ASUS Sabertooth P67 Motherboard Review

Back in January of this year Intel launched their Sandy Bridge architecture, the replacement for processors based on socket 1156. These new socket 1155 based products were initially met with great praise from consumers and the press and we saw some feature packed motherboards based on the technology. Unfortunately an issue was discovered with the chipset and so production was halted while a new revision (B3) was issued and it is only now that we are beginning to see a wide range of revised products in stock across the world.

One of the first manufacturers to get their boards out in significant quantities is ASUS, who's Maximus Extreme P67 board greatly impressed us a few months back. Today we have another of their models on our test bench, the B3 revision Sabertooth P67 and will be putting it through a selection of synthetic and real world tests to establish how it compares to the competition.

ASUS Sabertooth P67 - The Board

 

 

ASUS have gone with a box which highlights their "TUF" features, otherwise known as build quality, on this particular model along with noting the B3 revision. Inside where we find a thorough bundle of extras which include documentation software disc, SLI bridge, drive cables, IO shield and EZ-Connectors which assist with case wiring.

The Sabertooth P67 itself looks quite different to the average motherboard due to the large plastic cover which sits on the ATX PCB. This cover is designed to pass airflow around the board components while keeping heat generated by PCIe cards away from the PCB, to enhance airflow we can even unscrew a section and add our own fan. Two large aluminium heatsinks cool some of the power circuitry around the socket 1155 CPU location and these are joined by a heatpipe. A further passive heatsink sits on the Southbridge at the bottom right of the board.

Also dotted around the PCB are ASUS's own power design circuitry components, including electrostatic discharge protection and advance switching for CPU, LAN and USB. This design also includes an Energy Processing unit which monitors power consumption and along with this ASUS use a new VRM design (DIGI+) which has an 8+2 phase layout to maximise efficiency, reduce heat and improve reliability and stability. TPU, which stands for TurboV Processing Unit, is another on-board processor which allows us to overclock/enhance the board with minimal effort.

Finally, as this is a P67 board it features support for all socket 1155 CPUs, including the high end i7-2600K with the ability to select multipliers in the BIOS and military class components such as alloy Chokes/solid capacitors are found across the PCB. These allow higher current to pass through the board as well as vibrating less and being more durable.

 

 

Down at the bottom left of the board we find the add-in card slots and these run from PCIe1x through PCIe x16, PCIe x1, PCIe x1, PCIe x8 and PCI. These sit above our USB headers and it is worth noting that the layout of slots allows the installation of triple slot cooled graphics cards in CrossFire or SLI.

 

  ASUS supply eight SATA ports which are split into four SATA 3GB/s (black) and four SATA 6GB/s (grey/brown). Two of the higher speed SATA ports run through the Marvell 912x controller and to ensure all of our connectivity runs at optimum speed the Intel based ports support RAID 0. Then beside the grey ports we find a connector for front panel USB 3.0 devices which runs on an NEC controller.

 

 

Further up the board we find four dual channel memory slots which are capable of holding 32GB of memory with official support hitting 1866MHz+. These slots sit alongside a standard 24-pin power connector and the board also features an 8pin socket. Then over at the edge of the board is the MemOK button which assists us in maximising compatibility with problematic memory sticks.

 

Round on the back panel we find a single PS/2 socket which sit alongside optical audio, 8x USB 2.0, Intel 82579 GB LAN, Firewire, 2x JMicron eSATA and 3.5mm audio in/out which uses the 8 channel Realtek ALC892 chipset. Also present on the board are two USB 3.0 ports which use the NEC 720200 controller.

 

Conclusion

Having seen their Maximum Extreme board based on the P67 chipset ASUS had set a very high level of expectation for any future products based on the same platform so it was great to see that for the most part the Sabertooth reaches similar heights.

In terms of build quality it is hard to fault a board which features military class components and backs them up with some excellent features such as the DIGI+ and electrostatic protection. Really the only features which are missing are on-board power and reset buttons as well as an external CMOS reset switch.

So that brings us to the design aspect and on this front ASUS have done well with key decision being the layout of PCIe slots which allow for triple width cards in SLI/CF with ease. The use of a large cover on the PCB is one which is sure to generate discussion; it certainly gives the board a cool look and does protect the PCB from heat generated by high spec cards. It is also fair to say that with an additional fan installed it will also provide a significant amount of airflow around the motherboard components. Our only issue is that it is plastic, a metal cover would have given a real feel of extra quality, even a soft touch coating would have been preferable.

For performance the Sabertooth P67 excels, matching or exceeding boards we have tested previously and in each one of our tests it performed flawlessly with no stability issues. A particular highlight was the manual overclock achieved and we were pleased to see that the OC Tuner worked well and so is perfect for allowing novice users the ability to maximise the performance of their system.

Adding value to the overall product we have features such as EZ-Flash for quick, easy BIOS updates from USB and AI Probe is one of the most complete software solutions available for a motherboard in the current market. These are backed up by a 5-year warranty which is great.

Summary
A board which excels in build quality and offers great all round performance for those looking to build a P67/Sandy Bridge system.