We needless to say, that we actually see another pro series other than the ASUS version in the previous review (the ASUS P5Q pro turbo), well ASROCK is a cheaper version of a more premium taste of ASUS or Gigabyte. But in the matter of fact, the Intel P55 series is currently released by the more major and high prized equivalents, there is no real harm for the competition to meat a much cheaper alternative of as much as $145US in the net.
ASROCK introduced in the spot their own version of the new corei5 mainstream motherboards is the P55 pro. Being, in its physical form, a good looking board in the order of its layout and also its unique features the trademark, Instant boot software that efficiently boots the operating system in a jiff, while an external SATA 3 chip is present in the bundle, a great inclusion of the new storage speeds and read to tackle the demands of SDD storage devices. But the problem of having to occupy a PCI slot is kind of a disadvantage in some sorts because already ASUS and Gigabyte produced an onboard chip dedicated to support SATA III and able to drop down compatibility to SATA II and I. So, the ASROCKS revision of this concept is a must look on the board.
The P55 Pro, with the general features; a 16 phase power regulator in the CPU area and also an additional two phases in the memory slots for better power input readings and a precise voltage, increases the chances of a better over-clock times and better protection in sudden spikes in the CPU, a support of DDR3 memory up to 16Gb dual DIMM modules and a recommended frequency of about 1333MHz or 2000MHz over-clocked, if you want to go that far to fry the memory controller in the CPU, and the Intel feature (Turbo boost technology, hyper-threading and the rest), as well as crash prevention boot guard, DNA OC tool and a bunch of software tools to flash the BIOS, and other flashy things glowing around the motherboard in dark places or just make a mini light show in your rig.
In the layout of the motherboard a black PCB colour in the overall looks of things, a golden coated heat-sink in the power regulators and also especially the Southbridge that has an unusual design, preferably a public statement rather than a cooling efficiency, but in the testing of the rig with things stressed, we didn’t see any major heating problems but be wary in over-clocking the system, it can break the temp threshold and make it unstable. Likewise, the other features like the I/O ports in the back of the board has a CMOS button, dual Ethernet ports support teaming modes and as well as USB ports and the usual dual PS/2 ports for the keyboard and the mouse.
The bad part we have to look at in the board is the locations of the floppy (if people are still using it) and also the IDE ports can be a waste of space, when they are already obsolete as well as the SLI bridge cable is limit use for crossfire alternatives. But overall, this is a pretty cheap motherboard system that can hit better than any other manufacturers, good layout with some exceptions, we can live with than minor problem with most of the part we can find better performance ratings in memory and world benchmarks.