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
Features To Watch Out For
A few of the products listed here have some exciting new features and technologies, and the respective companies are quite proud of these. A lot of the time when a company advertises a 'unique' feature, it is a load of marketing fluff, but this time round I think a few of them are worth a mention.
ASRock BIOS Update from Internet within BIOS
ASRock have a new software technology coming along to aid BIOS updating. Their feature, as I've been told, will allow users to press a button in the BIOS which will let the motherboard connect to the internet, get and download the latest BIOS, then apply it. All at the touch of a button. Sounds good, right?
A little caveat: it will be for Ethernet wired connections only, where programs are not needed to access the internet, or through an ICS terminal. This may not be available with launch BIOSes, but should be a feature across their Z77 range soon.
ASUS T-Topology Memory
ASUS have outsmarted Intel and have decided to take their technology to another level. This is specifically in terms of memory, and how it is routed through the motherboard. Typically, routing through the memory would occur in a daisy chain type environment, whereby if data was in the furthest memory slot away from the board, it would take longer to get to the CPU, and perhaps cause synchronization issues and delays—all reads had to be done serially between sticks in the same channel.
With ASUS' new technology, they are essentially parallelizing memory reads that are commonly done serially between memory banks. This is part of their 'T-Topology' memory subsystem, which allows synchronization to be dealt with in hardware. This, according to ASUS, should allow for up to a 15% memory overclock beyond the previous methodology, where the motherboard is the limiting factor. In this circumstance, we could be seeing some new memory records being set in dual channel memory.
I have probed ASUS for specific details on how this works, and I am awaiting a response. I hope that by the time we are allowed to release our Ivy Bridge results on Z77 that I will have something more technical to pass on to you about how this works.
ASUS UASP Technology
While not strictly speaking a new technology, ASUS is the first to implement new USB protocols in Windows 7 under Intel platforms. Current USB protocols are very limited, insisting transfers are serial and rigorously monitored. ASRock first broke that with their XFast USB software (note, this was licensed to ASRock), which essentially implemented a new driver protocol. This had beneficial results on USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 transfers, both peak and in regular use. However, ASUS have gone one-step further.
Their software, enabled in X79, implements UASP, which stands for 'USB Attached SCSI Protocol'. This allows the operating system to use the SCSI command set for transferring data across the interface—this at the basic level involves command queuing, out of order execution, and hardware support for streams across USB 3.0.
To take advantage of UASP required a UASP compliant device, typically a modern USB 3.0 device using certain controllers. Unfortunately, that is a requirement of the protocol, not of the hardware itself. But hopefully this time around we will be able to test just how good it is, and whether your next USB 3.0 device will be able to take advantage of an ASUS only feature.
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tyger11 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
The article says only 2 USB 3.0 ports, but the table indicates 4. Which is correct?repoman27 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I didn't see your comment and posed a similar question, but I'm fairly certain the answer is that there are actually 4 SuperSpeed ports provided by the 7-series chipsets. If you look at the block diagram shown for the Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard it looks like they clearly used two 3-port USB 3.0 hub chips to arrive at a total of 8 USB 3 ports. Which also brings up the point that by leveraging the integrated USB 3.0 capabilities, motherboard manufacturers can add as many USB 3.0 ports as they like by using far less expensive hub chips instead of full blown controllers which also require a PCIe lane apiece.And speaking of PCIe, I also wonder about where Ian says, "These are known as PCIe 3.0 PLX PXE chips..." I'm guessing that he's referring to PLX's PEX 874x Gen 3 PCIe switches, but it's stated a bit oddly.
landerf - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Is the wifi card on the deluxe going to be accessible? Be nice to get a killer 1102 in there.johnpombrio - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Yeah, the WiFi connection(s) on the ASUS Pro and Deluxe depends on a small WiFi module that plugs into a particular slot. These will be interchangeable AND I have seen ASUS showing off a WiFi/ 60GB SSD drive going into that slot. The Pro looks like just a receiver while the Deluxe has a WiFi router built in but I am REALLY guessing on this. I think I will go with the Deluxe just because it has a couple of features I like and the WiFi router combo will be just gravy.ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Our MCombo Card ( which is on the Maximus V Gene and upcoming Formula should not be confused with the solution on our channel boards ( Standard -V, Pro or Deluxe ). The MCombo will allow you to install any MiniPCI-E or MSATA cards into their corresponding slots.ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
The module which connects to the back I/O panel can be opened. While not promoted as being DIY there is nothing stopping you from installing your own mini PCI-E wireless controller.AlexIsAlex - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I know I've asked for this before, but if you're going to do a big roundup of all these motherboards (which I'm looking forward to, as I plan to upgrade to Ivy Bridge on release), then please please test the boot / POST times to compare between the boards!Just the time it takes from hitting the power switch to when it starts to actually run the bootloader off disk. Or until it displays the "please insert boot media" - the actual time the bios contributes to the total boot time. This is something that can really differentiate between different bios implementations and would be really useful to know when choosing.
I know having RAID and on board devices turned on make a big difference, so a baseline of everything non-essential turned off, or just those devices that are present on all boards would make sense.
Nihility - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Seriously, please test POST times!Especially with the 6 Gbps Marvel controllers. Those damn controllers can take over 10 seconds to boot. That can easily be as much as the entire system.
risa2000 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
I would be quite interested in this one.eXces - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
would be very pleased for an ITX review! Especially Asus P8Z77-I DeluxeThx