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
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro—Visual Inspection
ASUS have a lot to live up to with its Ivy Bridge Pro board. Both the ASUS P8P67 Pro and ASUS P8Z68-V Pro have been top class sellers in their respective chipsets, meaning that ASUS has to deliver. Thankfully, by just looking at the board, it seems that ASUS is keen to innovate and offer a complete package.
Using a 12 + 4 VRM power delivery system, the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro sports a blue and black livery synonymous with their channel / non-ROG products. The VRM heatsinks cover a lot of surface area in their jagged fashion, and around the socket itself, we have access to five main fan headers. Two of these are CPU 4-pin headers just north of the top VRM heatsink, one 4-pin below the left hand side VRM heatsink, and two 4-pin headers below the 24-pin ATX power connector, along with a USB 3.0 port. A sixth fan header (4-pin) is found on the south side of the board.
Above the 24-pin ATX power connector, we find the ASUS MemOK! button, which allows memory recovery to default speeds. Along with the ASRock boards, we have eight SATA ports—four SATA 3 Gbps from the PCH and four SATA 6 Gbps—two from the PCH and two more from an ASMedia controller. Below this are the TPU and EPU switches, designed for enhanced CPU performance and energy saving modes respectively.
Along the bottom of the board is the standard array of a front panel audio header, another USB 3.0 header, USB 2.0 headers, and a front panel header. In terms of PCIe layout, despite there being three full-length PCIe connectors on board, we are only limited to using two for multi-GPU setups. In order, we have a PCIe x1, a PCIe 3.0 x16 (x8 in dual GPU), x1, PCI, PCIe 3.0 x8, PCI, and a PCIe 2.0 x4. Thus in dual GPU mode, similarly to the ASRock Extreme6, we can also add in a PCIe x1 and PCIe x4 card.
The chipset heatsink is indicative of the large but low philosophy of many motherboard manufacturers, hiding away the chipset controller. What is not on these boards, as you may notice, is a combination power/reset pair of buttons, nor a two-digit debug, some of which we used to see on ASUS Pro boards of old. Nevertheless, the ASUS board in return makes up for it on the back IO panel.
On the back panel, we have a combination PS/2 port, two USB 3.0 ports (blue), two USB 2.0 ports (black), an ASUS Wi-Fi GO! Card, optical SPDIF output, HDMI, DisplayPort, D-Sub, DVI-D, gigabit Ethernet, two more USB 3.0 ports in blue, and standard audio headers.
This means that rather than add in a WiFi module on the board, or use up a mini-PCIe slot with wifi, we have a slot in order to add a WiFi module. This can be in 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz mode, and updateable as WiFi standards change. This all comes as part of the package, with magnetic wireless antenna to attach to the case.
Board Features
| ASUS P8Z77-V Pro | |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | LGA-1155 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 |
| Power Delivery | 12 + 4 |
| Memory Slots |
Four DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB Up to Dual Channel |
| Video Outputs | DisplayPort, HDMI 1.4a, DVI-D, D-Sub |
| Onboard LAN | Intel 82579V |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC892 |
| Expansion Slots |
2 x PCIe x16 Gen3 (x16, x8/8) 1 x PCIe x16 Gen2 (x4) 2 x PCIe x1 Gen2 2 x PCI |
| Onboard SATA/RAID |
2 x SATA 6 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 2 x SATA 6 Gbps (ASMedia) 4 x SATA 3 Gbps (PCH), Support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| USB |
Four USB 3.0 at rear (2 PCH, 2 ASMedia) Two USB 3.0 headers on board (PCH, ASMedia) Ten USB 2.0 (2 back panel, 8 on board) |
| Onboard |
4 x SATA 6 Gbps 4 x SATA 3 Gbps 2 x USB 3.0 Headers 4 x USB 2.0 Headers 6 x Fan Headers 1 x SPDIF Header 1 x Front Panel Audio Header MemOK! Button TPU/EPU Switches USB Flashback Button |
| Power Connectors |
1 x 24-pin ATX connector 1 x 8-pin 12V connector |
| Fan Headers |
1 x CPU Fan Header (4-pin) 4 x CHA Fan Headers 1 x OPT Fan Header |
| IO Panel |
1 x PS/2 Combo Port 1 x DisplayPort 1 x HDMI 1.4a 1 x DVI-D 1 x D-Sub 1 x Gigabit Ethernet 4 x USB 3.0 2 x USB 2.0 1 x Optical SPDIF 1 x WLAN Connector 6 x Audio Jacks |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
ASUS as a direct standard are now placing Intel NICs on all their channel motherboards. This is a result of a significant number of their user base requesting them over the Realtek solutions. Also to note are a total of six USB 3.0 on board, two on the back panel and four from internal headers. These USB 3.0 ports can take advantage of the improved UASP USB 3.0 protocol using appropriate hardware and some ASUS software. As always, we expect ASUS fan control of the six headers to be top notch.
