The results of testing the motherboard ASUS P8Z77-V Premium in Crysis 2
The results are absolutely expected. Since the difference between the systems is only the name of the motherboard, it is foolish to expect different performance. Let me remind you that both motherboards were able to overclock the processor up to 4600 MHz.
Conclusion
The ASUS P8Z77-V Premium motherboard turned out to be a very high quality product. The richest set, good overclocking abilities, complete SSD, which can even be used as a main disk. All this makes the board a premium product not only in name but also in essence.
But, like any premium product, ours is very expensive, or rather about 15 thousand rubles. For comparison, ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe is sold at prices of about 8500-9000 rubles. The price, as you can see, differs very significantly. Most buyers must firmly understand that this motherboard is designed for maximum performance before purchasing this product. This is the case when an overpayment of a hundred dollars for an extra megahertz does not conflict with your own ideas about the world and justice in it. After all, for this money you can buy both a motherboard and an SSD disk in addition to a much larger volume, and you will still have to take a taxi home. Therefore, before you buy a board of this level, make sure that it is a really good buy for you, and not wasted money. If you decide that you are ready for such expenses, then you will hardly find a better motherboard for LGA 1155.
Foreword Our series of motherboard reviews, which are based on the Intel Z77 Express chipset, are far from complete. In the future, it is planned to study several more very interesting models, but there was a small pause that needed to be filled with something. It will be appropriate to recall here that in the family of logic sets of the seventh series, codenamed "Panther Point", there are immediately fourteen different chipsets... Among them there are many chipsets for mobile devices, several are intended for business, and for home desktops, in addition to Intel Z77 Express, two more are offered - these are Intel H77 Express and Intel Z75 Express. Only the older Intel Z77 Express chipset has a full set of features. It also allows the maximum flexibility in dividing the processor lines of the PCI Express bus, they can be distributed according to the formulas 1x16, 2x8 or 1x8 and 2x4. The Intel Z75 Express chipset lacks support for Intel Smart Response technology, and it can use 16 PCI-E lanes entirely for a single external video card, or divide them in half between two. The Intel H77 Express Chipset is generally incapable of allocating PCI Express lanes, and it also lacks CPU overclocking capabilities.
A huge number of motherboards based on Intel H77 Express logic are produced and sold, but it is unlikely that a review of one of these motherboards will be very popular. When you need to assemble a computer with basic functionality, the form factor of the board, its set of connectors and price come to the fore. The name of the manufacturer has a certain influence, but to make a choice it is not at all necessary to read the reviews, all the necessary information can be easily gleaned from the descriptions on the websites of manufacturers or sellers. Besides, a motherboard without overclocking capabilities will certainly be in a losing position when compared. The situation will look completely different if we take a motherboard based on Intel Z75 Express logic. The lack of support for Intel Smart Response Technology will not hurt us in the least, because we switched to using SSDs a long time ago. The chipset's ability to divide the PCI Express processor lines only between two slots will not be a problem either, because we use only one discrete video card in our tests. On the other hand, it will be very interesting to know the motherboard's ability to overclock the processor and memory, as well as compare its performance and power consumption with previously tested motherboards based on Intel Z77 Express logic.
Thus, we finally decided that for the next review we will select some kind of motherboard based on the Intel Z75 Express chipset. Imagine our surprise when it turned out that our plans were unrealistic. With some stretch, one can even say that motherboards based on this logic set do not exist. We went through the websites of all the major motherboard manufacturers - ASRock, ASUSTeK, Gigabyte, Micro-Star - but we couldn't find a single model. The most striking thing is that such a board was not even found in the range of Intel motherboards. The development and production of a new chipset is costly. Why, one wonders, it was necessary to release a set of logic that will not be used for the manufacture of motherboards, even by the developer and manufacturer themselves? The search found mentions of the announcement of Biostar and Foxconn boards based on Intel Z75 Express logic, but they could not be found on sale in a short time.
However, we were not upset for a long time about the fact that there were no motherboards based on the Intel Z75 Express chipset. As for the rationality of the development and production of this chipset, this is also not our problem, let Intel think about it. We found a very interesting motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LX, which could well be based on the Intel Z75 Express logic, but is based on the Intel Z77 Express chipset, although it does not use all its capabilities. This article will acquaint you with an overview of this board and its functionality.
Packaging and equipment
The Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard comes in a box decorated in the same style as other motherboards from ASUSTeK, which are based on Intel Z77 Express logic. However, the photo allows you to notice how thin the package is, but there is a logical explanation for this.Inside the box is a motherboard packed in an antistatic bag, and underneath, separated by a cardboard gasket, are the accessories that come with it. Everything is almost the same as usual, but the sheet of cardboard separating the board and accessories is noticeably longer than required, and its edge is wrapped over the board, forming a kind of envelope. This compartment contains relatively thick SATA cables, and at the bottom there is only a flat cover for the rear panel, a CD and paper manuals that take up almost no space. Thanks to this original packaging method and a small number of components, it was possible to significantly reduce the standard thickness of the box.
