ASUS P8Z77-V Premium Review: A Bentley Among Motherboards
by Ian Cutress on August 13, 2012 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z77
ASUS P8Z77-V Premium Software
The software ASUS produces, much like their BIOS, is some of the best available in the motherboard arena today. Where some other companies offer no software at all for things like fan support and overclocking, or perhaps the company may have a simple monitoring tool, ASUS goes the whole way to ensure that almost everything that has a control that the user would be concerned about is available to select in the software.
The heart of the software comes from AI Suite. This bit of software acts as the central hub for all other ASUS software features, which means that it is a very simple installation when it comes off the CD.
The install CD is quick and painless - one click of 'InstAll' will get you all the drivers needed, and if a user selects to customize their install, it allows selection and de-selection of various software features (anti-virus et al.).
AI Suite
AI Suite starts as a simple bar with buttons for the software tools, monitoring and updates, as well as a tuning button to allow the software to perform overclocking. As part of our reviews of the P8Z77-V Pro and the P8Z77-V Deluxe, we have covered most of this software, including:
TurboV Evo: Overclocking tools.
DIGI+ Power Control: Adjusting power delivery to the system.
EPU: Energy saving functionality.
Fax Xpert 2: Fan control and management.
Probe II: Monitoring temperatures, voltages and fan speeds.
Sensor Recorder: Time comparison charts for Probe II.
AI Charger+: Fast USB 3.0 charging for BC 1.1 compliant devices.
USB Charger+: Fast charging while in sleep, hibernate or shutdown.
USB 3.0 Boost: Increased USB 3.0 speed.
Network iControl: Manual control over network priorities.
ASUS SSD Caching II: SSD Caching using ASUS technology and Marvell controllers.
Here are the key features:
TurboV Evo
The overclocking heart of AI Suite is TurboV Evo, which allows users to adjust the voltages and BCLK of the system in real time. I typically use this software to find basic OS limits, and then attempt to boot into OS at that speed to give a little headroom.
Part of TurboV Evo is the Auto Tuning section, which gives users two choices for automatic overclocks - Fast and Extreme. Both of these are covered in the Overclocking part of the P8Z77-V Premium section of this review.
DIGI+ Power Control
One of the features that ASUS likes to advertise as part of their motherboard range is the ability for the user to adjust how the power delivery responds to load. These options help maintain constant voltage under busy periods (useful for stability testing and overclocks), or can be used to reduce the power usage of the motherboard and increase life expectancy. Along with the BIOS controls, ASUS also offers software tools in AI Suite to perform these operations.
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Fan XPert 2
In order to separate itself from the rest of the motherboard manufacturers, ASUS does like to parade their fan technology. By using upgraded fan controllers on board, a combination of hardware and clever software allows ASUS to control their fans like no other. From the software perspective, we have Fan Xpert 2.
Fan Xpert will auto tune the fans, giving each one a power vs. RPM curve (as fans do not linearly increase in speed with applied power). The user can then adjust a multi-point power against temperature curve for each of the fans in the system. In my case, I like to have my fans run as quiet as possible when idle and during videos, and as fast as they can during gaming.
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damianrobertjones - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
I'd say that in the next five years I'll buy... 0 Thunderbolt peripherals. Heck I've only just been bothered to buy my first USB3 thumb drive. Others, however, will jump all over it to be special or actually have a 'genuine' use.philosofool - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
Stopped reading at "$450," but it was interesting to learn that a person could spend that much on a PC motherboard.stjoker69 - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
So to nit pit, but I the noun Asus is singular. "ASUS have gone for the additional extras" should be ASUS has gone for the additional extras.Visual - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
Re-read your first sentence, and tell us if it makes any sense. Then consider again if you should be one to give people grammar lessons."ASUS" is a corporation name, corporations are groups of people, that means "ASUS" is a collective noun, so plural verbs can be used with it just fine.
IanCutress - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
This is a US vs. UK thing. Here in the UK, collective nouns are plural.Ian
Powerlurker - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
In the UK and most of the Commonwealth, "ASUS have" would be the correct usage.Googer - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
I am disappointed in the lack of PS/2 support which does have it's advantages over USB. Especially for us Vintage Keyboard Lovers.Googer - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
There is room on the back of that I/O panel for PS/2. I've used USB keyboard adapters and its not the same as native PS/2 support. If having PS/2 on a motherboard bothers you, then don't use it and it will likely disable it's self in P.O.S.T.dawp - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
for $450 I would expect that it would at least match my sabertooth x58 @ 5 years.I like that it does have dual band wifi/bluetooth but I don't think I will ever spend that kind of cash on a board
cjb110 - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
One comment about the temperature measurements, as it keeps being mentioned about the varying ambient conditions. Could you not change to a delta reading? So as to remove ambient from the issue? Obviously extreme variations in ambient should still be mentioned.Bit-Tech.net do this on their reviews and it seems to make a lot of sense.