Six $160-220 Z77 Motherboards, Benchmarked And Reviewed
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The components of Intel’s Maho Bay platform, including the Z77 Express chipset and Ivy Bridge-based processors, have been floating around our SoCal lab all year. And yet, the company waited until April to to slowly roll its parts out, allowing channel partners to clear as many Sandy Bridge-based machines as possible before relegating the architecture to «prior-gen.»
The Z77 Express chipset was quickly followed by Ivy Bridge-based processors, and both of our stories on those parts came to the same conclusion: mainly, that the new generation of hardware is barely better than the Z68 Express and Sandy Bridge architecture it replaces.
Nevertheless, Maho Bay’s improvements still make it the preferred choice for anyone replacing an older system. If you’re already running a machine that center on Sandy bridge, an upgrade doesn’t make sense. But if you’re stuck with a Core 2- or Phenom-based box, Z77 Express and an Ivy Bridge-based processor are the logical path forward.
If you’re patient enough to hold off on Sandy Bridge, sticking with two- or three-year-old hardware for this long, then X79 is probably totally out of the question. It’s a good thing, then, that the Maho Bay platform inherits its predecessor’s mainstream pricing. On the other hand, if you’re savvy enough to read Tom’s Hardware, then you probably also share our high expectations for quality, stability, and robust features.
With that degree of frugality in mind, we begin our Z77 Express-based motherboard round-ups right in the middle of the enthusiast market: between $160 and $220.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 — Cell 0 | ASRock Z77 Extreme6 | Asus P8Z77-V Pro | Biostar TZ77XE4 |
| PCB Revision | 1. 02 |
1.02 | 5.0 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express |
| Voltage Regulator | Twelve Phases | Sixteen Phases | Twelve Phases |
| BIOS | P1.30 (04/12/2012) | 0906 (03/26/2012) | Z77CF412 (04/12/2012) |
| 100.0 MHz BCLK | 100.46 (+0.46%) | 100.30 (+0.30%) | 100.01 (+0.01%) |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | 1 (4 lanes from PCH) | 1 (4 lanes from PCH) | 1 (4 lanes from PCH) |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 1/0 | 2/0 | 1/0 |
| Mini PCIe | 1 | None | None |
USB 2. 0 |
3 (6 ports) | 4 (8 ports) | 2 (4 ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2 ports) | 2 (4 ports) | 1 (2 ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | None | None |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 4 (1 shared w/eSATA) | 4 | 4 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | 4 | 4 | 4 (1 shared w/eSATA) |
| 4-Pin Fan | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 4 | None | 2 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only |
| Power Button | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reset Button | Yes | No | Yes |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | No | Yes |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | Pass/Fail LEDs | Numeric |
| Legacy Interfaces | Serial, Floppy, 2 x PCI | 2 x PCI | Serial, 2 x PCI |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
USB 3. 0 |
4 | 4 | 2 |
| USB 2.0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | None | None |
| Network | Single | Single | Single |
| eSATA | 1 (shared w/SATA) | None | 1 (shared w/SATA) |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Yes | No | No |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical Only | Optical Only | None |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Video Out | VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI | HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D | DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA, DVI-D |
| Other Devices | None | 802. 11n Wi-Fi Module |
None |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 shared w/eSATA | ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s | ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s |
| USB 3.0 | EJ168A PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated | 2 x ASM1042 PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated | Z77 Integrated Only |
| IEEE-1394 | VT6308P PCI 2 x 400 Mb/s | None | None |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | BCM57781 PCIe | WG82579V PHY | RTL8111E PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | None | AR9485 PCIe Wi-Fi | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC898 | ALC892 | ALC898 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | DTS Connect | Not Specified |
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 — Cell 0 | ECS Golden Z77h3-A2X | Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H | MSI Z77A-GD65 |
| PCB Revision | 1. 0 |
1.0 | 2.1 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express |
| Voltage Regulator | Eight Phases | Eight Phases | Twelve Phases |
| BIOS | 120328 (03/28/2012) | F7 (03/28/2012) | V10.3 (03/27/2012) |
| 100.0 MHz BCLK | 99.77 (-0.23%) | 100.89 (+0.89%) | 100.0 (+0.0%) |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 3 (x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, x8/x4/x4) |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | None | 1 (4 lanes from PCH) | None |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 2/0 | 3/0 | 4/0 |
