The Battle of the P67 Boards - ASUS vs. Gigabyte at $190
by Ian Cutress on January 20, 2011 4:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Asus
- P67
Final Words
Both the ASUS P8P67 Pro and Gigabyte P67A-UD4 motherboards offer a lot to consumers. For $190, we want a product that hits all the basic functionality of Sandy Bridge, and squeezes out as features and as much performance as possible at this price point.
For the ASUS board, we have a nice looking product with significant strengths in the implementation of their UEFI, and the auto overclockable functions available. The UEFI EZ mode/basic starting screen is something many manufacturers will copy over the upcoming months and UEFI visions. The auto-tuner section of Ai Suite will see use in all markets, aiding various retailers in offering ready-overclocked Sandy Bridge bundles with the P8P67 Pro. Intel gigabit Ethernet is nothing to be sniffed at, and the fan controls can only help improve the user experience. Also, bundle in that three-year warranty. On the downside, the BT GO! and Turbo Remote overclocking features via Bluetooth did not work for me.
The Gigabyte board performs on par with the ASUS board in terms of benchmarking – in most situations, there is almost nothing in it (except USB, where Gigabyte have the advantage there). The board is UEFI GUI absent (for now, supposedly), but thanks to BIOS updates, now supports 2.2TB+ hard drives. Overclocking via the BIOS is straightforward if you have ever overclocked before, and the myriad of software available in the OS will keep you hunting for options, trying to remember which setting is in which piece of software. The warranty, like the ASUS, is also three years. However, the BIOS updating issues I had are certainly worthy of note.
After playing with both boards, I can only come to one conclusion – if it were my money, I would take the ASUS P8P67 Pro over the Gigabyte P67A-UD4. With the ASUS board, you are getting a detailed UEFI, an awesome auto-overclocking tool, better energy saving features, a USB 3.0 bracket , more SATA 6 Gb/s ports, Intel gigabit Ethernet, and in my case, scope for a better overclock. The Gigabyte board is essentially expensive for what is on offer, in terms of usability, features, and extras.
However, the second question is: ‘what about the comparison to the ASRock P67 Extreme4’? The ASRock board has power/reset buttons on the board, a Debug LED, that USB 3.0 bracket which will hold an SSD (worth in my option about $15), and is almost $40 cheaper. The ASUS board is the slightly better performing, overclocking is easier on the ASUS, the ASUS has a longer warranty, the UEFI is slightly better on the ASUS, the ASUS uses Intel Ethernet rather than Realtek, but the ASRock will take socket 775 coolers. It is up to you to judge, but in my opinion, I would take the Extreme4, pocket the $40 difference, and invest it in something else for a PC build.
This then leads into the following question – ‘if I’d rather take a $150 board rather than a $190 board, why are there $300 boards available?’ That question is to be tackled over the coming months!
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publiorama - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
I have a serious question about these mobos.Both Asus and Gigabyte P67 motherboards don't have "VT-D enable" option in their BIOS, whereas P55 does. Asrock P67 have it.
So up to now, VT-D are non usable on Asus and Gb.
What the hell is this ?? You got a CPU with VT-D and you cannot use it ??
Have you some info about this ??
That is a huge problem for many people.
Cashano - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
You need a non-K CPU (ii5-2400, i5-2500, i7-2600), so this wont be used for any OC-PC builder.Cashano
publiorama - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
It's sure you need a non-K CPU.I'm talking about motherboards.
In Asus and Gb mobos there's NO VT-D option at all. In asrock P67 there is, and even the old asus P55 have that option.
I'am asking if someone knows if VT-D support in Asus and Gb will be in some BIOS update, or watherver else.
akula2 - Friday, February 4, 2011 - link
I'm not sure about P67 Vt-d from Gigabyte or Asus, yet. But P55 offers the Vt-d support.Next, if you are looking for P67 with Vt-d, then get Intel's Extreme Series board, DP67BG (but wait till April, till Intel replaces its stock):
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/...
That MOBO fares very well, check out some reviews. But if you are OC freak, especially compare everything with Gigabyte/Asus then forget it.
As of today, I've suspended procuring P67 MOBOs because of SATA bug plus Vt-d wasn't clear enough. I've to wait till April or so.
radium69 - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
I remember when I used to buy my Abit IP35 PRO "Off limits" it cost me $150 . It had nearly EVERYTHING, and it was a great motherboard. It's still going rocksolid with a modest overclock for over 3 years?I have build a lot of PCs, which housed a GIGABYTE DS3L motherboard, damn great motherboard, great features. And the price? $110. Overclockability? Just simply awesome. Running some older core 2 duo's with a modest overclock of 400/500mhz.
BSOD's? NONE all in 2-3 years so far.
It was THE bang for the budget motherboard for normal users. Offcourse we are all enthousiasts, but that doesn't mean we have enthousiast wallets...
And for $190, it SHOULD come with just about everything AND have high quality parts.
It's just that simple. I'lll be waiting for the sub $150 in depth reviews. That's where the majority is at. And so should you (anandtech) too.
knirfie - Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - link
Too bad LAN performance wasn't compared, this is often ignored because nearly all boards use Realtek cr*p.However, the Asus board uses an Intel solution, it would be interesting to see how badly the Intel chip beats the RTL8111 in terms of CPU load, throughput, etc.
spikexp - Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - link
So if I can get a p8p67 pro + 2500k for the same price (exact same) of aASRock P67 Extreme4 + 2500k.
The p8p67 pro would be better?
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