Conclusion
Conclusion
As we saw all the way
back in November, ASUS has spent a considerable amount of time and effort developing these new P67-based motherboards. What this means for consumers are cool new features and capabilities that didn’t exist in previous generations, and most importantly, that actually work very well. Furthermore, if we discount the chipset recall, which we obviously cannot fault the motherboard manufacturers for,
we really didn’t experience many of the teething issues usually associated with new platforms. And whatever little issues there are have been getting dealt with at an impressive rate via rapid-fire BIOS updates.
Speaking of which, the new UEFI BIOS is absolutely one of the best features of this PRO model, and of the P8P67 series in general. It is a pleasure to use, and frankly even a purist like myself has found some
instances where being able to use both the keyboard and mouse together has led to usability improvements. The purely graphical EZ Mode is a little too limited for our liking, but then again it is targeted towards novice users. The Advanced Mode has everything that we have come to expect in a modern BIOS, which is to say a user-friendly layout and every feature you could possibly want to tweak. By the way, by the time you read this, ASUS should have released a new BIOS that allows users to take screenshots from within the BIOS. Originally this feature was going to be exclusive to the enthusiast-oriented Maximus IV Extreme, but after our convincing arguments, they decided to add this capability to the entire P8P67 lineup. It is a novelty feature for most users, but it is a pretty cool little time-saver for overclockers that like sharing their BIOS settings.
With regard to overclocking, it is pretty clear that ASUS have spent an inordinate amount of time
ensuring that P8P67 owners would have a flawless experience from the get-go, and they have done a very good job. Our extensive 2 month experience with this motherboard has been better than could have ever expected from a brand new platform. This model’s multiplier and BCLK overclocking capabilities are about as good as you can get, and we are quite confident that the PRO can easily max out any Sandy Bridge processor on air, water, or single stage phase-change cooling. The new DIGI+ VRM, UEFI BIOS, and TPU controller provide very handy options like 0.1Mhz BCLK increments, 0.005V voltage increments, 5 levels of Load-Line Calibration (LLC), and a user-adjustable VRM switching frequency, all of which really do help in the struggle for the best possible overclock. Now the one issue when it comes to overclocking is that if you enable the Internal PLL Voltage option in the BIOS, you likely will not be updating to resume successfully from sleep or hibernate. From what we have been told this is an issue with the Intel's firmware code and they are working on a solution. This is likely an issue that affects all the other motherboard manufacturers as well.
Also beneficial when overclocking is the revamped Ai Suite II software suite. ASUS have wisely chosen to concentrate all their utilities onto a
user-friendly toolbar. You no longer have to go hunting for the utility you want, nor do you need to have desktop icons everywhere. The TurboV and DIGI+ VRM utilities were definitely our favourites, since they allowed us to tweak all the aforementioned overclocking settings from within the OS. However, the new and improved FAN Xpert utility deserves special mention since it really has excellent and easy-to-use fan management capabilities.
On the layout front we have no serious complaints, but definitely keep in mind that large CPU coolers and tall memory heatspreaders can potentially cause installation issues, as is the case on most LGA115x motherboards. Features-wise some may lament the lack of a debug LED, but with the Q-LED feature users will at least be able to quickly identify which component is causing an issue if there is a boot failure. Since this is an almost $200 motherboard, we would have liked to see onboard power and reset buttons, but ASUS is stubbornly using this feature to lure users towards the $20 pricier P8P67 EVO model. This latter model also features an improved cooling system and additional Gigabit LAN port, but we don’t see that as being worth the extra money, especially since the PRO is already so well well-equipped when it comes connectivity options and expansion slots.
In the end, this is a very high quality motherboard at a reasonable price, and although it might only be the second Intel P67-based LGA1155 motherboard that we have spent any considerable amount of time with, it definitely seems like a difficult one to beat.
Pros
- Solid Performance.
- Terrific layout.
- Three mechanical PCI-E x16 slots.
- 2-Way CrossFireX & 2-Way SLI capability.
- Excellent manual overclocking capabilities.
- Very capable automatic overclocking options.
- Flawless voltage regulation & output.
- Comprehensive SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 connectivity.
- Integrated Bluetooth receiver.
- Superior Intel Gigabit LAN controller.
- Great new software package
- Socketed BIOS chip.
- User-friendly and tweaker-friendly new UEFI BIOS.
- Reasonable price tag given the features list.
Cons
- Resuming from sleep/hibernate will fail when Internal PLL Voltage is enabled. Intel is working on a fix.
- Depending on configuration, boot up times can be a little long.
- Only one BIOS chip, no backup or fail-safe.
- Large CPU coolers + tall memory heatspreaders can cause installation issues.
- Not enough voltage readouts in Ai Suite II.
- No onboard power and reset buttons.
Our thanks to ASUS for making this review possible!