Desktop Computer Review: Intel DP55KG Extreme Series Desktop Motherboard (P55 ATX Core i7 Core i5 LGA1156) Review

This motherboard was a big letdown for me out of the box. I bought it to supplement a new LAN rig I built, and right from the get-go, there were problems. Admittedly, the first few weren't entirely the board's fault (heatsink wouldn't sit properly, though it was aftermarket which didn't help. Also, the memory bus that it supports is a paltry 1333MHz, so when I bought a higher-speed DDR3 RAM, the board couldn't take it).

Hardware problems aside, this board's MASSIVE, GLARING flaw is in the fact that its network adapter doesn't actually come with installed drivers, nor do they come on the driver disk. That's right, you have to use a separate computer to download the drivers, then switch over to your motherboard (you need the OS installed to do this, by the way) and install them. So that's a pain in the tuckus if there ever was one. I'm not sure if other people have had this issue, but on my particular board, after every restart, the drivers get erased and must then be reinstalled. That means each time I turn the dang thing off, I need to reinstall the drivers.

Now, for the good parts though. This thing is a MONSTER when it is working. I've got a 2.8Ghz i7 being overclocked to 3.47Ghz, and this thing still runs like a beauty. It has onboard RAID support (though you need to configure that in the BIOS before you install the OS: just switch the drive settings around). The RAID program that comes included with the board drivers is simple and works wonders. Also, the Intel DCC, which lets you view information about your processor and memory chips, as well as overclock and tweak all of your chips right from the desktop, looks really snazzy and works like a charm. If you're a gamer who wants a really good looking board, and can find a fix or overlook the problems this board has (I sincerely hope they release new and better drivers: as of the time of this review, I was on version 14.8), then by all means, buy it. Its onboard skull, which has an integral HDD light (the board itself has its own backlighting that can be turned on in the BIOS) looks great through a windowed case and draws a lot of looks at LAN events.

In closure, this board has a lot of issues, but will also treat you really well when it works. If you buy it though, you gotta get the best gear to work with it, so an i7 is a necessary buy too, as well as good memory chips. Maybe they'll release support for higher memory processing power later, which would be a great bonus, since right now that's all that's holding this board back from being a speed demon.

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Product Description:
Intel Extreme series Single pack. NO FSB, P55 chipset, DDR3-1600, PCIe 2.0 x16 or Dual x8, 0,1,5,10 & Matrix RAID,

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