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Sapphire are probably AMD's largest and longest term partner, producing the finest video cards for the discerning enthusiast audience. In recent years they have been expanding their product portfolio into other categories, such as power supplies and even all in one high definition media computers.
KitGuru recently reviewed their latest Pure Black X58 motherboard which was not only exceptionally well built, but which offered massive overclocking potential. Today we are looking at their unique take on Sandybridge, with their Pure Black P67 Hydra motherboard. With a retail price of around £199.99 in the UK is this a board that you should be shortlisting for your next upgrade?
The specifications are impressive. Sapphire are using a 6+2+3 phase power design for the CPU core, CPU VTT and memory with support for up to 16GB of DDR3 memory at speeds up to 1,600mhz. They have also included voltage measure points, dedicated power and reset buttons along with a diagnostic LED and switchable dual BIOS configuration.
| Specification | |
| CPU | Support Intel LGA1155: Intel Core i7 /i5 / i3 series processors |
| Chipset | Intel® P67 Express Chipset |
| BIOS | AMI BIOS, 16Mb Flash ROM |
| Memory | 2 Channel DDR3 Technology 4 slots 240-pin DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600+ non-ECC ,un-buffered memory 16 GB Max. |
| Expansion Slots | 4 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots 2 x 32-bit PCI slots |
| Storage | 7 x Serial ATA III 6Gb/s connectors Supports HDDs with RAID 0, 1,5,10 functions |
| Audio | Realtek ALC892 HD Audio CODEC with 8-Channel |
| Ethernet LAN | Marvell 88E8057 PCI-Express Gigabit LAN |
| Rear Panel I / O | 8 x USB 2.0 port 2 x USB 3.0 port 1 x 1394a port 1 x SPDIF Coaxial OUT 1 x Audio I / O ports 1 x SPDIF Optical Out 1 x Supporting Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR by Atheros AR3011 1 x e-SATA port PS/2 KB/MS combo port |
| Internal I / O | 2 x USB 2.0 headers CPU 4 pin PWM Fan connectors 3 Pin Chassis Fan connectors 24-pin ATX Power connector 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector Control (Front) panel headers SPDIF In/out header 1 x 1394a headers |
| Special Features | Voltage measure PAD Power on Button with Power LED Reset Button with HDD access LED Clear CMOS button Diagnostic LED with CPU temperature monitor Dual BIOS with select Jumpers or switch 100% Japanese Solid Capacitor |
| Form Factor | ATX, Size 12″ x 9.6″ |
| OS support | Windows Vista (32/64) bit Windows 7 (32/64) bit |
£200? is that for real. their X58 board is £20 more !
I can understand them wanting to give people a talking point and offering support for nvidia multi card solutions but this technolology has just been slated no matter were I read about it. The X58 board they released had the best ideal, just forget SLI and work on single card and crossfireX solutions. It would have helped the price of this product by a long shot.
I really cant get over the price point. 200 for a P67, thats the same price as this killer model from asus http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-444-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1906
Good board for build qualty, I like sapphire products. always have. perfect if you are using AMD cards. I would have liked to see 6990 in CFx on it 🙂
Its moer expensive than a p67 board, generally, but its not that much, id buy it, even though I wouldnt touch lucid. might play around with it though, as I like tinkering.
Nice board layout, like the switches at the bottom. I hate seeing a board with CMOS switch undernearth a dual card graphics position
Seriously you have to be totally drunk, mad and on crack to buy it. For 11 Pounds less* you can get far superior motherboard – AsRock Fatality. Not a massive fan of AsRock, but Fatality so far received many glowing reviews which means that it is in fact very good product.
* – or for ~10 Pounds more with shipping to the continent.
Yeah its tough to even consider at 200 quid. if i was aiming that high, id just go for X58 and get a board for 20-30 more. and end up with three way memory.
Still its a good product to be fair, a lot of testing in this review showing its a good AMD gaming board. I think they took a risk with lucid to be different and its bitten them on the ass in regards to cost.
I think this is one of the dumbest ideas ever from Sapphire. people dont expect them to support nvidia, ditch SLI and dont rely on this lucid nonsense. no one likes it. SLI is bad enough as is crossfire needing driver profiles.
Lucid NEEDS DRIVER PROFILES FOR GAMES on top of this ! and with updates, what every 2 months? thats never going to work. this review is much too positive. id give this board 6/10. its a good board, but its nothing better than others at much less money without a useless feature.
Good review but this tech seems unfinished. It’s sli or nothin
Sapphire make good products but whoever said to include lucid needs bitchslapped
Will sapphire release a p67 without lucid on it?
Performance is good, especiall with 2ghz memory. But it’s overpriced for the spec.
Gd options for bad Design