Most stable and efficient P67 MB

G

glen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2007
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230
I need a sandy bridge MB that will last 5 years. I bought my current MB at least 4 years ago and it has never given a BSOD or any instability issues. Its left on 24/7 used for Magic Jack as my only phone for the wife when she is home alone, so understand my fretting.

I had always used Asus boards when the world was upgrading every 12 months. When I bought the Abit P35 it had a better rep than the P35 Asus which was having issues at that time. Looking at all these Asus P67 issues has me scratching my head. I noticed the Asus P67 Pro was OOS at NewEgg (a bit of a red flag to me.)

Thinking of buying an Intel BOXDP67BA. It has all the features I need. I would plan on running a 2500K around 4 ghz, coming from a Q9550 at 3.6hgz I would imagine that would be a worthwhile upgrade. In the past you couldn't OC intel boards, but that seems to have changed?

As far as video I use an HD4770. Doubt I would upgrade unless there is a faster vid card that uses the same or less power.

The computer is used for internet, email, and high performance music (high end sound cards, VST's, etc) and also watching TV shows with my TV as the extended monitor. I want to play games like COD, but just can't get used to a keyboard so my computer gaming has been limited and I guess will remain that way unless they start selling COD usb controllers.

Power supply is an ancient but amazing Fotron 500W. 1 Vertex2 SSD and 1 XP HDD and 2 storage HDD's. The computer being on 24/7 with UPS, it is important for me to have a board that uses less power when idling (but not hibernating or asleep.)

With my Abit, the support thread at the other forum has kept me going all these years, with folks updating the bios to newer drivers on their own , just an amazing thing considering that Abit dropped support. I don't see 5 year old threads with support for Intel boards, which is a definate con.

The new power management on the Asus is great if it proves to be stable and long lasting.

Anyway long winded, sorry, Intel BOXDP67BA, ASUS P8P67 LE, or wait for the Asus Pro issues to be ironed out?.
 
Hate to say it but if those are the only two choices then the Intel. Way to many Asus issues right now. I wouldn't touch one of their P67 boards with a ten foot pole. Might be totally unfounded but that is my perception.
Why not the MSI board? Got a good review here and I haven't seen any complaints...
 
wrangler said:
Hate to say it but if those are the only two choices then the Intel. Way to many Asus issues right now. I wouldn't touch one of their P67 boards with a ten foot pole. Might be totally unfounded but that is my perception.
Why not the MSI board? Got a good review here and I haven't seen any complaints...
Click to expand...

I bought an MSI board years ago that was very unstable, do they have a good rep now?
 
They're like anybody else, including Intel. They have their winners and their losers.

I personally have had good luck with them. I just noticed that they have gotten good reviews here for their last two boards and also noticed that almost nobody has posted about them. Usually that means no problems, but I guess around here it could also mean nobody is buying them. lol

Just saying they might be worth checking out.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/01/03/msi_p67agd65_lga1155_chipset_motherboard_review/
 
If there was a board guaranteed to work 24/7 without ever producing a bsod from hardware or software issues then everyone would be buying it and you would already know about it. It is luck of the draw. My Asus p67 caused me huge issues, I ended up buying a new power supply in an attempt to solve them before I confirmed it was the MB. This does not mean Asus is any worse than the Biostar I replaced it with that has worked perfectly so far. Luck of the draw, even a great board can have a bad cap. That said, Intel seems to be more conservative in design and more cautious in pushing the limits and thus have a very good reputation for high quality low failure rate products. Which at the end of the days means squat, still luck of the draw.
 
wrangler said:
Hate to say it but if those are the only two choices then the Intel. Way to many Asus issues right now. I wouldn't touch one of their P67 boards with a ten foot pole. Might be totally unfounded but that is my perception.
Why not the MSI board? Got a good review here and I haven't seen any complaints...
Click to expand...

Is it the board or bios? Two different issues. ASUS boards are great, just have to wait until the right bios is released. UEFI is new so the bugs will have to be ironed out. Myself and others have had an excellent experience with the SaberTooth.

Edit: Seems like the bios and now the Intel sata chipset is wonky.
 
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My short answer is the P67 Sabertooth would fit your needs. I own this board and am pleased with it.

You could also sacrifice clock speed & overclockability for more power efficient sandy bridge chips.

glen said:
I need a sandy bridge MB that will last 5 years.
Click to expand...

Whether or not any piece of electronic equipment will last 5 years is impossible to predict, but I'm in the same boat as you - I want rock solid stability day in and day out for 3+ years. One measure of confidence is the length of warranty. This gives me a good indication of the quality of parts used and the confidence of the manufacturer.

The Asus P67 Sabertooth has a 5 year warranty, the longest I could find for any P67 board. This board also lists specifics on the components and emphasizes stability and quality. 3 year warranty seems to be the standard from Intel/MSI/Gigabyte/Asus/etc.

The ZOTAC H67ITX-A-E (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500061&Tpk=1155) has a lifetime warranty, but is based on the H67 chipset, something you may or may not care about. It also looks like a child designed it, but given your needs it's worth a consideration.

Power supply is an ancient but amazing Fotron 500W. 1 Vertex2 SSD and 1 XP HDD and 2 storage HDD's. The computer being on 24/7 with UPS, it is important for me to have a board that uses less power when idling (but not hibernating or asleep.)
Click to expand...

Idle power is going to be affected by each component that's enabled on the motherboard. The more features, controllers, fans, etc. are all going to increase the idle load. Would having 2x4GB 1.5V modules be more preferable than faster, 4x2GB modules running at 1.65V? Can you consolidate your 3 HDD's into one? Would you be willing to part ways with the bulletproof Fortan PSU if it could be replaced with an 80 plus gold certified modular PSU (more efficiency at most loads, with the added benefit of maximizing what exactly is drawing power with modular connections)?

Buy yourself a Kill-A-Watt appliance and do some testing on your current rig. Disable on board stuff you're not using, play around with voltage settings, fans, cards etc.
 
The correct answer to this thread is any P67 board produced on or after March 1st 2011.

Google Cougar Point Recall and feel the pain!
 
noone here talks about asrock extreme6
thats a serious full featured board, 10 sata ports, 6 sata 3 ports just in case its got a faulty cougar chip, thx, clear cmos button on rear, gold nichicon caps, uefi, supports older hsfs, led error readout, usb box, all kinds of good stuff.. and apparently overclocks well.. has a healthy list of ram compatibility, bios are updated regularly..

its just.... UGLY.

and ive yet to read anything bad about it having sata issues.
 
Had the Asus one, didn't act very good... got the MSI GD65 and things have been swell.
 
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