First Intel P55 motherboards by ASUS and MSI

The German website PC Games Hardware has released images of the first Core i5 motherboards by ASUS and MSI, based on Intel's P55 chipset. The new series of Intel processors will be released in the second half of this year and will be the direct successor to the Core 2 Quad generation. The Core i5 uses a new socket with 1156 pins and will initially be available with the P55 chipset only.

ASUS and MSI are already busy designing new motherboards based on the chipset. ASUS is working on a P7U and P7U Pro motherboard, the latter features a second PCI-Express 16x slot. The boards are designed for DDR3 memory and equipped with five SATA ports. Old-fashioned connectivity such as IDE, floppy and PS/2 is also found on the motherboards. The two ASUS models also have a Gbit LAN and firewire connector. The P7U and P7U Pro are still unfinished, as can be seen in the empty space on the I/O panel. This will likely be filled up with extra video-connectors or cooling in the final version.

MSI's P55 board -the G7P55-DC- is more impressive, featuring a black PCB and a well-filled I/O panel. Also present are three graphics card slots, which can be used in both SLI and Crossfire configurations. Apart from the extra GPU slot, MSI has also added three more SATA ports, making for a total of eight connectors. This board is meant for the higher segment of the market, as can be seen in the presence of physical power, reset and cmos clear buttons on the motherboard.

Remarkable is the relatively small heatsink on the chipset. Where the majority of Intel's X48 and P45-based motherboards feature large heatpipe constructions, MSI and ASUS have chosen a simple small aluminum cooling block. It's possible that Core i5 will be launched during the Computex, making it possible for other manufacturers to develop P55 motherboards before the launch.

image source: PC Games Hardware

Tags: computex cmos corei5 crossfire ddr3 firewire heatpipe sata sli p55 core2 socket-1156

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