ASUS Sabertooth P67 B3 Motherboard

Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Model Number: Sabertooth P67 B3/TUF
Product Name: Intel P67-Express Motherboard
Price as Tested: $219.99 at NewEgg

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by ASUS.

The Sandy Bridge B3 revision motherboards are out and ready to go. ASUS has already re-released all of their previous motherboards under the new revision. You've seen our reviews of other ASUS P67 motherboards, and Benchmark Reviews is now bringing you a look at the ASUS Sabertooth P67 B3 Rev 3.0 motherboard with its TUF Thermal Armor and military grade components. We have a good idea where the benchmark scores will fall, and we don't expect any surprises there. But every motherboard is a little different. In this article, Benchmark Reviews is focusing on the ASUS Sabertooth P67, what it brings to the table, and how that compares with other P67-Express motherboards.

The Sandy Bridge platform has had a pretty tumultuous run since the B2 stepping was recalled due to issues with the SATA 3Gb/s ports. The delays have caused untold misery to manufacturers who basically had to throw out their previous designs and eat the costs of building all that hardware. Now we have moved on to revision 3.0, also known as B3 stepping. With rev 3.0, the issues were fixed, and manufacturers have begun replacing affected hardware and shipping out the new stuff. ASUS has remained customer service minded, offering potential refunds or replacements for affected hardware and being among the first to offer rev 3.0 hardware for the Intel 6 series.

ASUS is bringing a lot of change to the existing norm with their P67-Express chipset motherboards, not the least of which is the EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) with Graphical User Interface included with all of their P67 motherboards. That's not all, however. The following are a few things ASUS has added to the Sabertooth P67 motherboard that we will explore further along in this article. Some of these technologies are new and others have been used before.

• EFI - User Extensible Firmware Interface (BIOS replacement) with Graphical User Interface
• DIGI+ VRM - Precision digital Voltage Regulator Module replaces analog management
• ASUS HyperDuo - Creates a hybrid storage drive by combining HDD and SSD
• AI Suite II - Combines DIGI+ VRM, EPU, TurboV EVO, BT GO!, FAN Xpert, and Probe II software into one program
• ASUS DIP2 - Dual Intelligent Processors integrated onto the motherboard:
  - ASUS TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) Relieves parts of process-intensive tasks from CPU
  - ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) Reduces power drain by up to 80%
• MemOK! - Enables the motherboard to boot up successfully even if there might be some memory compatibility issues.

All motherboard manufacturers realize that the key to making their product stand out from the crowd of nearly identical motherboards is to add their own features. While some are common-place, like USB 3.0 ports that Intel oddly left of the P67-Express chipset, others are rare. Some are seemingly cosmetic or serve a little used function. Whatever the case may be, all motherboards, even those from the same manufacturer, vary somewhat in their feature sets. Below is a table that outlines some of the ASUS P67 motherboards so you can compare their features with those of the ASUS Sabertooth P67 motherboard.

Previous Page - Next Page >>