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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Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
So when is AMD buying them out and integrating this in their gfx cards / platform?neo55 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Will Z77 support two or three monitors simultaneously?GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
You mean from the Ivy Bridge IGP?Well depends. (Its the same btw for H77, Z75 and Z77 etc.). You need to have 2 displayport if I remember correctly. So if you got for example DVI, HDMI and DP. Then 2 screens only. If you got DVI, DP, DP then 3. Or if you daisychain the DP?
dubyadubya - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Listing fan header count and layout is useless if you do not test the functionality. Do they report RPM? Can they control fan speed? Does the fan control work with Speedfan etc. or only the software from the motherboard manufacturer? Several years ago many people including myself brought this to Anandtech's attention. At the time Anandtech stated they would include this missing info which they did. Trouble is the info was only included in one or two reviews before it was dropped. When I purchase a new motherboard I want to know this info. I have spent many hours searching for this info for each new build as most manufactures do not give detailed info even in the motherboard manual.IMO if a fan header exists it must have full functionality. If not the header should not be on the board. Motherboard manufactures need to pull their heads out of their asses. If Anandtech reported this info in reviews and gave negative reviews on boards with poor fan support the manufacturers would get the hint.
Nje - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Yeah I would love to know this, particularly if the fan headers can control 3 pin fans as well (ie vary the voltage).ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Primary CPU headers ( CPU and CPU OPT are fully controllable for 4 pin ) as the majority of CPU coolers are PWM for chassis headers ( 1-4 all allow for 3 pin and 4 pin fan control ).Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Asus, can they be used with speedfan or is it BIOS/Asus software only?ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
This has been noted in the last couple of reviews. Specifically for ASUS we have spent considerable time putting quality fan controls on our boards all headers allow for 3 presets as well as min and max rotation and target temperatures. In addition with our software for this generation we offer full calibration per each header that can sense the min and max rotation and provide this information as well as sync this data to the profiles. Overall it is quite extensive make sure to check out our videos coming up which shows it in great depth.Arbie - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
@dubyadubya - Look on the bright side: at least one manufacturer (Asus) takes fans seriously, and at least one reviewer (Anandtech) is even mentionng the fact.I have the same wants as you do, and have made the same requests, but be reasonable. These aren't full motherboard reviews! They don't even have the boards operable, much less any hands-on time with BIOS details.
And when they do have all that, a higher priority will be PCIe lanes and how many graphics cards can be stuffed in. That's because you can't run any modern games with only one board.
But then they might talk a little more about the fan controls... Let's hope. Again - be glad that even one vendor is paying attention and has included some controls to be talked about.
Cavalcade - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
With a slightly more than passing knowledge of rendering, and having spent a fair amount of time handling input in a game engine, I'm curious as to how Lucid came to the responsiveness numbers in the chart on page 3. The concept seems valid at first glance, but the numbers strike me as pure marketing fodder as opposed to solid and testable results.Also, this sort of technology seems far better suited to residing in the driver layer as opposed to yet another piece of middleware for PC gamers to contend with. We're already effectively blocked from the hardware, and forced to go through third-party graphics APIs (Direct3D/OpenGL).
Maybe it's a "you have to see it (feel it)" kind of thing, but from here you can color me skeptical.