GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD6 (rev. 1.0) Pro Reviews

Performance wise we tested the heck out of the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 and the performance was as high as the GA-P55-UD6 and GA-P55A-UD4P and rivals any board we've had our hands on. With motherboards all sporting the same basic chipset performance is going to be a neck and neck thing. Features are waht differentiate boards now. On top the great performance we got from the Gigabyte P55A-UD6 the features are top notch. SATA 3 will grow to maturity and boards without SATA 3 will be yesterdays news, boards without USB 3.0 will feel crippled, the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 won't have any of those growing pains and we expect that most end users would enjoy both the overclocking and new interfaces knowing that their future technology needs are covered for the next few years.

Gigabyte had its work cut out for it when it came to improving on the original GA-P55-UD6 motherboard, which has become a favorite in the PCSTATS labs due to its rock-solid reliability and extensive features list. If you're looking to upgrade to a first-class Intel socket 1156 motherboard you won't have to look much further than the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6. It goes beyond Intel's specifications for what a motherboard based on the P55 Express chipset should be and adds on next-generation features that will open your computer system up to some impressive future upgrades. Recommended.

Gigabyte P55A-UD6 is an excellent top-shelf motherboard for computers based on the socket 1156 platform. Its highlights are the new USB 3.0 and SATA-600 ports, six memory sockets, support for SLI and CrossFireX modes, 24-phase voltage regulator circuit and a professional-quality audio codec. Gigabyte P55A-UD6 is one of the most complete motherboards on market today, with all the bells and whistles a computer enthusiast can desire.

In conclusion, the overall performance is improved almost 10% on the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 with Core i7-860 when compared to the Core i7-920/GA-EX58-UD4P, but it is the energy efficient 24-phase power VRM feature that receives my highest praise for this Intel P55 motherboard. The full depth of Gigabyte's proprietary product features is well worth the asking price, and the TPM encryption security is at the front of this list. Considering the improved real-world performance against USB-2.0 and X58-Express solutions, you can't possibly go wrong with the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 LGA1156 motherboard.

The GIGABYTE P55A-UD6 is "just like" all other P55 chipset motherboards when you talk about performance at stock speeds. However when it comes to overclocking the GA-P55A-UD6 very much shines. It is able to produce some tremendously high BCLK rates without much tweaking in the BIOS whatsoever. Is this its 24 phase power and Ultra Durable components coming into the picture? That is hard to say, but surely the overall design of this motherboard has the overclocker in mind. The GA-P55A-UD6 is fast, stable, and cool running at overclocked speeds with little effort.

We saw that both of these boards are full of great specifications and features. Both boards are capable of USB 3.0, SATA 3.0, and USB Power 3.0. They also both use 2-oz copper PCBs, and were built with the Ultra Durable 3 design. In fact, the boards are almost identical. One of the main differences is the Phase Power for each board. The P55A-UD4P uses 12 phase power, while the P55A-UD6 uses 24 phase. When the boards were overclocked, we saw some pretty big performance increases, which is always good. In the end, I'd reccomend these boards to anyone who wants to spend the money.

Last up is the Gigabyte P55A-UD6 sitting on top of the roundup in price and features. Compared to the other boards you do get a few unique features. However, if that is worth $245 is a tough call. Some outstanding features were the USB3.0 and SATA-III support, unique to the roundup. Secondly was the best organized BIOS and the most overclocking friendly board of the roundup.

Overall, the board's performance was spectacular. It managed to outperform its P55 brother in all tests when overclocking was taken into account and with plenty of power for overclocking, this board is clearly one of the top boards out there in the P55 ranks.

Thanks to the six memory slots Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 offers the rare opportunity to accumulate a large amount of system memory using low-capacity memory sticks. Although a dubious advantage, we have not seen other mainboards with P55 Express chipset to provide that many slots. The mainboard is equipped with a massive and obviously redundant cooler involving heatpipes and its PCB design differs from that of most other mainboards.

From a features point of view the GIGABYTE P55A-UD6 is outstanding. Support for the latest technologies including SATA 6 Gb/second, USB 3.0, SLI and CrossfireX make this board the choice of the enthusiast wanting the latest and greatest technologies from a P55 chipset motherboard. Performance is right on par with the P55-UD6 in terms of motherboard performance and performance of the SATA 6 Gb/second interface is higher than the competition which requires a bridge chip to offer full support for the new interface. The one downside is if you are using the SATA 6 Gb/second and or USB 3.0 to its fullest SLI and CrossfireX are running at x8.

The Gigabyte P55A-UD6 meanwhile is a compromise. It makes for a more palatable US$250 price tag; in fact, that's exactly the same price for the older P55-UD6 that does not include SATA 6Gbit/s and USB 3.0. For those that do not need two graphics cards though, this is an acceptable compromise. The performance too, is predictable and up to par with its competitors for the most part; our gaming benchmarks could not distinguish between the P55 motherboards.

The P55A-UD6 finished first in 9 out of 12 different categories of our benchmark suite, all while providing a generous accessory bundle, and an excellent layout that made good use of its high-end components. If you're in the market for a new P55 motherboard that offers the one of the best experiences possible, we highly recommend Gigabyte's P55A-UD6.