ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe Review - Best Z77 Motherboard
If you're looking for an enthusiast level board that supports the Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor the ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe should be the first in the list.
Aside from the Republic of gamers, the Deluxe product is the top of the line motherboard from ASUS.
This promises a whole new level of gaming experience that packs with the latest technology that separates them from the crowd, features such as the Dual Intelligent processor 3 is a one click away from extreme performance.
Improved Graphics And Faster Video Conversion The combination of an integrated GPU and the discrete GPU are firstly seen in the Z68 motherboard, the results are a phenomenon.
With the new improved LucidLogix Virtu MVP you can enjoy a smoother output by eliminating the tearing effects caused by the mismatch in display and the GPU.
A faster video conversion can be experienced with the latest QuickSync feature.
The new HD 4000 iGP creates a smoother gaming experience that can match any mid-priced GPU, this makes it possible with the new Ivy Bridge processor.
Power Efficient ASUS creates the world's first Dual Intelligent processor by incorporating two physical chips which they called the TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and the EPU (Energy Processing Unit).
This aims for the best power efficient it can deliver to the system for optimum performance.
This includes the Smart DIGI+ power controller, a digitally precise tuning system for CPU, iGPU and DRAM.
This will help you save energy by lowering the CPU power consumption into half if you wish for a cooler and quitter PC.
Fastest USB 3.
0 Everybody knows how fast the USB 3.
0, it doubles the existing USB 2.
0.
ASUS improves it further by increasing it up to 70% more making it the fastest USB 3.
0 port in the planet.
Thanks to its new technology called the UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol).
Create Your Own Home Theater Trough Wi-Fi Go! This is one of the highlights in this board.
Using the built-in Wi-Fi Go!, you can now create your own home theatre PC that connects to any devices such as smartphones anywhere at home without the needs for an extra router.
Some Of The Best ASUS Exclusive Features Some of the best ASUS features are the USB BIOS Flashback, this offers an easy way to update the BIOS using a flash drive.
The SSD caching boost the system performance by using the installed SSD as a cache in tandem with the huge hard drive, by storing the most frequent accessed data on the SSD you got a faster loading time.
Great features that keep your system cool is the Fan Xpert 2, this includes the Fan Auto Tuning Mode that gives you a custom speed settings for optimum chill and low noise.
Other option is the RPM Fixed mode with specific fan speed to reach a 0dB noise.
There's the famous UEFI BIOS that gives you the easiest way to setup the BIOS using a mouse.
This also supports hard drive with more than 2.
2TB size.
You can save energy by charging you smartphone, iPhone or iPod while working on your PC.
Charge it with 3 times faster even during sleep mode.
What's In The Box? Opening the box, it includes six SATA cables, one SLI bridge, WiFi Go! module with pair of antenna, ASUS Q-connectors, DVD installer, user's guide and case badge.
The Looks And Connectivity The ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe looks great in its traditional blue and black color theme as they always did in their previous board.
Starting with the DIMM slots, it supports up to 32GB of RAM with a high-speed of 2600MHz.
A very nice color coded design that easily identifies its pairing.
To ensure it will boot even if there was a memory incompatibility a MemOK button is provided on the lower part.
For effortless overclock you got the TPU switch, it will automatically OC the system with precise voltage and tuning.
Turning on the lower left we can see the internal header for the SuperSpeed 3.
0 being controlled by the Z77 chipset, from here a pair of header chassis fan is also visible.
On the SATA port side, there's a total of eight of them, four of these are SATA 3GB/s in light blue color and four SATA 6GB/s, the pair of white come directly from Z77 chipset while the dark blue from the Marvel 9128 controller.
Above the SATA ports there are the headers for the front panel, beside of it is the ASUS LED Q-code, a pair of internal USB 2.
0 header and another 4-pin fan header.
A CMOS clear button, on board power and reset are very helpful for us especially when testing the board.
The board features three PCIe 3.
0 16x that fully supports the Gen3 GPU, this can be run by a single x16, dual x8/x8 and triple 8x/4x/4x multi GPU configurations.
In between of these there's a four PCIe x1 slots.
Moving on the back panel, you got an overdose of I/O ports.
A total of ten USB ports in which four of them on the left are USB 2.
0 and the remaining six are all in SuperSpeed 3.
0, you can take advantage of the UASP here, as you can see there's no room for slower transfer speed.
You have a dual Gigabit LAN a pair of eSATA ports are available.
Six audio ports, optical port, the WiFi GO! Antenna and the USB BIOS Flashback button.
A shortage in video port such as the VGA D-sub and DVI is noticeable in exchange of the other ports.
