Board LayoutThe Asus P7P55D Deluxe differs from your typical ATX board. with the advent of the P55 there is no need for your traditional Northbridge/Southbridge design. This means that a manufacturer can be more free with the way a board is laid out [within certain constraints].
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
Starting our walk around at the usual location we see what looks to be a typical upper half. The RAM slots, CPU socket and power regulation are all in the typical places. There is one thing that is suspiciously absent though. Where is the usual large heatsink for the Northbridge? Asus has chosen to keep this area clear and also to allow for a cleaner [and perhaps more efficient] tracing layout around the CPU. At the same time this also helps reduce the amount of heat that can pool in this area.
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
Another interesting change is the removal of the clips from the lower end of the RAM slots. As these slots are close to the primary PCIe x16 slot it makes it easier to install and remove RAM without the need to remove your GPU. Then again, this would not be a problem if ATX specification was obeyed - for years now, we are seeing motherboards that have PCIe and DIMM slots drawn too closely, but Unfortunately Asus did not remove the clips from the PCIe slots. They did make them larger and accessible from both sides of the slot We still had issues releasing these when using larger CPU coolers. The space available was just too small for us to get our fingers in there and we had to resort to using a plastic stick to un-latch the clip. Another interesting feature to take note of is the Mem OK light. This light is there to let you know that your RAM configuration is operating properly at a glance.
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
Moving up from there to the top of the RAM slots there are three switches. These control Overvolting the CPU, Internal Memory Controller [IMC], and RAM.
Taking a little glance to the left we see the massive power regulation that Asus has thown into the P7P55D Deluxe. Asus has implemented a 16+3 Phase setup here. This should give the P7P55D Deluxe a slight advantage in overclocking, but we will cover that later. Covering the power regulators are a pair of matching heatsinks that look like they are more artistic than functional. This raises some concerns in terms of how well they will dissipate heat under load but again we will have to take a closer look at that later in the review. There is one thing for certain though. The placement of the upper heatsink is cumbersome. It is very close to the 8-pin Aux 12-Volt power plug. This will certainly make connecting this inside a case difficult. We would recommend using an extension for this to ensure you do not lose too much knuckle skin while building a system with this board. One more item of note around these heatsinks is the port for the TurboV Remote. This is also in a very awkward place and even out of a case takes some work to get connected.
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
Moving down to the lower half of the board we see a more traditional design until we come to the large heatsink in the lower right quarter. This is going to become more and more usual as we see OEMs getting the hint that the P55 does not have to be in the upper portion of the board anymore. In fact by moving it here it cleans up the tracing and can actually improve performance of certain parts of the board.
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
ASUS is still using SATA and PATA ports that are angled 90 degrees, these help prevent any interference from cables when using longer cards. Looking at the lower edge we see more of what we are used to, multiple USB headers, on-board power and reset switches, front panel headers, and even a couple of SATA ports.
Click to Enlarge [opens new window]
In all the design is interesting and a good move forward [as are many P55 based boards] but there are still a few things that could be changed for the better.
© 2009 - 2013 Bright Side Of News*, All rights reserved.
