ASUS ROG vS EVO vs Sabertooth or other

[highcommander]

I am pricing out a build in preparation for the relaunch of the P67/H67 chipset motherboards. I will be buying a series 6 processor and next in line in my decision making process is the motherboard. Here is where you guys can help me.

First and foremost I notice there are not a lot of options for the P67 chipset (even before the recall). I do have a good amount of faith in the ASUSTek boards as they really seem to be pushing the envelope with new bios replacement technology (UEFI). Also this new wave of motherboards are significantly better designed than some of the competition boards that I have seen.

SO the question remains what board do I go with? For those that need a recap, they offer:

Maximus IV Extreme
P8P67
P8P67 Deluxe / PRO / EVO / LE / WS Revolution / M / M-PRO
Sabertooth

From what I have seen so far, the Maximus is the Republic of Gamers (ROG) edition specifically designed for overclocking. The Sabertooth features increased thermal controls for the various bridges and sensors to view and regulate temperatures on various locations of the board.

I do want this board to be best of the best although I honest have no idea of the prices of these boards. I couldn't find prices on NewEgg as they yanked the boards off their site (from the recall.)

Are any of the models above inferior for w/e reason? Is there one in particular that stands out above the rest? Please assist me in choosing one.

 

[subasteve5800]

Well the best board up there is the Maximus IV Extreme but you'll pay through the nose for it. If I were you I would look for the cheapest board that meets all your requirements.

Do you need a board with the new UFEI?

How many USB 3.0 ports do you need?

How many SATA 6 ports do you need?

Do you need a board with an NF200 chip in it so you can have full x16/x16 PCIe connectvity for CF/SLI setups? or is x8/x8 okay?

Do you need dual bios chips?

Do you need a board with dual ethernet ports?

Do you want some cool extras that the Sabertooth/Maximus will have? ("Thermal armor" on the Sabertooth, ROG Connect on the Maximus, etc...)

Once you answer those questions just pick the cheapest board that meets your requirements.

For my build (which got scrapped due to the recall) I went with the Pro. It was ~$190 and had everything I needed and was one of the better boards for overclocking that had been reviewed at the time.

You might also consider looking at the ASRock boards. ASRock is owned by ASUS and the boards are well featured for reasonable prices.

 

[jaquith]

Each of those MOBOs serve a purpose. The NF200 do not offer x16/x16; you have to read the 'fine print'.

Q - Budget?
Q - Purpose?
Q - GPU(s)?

Building Chart:

 

[highcommander]

Do you need a board with the new UFEI?
Yes. It is too revolutionary to pass up in my opinion. Although it is mostly a GUI to the traditional Bios, it does feature some extra OC tools.

How many USB 3.0 ports do you need?
Unsure. Would be nice to have at least 2.

How many SATA 6 ports do you need?
I think 4. I say I think because I will likely start with raid 0 with 2 SSD drives, with 1 optical drive. I may add an un-raided large storage drive as well.

Do you need a board with an NF200 chip in it so you can have full x16/x16 PCIe connectvity for CF/SLI setups? or is x8/x8 okay?
HAS to be 16x/16x - I will be investing in 2-way SLI with top of the line cards (or near the top at least.) Waste of my money if i get 8x/8x.

Do you need dual bios chips?
maybe. I dont "NEED" this but I would take advantage of this having one store my OC settings and one to store my gaming settings.

Do you need a board with dual ethernet ports?
I think so. Honestly I have never used Dual-Lan, although if the setup was understandable I sure would use it. I Lan Party on occasion and this rig will be mostly for Online gaming.

Do you want some cool extras that the Sabertooth/Maximus will have? ("Thermal armor" on the Sabertooth, ROG Connect on the Maximus, etc...)
I do not remember what the ROG connect does, although I LOVE the thermal armor idea on the Sabertooth. I will likely take advantage of the heat sensors on the various areas of the board to set up my air and liquid cooling solutions. Does the Maximus offer the same sensors as the sabertooth? I couldn't find additional details on that?

