The Battle of the P67 Boards - ASUS vs. Gigabyte at $190
by Ian Cutress on January 20, 2011 4:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Gigabyte
- Asus
- P67
Test Setup | |
Processor |
Intel i5-2500K ES – 3.3 GHz (3.7 GHz Turbo) 4 Cores, 4 Threads, 6MB L3 |
Motherboards |
ASUS P8P67 Pro Gigabyte P67A-UD4 |
Cooling | Corsair H50-1 Water Cooler |
Power Supply | Enermax Modu87+ 600W 80PLUS |
Memory |
Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-2000 9-10-9-27 2x4GB Kit, 1.65V Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-2133 9-11-9-27 2x2GB Kit, 1.65V Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 2x4GB Kit, 1.50V |
Memory Settings | Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-1333 9-9-9-24 2x2GB |
Video Cards | XFX HD 5850 1GB |
Video Drivers | Catalyst 10.12 |
Hard Drive | Intel X25-M 80GB SSD Gen2 |
Optical Drives | LG GH22NS50 |
Case | Open Test Bed – CoolerMaster Lab V1.0 |
Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
USB 2/3 Testing | Patriot 64GB SuperSonic USB 3.0 |
Power Consumption and CPU Temperature
Power consumption was tested on the default system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the power supply, using a dual GPU configuration. This method allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI/BIOS and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using these motherboards.
Neither system does too badly in power consumption readings, but the Gigabyte is behind on temperature deltas. This could easily be attributed to the mounting - while every attempt is made to repeat the mounting technique, there is always a range of statistical variation, so the 2-4ºC difference is nothing obvious to be concerned about.
137 Comments
View All Comments
strikeback03 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
What board was that? As I have hardly seen any P965 boards which had BIOS updates to support Penryn, let alone older chipsets.I'd imagine the short answer is that it helps Intel's bottom line, and until AMD can produce stuff that competes in performance as well as price Intel will continue to gouge for the chipsets. Also Nvidia charges to SLI certify boards, which is probably why the board makers don't include it in cheaper boards.
Hrel - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
Asus P5NE-SLI built on the Nvidia 650i SLI chipset.medi01 - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
Makes me wonder, how much do they pay for the chipset.I recall buying AMD motherboards supporting the latest CPUs for 50-70$.
Hrel - Thursday, January 20, 2011 - link
I agree with your conclusion whole heartedly. AsRock has really had their game together this past year or so and they don't seem to be slowing down at all. I used to be a strictly Asus guy but AsRock is looking like it'll be the heart to my next build.airgreek - Thursday, January 20, 2011 - link
you do know that Asrock is owned by Asus right? I have been in the PC game a LONG time back when Abit was the mobo to own. I only consider three brands for mobo's now (from experience) and those are MSI, Gigabyte, and EVGA. EVGA has INCREDIBLE customer service, while Gigabyte uses solid material to build their boards. MSI is not far behindPeanutsrevenge - Thursday, January 20, 2011 - link
I agree completely, I LOVE EVGA stuff, it's just not usually suitable for what my customers want, so I don't get to play with their stuff often :(lpjz290 - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
even though ASrock is a ASUS subsidiary, they are now also considered a competitor ever since they were listed on the taiwan stock exchange. now that they have produced a board that can perform very close to ASUS P8P67 PRO at a considerably lower price, i'd say these two companies could very well be fighting against each other more often in future (which is gd for ASUS as a whole anyway).Hrel - Friday, January 21, 2011 - link
they broke off from Asus, actually.Heloc - Sunday, January 23, 2011 - link
AS of June 2010 ASUS is no longer the majority owner of ASRock but they spun off by issuing shares to ASUS shareholders so both companies have the same board of directors.There is more separation than there was but still than separation than in a simple spin-off.
mckirkus - Thursday, January 20, 2011 - link
If you're doing any surround sound gaming you'll probably want the UD4. It enables Dolby Digital Live which means you can run one optical cable to a receiver and get real surround sound with games without having to resort to a bunch of analog cables. I was about to get a $100 sound card but the UD4 makes that unnecessary.