ASUS P8Z77-V Premium Review: A Bentley Among Motherboards
by Ian Cutress on August 13, 2012 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z77
ASUS P8Z77-V Premium In The Box
Being ASUS’ top channel SKU, bonuses in the box are expected to be numerous and beneficial – perhaps even better than the package supplied by the P8Z77-V Deluxe. ASUS definitely do deliver:
IO Shield
Driver CD
User Guide
WiFi User Guide
Six SATA Cables
2-way SLI Flexi-Bridge
3-way SLI Rigid Bridge
4-way SLI Rigid Bridge
Two magnetic WiFi antenna
WiFi Go! Card
USB 3.0 Front Box
Q-Connectors
That is a lot of extra in the box. The WiFi module should be installed before the CPU is installed due to the way it screws into the motherboard, and the antennas are designed to magnetize to the outside of the PC case. The USB 3.0 front box is a great addition, one that should be included in most non-mITX packages, and as expected we get several SLI bridges in what is a multi-GPU focused motherboard.
Voltage Readings
After my first publication of OCCT voltage readings, a few readers responded with a more in-depth reasoning behind some of the results we were seeing. With this in mind, I would like to re-describe what we are doing with this test, and how it comes about.
Much of what an enthusiast overclocker does is monitor CPU temperature and voltage. Whatever settings a user places in the BIOS or OS is at the mercy of the motherboard - in terms of actually setting the values and reporting the values back. As an enthusiast, we have to rely on what readings we get back, and hope that motherboard manufacturers are being honest with their readings.
Take CPU voltage. What we as a user see in CPU-Z or OCCT is a time-averaged value that hides voltage ripple (if any) for power delivery. It is very easy for a motherboard manufacturer to hide this value, or to disregard slight deviations and report a constant value to the user. The CPU voltage reading can be taken at a variety of places on the power plane, which can vary between motherboards and manufacturers, meaning that each reading is essentially not comparable with the other. Nevertheless, as an enthusiast, we will constantly compare value A with value B.
Whether or not I can achieve 4.7 GHz with 1.175 volts on a particular board is inconsequential - your motherboard may perhaps produce the same result with a reading at 1.200 volts. The only way to test the actual value is with consistent methodology is via an oscilloscope connected to similar points on each board. This may sound like taking an OCCT reading is therefore redundant.
However, motherboards have settings relating to load line calibration. As load is applied to the CPU, the voltage across the processor decreases (VDroop). Load Line calibration essentially attempts to control this level of droop, by increasing voltage when voltage drops are detected away from a fixed value. Manufacturers have different ideas on how to modify LLC with respect to load, or whether the level of modification should be controlled by the user. Some manufacturers offer the option at a variety of levels, such that overclockers can be sure of the applied setting (even if it increases peak voltage, as explained by AnandTech in 2007).
By doing a full load OCCT test, we are essentially determining both how aggressive the motherboard is reporting the CPU voltage under load and how aggressive load line calibration is performing (from the point of view of the user without an oscilloscope or DVM). If someone has one of the motherboards we have tested and you have a different one, variations in load voltage should describe the offset you may require for overclock comparisons.
| Reported Load Voltage / V | |
| ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional | 0.956 |
| ASRock Z77 Extreme4 | 1.050-1.058 |
| ASRock Z77 Extreme6 | 1.040-1.048 |
| ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe | 1.085 |
| ASUS P8Z77-V Pro | 1.090 |
| ASUS P8Z77-V Premium | 1.088 |
| Biostar TZ77XE4 | 1.036 |
| Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H | 1.067 |
| Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H | 1.067 |
| MSI Z77A-GD65 | 1.020 |
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ptrinh1979 - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
I was confused as well, but in my case, I can use this to offload the pagefile without sacrificing a drive bay in my chassis.BytesMage - Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - link
Page file is good for this. Planning on raiding 2 SSDs in raid 0 on Intel then SSD cache ll on the marvel with 2 60gb SSDs to 3tb HDD. I was wondering what to do with the 32gb mSata.ASUSTechMKT - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
The 32GB mSATA was integrated to allow for quick access to utilizing Intel SSD Caching functionality. While many users are adopting high performance SSDs the cost of higher capacities is till high and in addition limited. Mechanical drives still considerably outpace and outsell SSDs in integration in all price points of desktops. Having this 32GB drive integrated easily allows for you to "SSD Cache a 2, 3 or 4TB drive" this allows you to have a much smoother and quicker response experience from the mechanical volume.While not noted the setup has also been streamlined in our utility to allow for a quick one click level of initialization for Intel SSD Caching or ASUS SSD Caching from the Marvell controller.
Rick83 - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
At this price point, that is fairly ridiculous.So yes, there is "Thunderbolt", but a Firewire 800 Controller would probably be more useful, as there are way more Firewire devices in the wild than Thunderbolt.
Not sure how much the 82579V really can be called "server grade" either.
The 82579V on the Gene-Z shouldn't be all that different, having the same designation, but you have to manually hack the .inf to get the driver to install on Windows server. Not sure what makes this one server grade, seeing as the broken .inf comes directly from Intel.
Checking the other NIC, that one is more likely to be server grade, it costs almost twice as much. Not sure who made that mix-up.
IanCutress - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
This was my error. The 82583 is not server grade, but as a helpful reader pointed out via email, the 82571, 82572, 82574, 82576, 82580 and I350 are. Super helpful naming scheme to tell them apart... :)Ian
Googer - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
Thunderbolt is capable if mimicking firewire and just about every other IO technology in existence. So there is no real need for the added PCB Real Estate or monetary expense of a 1394 chip when 1394b is something that never really caught on (SAD).bigboxes - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
Give up on the firewire. It's got USB 3.0. & USB 2.0. Anything you might need beyond that will either be Thunderbolt or some future USB 4.0. I've never needed Firewire. I've wasted money on a Firewire card, but that's not the same thing as needing it, now is it?Rick83 - Tuesday, August 14, 2012 - link
There's a lot of Firewire Video stuff (I'm following the IEEE1394-Linux mailing list, and there is still development and occasional use in a variety of contexts) Also I have a FireWire CF-reader. Not to mention that it's still much cheaper than TB, and in the shape of FW-800 still bloody fast, thanks to physical DMA.Also, at 450 euro, there's just no reason not to mark that check-box. Thunderbird is NOT a drop-in replacement. It's not like there's no space left on the back plane.
I actually had a look at the P8C WS yesterday evening, and it seems that that board is what this board should be, at half the price.
Two server grade NICs, FireWire, DVI out, support for ECC MEM and Xeons.
No WiFi, Thunderbolt, SSD or PLX though, but then those are probably less useful to (me and) most people, than the aforementioned.
Oh and it has 4x SATA less. But then 10x SATA is what my much cheaper GigaByte P55-UD5 has, and had years ago (Yes, they're all in use - Yes I'm looking at the WS because I've been having issues (kernel panics, NICs misbehaving) with it lately and server NICs and ECC probably are a good idea after all)
BoloMKXXVIII - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
I have to agree with others who are a bit confused why a 32 GB SSD was included. As for the rest of the board, I will keep an eye out for when this board starts dropping in price. It is bound to happen. As long as it doesn't take too long it could fit well into my near future plans.Kristian Vättö - Monday, August 13, 2012 - link
Any idea how the Marvell 9230 SATA 6Gbps controller performs? Marvell's previous controllers haven't been too great, so I'm curious to know if the 9230 is any better.