Chipset delays aside, Sandy Bridge has been one of the most anticipated and impressive releases we've seen from Intel in recent years. The first wave of processors have demonstrated superior efficiency as they swept aside considerably more expensive processors of previous generations, while consuming even less power. The Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K models have also delivered effortless overclocking potential without going for excessive price premiums.
When getting our first taste of the Sandy Bridge architecture we were also given the opportunity to check out some rather impressive looking Gigabyte motherboards in the P67A-UD4 and H67MA-UD2H. For those building a new high-end rig from the ground up, the LGA1155 platform looks like the way to go and there are already quite a few exciting new P67 motherboards to choose from.
Therefore we decided to put together a roundup featuring many of the very best P67 motherboards available. Back in November 2009 we published a similar article which focused on P55 motherboards ranging in price from $120 to $250. That particular review featured seven boards from the likes of Asrock, Asus, DFI, ECS, EVGA, Gigabyte and MSI.
This time around we have five rather high-end motherboards from Asrock, Asus, ECS, Gigabyte and MSI. EVGA has just one P67 board on offer and unfortunately our contact there didn't seem all that keen to have it compared to the competition. Meanwhile DFI seems to have dropped off the map as they have yet to design an LGA1155 motherboard.
That leaves us with the Asrock P67 Extreme6 ($210), Asus P8P67 Deluxe ($240), ECS P67H2-A2 ($195), Gigabyte P67A-UD7 ($330) and MSI P67A-GD55 ($160). The motherboards will be put through the usual batch of tests, while we scrutinize its on-board features and compare their overclocking abilities side by side.
It's a huge article, so please bear with us, or alternatively jump to whichever brand/model you are most interested about for in-depth coverage.