Asus P7P55D Deluxe Comments

Almost £170 is still far too much for something that is really only mid-range, what has happened to the £100 motherboards?

This is supposition on my part but I think we can blame the Intel chipset monopoly here. Core i7 900 required X58 while Core i7 800 and Core i5 currently require P55. Much as I like the idea of a £299 Core i5 PC I cannot see much incentive for Intel to cut its prices unless AMD can convince the public that Phenom II and 785G/790GX/790FX offer a better propostion.

There are a couple sub £100 Gigabyte P55 boards, obviously they have fewer features than the Asus model in this review.

I think you're right about the cost of higher end I5 kit though. You could now pay a similar price for an I7 (X58 platform with a 920 chip) system that will perform better that the I5 (P55 platform) for not much more money.