Once you answer those questions just pick the cheapest board that meets your requirements.
Mostly eliminates the smaller boards in the P8 series although leaves me with a bunch of choices on the high end.

You might also consider looking at the ASRock boards. ASRock is owned by ASUS and the boards are well featured for reasonable prices.
Everyone tells me that AsRock boards are like the cheap equilivant to ASUS mainstream boards. For example the heat pipes, power bands and other components are much much less sturdy.

Q - Budget?
For the motherboard, price isn't an option. I would assume anything over $400 is overkill though.

Q - Purpose?
High end graphics in SLI, extra air cooling solutions, potential liquid cooling on GPU's and CPU and north/south bridges, End use is Gaming on maximum settings with occasional overclocking for benchmarking tests.

Q - GPU(s)?
Good question. At the moment I am leaning towards the 570, 560Ti or MAYBE 580s. Will be 2 in SLI.

The NF200 do not offer x16/x16; you have to read the 'fine print'
NF200? which one is that? I need the 16/16 on this board.

 

[jaquith]

NF200? which one is that? I need the 16/16 on this board.

The NF200 is an added chipset to the P67 to psuedo increase the number of lanes. The problem is even the MOBOs that employ then x16/x16 is not feasible on P67. Hence the Building Chart.

Here's a good article -> http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=120725&mpage=1#125154 read the fine print in the '()' showing the x8.

So you have a few choices: Now = X58; Soon/Q3 2011 = 'X68' a/k/a LGA 2011. The current SB are fantastic CPUs with crappy old P55 specs. If you are running 1 HD monitor, again look at the chart, the x8/x8 won't matter in Gaming.

 

[highcommander]

The NF200 is an added chipset to the P67 to psuedo increase the number of lanes. The problem is even the MOBOs that employ then x16/x16 is not feasible on P67. Hence the Building Chart.

Here's a good article -> http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?high=&m=120725&mpage=1#125154 read the fine print in the '()' showing the x8.

So you have a few choices: Now = X58; Soon/Q3 2011 = 'X68' a/k/a LGA 2011. The current SB are fantastic CPUs with crappy old P55 specs. If you are running 1 HD monitor, again look at the chart, the x8/x8 won't matter in Gaming.

oh OUCH... I didnt realize the series 6 chipset motherboards (p/h67's) were 8x/8x only currently... any chance for support of 16/16 with the re-release of the ones recalled? I really feel like I would be going backwards if I purchase the generation 1 i7's (such as a 950).

 

[christop]

I would go with the Sabertooth I have the x58 and it is great.

 

[asantesoul]

I've used the P67A UD7 Gigabyte board..played around with the Maximus IV extreme..Had a P8P67 Pro, and am currently using the sabertooth p67...I only started getting into computers, and overclocking over the last few months with some help from friends..and, I can tell you oc'ing on these p67 boards (no matter which one) is pretty much the same...some people can hit 5000mhz on the sabertooth..i've heard some people hit 5.7 on a gigabyte ud5...heck, some people can do 5ghz on a p8p67 pro...get the board that suits your needs... Im a big fan of aesthetics and the maximus iv, ud7, and sabertooth are all pretty bawseeee looking to me..

 

[highcommander]

Best answer selected by highcommander.

 

[Ghost_In_the_Engine]

The Asus Workstation board runs dual 16x/16x

and the ROG Board runs Tri! 16x / 16x/ 8x but only DUAL 8x / 8x

Dah $400.00 for ROG DUAL 8x/8x but tri 16x/ 16x/ 8x Nice Fail ASUS LMFAO

Any how They jacked all the prices up by about 30 - 40 on the B3 Boards compared to Original Release thansk for a waste of our time Intel now going to sit on my hands and wait to see how AMD Bulldozer competes with the SandyBridge Platforms, MAybe by then your Mobo Prices will get down to where they were at Pre Transistor fail.

 

[01002920]

Get them ROG, better performance nice price