When choosing a motherboard for the Intel Sandy Bridge Processors you have to make sure of a few things. First, make sure that you choose a motherboard with an LGA 1155 CPU Socket Type; this is a new CPU socket type needed by and only by Intels Sandy Bridge Processors. Second, you have to choose between an H67 or P67 Chipset.
Choosing between an H67 and P67 board is quite simple, and is purely based on what you are building your PC for. If you are building a gaming PC then your choice will most likely be a P67, and if you choose to build a basic PC for home use (web surfing, video streaming, media: music, video, photos etc.) then you will want to go with an H67 board.
Here is a quick synopsis of both the P67 and H67 motherboard:
P67:
A P67 motherboard is deigned to allow overclocking on your Sandy Bridge CPU, which is great for anyone wanting a build for gaming, or a workstation since you can push the CPU further, or extend your CPUs lifespan by keeping up with more demanding applications. The Sandy Bridge CPUs however have integrated Intel HD Graphics 2000, and the P67 motherboard chipset does not allow access to its integrated graphics. This should be no problem for anyone who wants to game, since it is probably smarter to purchase a better discrete graphics card.
H67:
An H67 motherboard is designed to utilize Sandy Bridges integrated Intel HD Graphics 2000 (On Intels i5-2300, i5-2400, i5-2500, i7-2600) and Intel HD Graphics 3000 (On Intels i5-2500K, and i7-2600K). If you purchase an H67 chipset motherboard you can essentially ditch purchasing a discrete graphics card if its not needed, which can save some cash. As well, when an H67 motherboard generally includes a couple of display port options including HDMI and DVI ports which do allow multiple display support.
A description of the Intel HD graphics from Intels website:
- Accelerated graphics processing takes advantage of shared last-level cache between the processor and graphics.
- Intel® 32nm process technology throughout, delivers higher performance and better energy efficiency.
- Faster 3D rendering and more complex shading create more responsive and realistic 3D gaming.
- Intel HD Graphics 3000 delivers immersive and casual mainstream gaming capabilities with entry-level discrete graphics card performance without an additional graphics card or chip.
- Intel HD Graphics 2000 delivers casual mainstream gaming capabilities without an additional graphics card or chip.
Posted: January 26, 2011