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
Board Features
| ASUS P8P67 Pro | |
| Market Segment | Performance |
| CPU Interface | LGA 1155 |
| CPU Support | i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge |
| Chipset | P67 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100 MHz, 80 MHz to 300 MHz in 0.1 MHz intervals |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 1333 MHz by default, 800-2133 MHz supported |
| Core Voltage | Auto, 0.800V to 1.990V in 0.005V intervals |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Dependant on CPU |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.20V to 2.20V in 0.00625V intervals |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1N to 3N |
| Memory Slots |
Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots in dual-channel Regular unbuffered DD3 memory Up to 32GB total supported |
| Expansion Slots |
3 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (PCIe 1 and 2 operate at x16 in single mode or x8/x8 in dual; PCIe 3 operates in x4 mode) 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots 2 x PCI slots Supports ATI Crossfire Supports NVIDIA SLI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray) supporting RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) supporting RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (navy blue) from Marvell 9120 (No RAID) 2 x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (1 x Power eSATA) from JMicron JMB362 |
| Onboard |
4 x SATA 3 Gb/s w/ RAID 4 x SATA 6 Gb/s (2 w/ RAID) 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 connector supports additional 2 USB ports (19-pin) 3 x USB 2.0/1/1 connectors support additional 6 USB ports 1 x IEEE1394a connector Front panel audio connector 1 x S/PDIF Out Header System Panel(Q-Connector) 1 x MemOK! Button 1 x EPU switch 1 x TPU switch |
| Onboard LAN | Intel® 82579 Gigabit Ethernet |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek® ALC892 8-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) 2 x Chassis Fan connectors (1 x 4-pin; 1 x 3-pin) 1 x Power Fan connector (3-pin) |
| I/O Panel |
1 x PS/2 Mouse port (green) 1 x PS/2 Keyboard port (purple) 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out port 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out port 1 x Bluetooth module 2 x eSATA ports (1 x Power eSATA) 1 x IEEE1394a port 1 x LAN (RJ45) ports 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (blue) 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 8-channel Audio I/O ports |
| UEFI Revision | 1053 (Release UEFI) |
In the Box
- I/O shield
- USB 3.0 rear bracket
- SLI 2-slot bridge
- 4 x right-angled SATA connectors
The USB 3.0 rear bracket connects in the board to the USB 3.0 header, and stretches across the GPUs and intended for the bracket position between the PCIe slots. The cord is just long enough for this, but this kit will not reach to other bracket positions if you already require that PCI slot between the PCIe slots and both PCIe x16 slots for GPUs.
Software
ASUS Ai Suite II
ASUS have wrapped all their OS features into one overall program, called Ai Suite II. Through this program, you can overclock, auto tune, enable/disable EPU, control the VRMs, control the fans, and update the UEFI. In my experience, it works rather well.
Ai Suite II initially comes up as a toolbar, and selecting one of the buttons creates a popup menu, from which you select the feature you want to use. This is a roundabout way of doing it; I would have preferred a tabbed system personally. The first screen is the TurboV EVO module, the heart of the TPU. On the fly BCLK, voltages, and CPU ratios are applicable here. Increasing various parameters results in them turning yellow, to see that they are all changed, and on clicking apply, all modifications are made. The only downside of this overclocking mode is in the inability to modify the RAM sub-timings on the fly.
The auto-tuning section is a one-button click. The program then restarts the computer, loads into the OS a couple of times, and stability tests the system. I like this feature – the i5-2500K went from 33x multiplier at 100 BCLK to 43x at 103.5 BCLK, giving a total overclock at 4.55 GHz. Every time I used it, it caused at least one blue screen, but as long as I left to its own devices, it provided a suitable overclock. I managed to get a better 24/7 overclock, which I describe in the overclock section, which means the auto-tuning could be considered a little conservative.
The EPU control panel gives the user greater control over the EPU, in terms of power saving. Alongside the fan controller, the user can adjust the level of power saving in terms of VCore, chipset voltages, HDD spin downs, etc. for when the computer isn’t doing anything too strenuous.