Describing the packaging features, we managed to list almost the entire set of accessories that comes with the board:
two Serial ATA cables with metal clips on connectors;
back panel cover (I / O Shield);
user guide;
a brochure with quick assembly instructions in several languages, including Russian;
DVD with software and drivers;
"Powered by ASUS" sticker on the system unit.
Design and features
The Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard looks pretty ordinary, but it has a few special features. To begin with, you can pay attention to the reduced dimensions of the board. With a standard length of 305mm, its width is only 218mm, which is less than the traditional 244mm for full-size ATX format.
You can also notice the absence of heatsinks on the heating elements of the processor power converter. However, this fact does not at all interfere with overclocking or, moreover, for the motherboard's operation in the nominal mode, because the heating of the DIGI + digital converter operating according to the 4 + 1 + 1 scheme is not great. As far as memory is concerned, this board is no different from other models, allowing you to fit up to 32 GB of DDR3 RAM in four slots. For Ivy Bridge processors, the frequency range extends from 800 to 3200 MHz. There are no additional storage controllers that manufacturers love to add so much. Two SATA 6 Gb / s ports (light gray connectors) and four SATA 3 Gb / s ports (blue connectors), which are provided by the Intel Z77 Express chipset, are enough for the board.
The board has two slots for video cards of the PCI Express x16 type, but it does not use the chipset's ability to divide PCI Express processor lines between slots. All available 16 lanes undividedly belong to the top PCI Express 3.0 / 2.0 x16 slot. The second PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot is provided by four lanes due to the capabilities of the chipset. Support for NVIDIA SLI is not implemented, but with the help of these two connectors it is quite possible to combine video cards using AMD CrossFireX technology. In addition to them, there are two PCI Express 2.0 x1 and three PCI slots for expansion cards.
On the rear panel of the board, we find the following set of connectors:
universal PS / 2 connector for connecting a keyboard or mouse;
four USB 2.0 ports, and six more can be connected to three internal connectors on the board;
video connectors HDMI, D-Sub and DVI-D;
optical S / PDIF, as well as three analog audio connectors, the operation of which is provided by the eight-channel Realtek ALC887 codec;
two USB 3.0 ports (blue connectors), as well as one internal connector that allows you to bring out two more additional USB 3.0 ports, appeared thanks to the capabilities of the Intel Z77 Express chipset;
LAN connector (the network adapter is built on the Realtek RTL8111E gigabit controller).
It can be noted that the slots for video cards have wide and comfortable feet for Q-Slot mounts, but the slots for memory modules are ordinary. The “MemOK!” Button has not disappeared anywhere, allowing the board to start successfully even if there are problems with the RAM. New is the GPU Boost switch, which can automatically increase the frequency of the graphics core built into the processor. Of the Q-Led system that helps track down the source of startup problems, there is only one DRAM LED left on the board, which is complemented by Standby Power LED and GPU Boost LED.
For convenience, we have compiled the list of the main technical characteristics of the board into a single table:
There are no significant remarks about the design of the board or its capabilities, although there are some drawbacks. The rear panel looks half-empty, there are only three audio connectors, in order to take advantage of the eight-channel codec, you will have to use the connectors displayed on the front panel of the system unit. The fan connectors are not very well placed. There are four of them, which is quite enough for an entry-level board, but they are grouped in pairs at the top and center, near the rear panel connectors. It would be nice to have at least one connector in the lower right corner of the board for installing a fan that blows the drives. But on the whole, the board looks quite decent and its capabilities are more than enough for most users.
BIOS Features
In previous reviews of ASUSTeK motherboards we have already seen the Asus EFI BIOS - in general, a very successful implementation of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard, so this time let's just skim through the main sections.By default, when entering the BIOS, we are greeted by the "EZ Mode" mode, which performs mainly informational functions, since it allows us to configure almost nothing. You can only find out the basic characteristics of the system, familiarize yourself with some monitoring parameters, select an economical or productive mode of operation and set the order of polling boot devices by simply dragging them with the mouse.
Using the F7 key, you can quickly change the EZ Mode to Advanced Mode, or you can use the F3 key, which allows you to quickly jump to one of the most frequently used BIOS sections.
Each time you enter the BIOS, you can switch from the "EZ Mode" to the "Advanced Mode", you can use the F3 key, which, by the way, works in all other sections of the BIOS, but it will be much more convenient if the "Advanced Mode" starting in the settings. In this case, the familiar section "Main" will appear first before our eyes. It provides basic information about the system, allows you to set the current date and time, it is possible to change the BIOS interface language, including Russian.