| Mini PCIe | 1 | None | None |
USB 2. 0 |
1 (2 ports) | 3 (6 ports) | 3 (6 ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2 ports) | 1 (2 ports) | 1 (2 ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | 1 |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | 2 | 4 (1 shared w/mSATA) | 4 |
| 4-Pin Fan | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 2 | None | 2 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Output Only | None |
| Power Button | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reset Button | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | Yes | No |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | Numeric | Numeric |
| Legacy Interfaces | Serial, 2 x PCI | None | None |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | None | 1 | 1 |
USB 3. 0 |
4 | 6 | 2 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 | None | 4 |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Network | Single | Single | Single |
| eSATA | 1 | 2 | None |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | No | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical Only | Optical Only | Optical+Coaxial |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Video Out | VGA, DVI-D, HDMI | VGA, DVI-D, HDMI, DiplayPort | HDMI, VGA, DVI-D |
| Other Devices | Bluetooth, 802. 11n Wi-Fi |
None | None |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 2 x SATA 3Gb/s 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | ASM1061 PCIe2 x SATA 6Gb/s | 88SE9128 PCIe2 x eSATA 6Gb/s | ASM1061 PCIe2 x SATA 6Gb/s |
| USB 3.0 | ASM1042 PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated | VL800-Q8 PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated | Z77 Integrated Only |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | VT6315N PCIe 1 x 400 Mb/s |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | RTL8111E PCIe | AR8151 PCIe | WG82579V PHY |
| Secondary LAN | AR9271 USB Wi-Fi | None | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC892 | VT2021 | ALC898 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | Not Specified | Not Specified |
- 1
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Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom’s Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Intel Ivy Bridge Motherboard Review Z77
Today we are looking at the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro which is a Z77 chipset motherboard for the Intel Ivy Bridge CPU lineup. I have quite a few boards to review for Ivy Bridge but as the ASUS P8P67 Pro review was very popular with Sandy Bridge I decided to follow that with the P8Z77-V Pro review at the Ivy Bridge launch. The Z77 chipset is the LGA 1155 successor to the Z68 companion to Sandy Bridge. Unlike the original P67 and H67 chipsets, the Z68 and Z77 chipsets allow for both video output via on-die GPU and also overclocking with K series unlocked CPUs such as the new 22nm Core i7-3770K. Generally ASUS builds an extensive lineup of motherboards for a flagship chipset that have slightly higher-end features at slightly higher price points.
The Z77 launch was no exception and ASUS targets its Pro boards as solid mainstream offering.
Test Configuration
The trend with Z68 and Z77 chipsets are that the integrated GPUs are more than adequate for basic 2D output. If you are looking for a workstation with a lot of CPU need but where 3D GPU performance was not needed, then Intel’s on-die graphics are going to be “good-enough” for many users one one can use the third-gen PCIe slots for more I/O performance. With that being said, most Z77 buyers will still use discrete GPUs.
- CPU(s): Intel Core i7-3770K and Intel Core i7-2600K
- Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
- Memory: 32GB (4x 8GB) G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3 1600
- Drives: Corsair Force3 120GB, OCZ Vertex 3 120GB
- Chassis: Norco RPC-4220
- Power Supply: Corsair AX850 850w 80 Plus Gold
Let’s see what the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro has under the hood.
Features
The ASUS P8Z77-V Pro is a standard size ATX motherboard which will work in many consumer level cases.
It should be noted that this motherboard should be used in standard workstation configuration cases where there is ventilation on top of the chassis.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Overview
Looking around the board one will notice that all of the fan headers are 4-pin connectors for PWM controlled fans. ASUS’ FAN Expert 2 is included and takes what we see on many systems, including high-end servers, and does one better. Aside from the board having UEFI control of the fan speeds, ASUS allows one to do a few interesting things such as have the software independently run each fan through its RPM range and determine optimal speeds. Here is a quick link to a video with some more on this feature, but needless to say it is a big improvement over even what we are accustomed to seeing in the new Sandy Bridge-EP boards that cost $750 or more.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i-aTUMuIB0
I did notice that around the CPU socket, the heatsinks did get a bit larger than I remember on previous ASUS boards in the Sandy Bridge generation.
