Intel Z77 Panther Point Chipset and Motherboard Preview – ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, ECS and Biostar
by Ian Cutress on April 8, 2012 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- Biostar
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- ECS
- Z77
Of the nine boards we hope to cover across the Ivy Bridge release, we have a large range of prices and feature sets to consider. Styling seems to be of great importance to these companies, especially when they either all follow a similar color scheme or decide to spray everything with a coat of gold paint!
Today you may see many reviews with Sandy Bridge results being posted. We have decided to wait until we are allowed to publish Ivy Bridge results in order to fully test these boards to the limit, and show how they respond under the latest technology (and perhaps after a BIOS update or two). However, important chipset information is at our hands and we can discuss important changes to motherboard design—the long awaited addition of PCIe 3.0 and native USB 3.0 to the Intel mainstream chipset, but also to new technologies, such as Virtual V-Sync and HyperFormance that comes with Virtu MVP, or just how good ASUS' new memory topology might be.
|
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 |
ASRock Z77 Extreme6 |
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro |
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe |
|
| Price | $141 | $177 | TBC | TBC |
| Size | ATX | ATX | ATX | ATX |
| Power | 8 + 4 | 8 + 4 | 12 + 4 | 16 + 4 |
| Video |
HDMI 1.4a DVI-D D-Sub |
DisplayPort HDMI 1.4a DVI-D D-Sub |
DisplayPort HDMI DVI-D D-Sub |
DisplayPort HDMI |
| LAN | Broadcom BCM57781 | Broadcom BCM57781 | Intel 82579V |
Intel 82579V Realtek 8111F |
| Audio | Realtek ALC898 | Realtek ALC898 | Realtek ALC892 | Realtek ALC898 |
| Mini PCIe | No | Yes | No | No |
| Wifi | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| SATA 6Gbps | 2 + 2 | 2 + 2 | 2 + 2 | 2 + 2 |
| SATA 3Gbps | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 |
| USB 3.0 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| USB 2.0 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 8 |
| Fan Headers | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| SLI/XFire | Two GPUs | Two GPUs | Two GPUs | Two GPUs |
| NA Warranty | 3 Years | 3 Years | 3 Years | 3 Years |
|
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Wifi |
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H |
MSI Z77A-GD65 |
ECS Z77H2-AX |
Biostar TZ77XE4 |
|
| Price | TBC | TBC | $180 | $319 | $169 |
| Size | ATX | mATX | ATX | ATX | ATX |
| Power | 6 + 1 + 2 +1 | TBC | 8 + 2 | 12 + 2 | 10 + 2 |
| Video |
DisplayPort HDMI DVI-D D-Sub |
HDMI DVI-D D-Sub |
HDMI DVI-D D-Sub |
HDMI D-Sub |
DisplayPort HDMI DVI-D D-Sub |
| LAN | Atheros | Atheros | Intel 82579V | Realtek 8111E | Realtek 8111E |
| Audio | Via VT2021 | Via VT2021 | Realtek ALC898 | Realtek ALC892 | Realtek ALC898 |
| Mini PCIe | Yes | No | No |
mSATA + mini PCIe |
No |
| Wifi | PCIe Card | No | No | Yes | No |
| SATA 6Gbps | 2 + 0 | 2 + 0 | 2 + 2 | 2 + 0 | 2 + 2 |
| SATA 3Gbps | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 | 4 + 0 |
| USB 3.0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| USB 2.0 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 8 |
| Fan Headers | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| SLI/XFire | Two GPUs | Two GPUs | Two GPUs | Three GPUs | Two GPUs |
| NA Warranty | 3 Years | 3 Years | 3 Years | 3 Years | 3 Years |
There is a lot to digest regarding Z77. If you are planning an Ivy Bridge build, we want to hear what you want out of your boards or which ones you are considering to purchase. A little while after these boards, we should be tackling some rather interesting mini-ITX ones as well, so stay tuned!
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145 Comments
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Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
It doesn't matter, firewire maxes out at 800Mbps, which the PCI standard can easily handle ht 133 MBps.Of course, shared bandwidth is an issue, but reworking designs / buying the PCIe design rises issues of cost and reduces the number of PCIe lanes for other devices that can better use the bandwidth.
prophet001 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Seeing at the layer that Virtu is running and reading about what it claims to be capable of, is there any reason this could not cure once and for all the micro-stutter associated with multiple video cards?jonyah - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
It's good to know my Z68 (asus maximus iv-extreme) still hasn't been bested. I see nothing from any of these boards that beats what I've been running for some time now. Plus i have more usb 3.0 ports (12 to be exact).flashbacck - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
For my own PC, I'm interested in seeing what mATX sized Z77 boards there are. Often they have weird expansion slot combinations or positions. Looking at what Z68 boards are out now, it surprises me how many still have PCI slots. I would've thought they'd be replaced by PCIe 1x's by now.Also, anything about UEFI bios implementations? Was the promise of fast booting UEFI bioses ever fulfilled?
Aruneh - Friday, April 13, 2012 - link
I'm planning on making my next build a mATX one, and would be interested in seeing some reviews of high quality boards with lots of features. The Gigabyte mentioned in this article sadly seems to be a cheaper model.CharonPDX - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
"...including 8800 and 2400 series..."What, are we back in 2007?
Oh, wait... AMD 8800 and nVidia 2400, not the other way around...
Wait, that's not right either. What's the 2400 referring to?
Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Radeon HD 2400; AMD's low end series for the HD 2000 generation in 2007.extide - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
You had it right the first time... That phrase in the article was specifically pointing out the broad range of compatibility of the Lucid solution.extide - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
The first time as in in 8800 = nVidia, and 2400 = AMDkristof007 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
I don't know if this helps or you wan to put an update but NewEgg has the boards out and prices on them (I am not sure if they sell it at MSRP or not). Just a thought if you want to update those "TBC" prices.