Pick a board, any board. P67 or Z68?

leolego

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Sep 5, 2011
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Well I am building a new computer soon, and I want a decent 1155 board to fit my needs. From what I have heard, P67 and Z68 are the most popular and best Intel north bridges. I was recommended this board because it will fit my needs perfect. I am new to overclocking and probably won't overclock ALOT anyways, BUT, according to the reviews the board is pretty decent. Good price, just what I need, and good brand too!
Overall, great!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157251

BUT! This board is the same, but its a P67 instead of Z68.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157230

I just want to know why that board is more expensive and the advantages and or disadvantages P67 has over Z68. I plan on upgrading in the future, and the board should still be fine for that.

My build: My first build ever :D (> = Upgrade)
i3-2100 > i5-2500k
ASUS GTX 460 > 560 Ti
4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 > Same or 8GB
Antec BP550 Plus 550w > Same
>THE MOTHERBOARD OF CHOICE<
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus > Same
ASUS 24x DVD-RW > Same (Obviously.)
WD Caviar Black 7200RPM 500gb > + SSD? :p
Antec 300 Illusion > Same (For a long while at least.)

Thank you! :D


 

jryan388

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Nov 1, 2009
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Here's how it works:
H61: Allows use of integrated graphics. No overclocking.
P67: No integrated graphics. Allows overclocking.
Z68: Integrated graphics + overclocking.

Many gamers choose P67 because they are planning on an external card anyway, so the integrated graphics aren't needed, and they get a K-series processor to overclock. Personally, I'm getting Z68 because I want to use both the integrated and the dedicated.

Lucidlogix has software, called Virtu, that ships with many z68 motherboards that allows both of them to be used without restarting. The integrated graphics are actually quite wonderful for many transcoding applications (called Intel QuickSync), and I transcode quite a bit, so that was a factor. It also saves power by using the integrated when you don't need massive performance (browsing, word processing, etc.)

I just ordered http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502 which has Virtu, SATA3, and USB3. It's definitely on the cheap end; when it arrives, if you want, I'll let you know what I think of it.

IDK why that P67 is more expensive... usually the opposite... they're not identical, though.