![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , November 17, 2009
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
GIGABYTE P55M-UD4 Motherboard Review
While this new GIGABYTE may look small, this micro-ATX wonder packs a punch and hits where it counts. The P55M-UD4 performs like the big boys, proving that size truly does not matter...for a motherboard.
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel LGA 1156 Core i5 750 CPU with the board base clock running at 133MHz and 2 x 2GB Corsair CMD8GX3M4A1600C8 memory modules running at 1333MHz were used in testing.
Audio - Subjective Listening
One of the easiest ways to determine the quality of the audio subsystem is via a subjective sound test. Ideally, a sound test requires audio covering the entire spectrum, from subtle to intense. For this test, I chose to listen to the Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist.
The audio playback was without issue, with the overall experience almost flawless.
Audio - Microphone Port Testing
The MIC-IN input was tested using our standard Labtec Desk Mic 524 testing microphone. Spoken words were recorded and played back using Microsoft Sound Recorder, with the Microphone Boost option disabled and enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the Advanced menu under the Microphone section within the Volume Control menu.
The audio subsystem did not disappoint in this test either, with audio pickup of high enough caliber to not warrant the use of Microphone Boost at all. Not distortion came through the recorded playback with or with Microphone Boost enabled.
Drive Performance
To adequately test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 connections, we chose to use an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected to both ports. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using a Maxtor 40Gb ATA 133 model 6E040L0 hard drive on the IDE header and Samsung 40GB SATA II hard drives on the SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in a RAID 0 16k block size configuration and in standalone mode on both the Intel P55 and GIGABYTE controllers. Testing was also conducted using an IDE drive in a standalone configuration on the GIGABYTE controller. All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program.
While the performance crown went to the RAID configured drives, neither the Intel nor the GIGABYTE array performed up to expected performance levels though both did match performance with one another. The Intel P55 based standalone SATA drive came in at a close second to the RAID arrays, with the GIGABYTE standalone SATA drive barely beating out the IDE drive’s performance. The external drives performed on par with one another, and well within expectations. In all cases, CPU utilization remained well below 1%.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used in conjunction with Windows Task Manager to measure the performance of the Realtek GigE NIC. DU meter was used to measure bandwidth, with Windows Task Manager to monitor the CPU utilization on the test system. For the test itself, a 750MB archive file containing various sized .WMA audio files for the large file transfer test and a 750MB worth of various sized .WMA audio files for the small files transfer test were used in conjunction with an integrated Gigabit NIC on the host system and a crossover cable to connect the host system to the test system. A crossover cable was used to rule out any possible bandwidth losses due to hub or switch passage.
Realtek GigE controller
The large file transfer tests came in as expected, with the download speed besting that of upload by 9 MB/s at a fast 41 MB/s average. In both tests, the CPU Utilization remained below 5%.
The small file transfer results came in as expected as well, with the upload speed having a slight advantage over download at just under 30 MB/s. In both cases, CPU utilization remained under 5%.
Synthetic Performance Testing
Test Systems
The following system configurations were used for the system benchmark graphs, as well as all graphs listed under the Application and Gaming Benchmarks sections:
Graphs are labeled as follows: Motherboard - CPU Type & Clock Speed - Memory Speed
Sisoft Sandra 2009
Note that all results above were obtained running the installed memory in Dual Channel mode for all systems with the exception of the Intel X58 based board which ran in Triple Channel mode.
The P55M-UD4 easily matches performance with the other P55 chipset based boards, with it performance dwarfed by the X58 chipset based board due to the faster processor and the triple channel memory used for that board’s benchmarking.
Again, the P55M-UD4 matches the other P55 chipset board performances, indicating that the board to CPU interface is performing up to par.
Hiper Pi
The P55M-UD4 continues to stay close with the other P55 chipset based boards, illustrating that the board is well designed and performing as expected.
wPrime
The P55M-UD4 closes out the performance benchmarks on a strong note, easily keeping pace with its P55 based brethren.