GigaByte GA-P55-UD6 Motherboard

Winner of: Fifth Best LGA 1156 Motherboard for Performance

Why it's a best pick:
Gigabyte's premier P55 motherboard, the GA-P55-UD6, is priced at around $250. The features that this board offers, however, makes it interesting for its price. Given its P55 architecture, the motherboard has 6 DDR3 DIMM slots like an X58 motherboard, but only four are capable of mounting 2GB modules common in 4GB dual-channel DDR3 memory kits. You could fill up all six DIMM modules with single-sided 1GB modules, however, which may make economic sense if you are able to find 6 1GB DDR3 modules for a good price. Another interesting feature for this motherboard is its 24-phase power, which seems to be overkill in the CPU overclocking front, but it certainly seems to help with power efficiency and generally lower operating temperatures than that of the Asus P7P55D EVO or the MSII P55-GD80. Given its overclocking performance of offering the highest BCLK overclocks for an i5 P55 motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD6 may be the motherboard the overclocking enthusiast may need.