By: Jonathan Kwan
May 20, 2011
What was the first thing they made after the wheel was invented? I am not sure about what Wikipedia has to say, but to the best of my understanding, it was probably my friend's old school Mazda -- which finally decided to kick the bucket a few weeks ago. To commemorate its death after years of unfaithful service, I decided to poke some fun at him, and brought him to the local junkyard -- also known as a Hyundai dealership -- to check out what the future has in store for him. When I sat down inside the brand new 2011 Elantra parked inside the showroom after gawking at its obnoxiously overdone and fundamentally awkward interpretation of the company's "fluidic sculpture" theme, a pretty female salesperson about our age (I'm 20) walked over and greeted us. She highlighted a few features of the car, and then allowed us to explore on our own. Right after she turned around, I got out of the driver's seat, and leaned over to my friend, who was standing outside. "I think I like the girl more", I said. My friend nodded in agreement. "Yeah, she's prettier than anything around here." (His sister, on the other hand, wasn't very pleased.) My point is, despite the fact there is usually nothing good inside a Hyundai dealership, there can be exceptions. There can be surprises. In the same way, when is the last time you've looked at some compact mini-ITX PC and thought to yourself, "This thing must be one underpowered computer for people who don't care about performance?" Well, as the old saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover. If it has an ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe mITX motherboard under the hood, then don't pee your pants when it smokes the riced out full tower PC next to it. Featuring a standard LGA 1155 socket for the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processors, a PCI Express x16 slot to accommodate the graphics card of your choice, what we have here is some serious awesomeness in a very compact package. Ready to find out more? Let's roll.
Our review unit of the ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe motherboard for LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge processors came in a large, brown corrugated cardboard box from ASUS' American headquarters at Fremont, California, USA. Using FedEx International Economy, everything arrived safely to us here in Calgary safely and in excellent condition. Inside the not-so-mystery box are two other products that accompanied this mITX motherboard; namely the ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution and ASUS P8P67 PRO we have reviewed back in April this year.
ASUS' familiar blue background is back on the P8H67-I Deluxe's retail packaging. Using a gradient of blue overlaid by a mesh grid in the background, a series of mainly electronics surround a golden disco ball on the left, while ASUS' logo and Mini Max Home Entertainment Center branding can be found across the top. This is followed by the motherboard model on the right, in conjunction with an array of icons highlighting its USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, GPU boost, integrated 802.11n, and BT GO! features along the bottom. This combined makes an unquestionably ASUS-esque design. Flip the box around, and you will see a specifications table and further feature highlights. Speaking of which, before we move on, let's take a look at the specifications of ASUS' P8H67-I Deluxe mini-ITX motherboard, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
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® H67(B3) Express Chipset
Memory
2 xSmall Outline DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
* Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for Memory QVL.
Expansion Slots
1 xPCIe 2.0 x16
VGA
Supports HDMI with Max. Resolution 1920 x 1200 @60Hz
Supports DVI with Max. Resolution 1920 x 1200 @60Hz
Supports D-Sub with Max. Resolution 2048 x 1530 @75Hz
Max. UMA Memory: 1748M
Storage
Intel® H67(B3) Express Chipset
2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray)
2 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue)
Support RAID 0,1,5,10
1 xExternal SATA 3Gb/s port
LAN
Realtek® RTL8111E Gigabit LAN Controller
Wireless LAN
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Audio
Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC
- BD Audio Layer Content Protection
- Supports Jack-Detection, Front Panel Jack-Retasking
- Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
USB
Chipset built-in
- 4 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 ports at mid-board, 2 ports at pack panel)
Chipset built-in
- 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports at mid-board, 4 ports at back panel)
ASUS Unique Features
ASUS Power Solutions
- ASUS Anti-Surge Protection
- ASUS EPU
ASUS Exclusive Features
- GPU Boost
- MemOK!
- BT GO!
ASUS EZ DIY
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- EFI BIOS (EZ Mode)
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse Combo port
1 x DVI
1 x D-Sub
1 x HDMI
1 x External SATA
1 x LAN(RJ45) port(s)
2 x USB 3.0/2.0
4 x USB 2.0/1.1
1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical)
6 -Channel Audio I/O
2 x Wi-Fi antenna port
1 x Bluetooth
Internal I/O Connectors
1 x USB 3.0/2.0 connector(s) support additional 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports
1 x USB 2.0/1.1 connector(s) support additional 2 USB 2.0/1/1 ports
1 x MemOK! Button
1 x GPU Boost Switch
2 x SATA 6.0Gb/s connectors
2 x SATA 3.0Gb/s connectors
1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (4-pin)
1 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4-pin)
1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x 4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
1 x Front panel audio connector
1 x System Panel connector
1 x Clear CMOS jumper
BIOS
32 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0a
Manageability
WOL by PME,PXE
Support Disc
Drivers
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
ASUS Update
ASUS Utilities
Form Factor
Mini ITX Form Factor
6.75 inch x 6.75 inch ( 17.1 cm x 17.1 cm )
CPU-Z screenshot of the motherboard tab running ASUS P8H67-I Deluxe in Windows 7 Professional x64. At press time, we were using ASUS' 0502 BIOS revision. This is the only BIOS revision at the time of writing this review.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Features, and Specifications
2. Bundle, Chipset, BIOS
3. A Closer Look, Board Layout, Test System
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
6. Benchmark: AIDA64 Memory
7. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
8. Benchmark: 3DMark Vantage
9. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 7.0
10. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench R11.5
11. Onboard Sound (RMAA 6.2.3) Analyzation
12. Conclusion
