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- Date:
- Tuesday , June 14, 2011
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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ASUS P8P67 Motherboard Review
ASUS' P67 chipset product portfolio can get fairly confusing at times with the slew of "P8P67" models. This time we are taking a look at the "vanilla" P8P67. Though you could say its vanilla with a lot of twists as this board offers a "B3" stepping version of the supporting chipset and sports a very solid feature set for "vanilla."
Introduction
ASUS is one of the largest motherboard manufacturers on the planet. Chances are you’ve used a system with one of their boards in it and you may not have even known it. They are a giant in both OEM and DIY markets and they produce a variety of products at every imaginable price point. ASUS' product portfolio gets fairly confusing at times with the slew of "P8P67" models. This time we are taking a look at the "vanilla" P8P67. Though you could say it’s vanilla with a twist as this board offers a "B3" stepping version of the chipset. Going beyond the model number there really isn’t anything vanilla about the board as it’s still quite packed with features.
The ASUS P8P67 is based on Intel’s P67 Express chipset. Despite being recalled for a design flaw effecting SATA performance in some systems, it remains a popular solution, especially among the enthusiast. As more of a marketing ploy than anything the newer steppings of the chipset are being identified with gaudy stickers on the packaging and marketing literature. What’s different about B3 versions of the chipset? Nothing. It’s the same deal but without the ever degrading SATA performance. In fact many boards with the newer chipset have been shipping for some time though not all of them have had "B3" plastered all over the packaging.
We’ve covered what P67 Express is in many of the board articles thus far. Just to recap it’s basically a unified chipset supporting Intel’s 2nd generation LGA 1155 Core i3, i5 and i7 series processors. The chipset itself supports a number of features such as SATA 6G and PCI-Express 2.0. Though most of the features typically associated with chipsets have been moved into the processor, so chipsets are becoming less and less remarkable.
The "vanilla" P8P67 is a feature rich solution. While it doesn’t have all the features of the "Deluxe" and "EVO" models it still has a number of them including CrossFireX support, IEEE1394, Bluetooth compatibility, UEFI, USB 3.0, SATA 6G, and more.
All of the P8P67 boards support DIGI+VRM’s which fully support Intel’s VRD12 specifications and according to ASUS, is a 16+2 phase design. Like some of their competitors, the P8P67 features low RDS (radiation) components. Like all ASUS’ enthusiast offerings this one has ASUS’ own EPU / TPU chips for voltage management and power savings.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
Minus the list of features and the lack of an "EVO" or "Deluxe" name plate printed on the box the packaging for the P8P67 is identical to that of other P8P67 series boards. The board showed up in one piece so the packaging evidently did its job. Included in the box are the following accessories: Driver disk, user’s guide, DIG+VRM manual, I/O bracket, SATA cables, Q-connectors and an I/O shield. Really the bundle isn’t awe inspiring but then again we are talking about the plain Jane P8P67 here.
Board Layout
The P8P67 Deluxe has an excellent layout. I have to wonder what ASUS was thinking when they went with 3 legacy PCI slots but aside from that, I have no complaints in looking at the board. The board has the same color scheme as the rest of the P8P67 family. That’s not a bad thing of course.
The CPU socket area is clear of obstructions and I was able to test fit a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme to the board using an LGA1156 bolt-through kit without issues. Memory clearances are a little tight but it wasn’t a problem for me. The VRMs are cooled with these fairly cool looking blue heat sinks.
Like most motherboards made today, the P8P67 has the usual color coding for DIMM slots to denote proper dual channel mode operation. ASUS is again using DIMM slots that only lock on one side. The first time I saw these I wasn’t sure about them but after having had them in my own system I have to say I really like them. Instead of messing with two tabs, you just have the one set. I’ve also found that even with the locking tab released, the modules won’t simply fall out in most cases.
There is no north bridge on the P8P67 or anything that looks like a north bridge. We just have the one unified chip in the place where the south bridge is normally found. It is cooled by a flat and passive heat sink with a blue anodized finish. In front of those are the board’s many SATA ports. 8 of them to be specific. The fact that we are seeing 8 SATA ports on such a basic board is pretty amazing to me. The light blue ports are the SATA 3G ports attached to the P67 Express chipset. The two light grey ports are attached to the same chipset but are SATA 6G compatible. The two dark blue ports are connected to the board’s integrated Marvell 9120 controller rather than the usual 9128 we typically see. These do not support RAID functions or optical drives. These are for hard drives only.
The expansion slot area is OK. Again I don’t get the fascination with so many legacy PCI slots in 2011. One or two is fine but three seems like a waste of real estate. In any case the slots are arranged well with no trouble spots. The board supports Crossfire, albeit only in a 16x4 configuration. So the board really isn’t ideal for that.
The I/O shield / back panel area has a number of ports affixed to it. Two PS/2 ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 1 optical out, six mini-stereo jacks, 1 RJ-45 port and 3 USB ports. You might have also noticed the blue thing. (I don’t know what else to call it.) This is the Bluetooth receiver.