P67 Motherboard Roundup: Nine $150-200 Boards

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]malphas[/nom]When you do these comparison tables, can't you have them open in a new window or something so we can read them in one set of rows? Having the table split into three parts kind of defeated the benefit of having a table in the first place.[/citation]
[citation][nom]Vatharian[/nom]I support that![/citation]

Right now it's a limitation of the CMS, but it may be possible to do this as an image of the chart. I'll ask around to see if there are any other options.

 

[stasdm]

@Crashman

Is it a standard "Pins ports" or ASUS/ASRock propriatory solution?

 

[stasdm]

@Vatharian
Well, for that there are H65 boards and AMD processors

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]stasdm[/nom]@Crashman Is it a standard "Pins ports" or ASUS/ASRock propriatory solution?[/citation][citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]First introduced by ASRock in response to a request by Tom's Hardware, using an Intel design according to ASRock's engineers.[/citation]Asrock, Asus, ECS, Gigabyte and MSI all have the same USB 3.0 front-panel connector. You should contact your case manufacturer to see if a cable end adapter is available so you can use it, otherwise the internal ports are wasted.

 

[shinnjon]

[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom]The Deluxe version of that Asus board comes with a USB 3.0 drive bay, but I was a little confused as to why one would want that if their Case already has front faced USB 3.0 ports like the one I got does.I'll have to look at the connections again, but can you use that same cable to plug into the board on the inside or do those case USB 3.0 ports have to be connected to the rear of the board? Personally I think the drive bay including just 2 USB ports looks kind of lame and I'd much, much rather use the ports on my case....even if that means running a cable out the back of the case, (nobody looks at the back anyway).[/citation]
The cables for USB3.0 is different from USB2.0...not so many cases have that. Do you really have the case with "USB3.0" ports?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]shinnjon[/nom]The cables for USB3.0 is different from USB2.0...not so many cases have that. Do you really have the case with "USB3.0" ports?[/citation]Several high-end cases were introduced that have USB 3.0 extension cables for I/O-panel access using pass-through holes to the rear. Most of those cases were introduced after ASRock introduced the Intel connector design, so I think it was a little short-sited for companies not to consider this when introducing their rear-panel-only products.

 

[hixbot]

Cqn't wait to see another article showing PCI express lane scaling in Crossfire and SLI. The P67 should do better than P55 in that regard.

 

[stasdm]

@hixbot
Nope.
Only 3-way will be a bit better.

 

[hixbot]

Well 2-way on these boards we're forced to x8, same as P55. but my thinking is now that the lanes are 2.0 the issue should be moot.
Another issue is using USB3 and Sata 6 (which use PCIe lanes) combined with 2-way graphics. The issue is worth exploring, I'm hoping no performance is compromised on P67.

 

[straatkat]

I am wondering what the boot times are on these board and if UEFI did deliver on faster boot times. This is effectively the dawn of the UEFI age.

 

[Guest]

I really missed sata and usb benchmarks. Those are really important. Is there a possible update on the article to introduce those results?

 

[z06psi]

I do not understand why the Intel boards are not at the top of the food chain since they develop so much of the architecture.

 

[hixbot]

There are all sorts of "*" in the overclocking tables, indicating there should be some sort of note. No notes are found.

 

[cadder]

Christmas and New Year's day testing were particularly fun

You could have waited a few days, or a few weeks even. It may be a long time before the CPU's arrive for retail sale. Newegg, frys, microcenter don't list them yet.

 

[stasdm]

@ hixbot
1. It's the third generation of Intel processors with PCIe x2.
2. Read my post ealier on nVidia "Graphics PCIe"
3. USB3 and Sata 6 - there is nothing to explore - Graphics needs only 1GB/s and modern PCIe 2.0 switches are at least no worse than outdated NF100 (aka NF200).

@straatkat
With UEFI boot time will greatly depend on threading effisiency, so the first UEFI versions will generally boot longer (as the code length is much bigger).

@ALcALoIDe
Same as on 1156 originals - nothing changed here really.

@z06psi
Who will buy LGA 2011 boards/processors then? Afraid such deoptimised use is Intel policy, else we would have seen the optimised solutions on Nehalem board by this time. And here I'd give a good ass kick to those who stand on the way.

 

[Onus]

I liked the ASRock's efficiency and how cool it stayed. I'm waiting to see what BD will bring to the table, but this board looks like an excellent choice to last a while.

 

[stasdm]

@Crashman on USB 3.0 on-board pin connector
Are they backward compatible with 2.0 pin connectors?

