EVGA Showcases Micro-ATX Sandy Bridge Motherboard, the P67 Micro

Most of us knew that EVGA's Sandy Bridge motherboard lineup was comprised of the P67 Classified and P67 SLI models, but the Californian company went on and surprised us all with the introduction of the P67 Micro, a micro-ATX board that provides SLI support.

Just as its name implies, the black and gray motherboard is powered by Intel's P67 chipset, making it an ideal solution for consumers that want to build a compact, high-power gaming PC.

Expected to be available soon, the board features dual x16 PCI Express slots (that are throttled to x8 when SLI or CrossFire configurations are used) and a pair of PCIe x1 slots.

In addition, EVGA has also equipped the P67 Micro with two SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports as well as with on-board power and reset buttons.

These are placed right at the bottom of the motherboard, next to a BIOS debug display and a clear CMOS switch.

The CPU is powered by a 4+2 phase VRM which apparently doesn't come with any heatsink attached, an important minus considering the high temperatures that can be recorded inside micro-ATX cases.

However, this allows for more space to be available around the CPU socket, enabling consumers to install beefier processor coolers.

Moving to the back of the board, we find that EVGA decided to offer users two USB 3.0 ports, a wide number of USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and Firewire connectivity as well as 8-channel HD audio with optical and coaxial SPDIF outputs.

The rest of the configuration is pretty standard, although I have to condemn the placement of the first PCIe x16 slots that interferes with the DDR3 memory slots.

According to VR-Zone, the P67 Micro should pretty soon join the ranks of the P67 SLI and the P67 Classified in EVGA's LGA 1155 lineup.