Suggest a P67

[Furious5k]

Hello there,

I am looking to upgrade my computer and am looking for input on the Motherboard, as I know little about this component. Have been considering Asrock P67 EXTREME4 REV 3.0 but wondering if I can get a cheaper one which will do everything I want anyway.

Here are the lego pieces I will be using:
i5-2500k
8GB DDR3 1600 Corsair Low Profile Vengeance CL9 1.35v
Crucial m4 64GB (Windows drive)
(2x) 1TB HDD, raid 1
Antec P182

Feature wishlist:
Good OC
Ivy bridge compatible
Crossfire/SLI
SATA6 for the SSD
USB 3.0
eSATA (non-essential)

I generally use single GPU solutions, but would prefer Crossfire/SLI capability unless there are good savings to be made. Same with Ivy bridge compatibility. Not sure if I care about PCI-E 3.0

Will appreciate any suggestions! Thank you.

 

[o1die]

This http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138317 should work fine. I've had good luck with biostar boards; no problems mixing ram like some asus boards.

 

[RussK1]

Hello there,

I am looking to upgrade my computer and am looking for input on the Motherboard, as I know little about this component. Have been considering Asrock P67 EXTREME4 REV 3.0 but wondering if I can get a cheaper one which will do everything I want anyway.

Here are the lego pieces I will be using:
i5-2500k
8GB DDR3 1600 Corsair Low Profile Vengeance CL9 1.35v
Crucial m4 64GB (Windows drive)
(2x) 1TB HDD, raid 1
Antec P182

Feature wishlist:
Good OC
Ivy bridge compatible
Crossfire/SLI
SATA6 for the SSD
USB 3.0
eSATA (non-essential)

I generally use single GPU solutions, but would prefer Crossfire/SLI capability unless there are good savings to be made. Same with Ivy bridge compatibility. Not sure if I care about PCI-E 3.0

Will appreciate any suggestions! Thank you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157249

 

[jaquith]

What target OC? If 4.50GHz or higher you really need a 12 or higher Phase MOBO otherwise the vCore will be too high to run stable at 'manageable' temps.

Also, IF you're only going to use (1) GPU then ANY LGA 1155 1st PCIe is a straight link to the CPU and with an Ivy Bridge WILL run PCIe 3.0 speed. The 'GEN3 switch' is for the 2nd, 3rd, etc PCIe slots. Otherwise, PCIe 2.0 vs 3.0 won't do mush if anything for years to come, as it is NOW the GTX 590 barely saturates the PCIe 2.x x8 lanes and forget about PCIe 2.0 x16 (same as PCIe 3.0 x8) and laughable PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes.

All SLI/CF MOBO's in order of Price to Performance:
P67 ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) or (REV 3.0)
Z68 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5
P67 Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY

 

[RussK1]

What target OC? If 4.50GHz or higher you really need a 12 or higher Phase MOBO otherwise the vCore will be too high to run stable at 'manageable' temps.

Also, IF you're only going to use (1) GPU then ANY LGA 1155 1st PCIe is a straight link to the CPU and with an Ivy Bridge WILL run PCIe 3.0 speed. The 'GEN3 switch' is for the 2nd, 3rd, etc PCIe slots. Otherwise, PCIe 2.0 vs 3.0 won't do mush if anything for years to come, as it is NOW the GTX 590 barely saturates the PCIe 2.x x8 lanes and forget about PCIe 2.0 x16 (same as PCIe 3.0 x8) and laughable PCIe 3.0 x16 lanes.

All SLI/CF MOBO's in order of Price to Performance:
P67 ASUS P8P67 PRO (REV 3.1) or (REV 3.0)
Z68 ASUS P8Z68-V PRO
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD5
P67 Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY

I was going actually recommend this but realized it's a little out of his price range~

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131759

 

[jaquith]

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157265 ; it's fine to OC the vCore gets a little high as you get to 4.50GHz.

Good info, look at the second spreadsheet for vCore's - http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/916189-official-intel-p67-z68-motherboard-comparison.html

 

[RussK1]

ASRock P67 EXTREME4 GEN3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157265 ; it's fine to OC the vCore gets a little high as you get to 4.50GHz.

Good info, look at the second spreadsheet for vCore's - http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/916189-official-intel-p67-z68-motherboard-comparison.html

It's a cool list but his part #'s and boards are pretty messed up and his phases are flat wrong. I have the extreme 6 and it has 16 phases but on his list it's noted as 8... ???

 

[jaquith]

I didn't write the chart - you've got a better one then Please link it.