 

[elbert]

Most all the boards here only support 16GB's. Currently $160 can max out these motherboards memory. A low memory max doesn't sound like an enthusiast to me. Wish this review included the ASUS P8P67 EVO because its max memory is 32GB's and is only $199.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131695

 

[dgingeri]

Problem with the AsRock and Asus board review portions: the last slot is not meant for triple SLi. It's there for PCieX4 and X8 accessory cards. What I want to know is how these boards work with raid cards in that slot. Do I have to forgo using the other PCIe slots to use that last slot in X4 mode? More importantly, do I have to disable the addon SATA 6G and USB 3 controllers to use that slot in X4 mode?

I currently have 2X GTX470 video cards, a PCI sound card, and a PCIeX4 SATA raid controller (8 port 3Ware 9650). Can I use either of these boards? This is an important question.

you guys just answer it with smart remarks about using a third video card, which obviously wasn't intended.

 

[hixbot]

stasdm, i was under the impression that lane bandwidth has doubled on P67 vs P55.

It's all right here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k-core-i5-2500k,2833-8.html
P55 lanes are 2.5GT/s, P67 are 5GT/s.

 

[agnickolov]

UEFI has finally arrived...

 

[iLLz]

"stasdm, i was under the impression that lane bandwidth has doubled on P67 vs P55."

Agreed. The PCIe lanes are now a full 500MB/s (1GB/s Bidirectional), whereas, with the older chipsets x58 and P55, they were only 250MB/s (500MB/s Bidirectional).

With this doubling of bandwidth an x8/x8 configuration should yield the same bandwidth as a previous x16/x16 (x58 or P55), right?

Even though the previous gen chipsets say they are PCIe2.0 they were limited to half the bandwidth and now with P67 they are fully PCIe2.0.

 

[dgingeri]

[citation][nom]iLLz[/nom]"stasdm, i was under the impression that lane bandwidth has doubled on P67 vs P55."Agreed. The PCIe lanes are now a full 500MB/s (1GB/s Bidirectional), whereas, with the older chipsets x58 and P55, they were only 250MB/s (500MB/s Bidirectional). With this doubling of bandwidth an x8/x8 configuration should yield the same bandwidth as a previous x16/x16 (x58 or P55), right? Even though the previous gen chipsets say they are PCIe2.0 they were limited to half the bandwidth and now with P67 they are fully PCIe2.0.[/citation]

Not quite. the x58 northbridge has 36 lanes of PCIe 2.0, which can be split as much as needed, while the LGA1156 chips have 16 lanes of PCIe 2.0, intended for video cards, but can be split into 2 x8 slots. In both cases, the southbridge have 4 lanes of PCIe 1.1 for expansion cards.

With the P67 chipset, the CPU has 16 lanes of PCIe 2.0 that can only be split to 2 x8 slots or a single x16 slot. However, the chipset has 8 lanes of PCIe 2.0 that can be used for expansion cards. That's the part where the bandwidth doubled, not the video card bandwidth. So, a video card would not see any difference, but a PCIe x4 2.0 raid controller would.

 

[rusbee]

Thanks for the review.

A major point missing the board info is the power phases. While most manufacturers have switched to digital, some boards have stayed with analog (Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7 for one, I am not sure about the rest of their line-up). 2nd is the number of power phases and how it affects the life-time of the boards. While Asrock Extreme4 has 8+2, Extreme6 has 16+2. Asus P8P67 Pro and Evo have 12+2; Delux version has 16+2. How much does it matter (does one need less power phases with digital ones)?

Another point which I am curious about is the quality of components used. MSI and Asrock use Polymer caps, where Asus seems to have cheaped out on a little here (their lower end H67 bards still use Polymer caps, but not the P67s). Is this going to significantly increase the probability of the boarding failing a few years down the road when the guarantee is over? Perhaps this is the reason VRMs on Asrock and MSI are running so much cooler compared to Asus despite using less phases?

Currently, I am looking at two boards in particular: Asrock Extreme6 vs. Asus P8P67 Delux. Quality-wise, Asrock seems to use better components overall while being cheaper at the same time, but it does not use the Intel network controller which Asus does for one of the network controllers. I wonder how this affects ping times for online-gaming.

As pointed out in other comments, I also want to know how and when the PCIe slots get saturated with two high end graphic cards and a 3d device as PCIe x4. I have two 6950s and a Revodrive 120GB which is going to use it's software-raid. Can any of the boards (even Asrock Extreme4, Extreme6 or the Asus P8P67 Delux which all have the PLX chip) handle and balance so much band-width?

 

[aaron88_7]

[citation][nom]shinnjon[/nom]The cables for USB3.0 is different from USB2.0...not so many cases have that. Do you really have the case with "USB3.0" ports?[/citation]
Well 2 of the 4 front panel ports were, but apparently they aren't according to the booklet. Damn....just when I thought this CM Storm Sniper case was perfect...lol