With the P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty, ASRock has a high-end Sandy Bridge motherboard in its portfolio which especially targets the gaming market. Next to a very attractive design the board also features three PCI-Express x16 slots and ten SATA-Ports. 
The P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty belongs to the high end motherboards regarding ASRocks lineup for the Intels Sandy Bridge CPUs. Therefore we're really curious what they've done from the layout and design perspective.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Specifications / Delivery
| CPU | Intel Socket 1155 Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 |
| Chipset | Intel P67 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3, 2133(OC) / 2000 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU |
2-/3-way ATI CrossFireX 2-way NVIDIA SLI |
| Slots | 3 x PCI-Express x16 (single @ x16,
dual @ x8, triple @ x8, x8, x4) 2 x PCI-Express x1 2 x PCI |
| Sound | Realtek ALC892, 7.1-Channel HD Audio Codec, S/PDIF Out |
| Storage | 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10) 4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s (Marvell SE9120) 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD) 1 x eSATA 6.0 Gb/s |
| I/O internal / Connectors | 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, RAID 5 and Intel® Rapid Storage), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug functions 6 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connectors 1 x ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) 1 x Floppy connector 1 x IR header 1 x COM port header 1 x HDMI_SPDIF header 1 x IEEE 1394 header 1 x Power LED header 1 x Power Button 1 x Reset Button 1 x CLR CMOS Button CPU/Chassis/Power FAN connector 24 pin ATX power connector 8 pin 12V power connector CD in header Front panel audio connector 4 x USB 2.0 headers (support 8 USB 2.0 ports) 1 x USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) 1 x Debug with LED |
| I/O external | 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port 1 x Coaxial SPDIF Out Port 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 3 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports 1 x Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0) 1 x eSATA3 Connector 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 3.0 Ports 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports with LED 1 x IEEE 1394 Port 1 x Clear CMOS Switch with LED HD Audio Jack: Side Speaker / Rear Speaker / Center / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone |
| Forfactor | ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
| BIOS | 32 Mb Flash ROM , EFI AMI BIOS |
- Manual
- Support CD
- 1 x Ultra ATA 66/100/133 IDE cable
- 1 x Floppy cable
- 6 x Serial ATA cable
- 2 x Serial ATA Power cable
- 1 x I/O Shield
- 1 x Front USB 3.0 Bracket
- 1 x Rear USB 3.0 Bracket
- 1 x SLI Bridge
Regarding the delivery you'll find everything you need. Unfortunately you'll only find a SLI Bridge but no CrossFire bridge.
Features
| Fatal1ty Mouse Port | The Fatal1ty Mouse Port allows gamer to set the polling rate directly at the USB port. Therefore it is possible to choose a polling rate which is between 125 to 1'000 Hz. |
| Fatal1ty F-Stream | Using this software one can monitor and overclock its new system. It is possible to check voltages and fan speeds. The fan speeds can also be manipulated as well as the voltages. Also the CPU frequency can be change by adjusting the multiplyer and base clock. |
| Dual LAN Teaming | Using this feature allows you to bundle the two built in LAN interfaces which results in higher network bandwidth. |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Layout
The P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty comes with a black and red painting and furthermore the writings which are framed with the aluminium silver are also eye catching. In this case the PCB comes in black as well as the northbridge, southbridge and capacitor coolers cover. Red are the PCI-Express x16 slots, two DIMM slots as well as six SATA ports. It seems like everything that symbolizes speed has been kept in red. Everything together ends up in a very nice and homogenous design. But somehow we get a feeling that ASRock has been inspired by the ASUS ROG boards.
ASRock provided their latest gaming board with a digital power design, whereas the CPU gets 16 phases and the memory gets two phases. Looking at the capacitors themselves you'll find high quality caps around the CPU socket which promise a long life span and rock solid stability.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the ASRock P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty. Officially supported are DDR3-2133(OC) / 2000 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 with up to 32 GByte capacity. Positioning of the DIMM-slots has been well thought which means they aren't too close to the CPU socket. Therefore there wont be incompatibilities between huge CPU coolers and big memory modules.
Northbridge as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The southbridge got a passive cooling block which has not been integrated into the heatpipe loop of northbridge and VRM. The fact that the cooling blocks around the CPU socket aren't too big makes it comfortable to install a big aircooler. Furthermore there are additional holes around the CPU socket which allow you the installation of socket 775 coolers. We also noticed the very high manufacturing quality of the cooling blocks and their weight which is quite immense.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Connectors and I/O
Totally ASRock equipped the P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty with ten angled SATA ports which should be enough for any office PC, gaming system or even home file server. You'll also find practical onboard power-, reset- and CLR-CMOS-buttons. ASRock even thought of a debug display which is very useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system. Unfortunately if you install a video card into the last PCI-Express x16 slot it will cover all the connectors at the bottom edge of the board. This will turn most of them useless.
Totally you'll find six fan headers on the ASRock P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped midrange or even a high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU and their also spread over the whole board which makes them easily accessible from any position in an enclosure.
Looking at external connectors and buttons directly at the back-panel ASRock equipped the P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty with a PS2 mouse/keyboard connector, four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, a Firewire port, one eSATA port, two gigabit ethernet ports, a coaxial and optical audio connector, an analogue audio panel as well as a Clr CMOS button and the already mentioned Fatal1ty Mouse Port (USB 2.0).
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| From a design point of view ASRock did a really convincing job with the P67 Profess1onal Fatal1ty. We definitely liked it and in combination with the ten onboard SATA ports for example it will not only attract gamers we think that also PC enthusiasts will like this motherboard. We also liked that there was plenty of space between the different PCI-Express x16 slots which lets graphics card in a multi GPU setup breathe appropriately. | - Design
- 10 SATA Ports |
||
| Layout | + | - | |
|
Generally the P67 Profess1onal Fatal1tys layout is well thought. Once more very practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power-, reset- and CLR-CMOS buttons. Also the debug display can become very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Furthermore the placement of the PCI-Express x16 slots is well thought too and therefore nothing needs to be criticized at this point. The only thing we didn't like was that the if you install a video card in the last PCI-Express x16 slot, the connectors at the bottom edge of the board will be covered. What was also very practical is that ASRock provided this board with additional holes around the CPU socket that it became compatible with socket 775 coolers. |
- Angled SATA connectors
- Power/Reset/CLR-CMOS-Button onboard - Debug display - Holes for socket 775 coolers |
- Connectors at bottom edge of the board can be covered by a video card | |
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Conclusion |
| Page 3 - Layout |
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Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch