairly clear and distortion free. The playback sample was audible but still on the quiet side.

Drive Performance

To test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 connections, we used an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected first to the USB port. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives on the primary SATA header and Samsung 40 GB SATA 3G with NCQ hard drives on additional SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in RAID 0 16k block size configurations on all applicable controllers. Testing was also conducted using a stand alone SATA drive on all applicable controllers, and an EIDE drives connected in a primary slave configuration on the appropriate controller All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program.

As I touched on earlier, the ASUS P7P55D integrates 3 drive controllers into its design. The first of which is the P55 Express chipset which now replaces both the north and south bridges. So gone is the ICHxxR designation though it does use the same driver the ICH10R does. The P55 Express solution supports Matrix RAID, RAID0, 1, 5 and JBOD. It also supports legacy IDE and AHCI modes. The second controller is the common place JMicron JMB363 controller. This controller only has one SATA port attached to it but it does handle the ATA-133 channel as well. There is no floppy controller integrated into the board despite the fact that the JMB363 controller does support it. So while the controller does support RAID modes it does not do so with IDE drives and it only features one SATA port. So RAID is off the table. AHCI and legacy IDE modes are available however.

The final controller is the JMB322 controller which is a hardware based solution. The CPU utilization backs this up as it is easily the best in that category boasting the lowest CPU usage stats of all the controllers. However, despite this fact the Intel P55 controller dominated in terms of actual performance. This doesn't actually surprise me. I've yet to see what I'd call a "good" hardware RAID solution integrated into a motherboard. Among the better ones is the Silicon Image controllers, but I haven't seen one of those for awhile. Those are usually cut down feature wise, but perform well. In this case we had low CPU usage and that's all the "Drive Xpert" feature had going for it. To be perfectly honest these controllers are good enough for 99% of the population who will use this board.

I was faced with one problem here. The system would in no way, never, no how, nadda, under any circumstances detect a USB floppy drive. This gave me some issues getting Windows XP setup. What I ended up doing was installing everything in legacy IDE mode and then whenever it came time to test RAID or standalone drives with AHCI enabled, I simply moved the OS drive to a controller I wasn't using at the time. This allowed me to test everything with no additional difficulties. It may have simply been my USB floppy drive but in fairness it works on every other PC I've got and it's worked on most of the review boards. This represents the only actual problem I had with any of the integrated hardware.

Network Utilization Tests

Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used with Windows Task Manager to determine the performance levels of the onboard network interface. DU Meter was used to measure bandwidth and transfer speeds, while Windows Task Manager monitored CPU utilization on the test system. For the testing, a 750MB Archive file consisting of several compressed WMA/MP3 files was used for the large file transfer, and 750MB worth of MP3/WMA files were used ranging in sizes from 3 to 30MB was used for the small files transfer test. The test was performed using a plenum rated category 5e crossover cable to bypass any traffic, routing or other transfer issues and possible packet loss or corruption that can be caused by a router/switch or hub. The cables were connected between two test machines, one using the onboard NIC(s) of the board being reviewed and the other is an Intel EXPI9400PT 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet adapter installed into a test machine using an Intel DX48BT2 motherboard.

Really the P7P55D Deluxe is a bit of an odd board. ASUS has deviated from their norm in regard to the network controllers. Not just ASUS' norm but the industry norm for dual adapters as well. They've used two difference network controller chips which is something I haven't seen in a good while. Normally board makers use two of the same controllers. These are both Realtek controllers but they are of two different models.

ASUS integrated the Realtek 8110SC and the 8112L PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet controllers for the network interfaces. They are both capable of 10/100/1000 speeds, auto negotiation and offer full or half duplex operation. The Realtek 8110SC adapter results are listed under LAN 1 while the 8112 results are listed under LAN 2.

LAN1

The small files download test showed a peak transfer rate of 57.34MB. The average transfer speed was 31.34MB per second. CPU usage during this test was a mere 5%. The small files upload test showed a maximum transfer speed of 48.75MB with an average of 26.86MB a second. CPU usage was only 4% during this test.

The large files download test peaked at 66.64MB a second with an average hitting 43.01MB a second. CPU usage was higher than previous tests at 8%. The small files transfer test yielded less than stellar results. Maximum transfer speed in this test was 23.44MB a second with an average of only 21.28MB a second. During this test I saw CPU usage hit 6%.

LAN2

The small files download transfer rate for the second LAN adapter was 67.58MB a second. The average was a solid 58.17MB a second which is fairly good for this type of solution. CPU usage was a very reasonable 4% during this test. The small files upload test maxed out at 47.68MB a second and averaged 27.96MB a second. Despite the relatively mediocre performance the test hit 5% CPU usage.

The large files download test gave us a result of 64.47MB a second with an average of 38.82MB per second. CPU usage climbed to 6% during this test. The large files upload test showed results mirroring those of previous tests in that the maximum transfer speed was fairly low at 43.16MB a second with an average of 21.91MB a second which was spot on with previous tests. Uploads just aren't the strength of these Realtek adapters. Both solutions are adequate for general internet and gaming usage.

Test Systems

The following system configurations were used for the Sandra memory benchmark graph, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:

(Intel Core i5-750 stock speed is 2.66GHz, NOT 3.2GHz as listed above. We are showing the comparison of an overclocked i5-750 at 3.2GHz below in our graphs to show scaling compared to the i7-965 at 3.2GHz.)