Asus P8P67 Deluxe – Features
When we published our P55 roundup back in 2009, the Asus P7P55D Deluxe was included and it quickly proved to be a fan favorite. The board offered plenty of features and it had amazing overclocking performance to boot. Despite being a tad overpriced, it was given our outstanding award and named the best enthusiast-level motherboard of the roundup.
This time round we have the P8P67 Deluxe and it looks to be every bit as good as the P7P55D Deluxe, if not better. The P8P67 Deluxe has a number of embedded features in addition to Asus' own brand features. The board's storage has been expanded to include extra SATA 6Gb/s ports along with powered eSATA, dual Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, 8-channel audio, FireWire and USB 3.0.
Perhaps the most unusual feature included is Bluetooth as we almost never see it integrated into a motherboard. The P8P67 Deluxe is the only board in this roundup to include Bluetooth support making it a little more unique. Asus' new "BT GO!" technology allows you to transfer files from a computer to any other Bluetooth enabled device such as a smartphone. Interestingly, the technology also allows you to use a smartphone as a remote control for your PC.
The P8P67 Deluxe features dual Gigabit LAN which complies with 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standard and allows a PC to serve as a network gateway for managing traffic between two separate networks.
Asus' motherboard also implements one Intel 82579 Gigabit LAN controller which reduces power consumption during normal operation and enhances faster transfer speed through dual interconnection between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY). The other controller is the Realtek 8111E which is also used by a few other boards in our roundup.
Asus has gone with a quality audio codec in the Realtek ALC889, which supports DTS Surround Sensation UltraPC and S/PDIF Out while also providing 2/4/5.1/7.1 channel audio. Other features include jack-detection, multi-streaming and front panel jack-retasking as well as BD Audio Layer Content Protection.
Like most boards featured in this roundup, the storage capabilities of the P8P67 Deluxe have been upgraded. Apart from the six SATA 3Gb/s (two of which can provide 6Gb/s throughput) provided by the P67 chip Asus has thrown in the Marvell 88SE9128 SATA 6Gb/s dual port controller. The controller supports NCQ (Native Command Queuing) and hardware RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10.
Meanwhile the JMicron JMB362 controller has also been included providing an additional two SATA 3Gb/s ports which are used for powered eSATA ports. These SATA ports are for data drives only as ATAPI devices are not supported. We would've preferred if Asus used a 6Gb/s controller but at least the ports are self-powered.
A pair of NEC D720200F1 controllers power four USB 3.0 ports on the rear I/O panel. Later on when we look at the Gigabyte P67A-UD7 you'll notice that it uses a pair of Renesas D720200 controllers. Last year Japanese electronics companies Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics merged to become the nation's largest semiconductor maker so the controllers are one in the same.
FireWire (IEEE1394a) support is provided by the VIA 6315N controller which enables two ports, one at the rear I/O panel and the other onboard via a header. Other than that the standard twelve USB 2.0 ports also exist, eight at the rear I/O panel and four onboard headers.
Like Asrock, Asus has also included the PLX PEX 8608 switch for delivering extra bandwidth where it is needed.