For the majority of users the heatsinks around the CPU socket are still going to be low enough to clear typical tower coolers and do not obstruct the Intel reference CPU cooler in any way. For those with new Ivy Bridge CPUs they are going to find no real issues cooling the already cool running CPUs on this board. Also, ASUS did move the 8-pin power connector a positive evolution in their mainstream board builds.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro CPU Socket
ASUS also equips the board with three PCIe 3.0 x16 physical slots, two PCIe x1 slots and two legacy PCI slots. Frankly, I think anything more than one PCI slot is overkill anyway but odds are with two AMD or NVIDIA GPUs installed in Crossfire or SLI the PCI slots will not be usable anyway. There is a PCIe x1 slot between the PCIe x16 slot and the LGA 1155 CPU socket so users will have room for large heatsinks or a PCIe x1 slot even if using large GPU coolers. This configuration has become a leading practice in the industry.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Expansion Slots
As we are accustomed to seeing on this class of boards, ASUS uses the same port configuration as they did even with the Sandy Bridge launch board, the P8P67 Pro and other boards and are offering the Intel PCH 2x SATA III (6.
0gbps) and 4x SATA II (3.0gbps) ports along with two auxiliary ports. Intel needs to step up and make all of their PCH controllers 6.0gbps across six ports so one can RAID 0, RAID 1 or RAID 10 across all six ports. As of now, Intel’s PCH design means that users with large arrays will want an add-in RAID controller. One plus side to Intel’s Z77 and RSTe is that users can have a desktop version of storage tiering using SSD caching algorithms from Intel. The SATA ports are all placed in-line with the PCB plane making it very simple to add new boards. One can see in the bottom right of the picture above and to the left of the SATA ports in the picture below that ASUS is including the Thunderbolt expansion header for a soon-to-be-announced Thunderbolt expansion option.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro SATA Ports
The ASUS P8Z77-V Pro has a fairly interesting rear I/O panel. First there is a legacy PS/2 combo keyboard/mouse port. Video from the integrated Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge GPU can exit through a DVI-D, VGA D-Sub, DisplayPort, and/ or HDMI port.
Ethernet duties are handled using an Intel 82579V controller which is generally seen as an upgrade to Realtek controllers found on less expensive motherboards. Included in the ASUS iNetwork control software package is a packet priority feature which allows one to do some flow control at the PC level much as one would normally do on their router/ firewall. ASUS also adds six USB ports, two USB 2.0 and four USB 3.0 ports to the rear I/O panel. Audio is handled by six mini jacks for 7.1 output and a S/PDIF optical output. ASUS does not include a eSATA port, but includes an expansion bracket with two USB ports and an eSATA port if one really needs it. ASUS makes a big deal in marketing material that their UASP enabled USB 3.0 ports are much faster than traditional USB 3.0 ports and their ease of use makes eSATA almost redundant.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Rear IO
Probably one of the most interesting things one can see in the P8Z77-V Pro is the integrated WiFi module and external antenna. ASUS is finally bringing their WiFi suite down the product line-up which is great (and something I have given them feedback about.
) It is a single antenna 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n solution so it is not going to be a high-end router replacement, but what it is great for is connecting devices in the same room. I had great success taking pictures with the Eye-Fi Pro X2 and having the images sync to my PC and storage server through this. I am very happy to see this functionality becoming more mainstream as people have tons of WiFi devices these days and being able to get a decent connection near a PC is awesome. ASUS does include a software package called WiFi GO to support things such as easy file transfers, remote desktop, and DNLA media streaming. For those with smart phones and tablets, this will add a lot of functionality.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro WiFi
Software
Probably the most interesting piece of software is the UEFI interface that ASUS provides. For those accustomed to standard BIOS that have been used for decades, the ability to use a mouse is welcome. I did find though that using a mouse was almost necessary as navigating by keyboard was not as slick as old AMI, Phoenix, and Award BIOS implementations.
