In this test a 450MB 1080i high definition MPEG2 video is transcoded via Cyberlink MediaShow Espresso 6 to a 640x360 MP4 video format suitable for the Apple iPhone 4.

Video Transcoding Test Without Intel QuickSync With Intel QuickSync Intel Core i5 2500K / Intel DH67BL 49 sec 14 sec

Using an Intel Core i5 2500K / Intel DH67BL test system this video transcoded in about 49 seconds without using Intel Quick Sync. When reconfigured to use the Intel HD3000 integrated graphics core for video tanscoding tasks, the same video was converted in just 14 seconds!

Closing remarks on the Intel DH67BL motherboard are next.

Conclusions

The key to the success of the Intel DH67BL motherboard is as an economical office work-horse PC.

Sure it can seamlessly playback HD movies over the integrated HDMI 1.4 video output. Sure it has two USB 3.0 ports, two SATA III ports and plenty of SATA II and USB 2.0. It's just that moving beyond all that, there's not a lot going on here.

The Intel DH67BL is a vanilla platform which barely moves beyond the feature set of the Intel H67 chipset.

Tweakers, gamers, overclockers - this is not your motherboard.

If I were rolling out an office full of PCs on the other hand, or a similar situation where economics really came into force, this would be a worthy motherboard to build an affordable PC around. For home offices or students who are primarily concerned with standard desktop work, internet and office applications, content creation and perhaps a bit of 3D gaming every now and then - the Intel DH67BL is a worthwhile motherboard to consider. The DVI-I video output will meet the needs of most office users, though configuring dual screen displays is not going to be simple out of the box.

After all, as you saw in the benchmarks, PCMark Vantage doesn't take much of a hit when systems run on integrated graphics. Although Intel's integrated graphics core is still pretty tame by mainstream discrete videocard standards, it's worth noting that Sandy Bridge video transcoding is heads and shoulders above the competition.

Bottom line, the Intel DH67BL is a compact motherboard that manages to live up to Intel's big reputation, but offers scant little beyond the Intel H67's core feature set.

Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.

Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 Intel P67 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Intel Z68 Motherboard & Intel 20GB SSD Review
- MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 Motherboard Review
- ECS P67H2-A Black Extreme B3-stepping Intel P67 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4-B3 Intel P67 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 Intel Z68 Motherboard Review
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 Intel P67 Motherboard Review
- Beginners Guide: Intel Smart Response Technology and Intel 311 Larson Creek SSD
- ASUS P7P55D Premium Intel P55 Express Motherboard Review
- Intel 6-Series Chipset Recall - Sandy Bridge Intel P67 & H67 (v2.2)