Ga-p55a-ud4 / sata-3 / usb3

[Gacrux]

Hi there,

I'm specing a new computer. I've decided on the Intel i7 860 / P55 and am now trying to decide on a motherboard.

Reviews I've read seem pretty favorable towards gigabyte and I'm thinking of buying a GA-P55A-UD4. Which is all fine and dandy, but I'm hoping someone can help answer the following questions.

1. What is the difference between the GA-P55A-UD4 and the GA-P55A-UD4P? As far as I can see the only difference is a TPM chip and the store I'm looking at wants $50 New Zealand dollars (~$30 USD) extra for that board. Has anyone found TPM useful under *nix?

2. Lots of people claim the SATA-3/USB3 will use up PCI-E lanes and slow the graphics card to 8x (I will only be running a single GPU). Would people here bother with the so called Gigabyte 333 (SATA-3/USB3) or is a gimmick?

Thanks in advance! Awesome site BTW, happy to finally find a performance site with a focus on *nix

[Kano]

I think gigabyte can switch the usb 3 controller if you want to use it with 1 or 8 pci-e lanes. Basically no setting is really optimal - i would wait for next years plattforms with direct support. Only the fastest ssds would need sata 3 and usb 3 is not common at all - just use e-sata when you want more speed.