H67 – A Triumvirate of Tantalizing Technology
by Ian Cutress on March 27, 2011 6:25 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Sandy Bridge
- H67
Board Features
| Market Segment | Mainstream H67 |
| CPU Interface | LGA 1155 |
| CPU Support | i3/i5/i7 Sandy Bridge |
| Chipset | H67 |
| Base Clock Frequency | 100 MHz |
| DDR3 Memory Speed | 1000 or 1333 MHz |
| Core Voltage | Auto |
| CPU Clock Multiplier | Dependant on CPU |
| DRAM Voltage | Auto, 1.2V to 1.8V in 0.015V increments |
| DRAM Command Rate | Auto, 1N or 2N |
| Memory Slots |
Four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots in dual-channel Regular unbuffered DD3 memory Up to 32GB total supported |
| Expansion Slots |
1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots 1 x PCI slot |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (white) with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 3 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) with RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 1 x eSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports |
| Onboard |
2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (white) 3 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) 1 x Floppy connector 1 x IR header 1 x CIR header 1 x Print Port header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x Power LED header Front Panel audio connector 3 x USB 2.0 header (for 6 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (for 2 ports) |
| Onboard LAN | Realtek RTL8111E Gigabit Ethernet |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 7.1-Channel HD Audio |
| Power Connectors |
24-pin EATX Power connector 8-pin EATX 12V Power connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan connector (4-pin) 3 x Chassis Fan connectors (3 x 3-pin) 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port |
| I/O Panel |
1 x D-Sub 1 x DVI-D 1 x HDMI Port 1 x DisplayPort 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 4 x USB 2.0 Ports 2 x USB 3.0 Ports (Etron EJ168A) 2 x eSATA 3Gb/s Port 1 x LAN (RJ-45) Gigabit Ethernet Audio Connectors |
| BIOS | 1.3 |
In the Box
- I/O shield
- USB 3.0 front panel
- USB 3.0 rear bracket
- Anaglyph Red-Blue 3D Glasses
- 2 x SATA cables
- 4 x HDD screws
- 6 x Chassis screws
My favorite addition to a Sandy Bridge motherboard packages comes in again – ASRock like supplying a USB 3.0 front bracket with their motherboards that comes with a space to put in an SSD – easily a product of $15 value if it were available separately. Also in the package is a pair of retro anaglyph 3D glasses if you own any video in red-blue 3D format.
The motherboard also comes with an infra-red receiver and remote control, designed to work with your Media center software. The infra-receiver must be connected to a front-panel USB which is in turn connected to the CIR motherboard connector:
Instructions to install this are all in the manual. The manual was oddly not on the CD we received with the motherboard, but is available online. The remote itself seems fairly generic, but does not have a flashing LED to signify when you are pressing a button (a must-have for any remote control in my opinion), but the package does come with two CR-2032 coin batteries for the remote.
Software
As with the P67 Extreme4 review, ASRock have packaged most of their utilities into one program, making it quicker and easier to install and uninstall. With their CD, apart from the driver updates, ASRock include three programs:
ASRock eXtreme Tuning Utility (AXTU)
The AXTU that ships with the H67M-GE/HT is essentially the same software that comes with the P67 Extreme4, except it comes with all the extras required for on-processor graphics. Though as you might be able to tell from this first picture, it cannot exactly read the frequency of the graphics side accurately. Mind you, I would love a 10300 MHz GPU!
The fan control is pretty standard for ASRock fare – out of the headers on the board you can control the CPU fan and two of chassis fans. The AXTU will define a power curve/line for the fans given your suggested target temperature and max speed. Ultimately this is not the most awesome utility in the world for fan speeds, but it does the job it is programmed to do.
The overclocking section of the AXTU allows the standard selection of voltages, but also the CPU Ratio and Graphics frequency. In this case, you can define the maximum CPU Ratio – as we are using a 2500K on H67, it is a 37x limit on the single-core with turbo boost. The graphics frequency setting allows all the way up to 3000 MHz in 50 MHz steps, but as with all these options, requires a reboot. Even then, just because you selected it does not mean it is stable. Have a quick gander on my overclocking results for this board to see what I mean.
