Heatsinks are still placed on top of power regulating modules near the processor socket for heat dissipation, in which we will cover in detail in just a moment.Ī shot of the back of the motherboard. Therefore, Asus simply ended up putting a relatively large but low profile heatsink over the PCH as well as its adjacent controller chips near the bottom right corner, as shown in our photo above. The P55 Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is generally very power efficient, and does not require a lot of specific cooling. As I have mentioned on the previous page on the design of Intel's P55 chipset, many of the features previously provided by the Northbridge now reside of the LGA1156 CPU itself, while the rest of the communication functions are now handled by the Southbridge - eliminating the need of having a separate Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and I/O Controller Hub (ICH). For one thing, this motherboard does not have any heatpipes extending from the Southbridge to the Northbridge, and then leads around the processor socket to dissipate the heat. Users new to Intel's new platform and P55 chipset will immediately notice a few things about the Asus P7P55D-E Premium. As with all current Asus motherboards, the P7P55D-E Premium uses 100% Japanese made solid state aluminum capacitors for durability and quality. The comments on the look are just a personal opinion. Again, aesthetics is not really an issue when it comes to internal components of a computer, so I don't think disliking a motherboard's look really stopped anyone from buying it if it's truly an excellent product, haha. The difference is that the dark chestnut printed circuit board of Asus' P7P55D-E Premium better accentuates its contrast and style, whereas the Gigabyte motherboard in question didn't quite appeal to my personal tastes - this is due to the fact that it was used with blue PCB. Like the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 we've reviewed last week, components this P55 based mainboard also come in a variation of blue, ivory, or black in color. A Closer Look, Board Layout, Test SystemĪsus continues to use their signature chestnut colored printed circuit board with their P7P55D-E Premium motherboard.

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