Asus P7H57D-V EVO

Asus' P7H57D-V EVO won’t be an inexpensive board when pricing is announced but one look at its specifications and BIOS will reveal it’s worth it.

For starters this board, like the MSI H57M-ED65, uses Intel’s H57 Express chipset. Compared to the H55 Express used by the two other boards in this grouptest, the H57 boasts support for Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology and can run 14 USB ports, rather than 12. Asus’ engineers have been clever with P7H57D-V EVO because while the Gigabyte and MSI boards support only ATI’s CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, the Asus packs support for both CrossFireX and nVidia’s SLI.

Being a standard ATX board the Asus’ layout is also cleaner than the rest; you can unlock the PCI-E x16 lock without difficulty and installing or removing memory isn’t troublesome, as the GPU slot sits away from the memory slots.

The BIOS is organised well with the ‘Ai Tweaker’ menu holding most of the overclocking options. Hardcore overclockers will be satisfied with the board’s vast options and high ranges regarding frequency and voltage settings.

The EVO proved a speed demon when it came to our benchmarks; it returned the highest scores in our Cinebench 10, Street Fighter IV and World in Conflict benchmark tests. Its other scores were strong as well though other boards managed identical numbers.