The UEFI interface provides a simple mode (called EZ mode) that shows things like boot order, and lets a user change profiles between a power saving profile, balanced profile, and performance profile.
ASUS UEFI BIOS
Beyond the UEFI interface, ASUS provides a suite of software including AISuite II and ASUS Fan Xpert+. Plenty of details can be found on ASUS’s site, but the highlights from this software are the abilities to:
- Monitor system information from fan speeds, temperatures, voltages, clock speeds and etc. and set alerts.
- Overclock the CPU if desired either manually or using a CPU auto tuning feature. The base clock can be increased too by a small amount as 100MHz to 103MHz base clocks are generally obtainable from a 100MHz base. One can also change the CPU multipliers.
- Set the EPU power saving profiles and features. The EPU is a feature of ASUS motherboards meant to intelligently reduce power consumption.
- Set and test fan speeds using Fan Xpert+.
This can be useful if one wants to set thresholds and test them for quieter idle fan speeds ramping up as the workload increases.
With the P8Z77-V Pro ASUS provides a great WiFi suite that helps quickly create a WiFi hotspot with the wireless solution that comes with the motherboard. ASUS also is including Lucid’s VirtuMVP software to help unlock the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge onboard GPU in systems with PCIe GPUs.
USB 3.0 and UASP
ASUS has been touting the benefits of an optimized USB interface called USB Attached SCSI Protocol or UASP for some time now and I think it is mature to the point that it is worth a serious look. I did a piece entitled USB 3.0 UASP Mode – Performance Benefit or Marketing Gimmick? recently and figured I would share the benchmark results there, as well as how one would turn the UASP mode on. Here is a quick example using AS SSD of the difference between standard USB 3.0 mode and UASP mode.
USB 3 UASP AS SSD Comparison
One can see that there is clearly a determinable difference in performance using UASP and I recommend it if one can purchase the necessary hardware for it.
Conclusion
Overall, the ASUS P8Z77-V Pro is a great board that is going to be a great mainstream board. ASUS decided to put 802.11 b/g/n onboard which is just a great feature especially with today’s Android smartphones and tablets as well as Apple iPhones and iPads. ASUS has put a lot of great features onto their mainstream Z77 offering and really caters to a broad audience. This is one of those boards where I would probably start my search looking at and then decide if more expensive models have enough of a feature upgrade (that I would use) to warrant their price premiums.
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro Summary
MSI Z77A-GD65
motherboard review Despite the fact that the official release of the new Intel Z77 chipset took place on April 8, motherboards based on this chipset could be bought at the end of last month. One of these boards came to us for testing. The main reason for the release of the new chipset is the upcoming announcement of the Ivy Bridge processors.
Unfortunately, at the moment we do not have the 3rd generation Intel Core processor on hand, however, this will not prevent us from introducing you to the new system logic set, since the new chipset supports all existing processors for socket LGA 1155 , including Sandy Bridge .
The new Intel Z77 chipset replaced Z68, which in turn was released less than a year ago and became the flagship solution for LGA 1155 . At the moment, all 3 chipsets with support for overclocking, namely P67, Z68 and Z77 have compatibility both Sandy Bridge and 3rd generation Intel Core a.k.a «Ivy Bridge» processors. To support Ivy Bridge 9 processors0004, motherboards based on older P67 and Z68 chips will only need a BIOS update. We do not expect to see something revolutionary from the new system logic set in the face of Z77, but it still makes sense to find out the advantages of the new system logic set over the old one.
The figure below shows the main specifications of the Intel Z77 chipset. As you can see, there have been no major changes compared to the Z68.
