ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe Review - Know Your SKU
by Ian Cutress on May 12, 2012 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z77
Certain words can convey many meanings. Luckily, for us, the word 'deluxe' has very few variations around a theme of being 'of a superior kind'. So when applied to a motherboard, such as the P8Z77-V Deluxe, we would expect a superior product. ASUS has kindly provided in kind.
Sweeping in at $275 is perhaps not the main price point for Z77, especially when there are motherboards that can run these processors for half the price. However, this is where the P8Z77-V excels - for your extra money, you get a plethora of enthusiast related features that a user would not dream of on a half-price product. Alongside the dual band WiFi, dual network controllers (one Intel, one Realtek), superior fan control and provision for a future Thunderbolt add-in card, we have the stalwarts of the ASUS arsenal, such as USB BIOS Flashback, Fan Xpert II, enhanced USB charging, USB 3.0 Boost, a well thought out BIOS and superior operating software.
ASUS clearly know the market, and they hire enthusiasts to help improve their product. On a recent trip to a UK iSeries LAN event, I was amazed at how many enthusiasts build their products as if price was not a concern - they want something that is good when they buy it, and something that will last for the next few generations. The Deluxe is a board that fits into this category very nicely.
The P8Z77-V Deluxe utilizes MultiCore Enhancement, a 'feature' on ASUS motherboards to boost multi-threaded performance. Combine this with what seem like a few tweaks native to the board and we have a product which single handedly takes the top position in almost every throughput benchmark we have, and comes near the top in ones that it does not.
The only features directly missing seem to be those that add a significant cost on board (PCIe PLX chip for >2 GPUs, a premium sound solution), where instead we would normally see products specifically focused for them in that price bracket. Perhaps it would have been beneficial to include a USB 3.0 bracket in the box to sweeten the deal.
The main contenders for this board come from ASUS products themselves - the Z77 Sabertooth arguably offers more control and a larger warranty (the Deluxe still qualifies for North America ASUS Premium Service, as does the Sabertooth), or a ROG product that is focused towards gamers/overclockers. The ECS Z77H2-AX and Gigabyte G1. Sniper 3 (both part of future reviews) utilize the PCIe PLX chip for >2 GPUs.
As part of a long term, stable build, it is hard to put a foot wrong if you choose the P8Z77-V Deluxe. If ever there was a time to use the phrase 'you get what you pay for', then surely this is it. I had no issues during testing and it sailed through the benchmarks with top honors. I have no hesitation in awarding the P8Z77-V Deluxe with an AnandTech Editors Choice Silver Award.
ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
Editors Choice Silver Award
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KivBlue - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Don't get me wrong, I like ASUS but they are pricey for what they offer, and I think Gigabyte is decent but they lack something in software side of things, I really feel like the choices are rather limited. EVGA has a chance to step up their game and put a stamp in the motherboard market just by coming up with a 2 or 3 model line-up for Z77 chipset catered at low to mid level, because FTW at the moment is out of the price range for most people to even consider.IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi KivBlue,We review what we get in, and we test in our spare time alongside a full time job. I currently have 12 boards in to get through, unfortunately no EVGA. We may get hold of one soon though.
Ian
jimmyzaas - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Please review the premium Gigabyte UD5H board as well. I compared it closely with this deluxe board and it seemed to have everything this board has except wifi. It's also a full $70 cheaper.IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi JimmyZaas,This board just came through my door. I have other boards to test ahead of it, and then Computex, and then I'll will have a chance to take a look.
Ian
falc0ne - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
both from my user and my IT experience(5 years as hardware technical support) MBs with more features are more prone to fail than others with less features.I had a Deluxe version of ASUS with the whole bulk of features, including wi-fi, dedicated antena, 24bit 192Khz audio card, lots of USBSs and SATA etc.
Problems I had :
-ASUS temp monitoring utility didn't report an accurate temperature
-wireless not reliable, support software was very poor
-After 1 year of usage blue screens with message "IRQ not less or equal". Done my own investigation and found out that enabling devices in BIOS would work. Worked for a while and now the MB even after that fix still has random BSOD + random fail to boot issues.
-
At this moment imagine that I am reluctant to buy any of these boards with 100+ features.
OK, on paper they look great, but do they actually work? Who can tell how reliable this MB will be after 1 year of usage?
My take is, mine got busted after doing a very mild overclocking. I only increased the frequency from 2.3 to 2.9 Ghz, all done by the book.
Bottom line,make a thourgh reasearch when you buy one of these
Ratman6161 - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Not that many people will want to be doing that. But for the Z68 boards in the test you use a 2500K. I think it might be interesting to also see a 2500K in the Z77 boards just to see if there is any difference in performance attributable to the different chipsets. I kind of suspect there would be no difference.DarkRogue - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
First off, thanks again Ian for a good review.I see you've added a few more tests and are generally improving upon the last mobo review article.
I also appreciate your taking the time to try and explain the voltage ripple situation in the article, enve if I still don't quite understand it, haha.
However, one that that still puzzles me is probably one of the best features of the ASUS boards so far - Fan Xpert 2. I'm getting a lot of conflicting information about whether or not they can control the speed of 3-pin (non-PWM) fans, such as the Nexus D12SL-12 ort he newer Scythe Kama Flow 2's (which seems to have replaced the older Scythe S-FLEX series.)
I've read that the fan headers do support fan control of those fans, and also that some headers don't support it, which is very confusing. It would be extremely helpful if you could delve into the software suite and test out the fan control on a couple non-PWM fans. Furthermore, I can't find any mention if the mboo controls 3-pin fans via voltage variation, or still tries to do some kind of PWM by pulsing the 12v on and off.
In particular, not all fan headers are created equal on every mobo, so it would be helpful to know where the differences lie.
Basically, besides the hardware, every manufacturer is trying to differentiate themselves with their software suite, and it would be a good idea to try them out and note how stable/buggy they are, if they perform well, if there are any competitive products, etc.
Otherwise, I'm liking the improvements in the review.
maximumGPU - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
i have the board with three 3-pin fans plugged into it. Fan Xpert can control their speed just fine.DarkRogue - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Which headers do you have them plugged into?I have heard that the Chassis headers can control 3-pin and 4-pin fans, but that the CPU and CPU_OPT headers can only control 4-pin fans.
Do you know if they are controlled via voltage (for example, feeding 8v to the fan) or if it simply pulses 12v on and off?
IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi DarkRogue,ASUS confirm that the chassis fan headers (labelled CHA) should be able to control 3-pin fans.
Regarding software, AI Suite has been pretty stable for the last 6-8 ASUS boards I've gone through, so I didn't mention anything new here. If software bugs me during testing, by not doing what it should, I do mention it where I can :)
All the best,
Ian