Cheapest P55 motherboard ever now available courtesy of ECS

Asrock no longer holds the title of "cheapest P55 mobo manufacturer ever." This honor now belongs to ECS, with its new P55H-CM motherboard, now available for the low low price of just 4,780 Pesos. That's even cheaper than some LGA 775 and AM3 motherboards out there. Doubts about quality aside, the ECS P55H-CM motherboard comes with four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM sockets that support up to 16GB of memory, one x PCI Express x16 slot, two PCI Express x1 slots and 1 PCI slot. It's built in a Micro-ATX form factor, which would make it perfect for use in SFFs and HTPCs. It might be a good idea to wait out for reviews of this mobo before going for it, though.





Sources: [ECS, PC Hub]

Asus P7P55D EVO and PRO motherboard now available in the Philippines

Done buying up all the parts necessary for your new PC running on Intel's P55 Express chipset? If not, and you're still in the process of picking out a motherboard to use your new Lynnfield processor on, then add these two newly available Asus mobos into your list of options. The Asus P7P55D PRO and Asus P7P55D EVO are the two most affordable P55 motherboards from Asus with 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots that run in x8/x8 mode when used with 2 GPUs.

I used to recommend the cheaper vanilla P7P55D and even the P7P55D LE motherboards from the same company, until I found out that the second PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots on those ones only ran on x4 mode with a second GPU. For those that don't know, this is very bad news if you want to run your GPUs in Crossfire, and at least x8/x8 is necessary to be able to experience the benefits of such a dual-GPU configuration. And so, the Asus P7P55D PRO and EVO are yours for the picking. Happy New Year!

Sources: [P7P55D PRO, P7P55D EVO]

ECS intros TIGT-I motherboard with Intel Atom D510 CPU and GMA3150 graphics

Your next nettop/SFF PC motherboard has just arrived, courtesy of ECS. Pictured above, the ECS TIGT-I motherboard features an integrated Intel Atom D510 processor (clocked at 1.66GHz) with GMA3150 graphics, the standard configuration for Intel's recently announced Pinetrail platform. Built in a Mini-ITX form factor, the ECS TIGT-I motherboard offers a built-in Ethernet port, high definition audio, 2 x SATA3.0 Gb/s, 1 x PATA, 4 x USB 2.0, 2 x DDR2 800, and 1 x PCIe x1 expansion slot. ECS's press release boasts that this mobo saves 50% power but increases up to 20% performance than the previous generation. Plus it will be perfect for fan-less systems, small form factor PCs or other portable devices. Hard to argue with that.

Source: [ECS]

Asus readying Bluetooth-enabled ROG Maximus III Extreme motherboard

Remember the P55 Express chipset-based Asus ROG Maximus III Extreme motherboard? Well, it still isn't out in the market and there's still no word on pricing. But to get more of our attention, Asus has published a press release about it on their web site, only to take it down quickly. Fortunately, an eagle-eyed PCPerspective editor caught the most of it. And it has apparently been revealed that the upcoming LGA1156 motherboard will feature Bluetooth-connectivity that will enable users to remotely tweak the BIOS settings from their mobile phones! USB 3.0 is also confirmed as being on-board, as well as support for five PCIe connection @ x8 and SATA 6G. This is going to be a really sweet board for hardcore gamers. The sad part is, it's still unavailable.

Source: [ASUS, PCPerspective]

Asus ROG Maximus III Extreme LGA1156 Motherboard launched

Not quite satisfied with the current crop of P55 Express chipset-based motherboards in the market? Hold off for a couple of more weeks and you'll be able to get your hands on Asus's latest and greatest. Geared towards gamers and extreme overclockers, the Asus ROG Maximus III Extreme motherboard offers a vast number of features and options which enthusiasts will be eager to jump on.