Asus announces their Thunderbolt-ready Z77 motherboards

ASUS have announced the launch of their P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboards — the flagship product of the P8Z77 Series and the first Intel certified motherboard in the market to offer the latest Thunderbolt connection interface. The PREMIUM designation has been reserved for only the best motherboards with the latest technologies, and the P8Z77-V PREMIUM maintains this standard. In addition to the onboard Thunderbolt connection on the P8Z77-V PREMIUM, ASUS also offers the same technology on the P8Z77-V PRO/Thunderbolt to give a wider range of choices to consumers. 

“Intel and Asus have worked closely on the implementation of Thunderbolt technology onto their motherboards,” said Jason Ziller, Intel’s Director of Thunderbolt Marketing. “It is our pleasure to state the P8Z77-V PREMIUM is the first Thunderbolt certified motherboard in the industry, a testament to its solid design and compatibility.” The ASUS P8Z77-V PREMIUM is the first Thunderbolt motherboard to be certified by Intel, showing its strength in the industry.

Their new flagship offering

Thunderbolt is a new, high-speed I/O technology designed for performance, simplicity and flexibility with lightning fast transfer speeds that are twice that of USB 3.0 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0. It offers simultaneous bi-directional, 10 Gbps transfer speeds over a single cable, with the flexibility to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt devices with a single connection for a clutter-free computing experience. Users can connect multiple Thunderbolt-enabled external storage drives to a Thunderbolt-enabled display and transfer files, while watching HD movies, all without experiencing any lag.

The Thunderbolt port

With its long history of working with high-tech vendors, ASUS is able to show its strength and commitment to innovation with a close relationship to three of the leading brands currently producing products with Thunderbolt technology, Elgato, LaCie, and PROMISE, which is a leading supplier of RAID storage solutions catering to customers from the enterprise to SMB, as well as SOHO and digital home applications. They currently offer the world’s first Thunderbolt-enabled RAID storage solutions and have previously worked with ASUS to develop a diversified portfolio to meet customer’s requirements. 

The P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard boasts several new features, such as true 4-way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX on the latest PCIe Gen 3.0 slots for maximum graphics performance. Also introduced is advanced SSD Caching II, allowing users to cache additional frequently used programs and files using multiple SSDs to instantly upgrade system performance. A 32GB mSATA-based SSD is also onboard, enabling Intel Smart Response and Rapid Start Technology for super-fast boot up and resume times. Network traffic is expertly handled by a pair of Gigabit Intel LAN ports, ensuring lag-free transfers and streaming entertainment. Also included are Asus exclusive features, such as DIP3 with SMART DIGI+ Power Control, Wi-Fi GO! and Fan Xpert 2.