Entering The High End
The prices we expect to pay for PCs don't change much. An entry-level machine is around $500, and has hovered around there for a while. A potent gaming system is completely doable for $1000, and that's a largely static figure, too. But our expectations of what you should get out of PCs at either of those price points is higher than ever.
An ever-increasing number of next-gen interfaces and add-on controllers continue pushing so-called mainstream motherboards well into what most enthusiasts used to consider high-end territory, shoving the cost of a real high-end board beyond $200, even for models that employ what the industry collectively considers mainstream chipsets, like Intel's P67 Express.
Today’s $200 P67-based motherboards are anything but extreme, even lacking Nvidia's NF200 controller, which enhances SLI and CrossFire graphics support. For that, one must go farther into the $250+ market (check out GeForce And Radeon On Intel's P67: PCIe Scaling Explored for more on what NF200 can do for graphics performance).
Yet, these same boards do have a few so-called extreme features, such as improved voltage regulators for increased overclocking capability. All of them also support three graphics cards (though in the least-favorable x8/x8/x4 PCIe configuration we can think of), dual gigabit Ethernet ports, and additional USB 3.0 or SATA 6Gb/s ports compared to mainstream versions.
| High-End P67 Motherboard Features | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional | ASRock P67 Extreme6 | Asus P8P67 Deluxe | Asus P8P67 EVO | MSI P67A-GD80 |
| PCB Revision | 1.02 | 1.04 | 1.03 | 1.03 | 2.1 |
| Chipset | Intel P67 Express | Intel P67 Express | Intel P67 Express | Intel P67 Express | Intel P67 Express |
| Voltage Regulator | Eighteen Phases | Eighteen Phases | Sixteen Phases | Twelve Phases | Twelve Phases |
| BIOS | P1.70 (03/16/2011) | P1.60 (03/16/2011) | 1502 (03/02/2011) | 1502 (03/02/2011) | A0 (03/21/2011) |
| 100.0 MHz BCLK | 99.8 (-0.2%) | 99.8 (-0.2%) | 100.0 (+0.0%) | 100.0 (+0.0%) | 100.0 (+0.0%) |
| Clock Generator | P67 Integrated | P67 Integrated | P67 Integrated | P67 Integrated | P67 Integrated |
| Internal Interfaces | |||||
| PCIe x16 | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) | 3 (x16/x0/x4 or x8/x8/x4) |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 | 2/0 |
| Legacy PCI | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 (8-ports) | 4 (8-ports) | 2 (4-ports) | 3 (6-ports) | 3 (6-ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 2 (4-ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Serial Port | 1 | 1 | None | None | None |
| Parallel Port | None | None | None | None | None |
| Floppy | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Ultra-ATA 133 | 1 (2-drives) | None | None | None | None |
| SATA 3Gb/s | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| SATA 6Gb/s | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| 4-Pin Fan | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| FP-Audio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CD-Audio | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only |
| Power Button | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reset Button | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Jumper-Only | Jumper-Only | Jumper-Only | Jumper-Only | Jumper-Only |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | Numeric | Numeric | Pass/Fail LEDs | Pass/Fail LEDs |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||||
| P/S 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| USB 3.0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Network | Dual | Dual | Dual | Dual | Dual |
| eSATA | 1 | 1 | 2 total, 1 powered | 2 total, 1 powered | 2 |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical + Coaxial | Optical + Coaxial | Optical + Coaxial | Optical + Coaxial | Optical + Coaxial |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Other Devices | None | None | Bluetooth Transceiver | Bluetooth Transceiver | None |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||||
| Chipset SATA | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | 2 x Marvell 9120 PCIe4 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA (shared) | 2 x Marvell 9120 PCIe4 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA (shared) | Marvell 9128 PCIe2 x SATA 6Gb/sJMB 362 PCIe 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s | Marvell 9120 PCIe2 x SATA 6Gb/sJMB 362 PCIe 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s | Marvell 9128 PCIe 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s Supports RAID 0, 1 |
| Add-In Ultra ATA | VIA VT6330 PCIe | None | None | None | None |
| USB 3.0 | 3 x Etron EJ168A PCIe | 3 x Etron EJ168A PCIe | 2 x NEC D720200F1 | 2 x NEC D720200F1 | 2 x NEC D720200F1 2 x VLI VL810 Hub |
| IEEE-1394 | VIA VT6330 PCIe 2 x 400 Mb/s | VT6315N PCIe 2 x 400 Mb/s | VT6315N PCIe 2 x 400 Mb/s | VT6308P PCI 2 x 400 Mb/s | VT6308P PCI 2 x 400 Mb/s |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||||
| Primary LAN | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111E PCIe | WG82579V PHY | WG82579V PHY | RTL8111E PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8111E PCIe | RTL8110SC PCI | RTL8111E PCIe |
| Audio | |||||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC892 | ALC892 | ALC889 | ALC892 | ALC892 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | None | None | None | None | None |
