A brief look at upcoming ASUS P67 Motherboards
by Ian Cutress on November 14, 2010 1:22 PM EST- Posted in
- News
- Motherboards
- Asus
On first inspection, this board’s aesthetic blue and black livery is impressive. The big blue heatsinks on the VRM, while looking good with a large surface area, intrude slightly on the socket, potentially resulting in restricting the orientation of high end air coolers.
Among the standard features you’d expect on a P67, such as the four dual-channel DDR3 slots, and four SATA 3Gb/s with two SATA 6Gb/s supported by the chipset, there is another two SATA ports, but it is unclear if these are for the RAID, 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s, or how they are powered, as they are not labelled and the chipset heatsink covers quite a bit. Two NEC controllers give two USB 3.0 ports on the back panel, and the possibility for another two via a header on the board connectable to the case, or to an ASUS USB 3.0 port box (as shown in the P67 Deluxe images). The Sandy Bridge platform on P67 relies on discrete graphics only, and as such there are no video out connectors on the back panel, but two PCIe x8 slots on the board itself (or one PCIe x16 if only one card is used). There is another PCIe slot available, presumably x4, for non-GPU duties.
The back panel itself is fairly standard – dual PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, S/PDIF out, six USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two eSATA connectors, firewire, 5.1 audio and gigabit Ethernet. Also of note is the Bluetooth receiver, which is a nice addition, but the lack of a second gigabit Ethernet port, which by now we feel should be a staple on all high end boards and any board with the ‘Pro’ moniker, isn’t too pleasing.
On the board, we see two switches for TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and EPU (Energy Processing Unit). The TPU is designed to monitor FET thermal temperatures, while the EPU will moderate power appropriately across the VRMs. Both can be turned on and off by the onboard switches, and presumably in the BIOS as well.
Speaking of switches, we’re disappointed that ASUS have not put easy-to-use power and reset switches on the Pro. Sure, not everyone needs them, but they are a nice addition rather than having to short two front panel pins with a screwdriver (when slightly tired, it’s never a good idea to accidentally short the wrong pins, unless you want to see some sparks).
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jonup - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
Nice catch! I had to look hard to notice it. I almost thought you were on something good. Anyways, I would like to know if the second molex is indead for the PCIx or is it to supply additional power for all the additional controllers on this board. Maybe it is for the NF200.nbjknk - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
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Qapa - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
1 - Why would anyone need dual GBe?? Are you expecting to have 2 internet connections with 2 different ISPs, and want to be sure be always online? :P2 - No UEFI? For real? I don't understand that! Specially in high end MBs. And that probably means 2012 till mainstream gets it :(
PS: I also wish something could be done about Intel not having direct support for USB3... any ideas? Cause it is costing us all...
GeorgeH - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
1) One reason:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_aggregation
2) If it becomes necessary, UEFI can be implemented on top of a BIOS and isn't a complete BIOS replacement anyway:
http://www.uefi.org/about/
3) Intel won't release USB 3.0 until the 2011/12 time frame, which very coincidentally is also the Light Peak time frame. I'll let you connect the dots.
Qapa - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
1 - As I said, redundancy seems ridiculous. And more speed the same.2 - Point taken and learnt :) On the other hand, I doubt they will add UEFI to their MBs and how would those really be booting faster as UEFI systems should.
AFAIU, UEFI replaces parts of BIOS, not all. But if they already have full BIOS, would they really remove parts to move them to UEFI? Don't think so.
3 - AFAIK, I think they are even trying to put LightPeak in, ahead of USB3. No dots need connecting here. What I wanted was ideas on what to do to change this and make them put USB3 in the market together with Sandy Bridge...
jonup - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
3. I don't know. Did you try showing up at Paul Otellini's house with a baseball bat?Dont you get it? Intel has business agenda that does not coincide with your need. Intel vs Qapa -> Intel wins!
strikeback03 - Monday, November 15, 2010 - link
Well since these chipsets are obviously shipping already there isn't anything to be done about USB3 now, the customers simply get screwed. All the SATA ports should have been SATA 6Gb/s and all the USB ports should have been USB3. Maybe these issues will be fixed on more consumer-level versions of the chipset (that can use the integrated graphics in SB), otherwise they are giving AMD another opportunity.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - link
Someone may want to update the Wikipedia page on Link aggregation, if Windows 7 now supports it:"Note that Microsoft Windows does not natively support link aggregation (at least up to Windows Server 2008)."
Regenweald - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Large format printers and plotters often use a dedicated lan port. what if you wanted wired network access on your printing machine as well ? There are many instances where two lan ports can be very handy, as they would in my office right now.Qapa - Sunday, November 14, 2010 - link
Well, that's a niche implementation.More commonly, the printer would be connected to the network as well (router/switch/etc), so everyone can access it and not only your computer.
Still, seems overkill to me.