Something for everyone
Of course, ASUS knows that not everyone is looking for an extreme motherboard, so it will launch a pair of products that fit into the enthusiast and mainstream market segments, respectively. The P8P67 Deluxe and P8P67 boards will include many of the same features as their high-end brethren at a lower price. While there will obviously be some omissions, they'll still be kitted out with the 'Dual Intelligent Processor 2' for easier overclocking and better efficiency, USB 3.0 support - including front-panel headers - EFI instead of ye olde BIOS, the ability to control settings from a smartphone via Bluetooth and access to the company's all-new software suite - but again, we'll get into all of that later.
As well as a number of other differentiating features, one of the most interesting additions on the Deluxe version is the included USB 3.0 breakout box. Knowing that a lot of people don't have chassis with SuperSpeed ports on the front panel, the boards will ship with a 3.5in box that plugs into the motherboard giving easy access to two of the connectors.
It looks like ASUS is coming out firing on all cylinders for the launch of Intel's next-gen CPUs. Each of the boards should be available alongside the Sandy Bridge processors in the new year with pricing in the region of $300 for the Maximus, $220 for the P8P67 Deluxe and $150 for the P8P67 (£234, £172 and £117, inc VAT). Unfortunately, no pricing has been set for the Sabertooth board, but with the other entries in the TUF series being marketed aggressively, we'd expect this one to be no different.
