ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe Review - Know Your SKU
by Ian Cutress on May 12, 2012 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z77
LAN Speed Test
LAN Speed Test is a freeware program designed for testing the network connection between two PCs on a home network. The speed of the transfer is limited by the lowest common denominator on the network, so if you have gigabit Ethernet capable computers but a 100 Mbit capable router, you are limited to 100 Mbit transfer. Note that this is really a formality – if a network port is rated at 1 Gbps, then chances are that it should hit at least 90+% of this value. The main test here is CPU usage, and how much is offloaded by the controller. For this test, we use LAN Speed Test to transfer 1000 x 1 MB files across a home network with a 1 Gbps lowest common speed to the same machine each time, in a read/write scenario.
Due to a new slight variation in our LAN testing, the LAN Read numbers for our Z77 lineup are void - as soon as we can get time to test the previous boards, we will include the numbers back again. In terms of sequential write testing however, the Deluxe does well on the Realtek NIC.
USB Speed
For this benchmark, we run CrystalDiskMark to determine the ideal sequential read and write speeds for the USB port using our 240 GB OCZ Vertex3 SSD with a SATA 6 Gbps to USB 3.0 converter. Then we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are the videos used in the Sorenson Squeeze test.
USB results, in particular the USB 3.0 results, are rather impressive - both the ASMedia and Intel controllers out perform the Intel controllers on other boards in our absolute copy test, and even more so when under USB 3.0 Boost modes.
SATA Testing
We also use CrystalDiskMark for SATA port testing on a C300 drive. The sequential test (incompressible data) is run at the 5 x 1000 MB level. This test probes the efficiency of the data delivery system between the chipset and the drive, or in the case of additional SATA ports provided by a third party controller, the efficiency between the controller, the chipset and the drive.
SATA testing on the Deluxe shows no abnormalities.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests, such as audio, will be further down the line. So if the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled. If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time, resulting in an empty audio buffer – this leads to characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. Having a bigger buffer and correctly implemented system drivers obviously helps in this regard. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is processing DPCs from driver invocation – the lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds and taken as the peak latency while cycling through a series of short HD videos - under 500 microseconds usually gets the green light, but the lower the better.
The agressive BIOS settings of the P8Z77-V Pro and Deluxe have helped both of them get the best ever results in our DPC Latency test.
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KivBlue - Saturday, May 12, 2012 - link
Don't get me wrong, I like ASUS but they are pricey for what they offer, and I think Gigabyte is decent but they lack something in software side of things, I really feel like the choices are rather limited. EVGA has a chance to step up their game and put a stamp in the motherboard market just by coming up with a 2 or 3 model line-up for Z77 chipset catered at low to mid level, because FTW at the moment is out of the price range for most people to even consider.IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi KivBlue,We review what we get in, and we test in our spare time alongside a full time job. I currently have 12 boards in to get through, unfortunately no EVGA. We may get hold of one soon though.
Ian
jimmyzaas - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Please review the premium Gigabyte UD5H board as well. I compared it closely with this deluxe board and it seemed to have everything this board has except wifi. It's also a full $70 cheaper.IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi JimmyZaas,This board just came through my door. I have other boards to test ahead of it, and then Computex, and then I'll will have a chance to take a look.
Ian
falc0ne - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
both from my user and my IT experience(5 years as hardware technical support) MBs with more features are more prone to fail than others with less features.I had a Deluxe version of ASUS with the whole bulk of features, including wi-fi, dedicated antena, 24bit 192Khz audio card, lots of USBSs and SATA etc.
Problems I had :
-ASUS temp monitoring utility didn't report an accurate temperature
-wireless not reliable, support software was very poor
-After 1 year of usage blue screens with message "IRQ not less or equal". Done my own investigation and found out that enabling devices in BIOS would work. Worked for a while and now the MB even after that fix still has random BSOD + random fail to boot issues.
-
At this moment imagine that I am reluctant to buy any of these boards with 100+ features.
OK, on paper they look great, but do they actually work? Who can tell how reliable this MB will be after 1 year of usage?
My take is, mine got busted after doing a very mild overclocking. I only increased the frequency from 2.3 to 2.9 Ghz, all done by the book.
Bottom line,make a thourgh reasearch when you buy one of these
Ratman6161 - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Not that many people will want to be doing that. But for the Z68 boards in the test you use a 2500K. I think it might be interesting to also see a 2500K in the Z77 boards just to see if there is any difference in performance attributable to the different chipsets. I kind of suspect there would be no difference.DarkRogue - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
First off, thanks again Ian for a good review.I see you've added a few more tests and are generally improving upon the last mobo review article.
I also appreciate your taking the time to try and explain the voltage ripple situation in the article, enve if I still don't quite understand it, haha.
However, one that that still puzzles me is probably one of the best features of the ASUS boards so far - Fan Xpert 2. I'm getting a lot of conflicting information about whether or not they can control the speed of 3-pin (non-PWM) fans, such as the Nexus D12SL-12 ort he newer Scythe Kama Flow 2's (which seems to have replaced the older Scythe S-FLEX series.)
I've read that the fan headers do support fan control of those fans, and also that some headers don't support it, which is very confusing. It would be extremely helpful if you could delve into the software suite and test out the fan control on a couple non-PWM fans. Furthermore, I can't find any mention if the mboo controls 3-pin fans via voltage variation, or still tries to do some kind of PWM by pulsing the 12v on and off.
In particular, not all fan headers are created equal on every mobo, so it would be helpful to know where the differences lie.
Basically, besides the hardware, every manufacturer is trying to differentiate themselves with their software suite, and it would be a good idea to try them out and note how stable/buggy they are, if they perform well, if there are any competitive products, etc.
Otherwise, I'm liking the improvements in the review.
maximumGPU - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
i have the board with three 3-pin fans plugged into it. Fan Xpert can control their speed just fine.DarkRogue - Sunday, May 13, 2012 - link
Which headers do you have them plugged into?I have heard that the Chassis headers can control 3-pin and 4-pin fans, but that the CPU and CPU_OPT headers can only control 4-pin fans.
Do you know if they are controlled via voltage (for example, feeding 8v to the fan) or if it simply pulses 12v on and off?
IanCutress - Monday, May 14, 2012 - link
Hi DarkRogue,ASUS confirm that the chassis fan headers (labelled CHA) should be able to control 3-pin fans.
Regarding software, AI Suite has been pretty stable for the last 6-8 ASUS boards I've gone through, so I didn't mention anything new here. If software bugs me during testing, by not doing what it should, I do mention it where I can :)
All the best,
Ian