The bulk of the overclocking options is concentrated in the "Ai Tweaker" section. The main window of the section allows you to change frequencies, multipliers and voltages. To control the current values of voltages, you do not need to go to the monitoring section, they are indicated right there, next to each of the parameters that allow you to change these voltages, which is very convenient. Voltages can be set both above and below nominal.
Some of the parameters are traditionally placed in separate subsections so as not to overly clutter up the main one. The "OC Tuner" parameter only looks like a subsection, in fact, it is used to overclock the system in automatic mode. Changes in memory timings are given on a separate page, their number is very large, but it is quite convenient to use the capabilities of this subsection. You can see all the timings set by the board for each of the two memory channels. You can change only a few of them, for example, only the main ones, leaving the default values for the rest.
In the “CPU Power Management” subsection, you can independently set the values of the options that affect the parameters of the Intel Turbo Boost technology, but this is not necessary, since the board adjusts itself to the overclocking parameters you specified.
Compared to other Asus boards, the number of power and power options introduced by the DIGI + digital power system has been significantly reduced, but the most important ones have been retained. Directly in the BIOS, you can control proprietary energy-saving technologies that allow you to change the number of active phases of the processor power supply, depending on the level of its load. The technology to counteract the voltage drop on the processor under load "CPU Load-Line Calibration" can not only be turned on or off, but also the degree of counteraction can be measured.
The capabilities of the subsections of the "Advanced" section are well known to us and understandable by their names.
In the "CPU Configuration" subsection, we learn the basic information about the processor and manage some of the processor technologies.
All parameters related to energy saving are located on a separate page "CPU Power Management Configuration".
The "Monitor" section reports the current values of temperatures, voltages and fan speed. For the processor and two case fans, you can select the preset rotation speed control modes from the usual set: "Standard", "Silent" or "Turbo", or select the appropriate parameters in manual mode. Both connectors for case fans are able to reduce the rotation speed even with a three-pin connection, which the connector for a processor fan cannot do, and the three-pin “Power Fan” connector is generally unregulated and can only inform about the number of revolutions of the fan connected to it.
In the "Boot" section, we select the parameters that will be applied at system startup. Here, by the way, you need to change the starting mode "EZ Mode" to "Advanced Mode".
Let's refresh in memory the capabilities of subsections of the "Tools" section.
The built-in utility for updating firmware "EZ Flash 2" was one of the most convenient and functional programs of this kind. Unfortunately, the ability to keep the current firmware version before upgrading was recently eliminated altogether.
Asus boards allow you to save and quickly load eight complete BIOS settings profiles. Each profile can be given a short name to remind you of its content. Until now, the error has not been fixed, according to which the disabling of the display of the start image is not remembered in the profiles, however, the ability to exchange profiles, which was lost with the transition to the EFI BIOS, has returned. More recently, profiles can again be saved to and loaded from external media.
As with the boards of many other manufacturers, we can familiarize ourselves with the information stored in the SPD of memory modules.
The last is the "Exit" section, where you can apply the changes made, load the default values or return back to the simplified "EZ Mode".
Test system configuration
All experiments were carried out on a test system that includes the following set of components:
Motherboard - Asus P8Z77-V LX (LGA1155, Intel Z77 Express, BIOS version 1201);
Processor - Intel Core i5-3570K (3.6-3.8 GHz, 4 cores, Ivy Bridge rev. E1, 22 nm, 77 W, 1.05 V, LGA1155);
Memory - 2 x 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4X1866C9R, (1866 MHz, 9-10-9-27, supply voltage 1.5 V);
Video card - Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD (AMD Radeon HD 7970, Tahiti, 28 nm, 1000/5500 MHz, 384-bit GDDR5 3072 MB);
Disk subsystem -Crucial m4 SSD (CT256M4SSD2, 256 GB, SATA 6 GB / s);
Cooling system - Scythe Mugen 3 Revision B (SCMG-3100);
Thermal paste - ARCTIC MX-2;
Power supply unit - Enermax NAXN ENM850EWT;
Case - an open test bench based on the Antec Skeleton case.
The operating system was Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64 bit (Microsoft Windows, Version 6.1, Build 7601: Service Pack 1), a set of drivers for the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.3.0.1020, a video card driver - AMD Catalyst 12.4.
Features of work and overclocking
Assembling a test system based on the Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard was straightforward. There were no problems when installing the operating system; when updating the BIOS and in nominal mode, the board also worked without any problems. At launch, we are shown a new start picture, but no reminders about active hotkeys have appeared on it.
