Motherboards

We have been following Asus and their progress as a company for a very long time. When we first began working with them they were a very ambitious company (and at times too ambitious). This came out in their products in many ways. Some were good others were bad. However, over the years they have learned from their mistakes and began to build products that not only performed but also made sense. One our favorite lines from Asus is the Republic of Gamers line, but right behind that is their “The Ultimate Force” line. We have looked over a few boards from this line and like their quality and stock performance. When the P67 chipset hit the market we were looking forward to getting the Sabertooth on the test bench. Unfortunately just before we did Intel found the error in the B2 Stepping of the Cougar Point. Now, all of that is in the past and we have the Asus P67 Sabertooth on the bench for some test time. So let’s look at the design philosophy and what you get when you buy this board from Asus.

For our second review of 2011 we thought we would take a look at a P67 board (despite all the drama).  We chose the Asus P8P67 WS Revolution. This board (like you did not know) is part of Asus’ workstation line up, but that does not mean that it is boring. In fact the WS Revolution is anything but boring. It has been built with the professional enthusiast in mind. You get items like an NF200 chip to help support three way SLI and Crossfire, a 92% power efficiency rating,  multiple SATA 3.0 ports (supported by Intel and Marvell), and dual Intel GBe LAN ports.  But there is more to it than just the sum of its features. You also get an improved VRM (voltage regulation module), thicker traces for better signal transfer and quite a bit more. With all of this waiting to be tried out, let’s quit the intro chatter and dive into the P8P67 WS Revolution.

The workstation server market is one that has been neglected in the mainstream technical media. Yes there are a few “upper-end” sites that cover the workstation arena but they tend be a little snobby at times and almost always talk over the heads of the average consumer. So we are going to try and bring some of that talk to you in plain English. To kick things off we have a very nice product. This is the first Dual socket 1366 motherboard in a standard ATX package. It has been brought to you by the Asus Work Station team. These guys are a very talented bunch and have made some workstation products that can even compete head to head with some of the Republic of Games boards that Asus has. So let’s introduce to you the Asus Z8NA-D6C.