H67 – A Triumvirate of Tantalizing Technology
by Ian Cutress on March 27, 2011 6:25 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Sandy Bridge
- H67
Let us have another look at our Sandy Bridge chipset comparison table. If you bounced straight into this page of the article and missed the blurb on the front page, I mentioned the two main differences between the P67 and the H67. On H67, we can use the integrated graphics on the processor at the expense of CPU overclocking opportunities, and if we do use a discrete GPU, we are limited to one only. Considering that a large portion of the pre-built PC sales worldwide feature no-overclocking and limited graphics, the H67 offerings, in micro-ATX form factors, offer a path into a highly contested market between PC builders.
| Chipset Comparison | ||||||
| P67 | H67 | H61 | P55 | H57 | H55 | |
| CPU Support |
Sandy Bridge LGA-1155 |
Sandy Bridge LGA-1155 |
Sandy Bridge LGA-1155 |
Lynnfield / Clarkdale LGA-1156 | Lynnfield / Clarkdale LGA-1156 | Lynnfield / Clarkdale LGA-1156 |
| CPU PCIe Config | 1 x 16 or 2 x 8 PCIe 2.0 |
1 x 16 PCIe 2.0 |
1 x 16 PCIe 2.0 |
1 x 16 or 2 x 8 PCIe 2.0 |
1 x 16 PCIe 2.0 |
1 x 16 PCIe 2.0 |
| RAID Support | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| USB 2.0 Ports | 14 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 14 | 12 |
| SATA Total (Max Number of 6Gbps Ports) | 6 (2) | 6 (2) | 4 (0) | 6 (0) | 6 (0) | 6 (0) |
| PCIe Lanes | 8 (5GT/s) | 8 (5GT/s) | 6 (5GT/s) | 8 (2.5GT/s) | 8 (2.5GT/s) | 6 (2.5GT/s) |
As with the discussion surrounding the Sandy Bridge processors, many people have questioned Intel’s decision to have most of the processors locked, and only a few overclockable. The same question ultimately applies to the Sandy Bridge chipsets – why only allow CPU overclocking on P67 (and Z68 in the future)? The answer here is simple enough – to help bring costs down.
Imagine the scenario that you are designing a motherboard. You understand the market, and want to add many bells and whistles, but the company you work for obviously wants to lower costs. If you are told that the chipset supports 95W CPUs, you have to add the power infrastructure on the board to match. Add in a few phases to support that, and it is done. Now take the same design to a chipset that supports overclocking. Somehow, that 95-110W window goes out the door, and you have to cater for any manner of overclocker and power draw. Then the onus is on you, and the company, to be the best and get the best results – within budget of course. With H67 and its no overclocking rule, the market that wants a cheaper board can get that cheaper board.
That scenario is, of course, just one facet of what is a large industry to consider. There is also another argument, that the CPU overclockable K series SKUs also have the best integrated HD 3000 (12 EU) graphics compared to their non-K counterparts, that only have HD 2000 (6 EU). So in order to get the best integrated, there is an extra cost in getting that K series SKU and not getting to overclock the CPU in a H67 board. In that respect, I would have to offer this proposal: Intel have engineered H67 to be in the position where people do not need GPU power or overclocked CPU power – enough to help accelerate encoding, run two monitors, play flash, but not much more. If you cast your mind back to Anand’s comparison of the HD3000/2000, the 3000 is usually better than an AMD HD 5450 for gaming, but the 2000 is usually competing with the higher end Clarkdale 1156 CPUs. If you are on a budget or a single GPU gamer where CPU power is not all too important, then H67 is aimed squarely at you as well.
I will be honest with you – I am a sucker for a fast machine. I get weak knees when reading record-breaking benchmarks. Thus, the H67 results did not exactly set my eyes ablaze. However, I remember the time when I was a scrimping student. I wanted high gaming performance at the lowest cost – if Sandy Bridge was out then, and I was specifically after the Sandy Bridge platform over anything AMD, then a H67 with an i3-2100 and the biggest graphics card I could afford would be a viable option.