Just like the Z68, the new Z77 chipset allows the use of the integrated graphics core of the processor via bus FDI , processor resources are accessed via bus DMI 2.0 . As before, Z77 consists of a single chip, which includes the functionality of a traditional southbridge. Despite the fact that the PCI-E bus controller is located directly in the processor itself, the Intel Z77 has 8 PCI-Express2.0 lanes for working with peripheral devices. The number of SATA ports supported by the chipset has also not been increased and there are a total of six of them, two of which have a bandwidth of 6Gb / s, which corresponds to the SATA 3.0 interface, and the remaining four — 3Gb / s (SATA 2.0). The innovation is the integration of the USB 3.0 controller directly into the chipset.
The Z77 offers support for four USB 3G ports as well as ten USB 2.0 ports. As for the memory controller, in this case its operation depends solely on the processor. Thus, if processor 9 is used0003 Ivy Bridge , then dual-channel memory operation is supported DDR3-1600 MHz . The PCI-Ex16 slots have also undergone changes, to which there is an additional third, which allows them to be used in the 8x8x4 mode, but only with Ivy Bridge processors. All in all, switching from the Z68 to the Z77 won’t be a major upgrade for most consumers, but when buying a new computer, the choice becomes clear.
MSI has recently become more and more active in the production of motherboards, while expanding its product range, thereby covering various price segments. This review is dedicated to one of the products of this company, namely the motherboard MSI Z77A-GD65 , which belongs to the middle price segment and is based on the Z77 chipset.
Motherboard specification:
Most of the front side is occupied by the key features of the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard. The manufacturer decided to focus on the logo of the recently promoted technology «Military Class III» .
We can also see the familiar «OC Genie», «Click Bios II», «PCI Express Gen 3» logos, labels with support for 22nm processors, and the NVIDIA SLI and CrossFireX logos.
On the back of the box, the technologies that are not included on the front of the package are described in more detail: «Instant OC» , «Super Charger» , «Winki3» and «THX TruStudio Pro» .
After opening the box, a chaotically decomposed delivery set appears before our eyes. Since the board is a pre-release sample, we do not exclude that the retail sample will have an ordered kit structure.
Let’s take a closer look at the kit.
When parsing the chaos, the certificate of quality and reliability of technology «Military Class III» , printed on thick paper, caught my eye first. MSI Military Class III components are US Department of Defense certified MIL-STD-810G. The Military Class III concept includes: tantalum capacitors (Hi-c CAP) in the processor power circuit, providing its increased stability; ferrite core chokes SFC (Super Ferrite Choke) , as well as solid capacitors Solid CAP . In addition to the Hi-C CAP Capacitors, SFC Chokes and Solid CAP Capacitors, MSI uses DrMOS II Class Mosfets, the new generation DrMOS now contains dual active thermal fuse. protection and maximize their service life.
The second thing that catches your eye is the «OC Genie» technology test certificate, which allows you to automatically overclock the system, even if you do not understand anything about overclocking.
Company MSI supplies a sufficient amount of documentation and accessories, including a separate guide for overclocking. Otherwise, the package bundle is standard for most motherboards.
Let’s move on to the inspection of the motherboard itself. When examining the MSI Z77-GD65, we found a number of differences from its predecessor Z68-GD65(G3), such as the design of heatsinks and the location of the buttons Easy Button 3 , the presence of POST indicator , etc. As before, the design and layout of the board is very thoughtful and neat. The aesthetic of the company’s MSI has also been retained, a black PCB with blue and black components. The MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard has five fan headers that can be controlled either automatically or manually, using a set temperature or minimum speed.
If we compare the interface panel of MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard and MSI Z68A-GD65(G3), we won’t find any differences.
It has one PS / 2 port that can be used for both keyboard and mouse, 4 USB 2.0 and 2xUSB 3.0 ports, optical and coaxial SPDIF, six 8-channel audio connectors, RJ-45 for connecting a network cable, three video outputs: analog VGA, digital DVI-D and HDMI, and a ClearCMOS BIOS reset button.
