ASUS P7H57D-V EVO H57 Core i3 Crossfire Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2010-05-08
·
1,351 words · ~6 min read
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So today we'll be doing a quick unboxing of the ASUS P7H57D-V
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EVO. Now that may be a slightly confusing um model number to most, but I
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can explain it. P7 is the latest generation of Intel processor, so it
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denotes socket 1156. H57 is the chipset.
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D means that it includes both true USB 3.0 and true SATA 6 GB per second. I
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don't know what the V means and I don't know what the EVO means, but I was pretty close. Okay, so it's Windows 7
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ready. As I mentioned before, it includes support for LG 1156. That means
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Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7. But you
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should also note that on the Core i3 and the Core i5 dual cores, you also have
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support for the onboard video included
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with those processors. That feature won't work with Core i5 quad cores or
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with Core i7s. So, let's go around to the back and see what ASUS has to say
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for themselves with this board. You've got SLI and Crossfire X support, which
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seems at first like kind of a weird thing for an H series chipset, which is
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a value series chipset, but this board is quite feature complete. And really,
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it gives ASUS a way to release a powerful board with lots of features
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that includes support for onboard video as well as hybrid video should you
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require it. So, let's have a look at the accessories that are included. The first
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thing we find is an IO shield. This is their premium looking IO shield with the
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the fluffy back um silvery thing on the back and a black um
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Okay, moving on. Then we have an ESATA and USB 2.0 PCI back plate. Next we have
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an IDE cable should you require it. Maybe you have an old DVD drive that
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uses one. Then we have an SLI bridge. It's flexible.
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Then we have their Q connector. So, this makes life a little bit easier for you
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if you're using an older case that doesn't have the uh the USB connectors
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in a in a block. And it also makes your life a little bit easier for installing
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the front switches. Okay. Then we have
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four SATA cables, two right angle and two straight. They're black cables,
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which I always like to see. It makes your build look just a little bit nicer
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if you don't have like bright red or like bright yellow cables included.
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Okay. Okay. Then we've got a users guide which includes a support DVD as well as
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an ASUS sticker. Don't use this DVD. Download the latest drivers and
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utilities off the ASUS website. All right, let's get the midplate.
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ASUS's big thing for the last couple years has been green packaging. They
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don't use any foam in their packaging. It's uh you know, see piece of cardboard
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on the back of the motherboard instead of foam. It hasn't affected the
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reliability of the boards. So, it's uh it's a great great step that they've
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made. All right. So, like most LGA1 1156
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boards, and by that I mean all, there is an LGA1 1156 socket right in the middle.
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So, that's where you're going to have your support for Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7. Up at the top of the board, not
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quite in its ideal location, but it should still be quite easy to do cable
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management up to here. You've got your 8 pin CPU connector. So, that's one
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indicator that this is not a low-end board is that you do have an 8 pin CPU
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connector rather than a 4 pin. It's designed to deliver quite a lot of power
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to the CPU. It'd be quite comfortable overclocking a Core i7 on this
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particular board. Moving along to the right, we have ASUS's uh trademark dual
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channel DDR3 with their easy install uh
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system here. So, that means that you've only got a clip on the top side, and all
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you do is slide the module in from the one side and then clip it in from the
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top. Very nice to see. Here we've got our 24 pin connector as well as ASUS's
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memo button. So that makes sure that no matter what modules you install in here,
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you press that button, it'll run them at a safe setting that makes it so you can
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post and then adjust according to what you require. Okay, moving down the
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board, we've got the chipset covered by a quite ineffective looking heat sink,
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but that should tell you a little bit about the chipset here. The H57 chipset
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is not really doing a whole lot. It doesn't get very hot. So, ASUS is able
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to make more of a fashion statement with their heat sink rather than have it
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actually worry about it cooling a really hot chip. Next, we have our IDE
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connector, which is there. And then we have the six SATA 2 ports that are going
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to be run off the H57 chipset. Down
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along the bottom of the board, we have our front panel connectors as well as a
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couple, oh, by a couple, I mean four USB
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2.0 front headers. All of these blue ones are for USB 2.0. And then down at
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the very bottom here, we have our SATA 6 GB per second connectors. Personally, I
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would have liked to see these up where the IDE connector was rather than down
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there, but um I guess that's life. Okay,
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then we have oh, FireWire support. That's nice. We have a FireWire port
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right here. And then our front audio is right there. So that is where all the
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ports are. Now let's have a look at the PCI slot layout. Cameraman's racing
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ahead of me here. PCI slot layout is down here. There you go. Okay. So we
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have two PCIe 1X, two PCI, three PCIe
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1X, pardon me. And then you have two PCIe 16X slots. But you can clearly see
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here the pins only go up to here. So this one runs at 16x electrical and this
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one runs at 8x electrical. Now, that doesn't actually have any real world
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impact on Crossfire configuration, so don't worry about that. But if you're
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running a single graphics card, you're going to want to throw it in here just
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because. All right, here they're using their Fortress of Solitude style uh
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MOSFET coolers here. I really like these. I think they're very stylish
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looking and they do a reasonably good job of cooling. These are held down by
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push pins. And so, we can have a look at the top one there as well. Very cool.
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ASUS has really figured out color schemes on their boards in the last
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couple years. I mean, that's uh it used to be like, you know, the cardboard
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yellow orangey brown PCBs and just
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random looking. Now everything's sort of like an icy sort of theme look.
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Moving on. Next, we have USB 2.0 ports.
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1 2 3 4. That is all. Not a whole lot in
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terms of USB 2.0 ports. One PS2, one
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optical audio out. We have HDMI, DVI and
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VGA out. Then we have FireWire and ESATA, 1 GB Ethernet, and 7.1 audio. Did
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I mention USB 3.0? So, you've actually got a total of six USB ports, and two of
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them are USB 3.0. Now, with so many cases having four front USB ports, I can
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see why ASUS opted to include more internal headers rather than including
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more ports on the back of the board. So, that seems like a pretty smart move.
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Thank you for checking out my unboxing of the P7H57D-V
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Evo.