You can turn off the display of the starting image, but you still won't get any prompts. In addition, the board is not able to correctly indicate the frequency of the processor, it always reports the nominal value, but the information about the frequency of operation and the amount of RAM is true.
In recent reviews of ASRock motherboards, we have noted that they start up and reboot very quickly. In the BIOS of the Asus P8Z77-V LX board, like other boards from ASUSTeK, you can independently set a suitable delay at startup, which is 3 seconds by default, and it reboots instantly. So fast that we even had difficulties repeatedly when it was required to enter the BIOS to correct any parameters. The board instantly goes through the start-up procedure, and quite often it was possible to stop it already at the initial stage of loading the operating system.
Despite the fact that the board is not a flagship model, it has overclocking capabilities, including automatic. The easiest way is to use the Asus MultiCore Enhancement function, which allows you to increase the processor multiplication factor at any load level to the maximum provided by the Intel Turbo Boost technology. Perhaps it will be appropriate to recall the history of this parameter appearing in the BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards.
About a year ago, in our review of the Asus Maximus IV Extreme motherboard, we noticed that it always increases the processor multiplier to the maximum allowed by Intel Turbo Boost technology, which is provided only for a single-threaded load. Of course, one could even rejoice at the unexpected overclocking of the processor, but I want each non-standard mode to be chosen deliberately, so that it is not imposed, and in the nominal mode the system worked as expected, and not in any other way, therefore this feature received negative feedback from us. assessment. Fortunately, the Asus Maximus IV Extreme board could still be returned to its truly nominal operating mode. We ran a standard set of tests and now we don't know how things are with this feature at the moment, whether this drawback has been eliminated, since this was one of the last reviews of LGA1155 boards at that time.
After a while, we started a series of reviews of LGA2011 motherboards and found that this story was further developed. The BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards has a new function key "F6", with the help of which the automatic overclocking technology "Asus Ratio Boost" was implemented. When enabled, this parameter increased the processor multiplier to the maximum specified by Intel Turbo Boost technology, and in the nominal mode the processor worked normally, as it should be according to the specifications. Everything seems to be great, exactly as we wanted, but there was one drawback with such an implementation. Usually, almost no attention is paid to the hint with a list of hot keys located in the lower right corner of the BIOS screen, so we noticed a new function only in the review of the Asus Rampage IV Formula motherboard. Meanwhile, the Asus P9X79 Deluxe board had a similar ability, which was tested first, but during the review we simply did not notice this function.
Thus, the appearance of the Asus MultiCore Enhancement function in the main parameter list, which we noted in the review of the Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe board, became a logical conclusion of the story. It is possible to allow for any load level to increase the processor multiplier up to the maximum provided by the Intel Turbo Boost technology, but you can refuse. The parameter is easily noticeable, however, it has its own peculiarities. Despite the fact that it is enabled by default and is set to “Enable”, it has no effect on the processor operating in nominal mode. Only when you change the nominal operating conditions of the system, for example, use the parameters recorded in the X.M.P. profile for memory, the function turns on and adds a little more speed to the system due to a slight overclocking of the processor.
However, the board's ability to automatically overclock is not limited to this. You can use the “OC Tuner” parameter to easily get even better results. In our case, the base frequency was increased to 103 MHz, which affected all related frequencies, in particular, the memory frequency, and the processor multiplier was increased to x41, which, together with the effect of increasing the base frequency, increased its final operating frequency to 4224 MHz. It is important to note that at the same time, energy-saving technologies continued to work, reducing the processor multiplier and the voltage supplied to it in the absence of a load.
However, everyone knows that no automatic overclocking method can compare with overclocking carried out independently, when the most optimal parameter values are selected manually. Unfortunately, the board did not allow the maximum overclocking of the processor to 4.6 GHz, but it was able to overclock to 4.5 GHz without much effort, and at the same time the memory frequency was increased.
It remains to recall that we always overclock the system so that it can be used in a long-term mode, while we do not make it easier for ourselves by turning off any features of motherboards, for example, additional controllers. And, whenever possible, we try to keep the processor energy-saving technologies working. In this case, even during overclocking, Intel's energy-saving technologies worked on the board, reducing the voltage supplied to the processor and its multiplication factor in the absence of load.
Performance comparison
We traditionally compare motherboards in terms of speed in two modes: when the system is operating under nominal conditions and when overclocking the processor and memory. The first mode is interesting from the point of view, which allows you to find out how well motherboards work by default. It is known that a significant part of users are not engaged in fine-tuning the system, they only set the optimal parameters in the BIOS and do not change anything else. So we are checking, almost without interfering with the default values set by the boards. For comparison, we used the results obtained during testing the boards:
ASRock Fatal1ty Z77 Professional;
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 and ASRock Z77 Extreme6;
ASRock Z77 Extreme9;
Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe;
Asus Sabertooth Z77;
Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3;
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H and GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB WIFI;
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH and Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH;
Intel DZ77BH-55K;
Intel DZ77GA-70K and Intel DZ77RE-75K;
MSI Z77A-GD65.