There is not much space near the socket and some of the tower coolers can prevent the installation of memory modules in the nearest sockets. Passive radiators with black and blue color are connected by a heat pipe. Around the socket we see MSI MilitaryClass III components: DrMosII hidden under heatsinks, SFC chokes, Hi-c CAP tantalum capacitors and SolidCAP solid capacitors. As mentioned above, all this serves to ensure better overclocking stability, efficiency and, in general, an increase in the life of the product. Technology 9 is also used0003 Active Phase Switching (APS) is a power-saving technology with a unique function that controls the automatic phase switching power supply for the processor and other board components, of which there are a total of 12 pieces.
Perhaps the most important is the top left corner of the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard, or at least it has the most functionality. Here we can see a combination of three buttons EasyButton 3 , including OC Genie , which activates automatic overclocking, and the power and reset buttons. Below is a 24-pin motherboard power connector, as well as an interface V-Check . V-Check is a test point that allows you to check the voltages of VCCP, CPUVTT, integrated graphics card, DDRVCC and PCH, which will be useful for overclockers.
The memory support of the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard is also impressive: the maximum amount is 32GB (no changes here), but the supported frequency has increased to a speed of up to 2667 MHz .
Nine LEDs are placed along the right edge, the first LED indicates that the motherboard is working, and the remaining eight display the number of phases currently involved.
The board supports SLI and CrossFireX technologies, which work according to the 8×8 scheme. The third PCI-Expressx16 slot will require an Ivy Bridge processor, which adds the ability to use them in an 8x8x4 scheme. The motherboard uses 9 switches0003 PI3PCIE , which in turn proves support for video cards with PCI-Expressx16 3.0 interface.
Since the Intel Z77 is a single chip with little heat dissipation, MSI chose to cool it with a low profile heatsink that won’t interfere with long expansion cards, including graphics cards and PCI-Ex16 SSDs. Not far from the Z77 chip, we see a dual USB 3.0 port for connecting to the front of the case. In total, we can see four SATAIII ports (6Gb/s) and four SATAII ports (3 GB/s) on the MSI Z77A-GD65 board. There are three sets of internal USB 2.0 connectors along the left side of the motherboard. A little higher you can see BIOS chip switch and LED POST indicator .
The BIOS switch is useful, for example, in case of unsuccessful flashing, and the LED indicator will display the debug POST code. Both of these additions were sorely missed by the previous generation MSI motherboards.
Speaking about the BIOS, as in the case of comparing the Z77 and Z68 chipsets, there were no big changes. The main improvement over MSI Z68A-GD65(G3) is the support for 15 languages. Most of the functions are repeated, but still, there are some differences in the overclocking menu.
The motherboard still uses «Click Bios II» . At the top of the page, you can change the device boot priority; there are 6 main menu items on the right and left.
The first section of «From lick Bios II » is «Settings». In this section, MSI gives us access to the «System Status», «Advanced», «Boot», and «Save&Exit» pages.
The «System Status» page shows the system date and time, as well as the devices that are connected to the SATA ports and some basic information.
The «Advanced» page opens up nine more submenus.
The «Boot» page allows you to change the order of boot devices, and the last item saves all settings when you exit the BIOS.
The overclocking page is full of useful options. It is in this section that there are differences. Firstly, overclocking on the BCLK bus has no restrictions, while for the Z68 the maximum available value was 125. The maximum available processor multiplier has also been increased, which in the case of processor Sandy Bridge equals x63, which is 4 more than the Z68. In practice, these changes can only be verified in practice with Ivy Bridge processors coupled with liquid nitrogen.
Due to the fact that we had a Sandy Bridge processor, it is not possible to set the memory frequency higher than 2133 MHz, but the manufacturer claims to support the value 2667 with Ivy Bridge processors.
Not immediately noticed, but liked the menu turned out to be setting «OC Genie» . Recall that earlier on motherboards MSI , OC Genie was not configured and worked all the time at a frequency of 4.2 GHz. Otherwise, Bios settings and functions remain similar to MSI Z68A-GD65.
In the process of testing the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard, we did not find any problems with the BIOS and memory compatibility, etc.
Test configuration:
Processor: Corei7 2600k 3400MHz (SandyBridge)
When overclocked by a multiplier, the processor did not open a “second wind” when changing the board.
