H67 – A Triumvirate of Tantalizing Technology
by Ian Cutress on March 27, 2011 6:25 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Sandy Bridge
- H67
Board Features
| Market Segment | Mainstream H67 |
| CPU Interface | LGA 1155 |
| CPU Support | i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge |
| Chipset | H67 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100 MHz |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 1000 or 1333 MHz |
| Core Voltage | Auto |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Dependant on CPU |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.2V to 1.8V in 0.015V increments |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1N or 2N |
| Memory Slots |
Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots in dual-channel Regular unbuffered DD3 memory Up to 32GB total supported |
| Expansion Slots |
1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots 1 x PCI slot |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (white) with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 3 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 1 x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports |
| Onboard |
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (white) 3 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) 1 x Floppy connector 1 x IR header 1 x CIR header 1 x Print Port header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x Power LED header Front Panel audio connector 3 x USB 2.0 header (for 6 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (for 2 ports) |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 7.1-Channel HD Audio |
| Power Connectors |
24-pin EATX Power connector 8-pin EATX 12V Power connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan connector (4-pin) 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (3 x 3-pin) 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port |
| I/O Panel |
1 x D-Sub 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI Port 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 2 x USB 3.0 Ports (Etron EJ168A) 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s Port 1 x LAN (RJ-45) Gigabit Ethernet Audio Connectors |
| BIOS | 1.3 |
In the Box
- I/O shield
- USB 3.0 front panel
- USB 3.0 rear bracket
- Anaglyph Red-Blue 3D Glasses
- 2 x SATA cables
- 4 x HDD screws
- 6 x Chassis screws
My favorite addition to a Sandy Bridge motherboard packages comes in again – ASRock like supplying a USB 3.0 front bracket with their motherboards that comes with a space to put in an SSD – easily a product of $15 value if it were available separately. Also in the package is a pair of retro anaglyph 3D glasses if you own any video in red-blue 3D format.
The motherboard also comes with an infra-red receiver and remote control, designed to work with your Media center software. The infra-receiver must be connected to a front-panel USB which is in turn connected to the CIR motherboard connector:
Instructions to install this are all in the manual. The manual was oddly not on the CD we received with the motherboard, but is available online. The remote itself seems fairly generic, but does not have a flashing LED to signify when you are pressing a button (a must-have for any remote control in my opinion), but the package does come with two CR-2032 coin batteries for the remote.
Software
As with the P67 Extreme4 review, ASRock have packaged most of their utilities into one program, making it quicker and easier to install and uninstall. With their CD, apart from the driver updates, ASRock include three programs:
ASRock eXtreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
The AXTU that ships with the H67M-GE/HT is essentially the same software that comes with the P67 Extreme4, except it comes with all the extras required for on-processor graphics. Though as you might be able to tell from this first picture, it cannot exactly read the frequency of the graphics side accurately. Mind you, I would love a 10300 MHz GPU!
The fan control is pretty standard for ASRock fare – out of the headers on the board you can control the CPU fan and two of chassis fans. The AXTU will define a power curve/line for the fans given your suggested target temperature and max speed. Ultimately this is not the most awesome utility in the world for fan speeds, but it does the job it is programmed to do.
The overclocking section of the AXTU allows the standard selection of voltages, but also the CPU Ratio and Graphics frequency. In this case, you can define the maximum CPU Ratio – as we are using a 2500K on H67, it is a 37x limit on the single-core with turbo boost. The graphics frequency setting allows all the way up to 3000 MHz in 50 MHz steps, but as with all these options, requires a reboot. Even then, just because you selected it does not mean it is stable. Have a quick gander on my overclocking results for this board to see what I mean.
ASRock Instant Boot
ASRock’s Instant Boot is designed to help decrease the time to boot, by when you select shutdown, it will perform a full restart, then kick a form of hibernation in and enter low power mode. Thus when you press the power button next, the OS will appear a lot quicker than a full boot. As the CPU stays at stock on H67, we found no issues with Instant Boot.