In the diagrams, the indicators shown by the boards are sorted in descending order.
In Cinebench 11.5, we run the processor tests five times and average the results.
The Fritz Chess Benchmark utility has been used in tests for a very long time and has proven itself to be excellent. It produces well-repetitive results, performance scales well depending on the number of computational threads used.
In the x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 test, a small video clip is encoded in two passes, and the whole process is repeated four times. The averaged results of the second pass are shown in the diagram.
We measure performance in Adobe Photoshop using our own benchmark, which is a creatively reworked Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test that includes typical processing of four 10-megapixel digital camera images.
In the test for archiving data, a one gigabyte file is packed using LZMA2 algorithms, the rest of the compression parameters remain at their default values.
As in the compression test, the faster the 16 million pi digits are calculated, the better. This is the only test where the number of processor cores does not matter, the load is single-threaded.
Since the video card is not overclocked in our reviews, the following diagram uses only the 3DMark 11 - Physics Score processor benchmarks. This characteristic is the result of a special physical test that simulates the behavior of a complex game system with a large number of objects.
Using the built-in FC2 Benchmark Tool, we pass the Ranch Small card tenfold at 1920x1080 resolution with high quality settings and using DirectX 10.
Resident Evil 5 also has a built-in benchmark for measuring performance. Its peculiarity is that it makes excellent use of the capabilities of multi-core processors. Tests are carried out in DirectX 10 mode, at a resolution of 1920x1080 with high quality settings, the results of five passes are averaged.
Batman: Arkham City also readily responds to changes in the processor frequency, while using DirectX 11. We repeat the performance test built into the game five times at high quality settings and average the results.
When operating in nominal mode, the Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard demonstrates a very good level of performance, usually slightly above average. Only in the game FarCry 2 the board for some reason showed a result lower than expected. However, nothing critical, the difference in speed compared to other motherboards is not too great. During overclocking, the situation slightly changes, because the board failed to overclock the processor as much as possible. The results of overclocking the processor and memory, obtained on various boards, are shown in the table below.
When overclocked, Asus P8Z77-V LX confidently stays in its group, among other motherboards that overclocked the processor to 4.5 GHz. Moreover, in gaming tests, it shows results much higher than expected. She even manages to get ahead of some models that were able to overclock the processor to a higher frequency.
Energy consumption measurements
Energy consumption was measured using Extech Power Analyzer 380803. The device is switched on in front of the computer's power supply, that is, it measures the consumption of the entire system "from the outlet", with the exception of the monitor, but including losses in the power supply itself. When measuring consumption at rest, the system is idle, we are waiting for the complete cessation of post-start activity and the absence of calls to the hard disk. The processor load is created using the LinX program. For greater clarity, diagrams of power consumption growth were plotted when the system was operating in the nominal mode and during overclocking, depending on the increase in the processor load when the number of computational threads of the LinX utility changed.Due to incompatibility issues between Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH and Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP5 TH boards with our former CoolerMaster RealPower M850 power supply, we had to replace it with Enermax NAXN ENM850EWT power supply. Both power supplies are very similar in their technical characteristics, but Enermax NAXN ENM850EWT turned out to be 1-3 W more economical than its predecessor. In order not to lose the results accumulated during the previous tests, we decided to add 2 watts to the power consumption readings to be able to compare with the previously tested models.
There was a time when we liked to repeat that ASUSTeK motherboards are not economical and consume more than others. This is the case when it comes to flagship models with advanced features and numerous additional controllers. However, the diagrams show that later on there were many motherboards from other manufacturers that consume much more Asus motherboards. If you take an ordinary motherboard like Asus P8Z77-V LX, then it immediately turns out to be among the most economical. Moreover, the power consumption of the board can be reduced even more if you enable all energy-saving parameters in the BIOS, including the proprietary EPU Power Saving Mode technology.
During overclocking, the situation does not change at all, the Asus P8Z77-V LX board remains among the most economical. Of course, one should take into account that a large group of motherboards were able to provide higher processor overclocking, and therefore they reasonably consume more. However, in terms of power consumption, the board looks confident even among those models that overclocked the processor in the same way.