This is the case of the enthusiast board as they most often use is the output coming from the video card itself however; HDMI and the displayPort are included.
The built is total quality that uses premium grade components such as all Japanese caps and heatsinks are in beefy size that can withstand any heat even under stressed conditions.
The CPU socket area is very spacey to breathe some air for an oversize cooler.
This is also visible in the part of the GPU slot that leaves two PCIe 1x in between for proper ventilation.
Overall, we got a very descent board loaded with ports that you can never runs out of it.
Overclocking ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe To find out how far this board can bring the new Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K we put it into the overclocking test.
The processor has a default speed of 3.
5GHz having the following settings, the standard base clock is 100MHz with a multiplier of x35 giving us an equivalent of 3.
5GHz.
Using an Auto Tune feature found in the UEFI BIOS you got an instant OC with ease.
Enabling this will cause you to reboot, the new base has increased to 103.
2MHz and multiplier is automatically set to x41, the end results is 4.
2238GHz.
The final overclocked speed is at 4.
8GHz, by pulling up the multiplier at x48 and the base clock remains at 100MHz, the max voltage tweak was set to only 1.
35v.
This is the probably the case for the 22nm Ivy bridge due to its low voltage and power consumptions it can't be reach the 5GHz, we're lucky to reach the 4.
8GHz with this amazing board while other competitors are limited to 4.
6GHz.
Conclusion The new Ivy bridge processor is not an overclocking demon compare to Sandy Bridge, the reason behind this is the low voltage requirements.
However, if that's what you're looking for you can use the 2600K/2700K with this board due to its fully backward compatibility.
This is where the beauty lies with Intel's idea, something that AMD has done ever since.
On the brighter side, Ivy Bridge has brought more features in this new architecture as it proves that frequency is not all about to bring a blazing performance.
In the case of the new 22nm process, this really means that less is more.
The ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe is fully geared with features that separate them from the rest.
The main highlight here is the SuperSpeed USB 3.
0.
Without enabling the USB boost this is already fast, by doing so the competition was buried.
The asking price is not cheap at $284.
Does the price worth? It's a big yes, considering the features and performance it offers you got nothing to ask for.
This earns a perfect 5 star in customer's rating to prove how good this board is.
Having that said, this makes it easy to recommend to anyone who's craving for a rock-solid enthusiast level board.
Aside from the Republic of gamers, the Deluxe product is the top of the line motherboard from ASUS.
This promises a whole new level of gaming experience that packs with the latest technology that separates them from the crowd, features such as the Dual Intelligent processor 3 is a one click away from extreme performance.
Improved Graphics And Faster Video Conversion The combination of an integrated GPU and the discrete GPU are firstly seen in the Z68 motherboard, the results are a phenomenon.
With the new improved LucidLogix Virtu MVP you can enjoy a smoother output by eliminating the tearing effects caused by the mismatch in display and the GPU.
A faster video conversion can be experienced with the latest QuickSync feature.
The new HD 4000 iGP creates a smoother gaming experience that can match any mid-priced GPU, this makes it possible with the new Ivy Bridge processor.
Power Efficient ASUS creates the world's first Dual Intelligent processor by incorporating two physical chips which they called the TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) and the EPU (Energy Processing Unit).
This aims for the best power efficient it can deliver to the system for optimum performance.
This includes the Smart DIGI+ power controller, a digitally precise tuning system for CPU, iGPU and DRAM.
This will help you save energy by lowering the CPU power consumption into half if you wish for a cooler and quitter PC.
Fastest USB 3.
0 Everybody knows how fast the USB 3.
0, it doubles the existing USB 2.
0.
ASUS improves it further by increasing it up to 70% more making it the fastest USB 3.
0 port in the planet.
Thanks to its new technology called the UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol).
Create Your Own Home Theater Trough Wi-Fi Go! This is one of the highlights in this board.
Using the built-in Wi-Fi Go!, you can now create your own home theatre PC that connects to any devices such as smartphones anywhere at home without the needs for an extra router.
Some Of The Best ASUS Exclusive Features Some of the best ASUS features are the USB BIOS Flashback, this offers an easy way to update the BIOS using a flash drive.
The SSD caching boost the system performance by using the installed SSD as a cache in tandem with the huge hard drive, by storing the most frequent accessed data on the SSD you got a faster loading time.
Great features that keep your system cool is the Fan Xpert 2, this includes the Fan Auto Tuning Mode that gives you a custom speed settings for optimum chill and low noise.
Other option is the RPM Fixed mode with specific fan speed to reach a 0dB noise.
