Intel's H67 chipset was released in unison with the highly anticipated 32nm Intel 'Sandy Bridge' architecture in early 2011. What set Sandy Bridge apart was its integrated graphics core, a first in the desktop world. The graphics core, or iGPU, shares some L3 cache with the four processing cores of the CPU proper and due to these architectural changes a new CPU socket was also born - socket LGA1155. Since its release, the Intel Core i3/i5/i7 2xxx-series Sandy Bridge processor has met with fantastic success and given AMD a real run for its money.

Yet in spite of its success, Intel integrated graphics still don't compete very well against discrete graphics cards, even a $50 mainstream graphics card. So why do it like this? The upshot of a CPU with an integrated graphics core is reduced cost for the majority of PCs sold by the likes of Dell and large system integrators. After all, consider that 70% of the total volume of PCs sold today feature integrated graphics!

Motherboards like the Intel DH67BL that PCSTATS is reviewing today support one PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard, but more likely than not will never see a discrete graphics solution. The DH67BL motherboard has one DVI-I and HDMI video output.

Intel's DH67BL motherboard is built around the Intel H67 chipset and supports socket LGA1155 Intel 2nd Generation Core i3/i5/i7 2xxx-series 32nm Sandy Bridge processors. It is not compatible with LGA1156 processors. On the storage front, the board offers up two 6Gb/s SATA III ports, three 3Gb/s SATA III ports and one eSATA III port. A UEFI BIOS ensures support for hard drives larger than 2TB. Dual USB 3.0 ports are handled by a discreet NEC controller as USB 3.0 is not natively supported by the Intel H67 chipset.

Intel DH67BL Motherboard INCLUDES: User's Manual, Driver DVD, (2) SATA cables, I/O Shield. Chipsets: Intel H67 Express CPU Support: Intel Socket LGA1155 Memory Type: Dual Channel DDR3 Videocard Support: (1) PCI Express x16 2.0 Price at time of review: $107 USD

As PCSTATS mentioned, the microATX Intel DH67BL motherboard is equipped with one PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard slot that runs with 16-lanes of bandwidth; rounding out the expansion slots are two PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots and one PCI slot. This MicroATX board has four 1.35v dual channel DDR3-1066/1333 memory slots which can accommodate up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM in 64-bit OS like Windows 7.

Connectivity includes two USB 3.0 ports, fourteen USB 2.0 (six at the rear I/O, eight via internal header), one eSATA, one Gigabit network jack and the standard assortment of Intel High Definition 8-channel audio (optical S/PDIF included).

The integrated graphics ports on this motherboard include a DVI-I (capable of DVI and DVI-to-Analog with an adaptor) and HDMI 1.4 jack.

The Intel DH67BL motherboard can be found on retail shelves for around $107 CDN, ($107 USD, £70 GBP), a little high for its vanilla feature set. Never the less, PCSTATS will put this motherboard through its paces on both integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card.

Before we get to benchmarking though, let's take a closer look at what makes this motherboard tick.

Intel H67 Express Chipset

As with Intel's P67 core logic, the Intel H67 Platform Controller Hub communicates with socket 1155 'Sandy Bridge' processors over a 20Gb/s DMI link. The H67 chipset contains eight PCI Express 2.0 lanes, the remaining system 16 PCI Express lanes stem from the processor.

Where the P67 and H67 chipsets diverge is in regards to the integrated graphics core at the heart of the Sandy Bridge 2nd Generation Core /3i5/i7 processor. The Intel P67 lacks Intel's Flexible Display Interface (FDI) so it cannot output video. Looking at the chipset block diagram below, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Intel Z68, P67 and H67 chipsets are fundamentally identical as the feature sets are very similar.

The Intel H67 and Z68 chipsets are closely related too, however the Z68 picks up the tweaking features of the P67 and a few new tools like Intel SRT which PCSTATS has extensively dicussed in previous articles (see: Intel SRT and also here).

In addition to major changes like Intel FDI, the Intel H67 chipset continues support for SATA 6Gb/s devices and slowly increases the number of USB 2.0 ports. Still no USB 3.0 though.

Intel Chipset Feature Comparison Intel Z68 Express Intel P67 Express Intel H67 Express CPU LGA 1155 Core i5/i7 2nd Gen. LGA 1155 Core i5/i7 2nd Gen. LGA 1155 Core i5/i7 2nd Gen. Chipset Code Name Couger Point (65nm) Couger Point (65nm) Couger Point (65nm) Bus Interface / Speed DMI 20Gb/s DMI 20Gb/s DMI 20Gb/s Memory Support DDR3-1333, dual channel DDR3-1333, dual channel DDR3-1333, dual channel Maximum Memory Capacity 32GB (64-bit) 32GB (64-bit) 32GB (64-bit) Integrated Graphics Yes. via CPU - Yes. via CPU Integrated Graphics Ports HDMI, DVI, DP, VGA - HDMI, DVI, DP, VGA PCI Express 2.0 Lanes 8 8 8 PCI Express x1 Lanes 0 0 0 Intel Rapid Storage Technology Yes Yes Yes Intel Smart Response Technology Yes - - SATA 6Gb/s | SATA 3Gb/s | IDE Ports 2/4/0 2/4/0 2/4/0 RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10 Intelgrated LAN 10/100/1000 MAC 10/100/1000 MAC 10/100/1000 MAC USB 3.0 Ports 0 0 0 USB 2.0 Ports 14 14 14 PCI Masters 0 0 0 Intel High Definition Audio Yes Yes Yes

Next up, PCSTATS looks at the integrated graphics capabilities of the Intel H67 and Sandy Bridge processor, as well as Intel FDI and Quick Sync....