However even from preliminary testing, it's easy to see that motherboards based on Intel's P55 Express chipset are going to become popular. If you're looking to build a new PC from the ground up, I wouldn't hesitate to adopt the Core i5 and P55 motherboard platform at all.

Part of this is because the P55 Express chipset inherits the popularity of Intel's P35 and P45 Express chipsets, in the same way Core i5 will inherit the legions of Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad owners looking to upgrade to the next great intel processor.

Intel's P55 Express is otherwise a good little piece of engineering. The Intel P55 Express shakes up the age old CPU-Northbridge-Southbridge architecture and replaces it with a faster, more effective solution that cuts the design from three chips down to two. Intel's P55 Express chipset has a lot more bandwidth and should suffer fewer bottlenecks.

Unfortunately the same can't be said with Intel's confusing branding. Remember that if you're building a "Lynnfield" system, you're going to need a Core i5 700-series, a socket 1156 compatible cooler, a dual channel DDR3 memory kit, and of course a motherboard based on the Intel P55 Express chipset, like the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R that PCSTATS tested today.

Under testing Gigabyte's GA-P55-UD3R motherboard proved to be a solid board that has a lot of extra features but not too many needless frills.

Gigabyte has loaded the GA-P55-UD3R with extra SATA II 3Gb/s ports (eight internal and two eSATA),10 USB ports on the I/O panel, and a good mixture of PCI and PCI Express expansion slots. Both stock and overclocking performance were right in line with other Intel P55 Express motherboards.

Gigabyte has also added its Smart 6 utility suite as an additional bonus. While a few of the utilities could use a few more features (like the system logging tool), Smart 6 does offer some genuinely unique functionality to Gigabyte's motherboards.

Is this enough to make the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R stand out amongst the tidal wave of Intel P55 Express-based motherboards coming to a PC store near you? Not really, but sometimes it's better to have a solid feature set and a decent price rather than tacking on gimmicky extras like LCD displays and special water cooling nipples that most buyers won't ever use.

Retailing for about $150 CDN ($140 USD, £85 GBP), the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3R motherboard represents a solid entry to Intel's P55 Express chipset. It gives you all the features and performance to unlock the true potential of a quad-core Core i5 processor, at a competitive price that makes it easy to include in a mainstream computer system. Recommended.

Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.

Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
- ASUS M4A78T-E AMD 790GX Socket AM3 Motherboard Review
- ASUS Striker II NSE nVidia nForce 790i SLI Motherboard Review
- ASUS M3A78-T AMD 790GX Socket AM2+ Motherboard Review
- ASUS P5E3 Premium/Wifi-AP.N Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-X48-DS5 Intel X48 Express Motherboard Review
- Asus P5Q-EM Intel G45 Express Motherboard Review