ASUS P8P67 Review
by Brendan van Varik on September 8, 2011 10:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Asus
- Motherboards
- P67
Today, we will be looking at the ASUS P8P67. Although the board has been available for some time, this is one of ASUS' cheaper full size ATX offerings. Considering it has a price tag of $155 ($140 with rebate), it offers quite a few useful features such as DIGI+ VRM, BT GO! (Bluetooth), a total of four USB 3.0 ports, and Quad-GPU CrossFireX support.
Even though the P8P67 does not offer as many features as the more expensive models in this range, or even some of the optional extras in the box which other boards come with in the same price range, it does perform better than you may have initially thought. The biggest complaint we have is the second PCIe x16 slot only operates in x4 mode, which does impact multi-GPU performance. The board's power consumption is also higher than other motherboards we have tested. Overall, I would say this motherboard is a good contender in the sub $160 price range but some of the additional extras which come with the ASRock P67 Extreme4 for example may be enough to sway people towards that board instead.
Visual Inspection
ASUS has decided to go with a blue and black color scheme, which is built upon a black PCB. The black and blue theme carries its way throughout the motherboard on to the expansion slots, RAM slots and the heat sinks as well.
Just like all of the latest ASUS range, their latest TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and EPU (Energy Processing Unit) processors are on this motherboard. The EPU chip is designed to analyze the actual CPU loading and dynamically regulate the various system power saving and performance parameters in real time. By doing this, it creates an optimal energy saving configuration. The TPU takes care of the system performance - it automatically raises the systems clocks to provide the extra grunt whenever it is required and it also relieves parts of process-intensive tasks from the CPU.
Just like most motherboard manufacturers of the modern age, ASUS has designed the slot layout fairly well. With a GPU, or even two, you will still have a PCIe x1 slot available. They have also allowed for a two slot gap under the GPU which will allow the top card to breathe a little better when using a dual GPU configuration. Unfortunately, you will only be able to use one PCIe x1 slot when you have a dual slot graphics cards.
The P8P67 has a total of four SATA 6 Gbps connections available; however only two of them allow for a RAID array. The navy blue ports, which are on the Marvell controller, do not have RAID support whereas the gray PCH ports feature RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. The four light blue ports are SATA 3 Gbps.
There are a total of four fan headers on the P8P67 and they are in what I would consider good locations. The CPU header is located above the socket, toward the top of the motherboard. There is another one labeled PWR_FAN; it is located just above the MemOK! button. To finish it off, there are two case fan connections, one of which is to the left of the CPU socket and the other one is located just above the front panel connections.
The back panel contains two PS/2 connectors, a SPDIF output, a total of six USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports. A Firewire port is included as well as the built-in Bluetooth. To finish off, there is a single gigabit Ethernet port and the typical audio jacks.
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ryedizzel - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
@Impulses: Saying they might be paid to review an older product is COMPLETELY different than saying they were paid to give it a favorable review.@Etern205: No you don't have the right to spit on their work just because you factory tours and home theater setups more interesting. They do a great job and everything here is free for you, so if you don't like it then gtfo.
Etern205 - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
If a site is going down hill then it's going down hill, why are you kissing @ss?!I have my right to express my opinion/complaint as I wish because this site was uber awesome back in the old days. I've entered this field back in 99 and been reading here ever since (Anandtech started back in 97) because it's filled with interesting and fun to read articles that fills every one of my neurons with technical knowledge.
This site became what it is today because of articles that attract enthusiast and power users. If they review consumer based product for the average Joe and Jane, will they ever be here today? I don't think so!
About those tours they're leisure articles and yet still attracts
enthusiast and power users. For Anand's home theater, you should actually take a look at that awesome article before telling others to GTFO.
If you like to read on smartphones and other nonsense products, then there are plenty like Cnet or PCWorld.
