ASUS Sabertooth P67A B3 Review
Introduction
At the tail end of last year we received the ASUS Sabertooth X58 motherboard and it quickly wowed us with its combination of great looks, insane performance and cheap price. We consider it the best choice for an X58 motherboard once you take into account pricing and features. High praise indeed. So when the P67 version arrived on our doorstep you can imagine how excited we were.
Following the much publicised problem with the early P67 boards this is a B3 variant which includes the fixed SATA issue.
There is some stiff competition in the P67 sector of the marketplace with a plentiful supply of boards at the high-end and the middle ground, where this particular board slots in pricing terms, is awash with boards.
Does the P67A B3 Sabertooth live up to the incredible standards of its predecessor? There is only one way to find out.
Technical Specifications
A quick sojourn over to the ASUS website reveals the specifications for the Sabertooth.
| CPU | Intel® Socket 1155 for Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i7 Processor, Core™ i5 Processor, Core™ i3 Processor Support Intel® 32nm CPU Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 |
| Chipset | Intel® P67(B3) Express Chipset |
| Memory | 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB, DDR3 1866/1800/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel memory architecture Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) |
| Expansion Slots | 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode) 3 x PCIe 2.0 x1 1 x PCI |
| Multi-GPU Support | Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology Supports ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology |
| Storage | Intel® P67(B3) Express Chipset 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (brown) 4 xSATA 3Gb/s ports (black) Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10 Marvell® PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller 2 xSATA 6Gb/s ports (gray) JMicron® JMB362 SATA controller 1 xPower eSATA 3Gb/s port (green) 1 xExternal SATA 3Gb/s port (red) |
| LAN | Intel® 82579 Gigabit LAN- Dual interconnect between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY) |
| Audio | Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC – Absolute Pitch 192khz/24bit True BD Lossless Sound – BD Audio Layer Content Protection – Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking – Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O |
| IEEE 1394 | VIA® VT6308P controller supports 2 x 1394a port(s) (one at mid-board; one at back panel) |
| USB | NEC USB 3.0 controllers – 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports at mid-board for front panel support; 2 ports at back panel [blue]) Intel® P67(B3) Express Chipset – 14 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 8 ports at back panel) |
| Back Panel I/O Ports | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo port 1 x External SATA 3Gb/s port (red) 1 x Power eSATA 3Gb/s port (green) 1 x IEEE 1394a 1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s) 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (blue) 8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical) 8 -Channel Audio I/O |
| Internal I/O Connectors | 1 x USB 3.0/2.0 connector(s) supports additional 2 USB ports (19-pin; moss green) 3 x USB 2.0/1.1 connector(s) support additional 6 USB ports 1 x MemOK! button 4 x SATA 6.0Gb/s connectors ( 2 x gray; 2 x brown) 4 x SATA 3.0Gb/s (black) 1 x IEEE 1394a connector 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 2 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (1 x 4-pin; 1 x 3-pin) 1 x Power Fan connector(s) (3-pin) 1 x Assistant Fan connector (3-pin) 1 x S/PDIF Out connector 24-pin EATX Power connector 8-pin EATX 12V Power connector 1 x Front panel audio connector 1 x COM connector 1 x System Panel (Q-Connector) 1 x Clear CMOS jumper |
| BIOS | 32 Mb Flash ROM , EFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0a, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 2, ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 |
| Accessories | User’s manual 2 x SATA 3.0Gb/s cables 2 x SATA 6.0Gb/s cables 1 x Q-Shield 1 x Q-Connecor (2 in 1) 1 x ASUS SLI bridge cable 1 x TUF Certification card 1 x TUF 5 Year Warranty manual (by region) 4 x screws for Assistant Fan |
A very fulsome specification indeed. The Sabertooth contains everything we’d expect to see from a modern motherboard and ASUS’ normal additional feature-set.
Time to take a closer look.