ASRock XFast USB
If you remember XFast USB from our previous ASRock article, then you may remember that when installed and enabled, it essentially blew the competition away in terms of read/write and our standard copy benchmark. It is no exception on H67. There's a lack of information online as to exactly how this software works, and the line from ASRock is that the 'XFast USB software modifies part of the USB driver, allowing it to multi-task and enhance the performance - ASRock are continually tuning the performance for better results'. In practice, this works really well.
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Roland00Address - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
No ahci means no trim for SSDs. Just pointing this out for while a gamer on a budget may not care about this feature, people who want a quicker machine for everday use or htpc and thus want a SSD would be better suited with H67.casteve - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
The H61 might not support AHCI...but TRIM can work in IDE mode.yzkbug - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Any news on when Z68 is coming out?DominionSeraph - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Any scrimping student with half a brain is going to get a console with a Gamefly subscription rather than blow $900 on a retarded i3 gaymen rig.With a PC you're stuck shelling out $60 apiece for unfinished tech demos and bad ports, only to be playing alone in your room. But you get 3 or 4 consoles on a floor and suddenly you have a glut of party-friendly games passing around.
$900 PC + $900 for 15 games, or $250 in console + extra controller, spending $350 for a couple games and a yearly subscription that gives 2/mo, plus borrowing is free, on a system that actually gives you the college experience? (Doesn't count the price of TV, but you're probably gonna have one of those anyway.)
And yes, it is $900+ for PC.
$680 for i3 2100/GTX 560/4GB/500GB
$150 for any monitor worth having
$60 for a decent mouse and keyboard.
$35 for student copy of Win7.
Dookie11 - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Sorry about being poor and not being afford both.DominionSeraph - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
You don't have to apologize.bigboxes - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Sorry to interrupt your flaming post, but if you think that console parties are not nerdy than you are still a virgin. I suggest you sell your gamer gear and get on with the real "college experience" that you are so in need of.omelet - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Most people interested in PC gaming already have desktop computers at home, so you shouldn't include the cost of a monitor, hard drive, mouse, keyboard, speakers, operating system, or case in the cost of upgrading it to low tier gaming-capable. Also, while the i3 is not what a poorman gamer is going to get, let's assume it is for the sake of conversation on this article. You can get an i3 2100, an H61 motherboard, a GTX 460 768MB, and 4GB of DDR3 1333 RAM for $375 including shipping. I'm not counting the $45 in rebates, either, so that probably also covers the cost of a sufficient PSU over a generic 300W one. The build listed above is going to give significantly better performance than a 360 or PS3 at the resolutions the consoles put out. If you need the bigger screen, you can use the TV as a monitor. Plus you get to play games with a mouse and keyboard (or with a controller if that's your thing).There are plenty of games that are on PC and not on consoles. SC2, Civ5, and the vast majority of MMOs are among these titles. A lot of awesome older games, too, which don't even require modern gaming-tier hardware to run well. It's also true that consoles have a lot of games that aren't on PC, and the group gaming experience is different, but there are advantages to both types of gaming and the cost of entry into PC gaming is not at all as high as you're suggesting.
The effective cost of entry into PC gaming is really low for those people who need powerful computers for other reasons, or those who play older games or play on lower resolutions and graphics settings. It's also lower than I suggested for average Joe Blow, since he'd probably go with an AMD build that's ~$60 less expensive than the H61/i3 build.
Zoomer - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Quite the opposite, lol. It is definitely cheaper to stick with PC. Besides, there aren't very many games that are well suited for the console's HID.AssBall - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Not to mention how awesome an experience typing out and printing reports and presentations, running or coding technical software, checking mail or IMs, and browsing notes, whole classes, research, or entertainment on the internet on an XBOX is..... /sarcasmYou should have a computer for college anyway, a cheap gaming rig is the way to go, the console is just an expensive toy.