On the bus, the processor overclocked quite well and even exceeded its previous performance by 2 MHz. We remind you that overclocking Sandy Bridge processors on the BCLK base bus is not an easy task due to their architectural feature.
It’s time to find out what the new chipset Intel Z77 gives us from a practical point of view in the face of the motherboard
In fact, the Intel Z77 is an evolution of the Z68, which has a number of minor improvements in hardware and software (for example, Lucid Virtu MVP ). If you own an Intel Z68 motherboard, then changing the motherboard will not justify investments.
Speaking of the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard, we can see improvements in the design and number of useful accessories on the motherboard, among which the BIOS switch and the POST code indicator are especially pleasing. The board has a number of useful and logical improvements in design and power system compared to its predecessor, MSI Z68A-GD65 (G3). The motherboard has no complaints in performance, and no problems were found in its operation. The product will be of interest to both gamers and overclockers.
The author would like to thank MSI for providing the sample for testing.
Author: Andrey Tyan aka md5
ASRock Z77 Pro3 — Review of ASRock Z77 Pro3
Motherboard review ASRock Z77 Pro3 is likely to be the last among solutions for processors made in the LGA-1155 design. The era of Haswell is coming, and new generation solutions. But, despite this, affordable motherboards based on the Intel Z77 chipset will be in demand for a long time to come. Especially those that have a good ratio of price and functionality.
ASRock products, once created by ASUS as a cheap alternative to their own solutions, are very popular in our market. And this fact is not surprising, because motherboards under this brand have decent characteristics, a solid set of proprietary technologies, and at the same time they are distinguished by a democratic price. The ASRock Z77 Pro3 board, which we are going to introduce you to, fully complies with this description.
Acquaintance with the packaging and equipment does not cause any emotions.
Everything is very economical and even, one might say, budgetary. In a cardboard box of the usual size, in addition to the board itself, you can find only a disk with drivers and utilities, a few instructions, and two SATA cables. And that’s all. However, when you think about the price of this motherboard, questions about the bundle disappear by themselves, especially since the characteristics of the ASRock Z77 Pro3 board generously painted on the box and instructions are very impressive.
But despite the pleasant description, the board itself, as well as the bundle, does not cause delight. ASRock Z77 Pro3 looks extremely modest not only because of the brown color of the board and small black heatsinks on the power circuits and chipset, but also because of the stripped-down form factor. Moreover, it is cut not in height, according to this parameter it corresponds to ATX, but in width. This board format is generally characteristic of ASRock products, and it is used to reduce costs.
And although this factor does not affect performance and functionality in any way, it is precisely because of it that the Z77 Pro3 looks much more modest than, for example, the MSI Z77A-GD55 board we have already studied.
But the understated looks of the ASRock Z77 Pro3 are deceiving. In terms of its manufacturability, this solution is in no way inferior to its competitors, even if the latter are somewhat more expensive. The board is based on the well-known Intel Z77 chipset, which, as you know, is the top solution for Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors. The list of processors supported by the board includes all five desktop lines of the last two generations, which allows you to choose from a huge range of Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7, including the most powerful solutions. In addition, there are several models of Intel Xeon processors on the list.
Despite the “narrow” board, the ASRock Z77 Pro3 has four slots for RAM, of course DDR3.
The maximum support for its volume is 32 gigabytes, that is, each slot is capable of accepting an 8-gigabyte module. As for the memory frequency, here ASRock Z77 Pro3 can give odds to other top solutions, since the maximum frequency of the modules can be 2800 MHz. But this is in overclocking mode, and the base frequencies are traditionally limited by the installed processor, and at best they are 1600 megahertz. As it should be for a productive solution, the board understands Intel XMP profiles.
The expansion slots on the ASRock Z77 Pro3 are quite extravagantly placed. Nevertheless, there is a rational grain in this decision, since the installed dual-slot video card will not block the connector located below. True, this move forced us to reduce the total number of slots to five instead of the usual six. Yes, the slots are made in a full-fledged PCI-Express x16 format, but only the top one really uses the 16 lanes provided by the processor.