Etern205 - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Yep, I yawn at SSD reviews because the main purpose of getting one is to speed up your apps or for those who thinks the sky is falling when they can't wait even a single second!You see reviews on SSD and are amazed by it's blazing speed, is it within your reach? Sure the price of SSD has dropped as you can get a 120GB Crucial M4 for less than $200. While sub $200 is quite a price drop for SSD and it's larger than 64GB, the price is still too high for some.
And who says I can't complain? You work for Anand for what?
This site use to have the most awesome articles, I hope their articles on BullDozer will turn this site around.
Some of the articles I enjoy were the factory tours and especially Anand's personal home theater setup.
JonnyDough - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
That's why if you're money savvy you bought a 60GB Vertex II when they were hovering $100 after rebate. :)Amazing2u - Friday, September 9, 2011 - link
Geez... Stop yawning, you're putting me to sleep.I'm happy that Anandtech and it's writers have more diversified articles then "other" hardware sites that only publish boring stuff you see everywhere else.
I happen to like those Smartphone and whatnot reviews.
Keep up the great work! :)
Sim
RussianSensation - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
While it's doubtful anyone with a $1500 GPU setup (HD6990 CF) will be using this board, there is nothing wrong with running say HD6870 / 6950 CF on this board. In fact PCIe 2.0 4x produces about a 7-8% penalty for a faster GPU like the GTX480:http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GTX_480_...
Not only that but HD6950 2GB setup in CF is more useful at 2560x1600 too, where PCIe limitation is only around 5% (see link above).
LegitReviews even performed CF testing on this board to show that the difference is not as much as people believe: 2x HD6950s in CF tested in P8P67 (16x/4x) vs. P8P67 Deluxe (8x/8x):
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1500/9/
The performance difference at 1920x1080 was:
- 5.3% in AvP
- 8.5% in Metro 2033
- 2.9% in STALKER: cop
Certainly not 30-50% less as some people probably imagine. For a budget board around $135, there weren't many boards better.
However, I feel that Asrock has really stepped up their game with:
1) Asrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 - $125 on Newegg
2) Asrock P67 Extreme4 Gen3 - $154 on Newegg
I agree with you that AnandTech stopped focusing on motherboard reviews which is a real shame since if you review CPUs, you should also review motherboards since CPUs have to be inserted somewhere :)
Cheers.
Impulses - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Problem with this particular model is there's other equally economic models from other manufacturers that will do 8x/8x... I love ASUS, last three mobos before my current one were ASUS, but lately I think they've been allowing prices to creep up too much and/or introducing too many damn models. Everyone's guilty of the latter, but ASUS is the worst.As far as mobo reviews in general... Meh. I agree that they're a staple of sites like AT, but if it weren't for the P67 recall and the late introduction of Z68 almost every review of this generation of Intel boards would've read the same.
There's just not anything all that exiting about mobo introductions anymore imo, just find a model with the integrated components that you need from your preferred manufacturer amongst the top 4 and look up one or two reviews to make sure it runs and OC reliably. Nothing really earth shattering or new to it... They're almost a commodity now like HDDs for data.
RussianSensation - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
Ya, like I said the Asrock Extreme3/4 series are very attractive. But again in the marketplace this board goes for $135 (Newegg) and I am sure it will be below that shortly. For someone who wants to run a single GPU, this $135 board has a lot to offer vs. the competition. You get 12+2 power phases, Bluetooth, the best UEFI imo, and 3 year warranty (of which the 1st year is advanced replacement so they send you a new board first).If you want to run 2 GPUs though, the Asrock Z68/P67 Extreme Gen3 series is far superior for $130-155.
Metaluna - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
And that 7-8% performance hit will be on only one of the two GPUs, so it will be even less significant to the overall graphics performance. And, if you put the lower-performing GPU in that slot, the impact is even lower.People really get way too hung up on abstract specs like PCIe lanes without taking time to evaluate what they actually mean in the real world.
gramboh - Thursday, September 8, 2011 - link
This board can be found for about $135CAD right now, really cheap compared to higher end P67/Z68 boards which are $180-220ish.Thanks for posting this, I was interested to see that it could hit 4.7+ GHz overclock.