The three boards we are looking at today are of slightly different price ranges – the ASRock H67M-GE/HT comes in at $120, the Gigabyte H67MA-UD2H for $125, and the ECS H67H2-M aims at the high end with $145. Technically, all our media samples are the B2 stepping, which Intel has recalled regarding the potential failure of the SATA 3Gb/s ports. If you remember, the predicted failure rate was up to 5% over three years. We have double-checked with all the manufacturers regarding their B3 versions of these products. All have responded that the boards will be the same as the B2s, and thus performance should be the same when the B3s come on sale.
So, without further ado, let us jump into the first board of the trio. ASRock, what have you got?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
56 Comments
View All Comments
Roland00Address - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
No ahci means no trim for SSDs. Just pointing this out for while a gamer on a budget may not care about this feature, people who want a quicker machine for everday use or htpc and thus want a SSD would be better suited with H67.casteve - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
The H61 might not support AHCI...but TRIM can work in IDE mode.yzkbug - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Any news on when Z68 is coming out?DominionSeraph - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Any scrimping student with half a brain is going to get a console with a Gamefly subscription rather than blow $900 on a retarded i3 gaymen rig.With a PC you're stuck shelling out $60 apiece for unfinished tech demos and bad ports, only to be playing alone in your room. But you get 3 or 4 consoles on a floor and suddenly you have a glut of party-friendly games passing around.
$900 PC + $900 for 15 games, or $250 in console + extra controller, spending $350 for a couple games and a yearly subscription that gives 2/mo, plus borrowing is free, on a system that actually gives you the college experience? (Doesn't count the price of TV, but you're probably gonna have one of those anyway.)
And yes, it is $900+ for PC.
$680 for i3 2100/GTX 560/4GB/500GB
$150 for any monitor worth having
$60 for a decent mouse and keyboard.
$35 for student copy of Win7.
Dookie11 - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Sorry about being poor and not being afford both.DominionSeraph - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
You don't have to apologize.bigboxes - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Sorry to interrupt your flaming post, but if you think that console parties are not nerdy than you are still a virgin. I suggest you sell your gamer gear and get on with the real "college experience" that you are so in need of.omelet - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Most people interested in PC gaming already have desktop computers at home, so you shouldn't include the cost of a monitor, hard drive, mouse, keyboard, speakers, operating system, or case in the cost of upgrading it to low tier gaming-capable. Also, while the i3 is not what a poorman gamer is going to get, let's assume it is for the sake of conversation on this article. You can get an i3 2100, an H61 motherboard, a GTX 460 768MB, and 4GB of DDR3 1333 RAM for $375 including shipping. I'm not counting the $45 in rebates, either, so that probably also covers the cost of a sufficient PSU over a generic 300W one. The build listed above is going to give significantly better performance than a 360 or PS3 at the resolutions the consoles put out. If you need the bigger screen, you can use the TV as a monitor. Plus you get to play games with a mouse and keyboard (or with a controller if that's your thing).There are plenty of games that are on PC and not on consoles. SC2, Civ5, and the vast majority of MMOs are among these titles. A lot of awesome older games, too, which don't even require modern gaming-tier hardware to run well. It's also true that consoles have a lot of games that aren't on PC, and the group gaming experience is different, but there are advantages to both types of gaming and the cost of entry into PC gaming is not at all as high as you're suggesting.
The effective cost of entry into PC gaming is really low for those people who need powerful computers for other reasons, or those who play older games or play on lower resolutions and graphics settings. It's also lower than I suggested for average Joe Blow, since he'd probably go with an AMD build that's ~$60 less expensive than the H61/i3 build.
Zoomer - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Quite the opposite, lol. It is definitely cheaper to stick with PC. Besides, there aren't very many games that are well suited for the console's HID.AssBall - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Not to mention how awesome an experience typing out and printing reports and presentations, running or coding technical software, checking mail or IMs, and browsing notes, whole classes, research, or entertainment on the internet on an XBOX is..... /sarcasmYou should have a computer for college anyway, a cheap gaming rig is the way to go, the console is just an expensive toy.