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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Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
So when is AMD buying them out and integrating this in their gfx cards / platform?neo55 - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Will Z77 support two or three monitors simultaneously?GreenEnergy - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
You mean from the Ivy Bridge IGP?Well depends. (Its the same btw for H77, Z75 and Z77 etc.). You need to have 2 displayport if I remember correctly. So if you got for example DVI, HDMI and DP. Then 2 screens only. If you got DVI, DP, DP then 3. Or if you daisychain the DP?
dubyadubya - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Listing fan header count and layout is useless if you do not test the functionality. Do they report RPM? Can they control fan speed? Does the fan control work with Speedfan etc. or only the software from the motherboard manufacturer? Several years ago many people including myself brought this to Anandtech's attention. At the time Anandtech stated they would include this missing info which they did. Trouble is the info was only included in one or two reviews before it was dropped. When I purchase a new motherboard I want to know this info. I have spent many hours searching for this info for each new build as most manufactures do not give detailed info even in the motherboard manual.IMO if a fan header exists it must have full functionality. If not the header should not be on the board. Motherboard manufactures need to pull their heads out of their asses. If Anandtech reported this info in reviews and gave negative reviews on boards with poor fan support the manufacturers would get the hint.
Nje - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
Yeah I would love to know this, particularly if the fan headers can control 3 pin fans as well (ie vary the voltage).ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
Primary CPU headers ( CPU and CPU OPT are fully controllable for 4 pin ) as the majority of CPU coolers are PWM for chassis headers ( 1-4 all allow for 3 pin and 4 pin fan control ).Zoomer - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Asus, can they be used with speedfan or is it BIOS/Asus software only?ASUSTechMKT - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
This has been noted in the last couple of reviews. Specifically for ASUS we have spent considerable time putting quality fan controls on our boards all headers allow for 3 presets as well as min and max rotation and target temperatures. In addition with our software for this generation we offer full calibration per each header that can sense the min and max rotation and provide this information as well as sync this data to the profiles. Overall it is quite extensive make sure to check out our videos coming up which shows it in great depth.Arbie - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link
@dubyadubya - Look on the bright side: at least one manufacturer (Asus) takes fans seriously, and at least one reviewer (Anandtech) is even mentionng the fact.I have the same wants as you do, and have made the same requests, but be reasonable. These aren't full motherboard reviews! They don't even have the boards operable, much less any hands-on time with BIOS details.
And when they do have all that, a higher priority will be PCIe lanes and how many graphics cards can be stuffed in. That's because you can't run any modern games with only one board.
But then they might talk a little more about the fan controls... Let's hope. Again - be glad that even one vendor is paying attention and has included some controls to be talked about.
Cavalcade - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link
With a slightly more than passing knowledge of rendering, and having spent a fair amount of time handling input in a game engine, I'm curious as to how Lucid came to the responsiveness numbers in the chart on page 3. The concept seems valid at first glance, but the numbers strike me as pure marketing fodder as opposed to solid and testable results.Also, this sort of technology seems far better suited to residing in the driver layer as opposed to yet another piece of middleware for PC gamers to contend with. We're already effectively blocked from the hardware, and forced to go through third-party graphics APIs (Direct3D/OpenGL).
Maybe it's a "you have to see it (feel it)" kind of thing, but from here you can color me skeptical.