While the bottom one only works with four PCI-Express lanes tied to the chipset, which means that they correspond to the PCI-Express 2.0 version. The operating mode of the upper slot depends on which processor is installed on the board. If Ivy Bridge — then 3.0, and if Sandy Bridge — then 2.0. In principle, no one can prevent the use of a Crossfire bundle of two Radeon video cards on this board, but this will not be the best solution for the reasons stated above.
In addition to the above slots, the board also has one PCI-Express x1 slot and a couple of good old PCI slots, which are becoming rarer and rarer. In order for them to function, the engineers used the ASMedia ASM1083 bridge, since there is no integrated PCI controller in the Intel Z77 chipset, as well as in other solutions of the latest generation.
The ASRock Z77 Pro3 has the usual storage connectors. There are no outdated interfaces like IDE, or original SAS, here. Only SATA in the amount of six pieces.
All of them are serviced by the controller integrated into the Z77, and in accordance with its capabilities, the board has two SATA-III and four SATA-II connectors. There is no point in discussing this set, since it will satisfy the vast majority of users. Even those who are already using a fast SSD as their system drive.
USB 2.0 connectors in Z77 Pro3 a little less than we are used to — eight pieces. Half of them are displayed on the rear panel, and the second is available on the board in the form of pads. True, we note that, in keeping with the requirements of the time, thanks to an additional controller, the board also has four USB 3.0 connectors, two of which are routed to the same rear panel, and a pair is ready for output to the front panel of the case. By the way, we note that ASRock Z77 Pro3 is also able to provide the functioning of the outdated Com interface — there is a block on the board.
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In addition to USB 3.
0, of the additional controllers, we managed to find only the familiar Realtek RTL8111E, which is responsible for gigabit Ethernet, and the no less familiar Realtek ALC892 audio codec. We will not talk about their characteristics, since they are found on almost every second motherboard.
The rear panel of the ASRock Z77 Pro3 is not particularly plentiful. In addition to four USB 2.0 and a pair of USB 3.0, six audio jacks, an RJ-45 network connector, and one PS / 2 have found their place here, and not universal, but capable of working only with a keyboard. For the output of the image, in the event that it is processed by the graphics integrated into the processor, analog D-Sub and digital HDMI are responsible. This choice can hardly be called ideal, since DVI is still more common on monitors than HDMI, but in any case, the problem can be solved with an adapter.
The processor power subsystem on the ASRock Z77 Pro3 board looks very modest, which is clearly not to the liking of overclockers.
We will not recommend this board to them. Those who do not plan to conquer record frequencies have nothing to worry about. Despite the presence of only five phases (one of which is dedicated to the system agent, while the rest feed the processor cores), the board ensures stable operation of even the most voracious processor. In addition, do not forget that to put something more gluttonous 9You won’t be able to get 5 watts, since such processors for the LGA-1155 connector were simply not produced. No need to worry about cooling either — modest radiators do an excellent job with the tasks assigned to them.
As for the PCB layout, it surprised me with its thoughtfulness, especially considering that the board is “narrow”, that is, about five centimeters narrower than a standard ATX board. Even under these conditions, ASRock engineers managed to avoid almost all problems. In particular, the installed video card does not block the latches on the memory slots and does not block the SATA connectors, and the radiator profile on the processor power system will not interfere with the installation of the cooler.
Although, of course, you can point out that the second video card will block the SATA pair, and the board installed in the PCI-E x1 slot will invariably heat up when next to the video card, but all this is nothing more than nitpicking.
Our general opinion about the ASRock Z77 Pro3 is clear. Despite the fact that this board uses the top Intel Z77 chipset, it does not pretend to be installed in computers of enthusiasts and overclockers. Its buyer is a user who wants to get the most for his money and does not plan to install two video cards or other “excesses”. At the same time, he plans to use modern and productive components. Most gamers fall into this group. Indeed, in order to get an excellent, fast PC, it is enough to take the ASRock Z77 Pro3 board, install a productive quad-core Core i5 and a decent video card into it. At the same time, the choice of ASRock Z77 Pro3 will be fully justified economically, since this board, despite all its undoubted advantages, stands out from a number of similar ones precisely at an affordable price.