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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GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Indeed. Personally im looking at the Intel DH77DF:http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/...
I dont see the need for anything bigger than mATX anymore. And for most mITX will do everything and abit more.
Personally I got a hint from another person. So I will be looking at the DH77DF, 2x8GB, GTX 680 and a i5 3570 and put it into a Silverstone SG08.
hybrid2d4x4 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Agreed. mATX or smaller for me plz!Paapaa125 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
What is the actual significant difference between Asus P8Z77-V and P8Z77-V Pro? The only things I noticed were a few more phases in power supply (not significant).Byte - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
The only diff I see is the 12 vs 8 power phases, extra USB3.0 header, and pictures look like it includes a usb and esata pcie 1x card.ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Pro offer higher quality back I/O bracing for the display connections,High phase count 12+4
Additional front USB3 front header
ESATA via bracket
Additional fan header
Otherwise all other key features and hardware implementation is the same.
repoman27 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Given this statement on the first page, why does the chart indicate that the Panther Point chipsets provide 4 USB 3.0 ports?Knifeshade - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
First page, the paragraphs detailing the various features. You spelled Cougar Point in place of where I think you mean to say Panther Point....DesktopMan - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
PCIe / PCI info in the last page table would be appreciated. Good overview. Quite curious to see if the memory stuff from Asus actually does anything.MrSpadge - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
All 6-series chipsets are said to support PCIe 3 in this table. Would that work with Ivi and a proper GPU? Would be the first time I heard about this. And since PCIe 3 is supposed to be a new feature of the 7-series I suppose it's a typo.GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Well, alot of 6 series boards supports PCIe 3.0 due to the controller is on the CPU (Ivy Bridge). Essentially the only reason besides BIOS for PCIe 3.0 support on the 6 series, is the added switches for splitting the PCIe x16 into two x8. Thats also why the basic 6 series boards got a bigger chance of PCIe 3.0 support.