This software also allows complete temperature control of two of the fan headers. As shown below, we can describe the fan power curve against temperature in its entirety, or at preset levels provided by ASUS.
The BT GO! software allows Bluetooth connection with your smartphone (Android, Apple, Windows Mobile, Symbian). If you can download the BT Turbo Remote software from the respective marketplace, you can also overclock via your smartphone – despite being able to connect to BT GO! (and having very little options apart from music control), I was unable to download the BT Turbo Remote software from the Android marketplace. I am currently running a HTC Hero smartphone using a custom ROM to enable Android 2.2 functions. At the time of publication, this program was not available to me on the marketplace.
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Hogan773 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
No - its 42 dollars more for the Extreme 6 vs Extreme 4.If it were 10 bucks like you said, I'd get the 6. But not for 40 bucks.
cjs150 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
to full fat ATX boards anymore?With all the features being crammed in surely 99% of all users were find their needs met with a decent micro-atx board - heck probably 60%+ would be fine with a mini-ITX board.
Seriously do we really need 3 graphics card slots, 2 way SLI/Crossfire is overkill for the vast majority of people.
As on board sound gets better and better most people have given up on a sound card.
The most slots I have populated over the last 5 years is 5 (2 graphics cards, sound card, TV tuner and RAID card) and that was truly the exception. These days all I need is 3 cards for 2 way SLI and a TV tuner
strikeback03 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
Would also help if PCI disappeared so there was no question over what slots were included/available with certain cards. For example, the uATX board in my HTPC has 1 PCIe X1, 1 PCIe X16, and 2 PCI, which meant I had to get a PCI wireless card and if I wanted to add any additional tuners would have to get PCI for that as well, would have preferred more/all PCIe.Also, the spot in my desk for a tower isn't getting any smaller, no reason to not use a full-size ATX board with that much space.
7Enigma - Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - link
Yup. I have the space for a mid/full tower below my desk. It does no good for me to have a m-atx (actually it'd make it worse since it would be lower for the optical drive!). I also hate playing the cram game when trying to build and work on systems that are in such tight confines.Sure for people with very limited space or HT setups it's nice to have a smaller form factor, but a LOT (the majority?) of desktop users have a similar setup where space is rarely a real issue and the extra real-estate for cable management, component selection/replacement, and airflow/noise is a much greater factor.
seamusmc - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
Gigabyte's and ASUS' offerings at the $150 price point. The main difference between ASUS' Pro and Non-Pro are SLI support and the Intel Nic.Personally I'd love to see a review of cheaper boards. Would it significantly reduce price if they didn't include on-board audio?
The main reason I'm considering the Pro is the Intel Nic, though I'm not sure if its really a big deal.
Another reason I am considering ASUS is that Gary Key and his staff are on the Xtreme and HardOCP forums addressing issues folks are encountering, providing OC guides and updated BIOS not available from the official site.
Not saying that there are no issues with the ASUS line, there are, but it seems many problems with the ASUS line are corrected by a) Using 1.5v memory; b) Fresh install of Win7; c) Over-clocking correctly, some folks are trying things that don't apply to SandyBridge.
Arbie - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
We are six pages into the discussion with no signs of an idiotic flame war! This must be a recent record for Anandtech. Whatever the reason, it's certainly refreshing.7Enigma - Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - link
Trolls are still sleeping. And since it's not the normal FW companies (Intel vs. AMD, Nvidia vs. ATI).jfelano - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
I don't understand the point of testing just TWO boards at a $190 price point. Makes no sense.DanNeely - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
Maybe only Asus and Gigabyte gave $190 boards to review...LoneWolf15 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
While this may not be worth it to many, note that the ASUS board has an Intel gig NIC, and the Asrock has a Realtek.This also means (for what it's worth) that the ASUS board supports Intel VPro, while the Asrock does not. For many people, that isn't a factor --but it is worth knowing.
Just looked at that Asrock board --I think it's the first I've seen by them that I found really impressive on paper. I might have to read some reviews on it.