Best sandy bridge board

[steve71]

I had my heart set on a Asus WS Revolution, but it went out of stock right before I placed the order for my new build.

So now I have a Gigabyte UD7 headed my way. It should have more stable power than the Asus in theory, but I have no idea how that will play out in the real world when it comes to overclock the 2500K.

 

[bobad]

While I'm not claiming it's the "best" available, I'm liking my Asus P8P67 Deluxe so far. Now the OCZ SSD dying in only 2 days and 3 Windows installs are another story.

That's the board I'm looking at. I really like the features, and I've had good luck with Asus.

Right now, they're claiming widespread problems on NewEgg, even saying the BIOS isn't K compatible out of the box. ??? (I know, NewEgg users can be N00bs)

I'll let things shake out a month before jumping, or just buy it now if you tell me to.

 

[EarthDog]

Why does the "best" matter? most of them overclock the same in the midrange segment so who cares? Get the features you desire in a midrange board and call it a day.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

That's the board I'm looking at. I really like the features, and I've had good luck with Asus.

Right now, they're claiming widespread problems on NewEgg, even saying the BIOS isn't K compatible out of the box. ??? (I know, NewEgg users can be N00bs)

I'll let things shake out a month before jumping, or just buy it now if you tell me to.

I haven't heard anything about it not being K compatible, but I did have to update to the latest beta bios to get the board to run my RAM at the correct speed/timings, so in that respect it didn't work right out of the box, but its working now which is all that matters.

There is also an issue with the AI Suite II utility not installing in Win7 Pro or Ultimate x64; I'm sure this will be worked out in the next update though.

Despite these "issues" I've been enjoying the board.

Why does the "best" matter? most of them overclock the same in the midrange segment so who cares? Get the features you desire in a midrange board and call it a day.

Agreed with this. Pick a company you like from the known good ones Asus, Gigabyte, etc. then look at their lineup and pick the one that has the features you want/need.

 

[Castiel]

Maximus IV and WS Revolution were the two fastest P67 boards to sell out on Newegg.

IV sold out in 89 minutes, Revolution a hair under 3 hours

 

[KGB7]

Its too bad Abit no longer makes boards, i think they would have made another good product.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

The only Abit board I've ever owned failed and took out a hard drive with it (R.I.P. all of my pictures from college ). I replaced it with an Asus and haven't looked back.

 

[batboy]

That's the board I'm looking at. I really like the features, and I've had good luck with Asus.

Right now, they're claiming widespread problems on NewEgg, even saying the BIOS isn't K compatible out of the box. ??? (I know, NewEgg users can be N00bs)

I'll let things shake out a month before jumping, or just buy it now if you tell me to.

I haven't heard much problems here on the forum about the P8P67. The BIOS it ships with is 1051 and I can assure you it's K compatible and overclockable. It's advisable to flash to the latest 1053 BIOS, which I did fairly quickly. There were a few improvements with the new BIOS as to be expected with a brand new chipset. I have Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit and the AI Suite II loaded fine for me.

I miss Abit too. I had various Abit boards for over a decade. They treated me right. RIP Abit.

 

[Audioaficionado]

Why does the "best" matter? most of them overclock the same in the midrange segment so who cares? Get the features you desire in a midrange board and call it a day.

ASUS DIGI+ VRM 16+2

 

[EarthDog]

Cherry chip dude. Have u read the toms article yet? I would take a look at that.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

Cherry chip dude. Have u read the toms article yet? I would take a look at that.

To be fair there is some corelation between the boards with fewer than 10 phases and scoring lower in that review on the cpu and memory overclocks.

Boards with 10, 12, 14, 16 phases... maybe it doesn't make a difference at all, maybe it only makes a difference with CPUs capable of 5+ GHz, maybe it matters a little in the 4.5-5.0 range, who knows? Too early to tell.

 

[bobad]

I haven't heard much problems here on the forum about the P8P67.

As said, some of the NewEgg complaints may be from n00bs,,, some may even be multiple complaints from the same disgruntled user.

Asus always takes a while to shake out the BIOS, Gigabyte too. It's gotten to be a regular ritual that goes in 2 or 3 year cycles. You buy a new board, have a few problems, wait and hope for better BIOS, usually ends in satisfaction.

I remember being excited when a board maker came out with a graphical mousable BIOS back in the early 90's. Man, was I excited, but the board was junk. I don't even remember the maker any more, not a common brand for sure.

 

[EarthDog]

To be fair there is some corelation between the boards with fewer than 10 phases and scoring lower in that review on the cpu and memory overclocks.

Boards with 10, 12, 14, 16 phases... maybe it doesn't make a difference at all, maybe it only makes a difference with CPUs capable of 5+ GHz, maybe it matters a little in the 4.5-5.0 range, who knows? Too early to tell.

Absolutely. The top 6 boards though, which are midranged boards (well I guess they all are) show littel difference in overclocking. I havent checked that article to see what does it, but if the chip will do it, Im betting those boards will do it within 100-200Mhz. The person that started this thread isnt looking for peak clocks either.