P67 vs. H67 motherboard

[bighoo93]

Although I am leaning toward a budget AMD system, I am still intrigued by Sandy Bridge. One of the things that ends up making an Intel build more expensive is that the motherboard is typically more expensive as well as the CPU. So in a hypothetical build with a core i5-2500 (+/- K), I'm trying to figure out what the difference and relative advantages are between a P67 and H67 motherboard, in general.

From what little I have seen, the P67 will allow you to fully overclock the CPU. I've never done it, but it seems that these chips were made to overclock. The H67 has integrated graphics, but the P67 does not? Is that sufficient for modest use, or will it be pretty crappy and degrade performance? I just don't really get it. Any help?

[moonpig]

CPU:

If you intend to overclock your Intel i5/i7 processor, then your model must end in a "k", which indicates that the chip is unlocked for overclocking. However, even if you do not intend to overclock,

This Intel link http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?familyID=42912&MarketSegment=DT will take you to a comparison page for all i5 processors.

This is an excellent article about the performance of the on-chip graphics vs. a discrete graphics card. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/11
This link shows that the "k" models of Intel chips have better "HD Graphics 3000" vs. "HD Graphics 2000" for non-"k" models:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/10

If you are just going to do email, web browsing, watch movies, and play non-graphics intensive games, then the on-chip GPU will probably do the job for you. You can always put a nice discrete graphics card in later if you get frustrated.

MOTHERBOARD:

Asus' site has an excellent "Product Comparison" utility here:

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards

that will let you compare features. The ASUS H67 boards support the on-chip graphics, while the P67 boards do not. The H67 boards do not support overclocking and don't have quite as many SATA and USB outputs as the P67 boards (at least something to consider).

---
That's about all I know on the subject. I build a new system every 5years or so. I don't normally keep up with with the latest CPU/motherboard specs, but you caught me on a research binge while putting together "my super pc" ;)

Good luck