Afterword
Based on the results of the check, the Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard leaves a very good impression of itself. It has a modest package bundle, there are no numerous additional controllers, there are no radiators on the heating elements of the power converter, and it does not use the logic set's ability to divide PCI Express processor lines. So what? There is nothing wrong. The Intel Z77 Express chipset, on which the board is based, provides it with an ample set of features. A huge number of users do not need eSATA and IEEE1394 (FireWire) ports, a second network controller, or additional storage controllers at all. They use a single video card, and therefore they are quite satisfied with one PCI Express 3.0 / 2.0 x16 slot. From the point of view of the mass user, the board looks almost perfect, although the rear panel could have been richer in connectors and it could have been better to place the connectors for connecting the fans. As for the BIOS capabilities, they hardly differ from other boards from ASUSTeK, and the absence of additional heatsinks did not prevent a good overclocking of the processor and memory. When operating in the nominal mode and during overclocking, the motherboard demonstrates the performance level slightly above average, and in terms of power consumption it often occupies a leading position, it is very economical.It is only to be regretted that the Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard is not based on the Intel Z75 Express Chipset. Indeed, in this case, it would have lost almost nothing in terms of a set of capabilities, having lost only support for Intel Smart Response technology, but it would have become a little cheaper. Price is a very significant parameter when it comes to entry-level motherboards, and the Asus P8Z77-V LX board is quite inexpensive, but still its price is slightly higher than desired. There are many models of motherboards from other manufacturers, the capabilities of which are comparable or even higher, and the price is approximately at the same level or even lower. As always, you will have to make the decision on the expediency of purchasing this board yourself.
Enough time has passed since the announcement of the Intel Z77 chipset, manufacturers, having mastered, continue to increase their range of motherboards. Although there are not so many innovations compared to Intel Z68, when buying a new computer, you can think about what will be the basis of your assistant for the next year or two. Here it makes sense to look at the newly-minted solutions of the board builders. I cannot say with all certainty that I share this point of view, since the boards based on the previous chipset also support the new Ivy Bridge processors.
There are good solutions that currently combine excellent consumer qualities and a democratic price. If we talk about overclocking capabilities, then recently this factor depends more on the processor and memory itself than on the motherboard. Indeed, free multipliers are available only for stones with the letter "K" in the name, memory modules based on certain microcircuits can take high frequencies, while others are content only with standard ones. Against this background, in my opinion, inexpensive motherboards based on the new Intel Z77 chipset look more attractive. They usually offer a wide range of possibilities, although they restrict the user in building multigraphic links.
Such products are also in the arsenal of ASUS. For example, model P8Z77-V LX. As practice shows, the presence of various prefixes like "LX" or "LE" indicates the positioning of the product as an entry-level solution. It remains only to be convinced of this once again.
The motherboard was provided for testing by Regard.
Packaging and equipment
The packaging is unremarkable, and it would be strange to expect something different for a regular ASUS motherboard based on Intel Z77. It is worth noting that more expensive models wear a similar shell. Everything is modest and no frills, it is understandable - why pay more?
In the upper left corner, the manufacturer's logo is indicated in white letters, and the name of the model P8Z77-V LX is shown in the middle in its unchanged place. Along the bottom edge there are icons of proprietary functions and technologies, to the right there are logos of third-party manufacturers, the capabilities of which are presented in this product.
We turn over the box.
Above, as usual, the name of the model is applied, under which there was a place for a photograph of the board with signatures for various components, even below is the product specification. To the right are several inserts with a detailed description of the technological solutions used on this motherboard.
Now is the time to look at the inner content.
On top of the antistatic bag is the P8Z77-V LX itself. It is packed in a cardboard tray that partially covers the bottom of the top. This makeshift pocket contains some of the accessories. Under the package with the board, you can find instructions and a disc, as well as some other accessories.
Among the information carriers you can find the following:
- User Guide (user guide for the motherboard);
- Quick Start Guide (installation guide);
- DVD disc with drivers and software for various operating systems;
- Sticker.
The set is the most ordinary, which comes across in most cases. The list of accessories will be even shorter.
- Two SATA 6 Gb / s cables;
- A cover for the back panel.
To put it mildly, the delivery set is very budgetary, the user gets only the necessary minimum. There is no point in talking now about what I would like to see, from my point of view, such a set does not fit in any way with the price of 4200 rubles. With half the cost, no claims would have arisen, but the real amount obliges you to be more loyal to the buyer.
Board design and features
Despite the compliance with the ATX standard, the dimensions of the motherboard are somewhat smaller and amount to 305 x 218 mm. In other words, it turned out a little narrower.
Indeed, what's the point in a large printed circuit board, if everything can be freely placed anyway. The main thing is that such savings do not cause compatibility problems. The color palette is already becoming classic, it is brown textolite, blue and black connectors. In some places they are diluted with blue and gray. There is only one radiator - on the chipset. Unsoldered elements are found on the surface on the front side.
