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!
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
145 Comments
View All Comments
Iketh - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I'm curious how Skyrim behaves with this Lucid technology, since physics and framerate are linked for whatever reason... (if you disable Skyrim's 60 fps cap and point the camera in a direction that gives you 150+ FPS for example, everything that is moveable nearby starts to rattle and fall off shelves...)Xale - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Games with their own framerate limits should not be affected, as long as that limit is preserved. They already simply 'pause' internally if the machine is too fast. It might go absolutely crazy though if you do forcefully disable that mechanism.Concillian - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Am I reading that right? Z75 offers most of what even enthusiasts would want?So... why are there a crapton of Z77 boards in here and no Z75s?
Z75 supports 2 way crossfire / SLI, overclocking, 6Gbps SATA, native USB3.0... these are the features all but a tiny handful of users should be interested in.
By all rights Z75 should be the definitive chipset for the average enthusiast. Unless I'm missing something major, I hope there is significant attention paid to the Z75 chipset in reviews, because I'm failing to see why any but the most extreme users and those with money to burn would choose the Z77.
MrSpadge - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Actually the ones with less money to burn might choose Z77 over Z75 to avoid investing in a huge SSD. The difference between chipset prices are usually small (what the motherboard manufacturer makes out of this is another question entirely).GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I find SSD caching to be some desperate dinosaur attempt. Mainly fueled by HD makers. Hybrid HDs are in the same basket. And yes, pick one, Z77 or Z75. The other one makes no sense.Z77, Z75 and H77 chipsets are priced at US$48, US$40 and US$43.
If SRT basicly cost 8$. Then its time for it to go away as the stillborn tech it is.
Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
The difference is mainly software and development, and should go away. SSD caching is a great idea that, imo, should optimally be on the filesystem level, not on the block level.*Looks at OS / filesys developers* (ZFS has some of it)
And oh, I expect lower end derivatives to come out eventually.
Nje - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I was really excited about this motherboard - was kind of disappointed to see it is not part of this roundup. But I guess there will be other tests. Thanks for the preview - I look forward to the benchmarks, particularly if asus' memory technology works well, and if memory bandwidth plays more of a role on Ivy Bridge.Articuno - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Things like overclocking being restricted to specific chipsets is really disappointing. AM3+ boards are generally cheaper than equivalent Intel boards and they don't lock features like this.MrSpadge - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I suppose it's being done to make power delivery cheaper on these boards. Personally I don't like it either.GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I think you should visit Newegg. LGA1155 and AM3+ boards are just as cheap. And CPU wise...its just a disaster for AMD.