P67 $190 Part 2: MSI P67A-GD65, ASRock P67 Extreme6 and ECS P67H2-A2
by Ian Cutress on May 10, 2011 1:36 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- ASRock
- P67
- ECS
- Cougar Point
Computation Benchmarks
3D Movement Algorithm Test
The first benchmark ran is actually one I have written. My full time job involves computational chemistry, so this first benchmark uses various algorithms for three-dimensional simulation and movement of independent particles. The algorithms both employ uniform random number generation or normal distribution random number generation, and vary in various amounts of trigonometric operations, conditional statements, generation and rejection, fused operations, etc. The benchmark runs through six algorithms for a specified number of particles and steps, and calculates the speed of each algorithm, then sums them all for a final score. This is an example of a real world situation that a computational scientist may find themselves in, rather than a pure synthetic benchmark. The benchmark is also parallel between particles simulated, and we test the single thread performance as well as the multi-threaded performance.
WinRAR x64 3.93
With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the USB speed tests. WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible.
FastStone Image Viewer 4.2
FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now. It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters. It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here. The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software. For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.
Sorenson Squeeze 6.0
Sorenson Squeeze is a professional video encoder, complete with a vast array of options. For this test, we convert 32 HD videos, each a minute long and approximately 42 MB in size, to WMV 512KBps format. Squeeze can encode multiple videos at once, one for each thread.
There's almost nothing between any of the boards on system benchmarks—oddly enough the ASRock P67 Extreme6 scores the lowest in the single threaded 3D Movement benchmark, but comes top with its overclocked result in the multithreaded version.
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Etern205 - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
Didn't read the article yet, but IMO most P67 based boards within the same price range are similar to one another and in the past if I was looking for a board, I'll read every damn review on the product I want. Now, it's just pick a damn board with the features you like to have and be happy with it.fic2 - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
Still can't get rid of the legacy PS/2 port.... Just makes me laugh.Etern205 - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
What is there to laugh about?Some still have a good PS/2 devices which is a waste just to junk it out and PS/2 has a faster detection over USB. This benefits users who wants to access the bios where USB keyboards sometimes fails miserably.
The most expensive SNB board from Asus still has a PS/2 port (combo PS/2).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
Hrel - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
Can someone please explain to me why despite the fact that more and more chips are moving off the motherboard and onto the CPU motherboards seem to keep getting more and more expensive. Ok, increased power delivery testing; I get that. But the motherboard manufacturers are literally buying fewer chips to make their board. These things should be getting cheaper!The northbridge is on the CPU, the iGPU is on the CPU and that right there is the majority of the cost of a motherboard. Seriously, WTF! $190 is the sweetspot? WTF! $130 bought a hell of a board 3-5 years ago. Now they're cheaper to make but cost more? WTF! I shouldn't be spending anymore than 100 bucks on a brand new Asus P5NE-SLI class motherboard. I'm an enthusiast, we should be seeing tons of these things for 50 bucks. WTFFFFFFFFFFF!
ggathagan - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
You're paying $100 for a brand new P5NE-SLI because it's obsolete technology which translates into higher support costs for the manufacturer.The same can be said for SDRAM, the original DDR RAM and Socket 478 CPU's.
As to why a *modern* motherboard costs so much with more of the chipset being integrated into the CPU: They don't.
You can get a LGA1155 motherboard for under $50 and $130 still gets you "a hell of a board ".
P67-based motherboards are not at the low end of the market, so any decently featured mid-tier motherboard remains in the $150-$200 range.
Regardless of what Intel or AMD incorporate into the CPU, the support chipsets *still* need to be purchased.
AMD and Intel set the price for that, not Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc...
Sound and LAN support remain seperate from the core chipset.
Lastly, in the case of Intel systems, there is the desire for USB 3.0 support that has to be added via additonal chips.
Upper tier boards have never been about the chipset/CPU; they've always been about the "bells & whistles" factor.
As such, the buyer's perception of what is valuable is more of a factor than logic centering around what a specific chipset or CPU brings to the table.
TheJian - Wednesday, May 11, 2011 - link
I don't think a decently featured board costs $150-200. My current GByte board had all the bells and whistles for $129. The only thing missing from the top boards was more vid slots, and a few more Sata's (mine has 8 so plenty for me).http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
$70, has everything but Btooth/Firewire (who cares)/SLI (who cares). Includes both USB3 and 2 SATA 6 ports.
What features are there that cost another $130? I get that P67 adds another $30 (which is where P67 boards start on newegg), and we get overclocking for that (but we got screwed out of a vid card on that deal so hmmm).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
$110 for P67 Gigabyte D3 B3, USB3, Sata6. Missing Btooth/1394/SLI(xfire-either). We now know you can put USB3 on a $70 board (jetway has a $70 USB3 board too). They have an ECS for $100, and it has USB3 and even 2 vids.
So are these worth $100? A few more USB's and Btooth is all I'd ask for (and there's already plenty of USB). USB3 chip probably costs a few bucks at best (likely $1). They throw on audio for $1. I don't call the boards in this review mid tier. I'd say more like upper class. SLI/Xfire used to be all that was needed to put your board into upper class. It should still be that way. Unless it's a server board, anything over $200 is probably just a pretty box. Maybe someone else can point to a reason why prices shot up on the top end and the mid is considered by some as $150-200 (I thought it was $100-150, with the low being $60-100, but that's just me).
You can't say the dollar is dropping or bring up gold - I shouldn't be able to post a $70 full featured H67 or $100 full featured P67. The guy on the $100/P67 is overclocked at 4.8ghz (i7-2600K) and folding 24x7...ROFL. I think this board's a winner. Probably should be in your next review :) Might be a little low, but you get the point. Then again, this is probably what most will buy (or lower in the H67 range most likely).
Rookie Monster - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
Two reasons come to mind.1. Gold is $1500oz
2. U.S. dollar is falling like a rock.
knedle - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
I even found a movie on youtube showing MSI Games:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmdoRfgNkCg
I think it may be usefull if your HDD with important data just died and you want to commit suicide. ;)
wifiwolf - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
I'm with Hrel on this. It's just ridiculous that we're buying boards with less parts needed even more expensive then they were before moving northbridge and int-graphics.PS: Unfinished chipsets should be for beta testing and not for sale.
Patrick Wolf - Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - link
I agree, these boards should be cheaper (which could be said for most components really), but to be fair these aren't all $190 boards, they were at 1st but new tech is always more. Lowest current price I could find for each board is as follows:P67A-GD65 - $170 (newegg, could be even cheaper at superbiiz depending on promo)
P67 Extreme6 - $200 (superbiiz, again promo)
P67H2-A2 - $173 after MIR (newegg)
GA-P67A-UD4 - $175 after MIR (superbiiz, again promo)
P8P67 PRO - $180 (newegg/superbiiz, again promo)
Compare that to 775. The ever popular GA-EP45-UD3P was about $130 and now the GA-P67A-UD3 which has similar features is $125. Or better yet the MSI P67A-G43 for $125.