As a result, this motherboard only has two PCIe x16 slots. The changes in layout and functionality are only dictated by the use of that PCIe switch and the corresponding reallocation of chipset's peripheral lanes. Moreover, the novelty is very similar to the previously reviewed P7P55D Deluxe. DesignД¬onsidering the aforementioned difference in USB 3.0 implementation, P7P55D Premium and P7P55D-E Premium are completely identical. Well, they could've used a RAID modification of Marvell's controller that provides two SATA-600 ports, but that would've probably looked like outright mockery.

We're talking about NEC ВµPD720200 (USB 3.0) and Marvell 88SE9123 (SATA 6Gb/s) which are used in this and other motherboards. Actually, you'll feel a slight decrease in performance, only if you have a high-end graphics card.ДЄs for specific controllers that may be used in motherboards, the choice is quite limited, because only one SATA 6Gb/s and one USB 3.0 family has been certified so far. By the way, USB 3.0 is another reason to sacrifice some graphics card performance. Then 8 PCIe 2.0 lanes are used to connect high-speed peripheral controllers. Inexpensive motherboards of the second wave usually suggest that you sacrifice the speed of the PCIe x16 slot and configure CPU (which contains PCIe 2.0 controller) to support two graphics slots in an x8+x8 configuration. So how does one get PCIe 2.0 support in case of motherboards based on modern Intel chipsets? As you know, P55/H55/H57 chipsets offer 8 PCIe lanes which are formally PCIe 2.0-compliant, but actually provide only 250/250 MB/s throughput that corresponds to PCIe 1.1. Being unable to do anything about that, ASUS could at least connect it to a PCIe 2.0 lane to provide 500/500 MB/s throughput instead of the 250/250 MB/s of PCIe 1.1.

The matter is that Marvell 88SE9123 can only be connected to a single PCIe lane. Being a top-class model, P7P55D Premium has initially been planned to have full-fledged support for SATA 6Gb/s to squeeze the maximum possible speed from the only controller available back then. SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0ДЄctually, the preceding P7P55D Premium does support SATA 6Gb/s (unlike all other motherboards of the 'first wave') and has wiring layout for a USB 3.0 controller (we don't know why ASUS has had a second thought). Enters the top-class motherboard of the 'second wave'. The company has actually re-released most motherboards of the series, having added the support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s. What's so interesting about it? The 'E' suffix stands for an updated series. This time we got another P55-based product, P7P55D-E Premium. We have already reviewed a couple of ASUS P7P55D motherboards based on the P55 chipsets, and we'll review a few based on the integrated H55/H57 in the near future.

Asus p7p55d cpu led