ASRock is well known for it's innovative design and cost/performance ratio. Since ASRock launched it's X58 chipset mainboard, it has received good reviews worldwide. The ASRock P55 Deluxe did not disappoint us. It is feature packed but it is able to differentiate itself from it's competitors.

ASRock P55 Deluxe is the first mainboard to bundle in a Marvell SATA3 PCIe card. This is certainly a good move as it allows one to upgrade to SATA 3 speeds when the HDD or SSDs comes with a SATA3 interface (it is backward compatible with SATA 1/2). Even though you don't use it, you have an extra 2 ports (2 internal ports or 1 esata+1 internal). There is also a TPM connector on board probably reserved for future use. I also particularly like the Combo powered ESATA/USB ports. In fact other manufacturers are also copying that. Read more about the Marvell SATA 3 performance here.

ASRock P55 Deluxe is the first board to introduce backward compatibility with older coolers. The board comes with 2 sets mounting holes. Thus, you can reuse your old LGA775 socket heatsinks without needing to buy the newer LGA1156 coolers. ASRock also boosted it's hardware and software support for this board. The board now comes with the LED Power Switch, Clear CMOS and Reset switch. This makes it easier for users to test the board without requiring to short the pins on front panel. Newly added features include Instant Flash makes it easy to update the bios from BIOS. With the file copied to a USB Stick or HDD, the Instant flash auto searches and let you select which BIOS to flash. OC DNA also comes in handy as users now are able to exchange their Overclocking profiles. Yes  I know this has been available on the expensive brands but isn't it good to have it on ASRock P55 Deluxe. There is also IES for power savings, Smart BIOS and OC Tuner. The board is also EuP 2.0 ready, that is when not in use, the power rating is below 0.5W making it the GREENEST board available. For those using the machine as a media centre, ASRock has an option in the BIOS known as Good Night LED. With it enabled, your LEDs will be disabled so that it will not interfere with your viewing pleasure especially at night.

Performance wise, this board has mixed results when compared with other makes of Intel P55 mainboards. In fact, the lower CLK for BCLK=200MHz is probably the culprit. If they have increase it by 1MHz, it would make some differences to the scores. In terms of overclocking, this board has a range of voltage levels for you to choose from. (See BIOS Screen shots). For our overclocking, we have to manually do trial and error test to ensure stability. In fact, booting up at 21 x 200MHz isn't a problem when Vtt is set to 1.30v+, CPU at 1.39v ~ 1.43v, DRAM at 1.65v, CPU Pll at 1.9v seems to make it more stable. We completed 3DMark tests at 4.2GHz. Using OC Tuner, we were able to reach 4.4GHz with SuperPI stable (210x21). DRAM at DDR3-2108. Here are the pictures.

In conclusion, the ASRock P55 Deluxe board has all the necessary criteria to take on the expensive boards. In fact, I am very surprised by the stability at 21x200 (4.2GHz) as I was using a normal non LGA1156 cooler sitting on top of the processor without fasteners. Although most of it worked well, OC tuner seemed to be giving me the wrong value for CPU voltage (at 1.825v??). The surrounding heatpipe on top of the mosfets should slim down as it makes is not easy to uninstalling as it is too cramp to rotate the knobs on the heatsink. Depending on what you want for your P55 system, the ASRock P55 Deluxe is worth the consideration especially if you already have good copper LGA775 heatsinks lying around. That would really save you a small fortune.

Discuss

Pros

• Combo eSATA/USB powered ports
• OC DNA
• EuP 2.0
• SATA 3 add on card
• Dual mounting holes supporting older LGA775 coolers and new LGA1156 coolers

Cons

• Installation of CPU cooler is difficult with the huge Heatpipes on the mosfets

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.