ASUS P8Z77-V LX looks cheap and brutal, while the workmanship is not satisfactory. Power is supplied to the board through the main 24-pin and additional 8-pin connectors. Personally, I did not expect to see more than 24 + 4 here, this formula is quite acceptable here.
There are four slots for DDR3 memory. Two blue and two black alternating alternating. Since the board is still a little narrower, the chance of incompatibility between memory modules with high heatsinks and a processor cooler increases. There are no fashionable latches, the developers have provided the board with conventional latches on both sides.
The manufacturer claims support for DDR3 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133 (overclocking) / 2400 (overclocking) MHz operating modes with a nominal voltage of 1.5 V. for which it is enough to install the strips in the connectors of the same color. There is support for modules with XMP profiles wired into SPD. The maximum allowable volume, as on other boards, is 32 GB.
The processor is powered according to the 4 + 1 + 1 phase scheme. The manufacturer himself frankly declares this in the specification for the product.
Most likely, we have in front of us exactly the minimum possible power supply scheme. This in no way indicates that overclocking is impossible here, it is simply limited by the capabilities of the transistors, which will heat up a little more.
The main PWM controller is a microcircuit labeled ASP1102.
Each of the four phases has two 5030AL transistors and a pair of 7030AL transistors.
Inductors with ferrite housings and solid-state capacitors are used. True, the transistors were left without heatsinks, for the fastening of which there are simply no holes in the printed circuit board. A single heat dissipator is designed to cool a set of system logic.
This radiator is made of aluminum alloy and painted blue. Its shape is bizarre and conceptual; on top it is complemented by a small plate with a stylish embossed picture and the manufacturer's logo. Fastening is carried out with the help of two plastic clips on springs, and a pink "thermo-gum" acts as a thermal interface. At the base there is a black soft foam frame and two stops to provide stability and protection from distortion.
The Intel Z77 chipset is located under the radiator.
The board provides the user with two PCI-e x16 slots, which can work together according to the x16 + x4 formula.
The latter puts an end to the official use of the SLI mode. But CrossFire is not so capricious in this respect, so its work is declared by the manufacturer in the specification. Lucid Virtu MVP technology is also available.
Despite the fact that support for the third generation of the PCI-e interface has been officially confirmed, it can work in this mode only with processors based on the Ivy Bridge core.
Asus P8Z77-V LX
P8Z77-V LX is about $ 5 cheaper than ASRock. This model gives users access to Asus' legendary support structure, including frequent firmware updates long after the model is discontinued. However, for a lower price, you will have to say goodbye to some options. For example, the rear panel only has two USB 3.0 ports and three analog audio jacks.
In budget computers, old analog audio systems are usually used and three connectors are enough for a 5.1 configuration. Asus relies on a front-panel connector for eight-channel output, although most users use them for headsets.
In addition, there are no PCIe 3.0 switches that are required for x8 / x8 mode on the two x16 slots. Instead, users will get one locked 16-lane slot and a second locked four-lane PCIe 2.0 slot via the Z77 PCH. This configuration allows you to install two video cards in CrossFire, but you will have to forget about SLI. Fans of multi-card configurations from Nvidia will be better served by the more equipped P8Z77-V LK model, but it cost more than $ 160 when we selected the boards for testing.
Asus hasn't provided the board with its enthusiast-loved power and reset buttons, although other vendors are adding them to make testing easier. However, when the board is installed in a case with its own external buttons, they are of no use. There is also no diagnostic display on the board. Asus believes the less informative LED indicators are easier to read.
The Asus MemOK and GPU Boost features are tied to two switches along the front edge of the P8Z77-V LX motherboard, a solution many builders will find useful. MemOK temporarily lowers the frequency of poorly configured memory, which will provide access to UEFI, where you can manually adjust the problematic settings. And GPU Boost overclocks the HD Graphics engines built into Intel LGA 1155 processors.
We always try to find flaws in the board layout, and the only thing we found in the Asus P8Z77-V LX are the fan headers that are too far from the front of the case. This disadvantage is not significant, though, as many chassis come with Molex 4-pin power connectors. Asus has even moved the front panel audio connector a few centimeters forward from the corner where it is normally placed, which completely solves the problem of short cables. Bravo!
Two SATA cables are sufficient for any simple system. The P8Z77-V LX comes with no SLI bridge, because the board does not support it.
Asus P8Z77-V LX Apps
Included with the P8Z77-V LX you will find a small set of different programs. These include the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Adobe Reader X, and a sixty-day trial version of Norton Internet Security. They are all installed by default using the Asus "InstAll" feature. Fortunately, the "InstAll" option can be turned off during driver installation, otherwise you will have to endure the annoying registration / update prompts from Norton.
