How to choose a Sandy Bridge Motherboard

[whitav8 98]

There seem to be a lot of variations of Sandy Bridge motherboards to choose from in the price category of maybe $150. I wondered if someone could help pick (personally I want to use a 2600K at as close to 5 Ghz as possible and maybe at least 1800 Mhz memory). I am showing listings from newegg and for now, just the ASUS brand:1) ASUS P8H67-M LX (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $99 2) ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1243) ASUS P8P67-M (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1294) ASUS P8H67-M EVO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard All above don't support higher speed memory??5) ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $1446) ASUS P8P67-M PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1497) ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardIt might be nice to have 2 PCI-E x16 slots??And then there is the PRO board at $239 - I imagine the other vendors - gigabyte, msi, .. have similiar and confusing combinations. What should I (we) look for - what to say away from?Thanks for the help!!

[scott967 62]

Well the H67 boards are using the on-chip graphics, so no need to consider. Then, I don't see any need for the micro-ATX form factor, so drop those as well. That takes you to a subset of the P67 full ATX boards. I guess they have their different tweaks (quality of the power supplies seems a biggie, some also have more "tweaker" support like POST code readouts, on-board resets, etc). The big thing I guess would be if you intend to run two graphics cards in crossfire or SLI you need to check on the support for that, or if you don't you might save some by not buying that feature. The other thing is the USB 3/SATA 6 support and how it is done (what controller). I haven't been following closely, but I'm not sure how much is out there to take advantage of those, so I'm kind of flying blind on that. scott s..

[Guest firehawk44]

7) ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel MotherboardIt might be nice to have 2 PCI-E x16 slots??And then there is the PRO board at $239 - I imagine the other vendors - gigabyte, msi, .. have similiar and confusing combinations. What should I (we) look for - what to say away from?Thanks for the help!!

I suspect number 7 in your list is the Deluxe version. It's fairly expensive but it has everything and one of the reasons I bought this board. It gives you a lot of flexibility and options and can be easily overclocked at least into the 4GHz ranges and above. Many people are overclocking into the 5GHz range without issues but I'm keeping mine at 4.8GHz for now as it is very stable and FSX performs more than well.Best regards,Jim

[Sodee 0]

... I want to use a 2600K at as close to 5 Ghz as possible and maybe at least 1800 Mhz memory...1) ASUS P8H67-M LX (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $99 2) ASUS P8H67-M PRO/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1243) ASUS P8P67-M (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1294) ASUS P8H67-M EVO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard All above don't support higher speed memory??5) ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard $1446) ASUS P8P67-M PRO (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $1497) ASUS P8P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Well, if you really want to get it run at 5GHz or even 4GHz+, then you must get P67 instead of H67. So forget 1,2 and 4.

[dazz 69]

ASUS P8P67 LE: No VRM, and not good for overclcockASUS P8P67: The basic model, perfectly fine if you don't plan on SLI o Xfire. 12+2 power phases, USB3, SATA3, 4 SATA 2 ports, 4 SATA 3 portsASUS P8P67 PRO: The same as the basic ASUS P8P67, but with SLI/XFire support, a much better Intel® 82579 LAN controller, 2 ESATA 3 ports for external sata devicesASUS SABERTOOTH: Same features as the PRO + the thermal armor thing, two extra USB ports in the back panel... but just 8+2 power phases (#####? Am I missing something?) that on the other hand are probably more than enoughASUS P8P67 EVO: The same as the PRO, but with both the Realtek & the Intel LAN controllers and a stupid heatsink in the middle of nowhere ASUS P8P67 DELUXE: Same thing as the EVO with some extra power phases (16 + 2) The general consensus is that 16+2 vs 12+2 makes no difference in OCing thoughASUS WS REVOLUTION: 2 Intel LAN controlers and a RAID 0 & 1 controllerASUS MAXIMUM IV EXTREME: Comes with the NF200 chip to enable TRI-SLI. Makes kittle sense to me unless you plan on going TRI-SLI (on DUAL SLI it does nothing the PRO, EVO or DELUXE can't do already)

[whitav8 98]

Thanks guys - excellent analysis!! I hope you can see why the "average" guy has to hope that someone more familiar with mobos can sort all this out. It seems like the PRO, DELUXE, and SABERTOOTH are maybe the general best bets for no SLI, 2600K at 4.8Ghz, 1600(or more)Mhz mem, NV570. Do you folks know of any custom PC houses like this one - overclockers.uk 2600K bundle in the US? Their prices seem very reasonable - maybe $50 US over the component prices.

[Guest firehawk44]

Do you folks know of any custom PC houses like this one - overclockers.uk 2600K bundle in the US? Their prices seem very reasonable - maybe $50 US over the component prices.

I think the best here in the US is Micro Center (Google for a store near you). There you can pick up each component you described at really reasonable prices. For instance, I recently bought a 2600K CPU for $279 when most other website stores were selling it for nearly $380. Newegg.com also sells bundled components at very reasonable prices too.Best regards,Jim

[Superpilotv2 2]

I´m also planning on a major upgrade and I will go with the Asus P8P67 normal edition. It has everything what I need (How cares about SLI?) Nd it´s somehow cheap here in Germany. i think I will bge a good counterpart to my i5-2500k which I´m supposed to get.@Dario: You´re saying thet the PRO version of the P8P67 has a far better LAN controller. In what thing is this controller better as the one in the normal version. Btw. I´m having a 100MBit connection, so would it better to go with the PRO version?

[dazz 69]

Thanks guys - excellent analysis!! I hope you can see why the "average" guy has to hope that someone more familiar with mobos can sort all this out. It seems like the PRO, DELUXE, and SABERTOOTH are maybe the general best bets for no SLI, 2600K at 4.8Ghz, 1600(or more)Mhz mem, NV570. Do you folks know of any custom PC houses like this one - overclockers.uk 2600K bundle in the US? Their prices seem very reasonable - maybe $50 US over the component prices.

Not really. Not sure if I didn't make myself clear enough, but for no SLI, the plain P8P67 is just fine.For SLI, the EVO and DELUXE do not offer almost anything over the PRO

[dazz 69]

I´m also planning on a major upgrade and I will go with the Asus P8P67 normal edition. It has everything what I need (How cares about SLI?) Nd it´s somehow cheap here in Germany. i think I will bge a good counterpart to my i5-2500k which I´m supposed to get.@Dario: You´re saying thet the PRO version of the P8P67 has a far better LAN controller. In what thing is this controller better as the one in the normal version. Btw. I´m having a 100MBit connection, so would it better to go with the PRO version?

The Realtek controller is often reported as unreliable and uses more CPU cycles

[Superpilotv2 2]

The Realtek controller is often reported as unreliable and uses more CPU cycles

Ahh, ok, I see. My current MOBO has a Gigabit controller and is very reliable. I never had any problems with it.

[Superpilotv2 2]

The Realtek controller is often reported as unreliable and uses more CPU cycles

Ahh, ok, I see. My current MOBO has a Gigabit controller and is very reliable. I never had any problems with it.

[vx4ever 0]

Doesn't the P67 Pro have blue tooth capability also, which the regular doesn't? " I need blue tooth for my TV "

[dazz 69]

Doesn't the P67 Pro have blue tooth capability also, which the regular doesn't? " I need blue tooth for my TV "

They all have bluetooth actually

[Guest PFL]

Are all of you aware of the Chipset problem?http://www.simforums.com/forums/i7-2600k-vs-i7-960_topic38507.htmlI would wait with a new build...