There's the famous UEFI BIOS that gives you the easiest way to setup the BIOS using a mouse.
This also supports hard drive with more than 2.
2TB size.
You can save energy by charging you smartphone, iPhone or iPod while working on your PC.
Charge it with 3 times faster even during sleep mode.
What's In The Box? Opening the box, it includes six SATA cables, one SLI bridge, WiFi Go! module with pair of antenna, ASUS Q-connectors, DVD installer, user's guide and case badge.
The Looks And Connectivity The ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe looks great in its traditional blue and black color theme as they always did in their previous board.
Starting with the DIMM slots, it supports up to 32GB of RAM with a high-speed of 2600MHz.
A very nice color coded design that easily identifies its pairing.
To ensure it will boot even if there was a memory incompatibility a MemOK button is provided on the lower part.
For effortless overclock you got the TPU switch, it will automatically OC the system with precise voltage and tuning.
Turning on the lower left we can see the internal header for the SuperSpeed 3.
0 being controlled by the Z77 chipset, from here a pair of header chassis fan is also visible.
On the SATA port side, there's a total of eight of them, four of these are SATA 3GB/s in light blue color and four SATA 6GB/s, the pair of white come directly from Z77 chipset while the dark blue from the Marvel 9128 controller.
Above the SATA ports there are the headers for the front panel, beside of it is the ASUS LED Q-code, a pair of internal USB 2.
0 header and another 4-pin fan header.
A CMOS clear button, on board power and reset are very helpful for us especially when testing the board.
The board features three PCIe 3.
0 16x that fully supports the Gen3 GPU, this can be run by a single x16, dual x8/x8 and triple 8x/4x/4x multi GPU configurations.
In between of these there's a four PCIe x1 slots.
Moving on the back panel, you got an overdose of I/O ports.
A total of ten USB ports in which four of them on the left are USB 2.
0 and the remaining six are all in SuperSpeed 3.
0, you can take advantage of the UASP here, as you can see there's no room for slower transfer speed.
You have a dual Gigabit LAN a pair of eSATA ports are available.
Six audio ports, optical port, the WiFi GO! Antenna and the USB BIOS Flashback button.
A shortage in video port such as the VGA D-sub and DVI is noticeable in exchange of the other ports.
This is the case of the enthusiast board as they most often use is the output coming from the video card itself however; HDMI and the displayPort are included.
The built is total quality that uses premium grade components such as all Japanese caps and heatsinks are in beefy size that can withstand any heat even under stressed conditions.
The CPU socket area is very spacey to breathe some air for an oversize cooler.
This is also visible in the part of the GPU slot that leaves two PCIe 1x in between for proper ventilation.
Overall, we got a very descent board loaded with ports that you can never runs out of it.
Overclocking ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe To find out how far this board can bring the new Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770K we put it into the overclocking test.
The processor has a default speed of 3.
5GHz having the following settings, the standard base clock is 100MHz with a multiplier of x35 giving us an equivalent of 3.
5GHz.
Using an Auto Tune feature found in the UEFI BIOS you got an instant OC with ease.
Enabling this will cause you to reboot, the new base has increased to 103.
2MHz and multiplier is automatically set to x41, the end results is 4.
2238GHz.
The final overclocked speed is at 4.
8GHz, by pulling up the multiplier at x48 and the base clock remains at 100MHz, the max voltage tweak was set to only 1.
35v.
This is the probably the case for the 22nm Ivy bridge due to its low voltage and power consumptions it can't be reach the 5GHz, we're lucky to reach the 4.
8GHz with this amazing board while other competitors are limited to 4.
6GHz.
Conclusion The new Ivy bridge processor is not an overclocking demon compare to Sandy Bridge, the reason behind this is the low voltage requirements.
However, if that's what you're looking for you can use the 2600K/2700K with this board due to its fully backward compatibility.
This is where the beauty lies with Intel's idea, something that AMD has done ever since.
On the brighter side, Ivy Bridge has brought more features in this new architecture as it proves that frequency is not all about to bring a blazing performance.
In the case of the new 22nm process, this really means that less is more.
The ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe is fully geared with features that separate them from the rest.
The main highlight here is the SuperSpeed USB 3.
0.
Without enabling the USB boost this is already fast, by doing so the competition was buried.
The asking price is not cheap at $284.
Does the price worth? It's a big yes, considering the features and performance it offers you got nothing to ask for.
This earns a perfect 5 star in customer's rating to prove how good this board is.
Having that said, this makes it easy to recommend to anyone who's craving for a rock-solid enthusiast level board.