Asus comes bundled with the USB Turbo Mode app. Unlike the competition, the company has added support for UASP. Our recent research on this technology showed that some USB 3.0 devices already support the USB Attached SCSI Protocol. But so far, only Asus has decided to add a utility to activate and configure it.
Asus still calls this heavily updated PC Probe II utility, although today's version is much more versatile and advanced than previous ones. We found voltage, temperature and fan speed readings, although there are still no less important voltages for CSA and DIMMs.
Fans of Asus monitoring software should decide on one point before installing, since our copy of this software was not 100% removed. The modules remaining from the program did not cause problems with the subsequent installation of the same software, but they interfered with the installation of competing monitoring utilities.
In addition to real-time readings, the Asus Sensor Recorder can generate data tables, which can then be viewed as graphs in the PC Probe II.
Asus Fan Expert allows users to modify the automatic fan profiles on the P8Z77-V LX for all three 4-pin headers on the board.
The Asus EPU utility has several power saving profiles, two of which you can configure yourself. We were able to save approximately 2W in idle time compared to operating system settings.
The P8Z77-V LX also includes Asus's Network iControl software, with which you can prioritize packages in favor of, for example, latency-sensitive online gaming.
Some people make a 2GB or larger email backup, but it is not always convenient to download this amount of content. Asus provides 2GB web storage for free. You can get up to 10GB by inviting others, or 1GB by subscribing to another Asus service. The WebStorage program is designed to synchronize and back up any user data and files.
Overclocking with Asus TurboV
In addition to manual overclocking options, Asus TurboV offers less "advanced" users to take advantage of the impressive capabilities of the P8Z77-V LX through an auto-tuning utility. The program reached a stable frequency of 4.22 GHz at 1.216 V using the "Fast" overclocking scheme, and 4.84 GHz at 1.456 V with the "Extreme" setting.
The biggest problem with the Extreme profile is that the CPU voltage is too high. These processors have a flaw in the interface that prevents even the best coolers from keeping temperatures at moderate voltage levels, and the 1.456V setting is well above 1.30V, which we recommend as a comfortable and safe limit for long-term operation. With this voltage a little afraid that the processor "burned out", we launched Prime95 and watched as the Intel thermal protection mechanism turned on throttling after 20 seconds.
Although the Auto-Tuning function of TurboV was intended to be addressed to less experienced overclockers, it unfortunately sets too high a voltage that is useless due to throttling that inexperienced users may not notice. Therefore, manual configuration seems to us to be safer.
By tweaking the settings ourselves, we were able to achieve the same overclocking level using TurboV as with the Asus UEFI, and as it turns out, some hardcore overclockers will find the TurboV program quite useful for changing voltage and clock speeds on the fly, provided an efficient system is in place. cooling.
Below in the screenshot, the sliders are set to the maximum position to demonstrate the limits of the TurboV setting, however, we did not work with such settings. Advanced Mode adds CSA, PLL and PCH options to the basic voltage settings.
While we don't expect many users to overclock the processor's integrated graphics core, Asus provides the ability to tweak its frequency and voltage in TurboV GPU Boost.
A separate menu provides a choice of the CPU cores multiplier for two modes: synchronous and depending on the load. Although the slider is at its maximum in the image, we did not use the 63x multiplier in our tests.
Asus P8Z77-V LX UEFI
Perhaps the biggest impact on Asus' reputation has been its functional and easy-to-use firmware. The P8Z77-V LX continues this tradition by providing features typical of the company's more expensive motherboards.
The Ai Overclock Tuner has only "XMP" and "Manual" options. The CPU settings are almost the same between these modes, as XMP users are likely to tackle them first. But remember that switching from XMP to Manual will reset them.
Although the 47 x 100 MHz variant was unstable at 1.25V core voltage, the 46 x 102.2 MHz configuration gave us a processor frequency of 4.7 GHz. Most likely, the 47 x 100 mode did not work due to the fact that Asus instead of 100 MHz actually outputs 100.3 MHz, and it turns out 4.71 GHz.
To get 1.25V under load, a combination of 1.245V in UEFI and a higher "load line calibration" value is needed. The memory voltage of 1.65 V was not manually set by us, it was taken from XMP Profile 1.
The P8Z77-V LX includes primary, secondary and tertiary timing settings, which is quite remarkable for budget enthusiast-oriented motherboards.
Depending on other settings, the multiplier can be locked in the main menu of Ai Tweaker. The fixed ratio can be configured in the CPU Power Management submenu.
The Ultra High setting of the CPU Load-Line Calibration gives the overclocked core of our processor the desired 1.25V under load. We tried other settings for core voltage and Load-Line Calibration and found that these are the most consistent with the target. The Digi + VRM submenu also contains voltage settings and adjustments.
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