The bland official name of Intel's DP55KG motherboard—the "Intel Desktop Board DP55KG Extreme Series"—doesn't suggest that the company's motherboards are no longer limited to dull, corporate options for system builders. It takes just one look at the actual board, though, to get the point. With a blue-backlit motherboard boasting a glowing white skull, whose eerie red eyes flash in sequence with hard drive accesses, the DP55KG doesn't need an edgy name to get across that it's not aimed at the IT-manager crowd. With SLI and CrossFire support, deep overclocking options, and support for Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors, the DP55KG is aimed dead-on at the enthusiast market. We tested one out with two of Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors, and we think it hits the target in most aspects—even if, at around $200, it remains a premium-priced board.

The DP55KG is one of the first motherboards built around Intel's P55 Express chipset, design to support the new "Lynnfield"-series Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Though it's not as powerful as the high-end X58 chipset (which mates with Intel's highest-end, Socket 1366-based Core i7 chips), the P55 chipset is no slouch. It moves from the dual Northbridge/Southbridge format that Intel has used for many years to a single-chip solution. The most significant differences compared with the X58 chipset are its support for dual-channel memory instead of triple-channel, and its support for up to two graphics cards, versus up to four with the X58 chipset.

The P55 chipset used in the DP55KG also introduces a new CPU socket: Socket 1156. You can install either a Core i5 or one of the two new 800-series Core i7 processors in it. It's not compatible with the 900-series Core i7 chips (which require Socket 1366 motherboards based on the X58 chipset) or with older Core 2 chips.

The DP55KG includes four memory slots, supporting up to 16GB of DDR3 memory at up to 1,600MHz. X58-based Core i7 motherboards use triple-channel memory and require you to install three identical memory modules to take full advantage of the available memory bandwidth. The DP55KG, on the other hand, uses dual-channel memory, so you can add DIMMs in pairs. Despite the board not having as much bandwidth as a triple-channel design would allow, we saw very little speed difference when comparing similarly clocked Core i7 chips on P55 and X58 motherboards.

The board features one PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slot, a PCIe x8 slot for a second graphics card, a pair of PCIe x1 slots, and two ordinary PCI slots. The DP55KG supports dual graphics cards using either Nvidia SLI or ATI CrossFireX technologies. Note, though: Because the second graphics-card slot is only an x8 slot, you won't be able to take advantage of the full bandwidth of both cards, and performance is likely to be slower than it would be on an X58-chipset board with dual PCIe x16 slots.

Intel® Core™ processors are the newest, smartest, and fastest processors from Intel, delivering outstanding intelligent performance. The culmination of 40 years of technology leadership, Intel Core processors are the foundation for reliable, responsive, energy-efficient PCs. The highest performing desktop processor on the planet.¹ Shatter the limits of desktop computing with the intelligent performance of the Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition, the smartest way to blast through highly-threaded games and applications. Conquer the world of extreme gaming with the fastest processor on the planet: the Intel® Core™ i7 processor Extreme Edition.¹ With faster, intelligent multi-core technology that responds to your workload, it delivers an incredible breakthrough in gaming performance. With faster, intelligent multi-core technology that automatically applies processing power where it's needed most, Intel® Core™ i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in PC performance. They're the best desktop processors family on the planet.¹

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