REVIEWS / MOTHERBOARDS / ASUS TECHNOLOGY PVT. LTD

Asus P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard

29 Jun, 2011, 10:58 am IST | by Roydon Cerejo | Motherboards

Motherboards

Good layout

Good layout
Plenty of USB ports
Outward facing SATA ports
PCI slots for backwards compatibility
No anodized plating for the socket
The physical toggle switches

PRICE IN INDIA

14,248

TECH2 RATING

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING

8.5

How we test

CONTACT

ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd

 reachus@asus.com

 +91 22 6766 8800 / 18002090365

 www.asus.in

With Sandy Bridge hitting a small reef with the first batch of P67 motherboards, things seem to be back on track for Intel. Till now, if you wanted to overclock your shiny new Sandy Bridge CPU, there was just one option, the P67 chipset. But by doing so, you had to sacrifice the on-board GPU, which is actually not to shabby for video encoding.

 

On the other hand, if you went with the H67-based motherboards, you wouldn't get any overclocking functions at all. There was no way to get the best of both worlds, until now. At Computex 2011, Intel showcased the Z68 motherboard, a brand new chipset designed to fulfill the cry of PC users everywhere. Board partners also showcased their versions of the chipset and today we’ll be taking a closer look at one of the first Z68 boards to hit our labs - the Asus P8Z68-V Pro.

Features

Good layout

Good layout

 


Let’s first go through some of the highlights of the Asus P8Z68-V Pro. The UEFI BIOS gives you an easy-to-use graphical user interface along with mouse support. Unlike the traditional blue screen, the new look is less intimidating for a novice user and easy to navigate. The EZ mode hides all the messy tweaking options and presents the user with a simple interface. Power users should not feel left out as ‘Advanced Mode’ puts you right back into the driver's seat.

The P8Z68-V Pro supports GPU switching natively thanks to the chipset and Asus have gone with LucidLogic's Virtu GPU virtulization software for this. What this means is you can enjoy 3D gaming using your graphics card while the onboard GPU can handle other tasks like video encoding. The new chipset also boasts of Intel’s new Smart response technology which copies the frequently used files from your HDD onto an SSD thereby giving you much faster performance. Other features are taken straight from their existing P67 line-up like DIGI+ VRM, EPU for energy saving, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, SATA III, Turbo V,etc.

Design and Layout
Now I know motherboards aren’t something you flaunt, but you have to admit it's a good looking board. The black PCB coupled with the blue heatsinks and slots makes it stand out from the competition. The bundle includes a driver disk, user manual, SLI bridge, Q-connectors, 2x SATA II cables, 2x SATA III cables, 1x rear USB 3.0 bracket.

Plenty of USB ports

Plenty of USB ports

 


The P8Z68-V Pro has a total of twelve USB 2.0 ports (six at the back panel and three headers). You also get a total of four USB 3.0 ports, VGA, DVI, HDMI and a 8-channel audio support. The 16-phase power regulators around the CPU area are cooled by a well designed heatsink with plenty of fins for cooling.

PCI slots for backwards compatibility

PCI slots for backwards compatibility

 


The motherboard supports CrossFireX and SLI configurations. The two PCI-E 2.0 slots run in x8 mode when using two graphics cards while the third runs by default in x1 mode. The motherboard also has on-board ‘Power’ and ‘Reset’ buttons for the enthusiast in mind. There are plenty of SATA connections, as well. Six of them are native to the Z68 chipset (4 SATA II, 2 SATA III), while the Marvell controller adds two more SATA III ports giving you a total of eight.

 

 

 

Physical toggle switches for TPU and EPU

Physical toggle switches for TPU and EPU

 


Up in the corner, Asus have added manual switches for the EPU and TPU for quickly toggling between these features. This is again something for the enthusiast crowd as once installed in the system you can control it through the software in Windows. Overall we didn’t have any major issues with the layout of the motherboard. The full-ATX form factor allows you to comfortaby install even larger CPU coolers and installing a long graphics card won't block any of the SATA ports since they all face outwards.

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Design and Layout


Tags:

Motherboards , ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd , Asus P8Z68-V Pro review , Asus , P8Z68-V Pro , LucidLogic Virtu , SLI , CrossFireX , motherboard , Intel , Sandy Bridge , Socket 1155 , Digi+ VRM , review

Would you buy it?




 


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Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.


Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

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We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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