Further, I didn't/don't give a hoot about the top spreadsheet, it's the vCore. I don't need a spec chart to know the MOBO's.

My fav's:
P67 Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY

P67 ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution ; 3-WAY + PhysX

 

[RussK1]

I didn't write the chart - you've got a better one then Please link it.

Further, I didn't/don't give a hoot about the top spreadsheet, it's the vCore. I don't need a spec chart to know the MOBO's.

My fav's:
P67 Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY
Z68 Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 ; 3-WAY

P67 ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution ; 3-WAY + PhysX

I know you didn't write the chart so no biggie... I wasn't trying to come off like an ahole either. Sometimes that's the problem with written correspondence as words can be construed the wrong way.

A lot of people were mentioning these issues further in the read but he just kept ignoring them.

Anyway, I was a slap away from getting that WS Revolution but there have been people having issues with it going into and coming out of sleep. Despite this, the board is sweet nonetheless... It's kinda cute that the tiny southbridge heatsink has a heatpipe.

 

[jaquith]

Most of the Sleep issues are because people never look at the registry and they assume SATA -> AHCI or RAID =automatically=> Windows Start = 0. And loading the wrong SATA drivers is the #1 culprit. IF Start = 3 = IDE.

After a build, first look at the registry; see -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Msahci
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\IastorV

I've built a few ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution and, knock on wood, no sleep issues. I like the MOBO only because it OC's very well, 4.5GHz+, and its' perfect PCIe spacing for 3-WAY + PhysX.

 

[Furious5k]

I have gathered a small list of Mobos highlighting key features.

Asrock P67 Extreme4 Rev 3.0 and Asrock P67 PRO3 Rev 3.0 look like the best price/feature boards of high and low/budget end respectively. With Biostar strapping the middle by being cheapest board to also feature crossfire/sli.

I have some questions:
I didn't find info about phases, can anyone comment on OC for the PRO3 boards?
I saw a site suggest the PRO3 SE could do crossfire/sli? I thought you needed PCI-E 2.0 x8 for that?
Some boards specify which SATA ports are used for RAID. For boards that only have 2x SATA 6GB how do I know if I will be to use SATA 3GB for RAID? (I intend to use SATA 6GB for SSD and whatever is left for 2x HDD RAID 1).

I would love to see any further suggestions about boards which could be better than the ones listed below. Note: I am in UK,
I may not be able to get some boards seen on Newegg.

Asrock P67 EXTREME4 REV 3.0 ~£128
(2x) PCI-E 3.0 (x16, dual x8), (1x) PCI-E 2.0 x4, (2x) PCI-E x1, (2x) PCI-E
(4x) SATA 6GB, (4x) SATA 3GB
(2x) USB 3.0, (6x) USB 2.0, (1x) eSATA 6GB

Biostar TP67XE B3 ~£105
(2x) PCI-E 2.0 x16 (CFX x8) , (1x) PCI-E x1, (2x) PCI
(2x) SATA 6GB, (3x) SATA 3GB
(2x) USB 3.0, (6x) USB 2.0, (1x) eSATA 3GB

Asrock P67 PRO3 REV 3.0 ~£86
(1x) PCI-E 2.0 x16, (3x) PCI-E x1, (3x) PCI
(2x) SATA 6GB, (4x)SATA 3GB
(2x) USB 3.0, (6x) USB 2.0, (1x) eSATA 6GB

ASRock P67 PRO3 SE ~£81
(1x) PCI-E 2.0 x16, (1x) PCI-E 2.0 x4, (2x) PCI-E x1
(2x) SATA 6GB, (4x)SATA 3GB
(2x) USB 3.0, (6x) USB 2.0

 

[jaquith]

P67 Extreme4 - is 8 Phase to CPU, SLI/CF x8/x8 & x4 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P67%20Extreme4
P67 Pro3 - is 8 Phase to CPU, x16 (single) GPU - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P67%20Pro3
P67 PRO3 SE - is 4 Phase to CPU, CF only x8/x8 - http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P67%20Pro3%20SE&cat=Specifications

TP67XE - is an 8 Phase to CPU, SLI/CF x8/x8 - http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=527

On the P67/Z68 the Intel Ports, all of them, offer RAID {0,1,5,10}.

 

[Furious5k]

Will asrock p67 pro3 rev 3 / all p67 boards be compatible with ivy bridge?

 

[jaquith]

^Yep, ALL P67/Z68 LGA 1155 are capable of running Ivy Bridge, as long as the MOBO Mfg provides a BIOS update with the proper CPUID info for the particular Ivy Bridge CPU.