Introduction

Summer season is at its peak and it is also a perfect time for system building. RAM modules are at their lowest price point, despite what industry insiders have predicted last year, and plenty of affordable upgrade options can be had in various segments. Even second generation SSDs are now within grasp of mainstream buyers, at $2 per GB or less, offering transfer rates beyond any mainstream platter drive. More importantly, Intel’s latest processors are offering unbelievably strong performance that rivals even their current flagship LGA1366 processors in terms of overclockability and efficiency at a lower price.

Earlier this year, Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors entered the market; with them are the Cougar Point chipset based motherboards that introduced remarkable levels of performance beyond the previous P55 “Ibex Peak” platform. Not long after, however, issues started to come up regarding the SATA 3Gbps port degradation attributed to the Intel chipset and a massive motherboard recall took place. During this time, EVGA’s P67 based motherboards, which were previewed during CES 2011, were delayed until the issue was sorted out. Several months later, Z68 boards from other manufacturers started to surface and EVGA’s P67 motherboards were still nowhere to be found…until now.

The EVGA P67 FTW motherboard is EVGA’s flagship entry for Sandy Bridge systems. The EVGA P67 FTW motherboard comes in two variants: the standard KR version and the premium K2 variant, which is exactly like the KR except with the addition of the EVGA Control Panel V4 and EVGauge tachometer bundled. The EVGA P67 FTW inherits a lot of the features that made the P55 Classified 200 standout from the competition, including extra 8-pin EPS12V power connectors for overclocking and 5 PCIE x16 slots, but also adds UEFI, USB 3.0 and a Compact Flash port for extra storage. Built for overclocking, the EVGA P67 FTW has a 12-phase CPU PWM, uses 100% Solid Japanese capacitors and has a higher gold content on the CPU brushes for an overall lower inductance. In case of an unstable overclock, the clear CMOS buttons found on-board or on the rear I/O can be used to reset the settings or you can also just simply flip the BIOS backup switch.