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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GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Indeed. Personally im looking at the Intel DH77DF:http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/...
I dont see the need for anything bigger than mATX anymore. And for most mITX will do everything and abit more.
Personally I got a hint from another person. So I will be looking at the DH77DF, 2x8GB, GTX 680 and a i5 3570 and put it into a Silverstone SG08.
hybrid2d4x4 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Agreed. mATX or smaller for me plz!Paapaa125 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
What is the actual significant difference between Asus P8Z77-V and P8Z77-V Pro? The only things I noticed were a few more phases in power supply (not significant).Byte - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
The only diff I see is the 12 vs 8 power phases, extra USB3.0 header, and pictures look like it includes a usb and esata pcie 1x card.ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Pro offer higher quality back I/O bracing for the display connections,High phase count 12+4
Additional front USB3 front header
ESATA via bracket
Additional fan header
Otherwise all other key features and hardware implementation is the same.
repoman27 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Given this statement on the first page, why does the chart indicate that the Panther Point chipsets provide 4 USB 3.0 ports?Knifeshade - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
First page, the paragraphs detailing the various features. You spelled Cougar Point in place of where I think you mean to say Panther Point....DesktopMan - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
PCIe / PCI info in the last page table would be appreciated. Good overview. Quite curious to see if the memory stuff from Asus actually does anything.MrSpadge - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
All 6-series chipsets are said to support PCIe 3 in this table. Would that work with Ivi and a proper GPU? Would be the first time I heard about this. And since PCIe 3 is supposed to be a new feature of the 7-series I suppose it's a typo.GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Well, alot of 6 series boards supports PCIe 3.0 due to the controller is on the CPU (Ivy Bridge). Essentially the only reason besides BIOS for PCIe 3.0 support on the 6 series, is the added switches for splitting the PCIe x16 into two x8. Thats also why the basic 6 series boards got a bigger chance of PCIe 3.0 support.