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145 Comments
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mechjman - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
I don't remember seeing PCIe 3.0 support straight from P6x series chipsets.http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/ma...
If this is regarding in use with a PLX chip, it might be good to state so.
extide - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
It's actually when the boards DONT use a plx chip, or if the use 3.0 capable ones. It's only the boards that use 2.0 chips that are limited to 2.0GameLifter - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
I am very curious to see how this technology will affect the overall performance of the RAM. If it works well, I may have to get the P8Z77-V Pro.jbuiltman - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
I am leaving my AMD FX-60, 3 GB DDR, Asus 939 Delux, Win XP, Raptor 150 HDD for IVY Bridge pasures!!!I am all for ASUS 16+4 power, multi usb 2.0 and 3.0 on the back panel. I also like the multiple 4 pin fan plug ins, mem ok, LED problem indicator, switches, 4 SATA 6GB connectors and heat pipes connecting the alunimum fins.
What i want to see is 16x/16x not 8x/8x on dual video card on a Z77 board. ASUS, don't skimp for a measly $30! I hate cheap companies and don't make me think you are just being cheap!!!
jbuiltman - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Hey all you MoBo companies. Don't get cheap with the Z77 boards and not include 16x/16x on the pci-e 3.0!!!! Come on, add what you need to and pass the $30 on to me!!!!ratbert1 - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
"ASUS as a direct standard are now placing Intel NICs on all their channel motherboards. This is a result of a significant number of their user base requesting them over the Realtek solutions."Um... ASUS P8Z77-V LX has Realtek!
and...ASUS P8H77-M PRO has Realtek!
There are more.
ratbert1 - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
I meant P8Z77-M PRO, but the H77 has it as well.lbeyak - Sunday, April 15, 2012 - link
I would love a detailed review of the Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3 Z77 board when it becomes available.Keep up the good work!
csrikant - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
Dual E5-2690So far best i have got burn a lot $$$ to get this right
my last build was with I7 990x got itchy in oct 2011 with some minor issue decided to change my PC got my i7 2700K did not meet my expectation
built i7 3960x still failed many of my requirements regret my pc change from 990x
Finally with all my pain and wasting$$ got my new build that so far perform better than my 990X build
My advice do not get carried away by fancy new i7 release they are just little benefit for P4 just wasting time I was shocked that they released P4 with 1155 socket it was having same performace as 2700K not much change in fact it was cheaper too.
Am not expert an average system builder but my advice from bottom of my heart is just go for E5 build if you are really looking for performace and some benefits you may spend some extra $$ on MB ,CPU,Casing etc it is worth in long run works out cheper than any fancy High end gaming rig water cooling etc all just shit tech advice. Never get ferrari performance form mod toyota.
mudy - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
With the third pcie lane on the z77 boards I have come across almost all manufacturers saying "1xPCI Express 2.0 x16 (x4 Mode) & only available if a Gen 3 CPU are used". Does this mean that the lane is pcie 2.0 at x16 but works at pcie 3.0 x4 mode, if an IVB processor is connected, and other two pcie 3.0 lane is populated giving x8/x4x4 speed with pcie 3.0 compliant cards?? Also what will happen if I put Pcie 2.0 GPUs in the first two pcie 3.0 x16 slots and a pcie 2.0 compliant raid card (rr2720SGL) in the third pcie lane? Will it give me an effective pcie 2.0 bandwidth of x16/x8/x8 or not?? Damn these are so confusing!! I wish anandtech would do an extensive review on just the pcie lanes covering all sorts of scenario and I think NOW would be the best time to this as the transition from pcie 2.0 to pcie 3.0 will happen slowly (maybe years) so majority end-user will still be keeping their pcie 2.0 compliant devices!!Thanks