ASRock Instant Boot
ASRock’s Instant Boot is designed to help decrease the time to boot, by when you select shutdown, it will perform a full restart, then kick a form of hibernation in and enter low power mode. Thus when you press the power button next, the OS will appear a lot quicker than a full boot. As the CPU stays at stock on H67, we found no issues with Instant Boot.
ASRock XFast USB
If you remember XFast USB from our previous ASRock article, then you may remember that when installed and enabled, it essentially blew the competition away in terms of read/write and our standard copy benchmark. It is no exception on H67. There's a lack of information online as to exactly how this software works, and the line from ASRock is that the 'XFast USB software modifies part of the USB driver, allowing it to multi-task and enhance the performance - ASRock are continually tuning the performance for better results'. In practice, this works really well.
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james.jwb - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
"However, I remember the time when I was a scrimping student. I wanted high gaming performance at the lowest cost – if Sandy Bridge was out then, and I was specifically after the Sandy Bridge platform over anything AMD, then a H67 with an i3-2100 and the biggest graphics card I could afford would be a viable option."When I was in this position, i'd go for the cheapest CPU and overclock it so it was faster than anything on the market. I'd be surprised if this wasn't the norm for people on a tight budget.
IanCutress - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
My argument mainly for my comment is that the CPU is becoming less of a factor for gaming, thus shifting the focus away from a CPU OC to a large GPU. It used to be the case that the CPU made a large difference as well, but it my mind it's not that much of an issue with a strong default CPU speed and cores available. Nevertheless, the AMD + cheap tri/quad core is on the other side of the coin.Ian
slickr - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Intel mobos are crap. Only for overclocking and only for graphics, where is the middle?And they are too expensive, hopefully AMD wipes the floor with them with their new Buldozer platform.
Jeffs0418 - Sunday, May 22, 2016 - link
Here we are 5 years later and...Y'know I was ready to move on from my Athlon 64 x2 5000+/AM2 platform(which I liked but was marginal for modern gaming). I was stoked for a nice capable FX4100/Bulldozer platform. But after reading disappointing reviews I ended up with a Core i3 2120/Sandy Bridge and a H61 mobo. Currently running a Core i5 2500(non-k) massaged a bit to 3.9GHz on all cores with aftermarket cooling on P67 mobo. Never have used Intel integrated graphics so I couldn't care less about that. But I am glad I didn't go with Bulldozer and am comfortable enough with my current setup even now that I'm in no hurry to upgrade.omelet - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Wouldn't someone wanting SB gaming on a budget be more likely to want an H61? You can get such a board from ASRock for like 60 bucks. That's $60 more you'd be able to spend on the GPU, and you'd still have every feature you need. The only real performance difference is that there's no SATA 6Gbps, but budget gamers don't have drives that need that anyway.yzkbug - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
Totally agree. I’m looking for a good, reliable, budget-priced motherboard for my new HTPC. Would love to see a comparison review of H61 motherboards, especially the power comparison numbers.Taft12 - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
I'd need to know at what point the 6 PCIE lanes on H61 begins to get in the way of the GPUs performance. Someone will surely do the testing to show us in the near future. Noticeable on, say, a 6850? Or do we need a much higher-end GPU for a bottlenect?DanNeely - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
The GPU would still be running on the 16 lanes from the CPU. You just have 2 less lanes for 2ndary slots and onboard devices. I don't think it's likely to be an issue except in that you're much less likely to get a second x4 slot (1/11 vs 6/16 on newegg), and the 1 H61 board that does it has legacy PCI slots for the other 2 spaces, while 5/6 H67 boards have at least 1 1x slot as well.omelet - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
This is very confusing. All the boards claim to have x16 slots, but they can't possibly run at x16 if none of the boards on the table even have 16 lanes. A P67 running two cards would have to run each at 4x, or even lower if there are any x1 slots on the board (as there are on most boards).It might be explained as being an x16 slot running at a lower speed, except for the fact that P67 and P55 both specify that they can run two cards at x8/x8, which can only mean that they run the x16 slots at 8 lanes each when you have two cards plugged in. That should also be impossible according to the table.
Other sources I've found on the internet seem to imply that the x16 slot on the H61 runs at full x16 speed. I think perhaps we just need some clarification on what the values on the table here mean.
ajp_anton - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
There are two sources for PCIe lanes. The CPUs all have x16 (only for graphics), the rest (what is shown in the table) come from the motherboard chip (H67 etc).