Asus P8P67 Pro vs. ASRock Extreme 4

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Can someone please help me out regarding these two boards? I'm going to be running an i7 2600k, 8gb 1600 cas 9 ripjaws (in 2 slots), and a Radeon 6950 (hopefully flashed to 6970). I would like to be able to add another 6950 somewhere down the line in crossfire.

I am a mobo noob and PCIe lanes confuse the heck out of me. From reading Tom's articles I understand that these mid-level boards probably can't offer me Crossfire with both cards at 16x. Would one of the boards give an advantage over the other, though?

I've also read reports about 2 sticks of Ripjaws fitting into the Asus board fine, but 4 sticks would become difficult, so I will factor that into my decision too.

 

[aguerrrero84]

I've owned both. The Asus cost more (at least when I bought it). I think the main difference is the Asus comes with a lot of extra features you may or may not need (bluetooth, epu and turbo switches, etc.). I think of the Asrock as more of a budget board. As far as performance, I'm pretty sure they are the same. Both have three x16 pcie slots that run at x8 in sli/crossfire. Both have nice UEFI's.

The Asus board I bought was defective (would shut down randomly) and I got the Asrock instead. I'm very happy with it.

Edit: The Asrock comes with a cool front panel USB 3.0 bracket. It wasn't a deciding factor for me, but it's a cool feature.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

The Pro has a 12+2 power system, versus the Extreme4's 8+2. Theoretically, this means the Pro could overclock farther. In reality, both boards will overclock your CPU until it screams for mercy.

The Pro has Bluetooth. Only a bonus if you actually use it.
The Extreme4 comes with a USB3 front panel box.

If this were my choice, I'd go with the ASRock. I do have an ASRock P67 Pro3 board that's working well and overclocks my 2500K to 4.8GHz, so I might be a bit biased.

 

[rolli59]

The conclusion here would be enough to sway me towards the Asrock http://www.anandtech.com/show/4130/the-battle-of-the-p67-boards-asus-vs-gigabyte-at-190/11

 

[jaquith]

The MOBOs are essentially the same, ASUS owns ASRock; the differences are in the 'doodads' each offers. The ASUS has the added 'doodads' e.g. Bluetooth, 4 extra Phases {8+2 vs 12+2} and Intel LAN with the ASUS.

Side-by-Side - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%2050001944%20600093976&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=280|13-131-703^13-131-703-TS%2C13-157-229^13-157-229-TS

No P67 has 'native' x16/x16, the NF200 P67's like ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution do offer 32 lanes funneld down to the SB CPU's 16 lanes.

RAM problems, yep the Ripjaws X have been having problems when using (2) two sets of 2X4GB running at Rated 1600 MHz. The workaround is running them at 1333 MHz or getting Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B 4X4GB kits which will run all 4 sticks at rated speed.

The x8/x8 vs x16/x16 on any single monitor arrangement is NOT an issue, but in 5900+ x 1080 is an issue with 8xAA and higher.

edit: in the few minutes to gather links -- Poof 3 posts; everyone seems to be online!