We take a sneaky peek at the upcoming LGA1155 motherboard from ASUS. EFI, TPU, EPU and a whole lot more!
Over the past few weeks we have seen plenty of coverage of the new ASUS P67 and H67 boards due for release in Q1 2011. We caught a first glimpse of the boards only a couple of weeks ago when Sahil went along to the ASUS P67 ‘Sandy Bridge’ Seminar. That article in itself sparked a lot of interest at Vortez and we just had to get one of these boards in to test. With many features like EFI, TPU, EPU, DIGI+VRM to name just a few, these upcoming boards are sure to get the New Year off to a cracking start.
Below we have an unboxing video of the forthcoming ASUS P8P67 motherboard. Please bear in mind that at this stage only an unbox and preview of the features are currently permitted. Performance results will be published in January when Intel lifts the embargo. Meanwhile, enjoy! (Pictures on the following pages with closeup shots)
Closer Look
The P8P67 follows on from previous boards with the blue theme throughout. The heatsinks are aluminium and are designed in the shape of waves. Underneath is a 12 phase power design.
As with previous LGA1156 boards we have DDR3 dual channel memory lanes. There are 4 in total giving a maximum of 32GB. Supporting modules from 1066MHz right through to the high-end 2400MHz (OC). Note that the lanes themselves only have a latch on one side rather than both sides.
With USB3.0 very much in the forefront of computing. Going into 2011 we will see a real surge with this new standard, the aim is to get USB3.0 mainstream. We know the bandwidth is there to be had. This header located by the 24-pin power provides 2 x USB3.0 ports up front, ASUS supply a bracket with the Deluxe version of this board that gives you USB3.0 functionality right where you need it – at the front of your case.
Taking a look at storage we can see there are up to 8 x SATA ports. The pale blue ports provide 3G transfer rate whilst the white and darker blue ports supply 6G transfer rate. Plenty of options there both for the standard drive and future-proof.
Closer Look (Continued)
The PCI-e lanes on the P8P67 give Crossfire support. The top lane operates at 16x whilst the lower lane just 4x because its bandwidth is shared with the smaller lanes at the top. We also have 3 PCI lanes for legacy devices. Perhaps those with older soundcards can still continue to use those on this setup.
The P8P67 has a rather large Southbridge heatsink covering the chip. Larger than we have seen on previous ASUS boards. There is no Northbridge on this board or the Deluxe version.
I/O panel provides some top class functionality. We have PS2 ports for keyboard and mouse, SPDIF for digital audio devices, BT GO (Blue LED) for connecting a blue-tooth device to the board/system. This in turn provides similar functionality to that of the iROG on ASUS Extreme boards. With BT GO! we now have an increased feature-set. Overclock from your phone, control media player on your machine, access personal data such as contacts and calendars and even synchronize your phone to your PC. Additionally we have 6 x USB2 ports, 2 x USB3.0 ports, Gigabit LAN provided by Realtek 8111E and audio ports via Realtek ALC892 which supplies “DTS Surround Sensation Ultra PC”.
