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ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
Join the community - in the OCAU Forums!
Date 3rd May 2012
Author booj
Editor James "Agg" Rolfe
Manufacturer ASUS


Test Setup
We compared the P8Z77-V Deluxe to the Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard that came with our test CPU. We also threw in a 2600K system to provide a base comparison.


CPU & Memory Benchmarks






Mature motherboards using the same chipset are expected to benchmark closely to one another. The P8Z77-V Deluxe just manages to get its nose in front by a tiny amount over the Intel board. Other boards tested are also very close. The Z68/2600K system trails a little due its combination of lower IPC and lower memory bandwidth.

3D Benchmarks




Once again the 3D tests are within the margin of error. The 2600K system falls behind in 3DMark 11 due to the gap in the physics test. Overall though, the slightly lower efficiency and PCIe 2.0 doesn't penalize the Z68 system as much as expected.

SATA Transfers



These results are not optimal due to the use of a 60gb Intel 520 series drive. While a fast drive, it loses a lot of theoretical performance over the larger capacity drives which is very noticeable with the incompressible data that Crystal disk mark uses.

Overall the results are very close between these and other Z77 motherboards that we've tested, as is expected.?

Overclocking
In these early days, Ivy Bridge overclocking is offering up both good and bad. In general, performance with low voltage is significantly improved over Sandy Bridge. The problem comes when pushing towards the limit. Going higher than about 1.35 to 1.4v brings very high temperatures that are limiting maximum clocks on air cooling, particularly with multithreaded benchmarks.

As always when overclocking, when pursuing either stability or benchmarks scores, your mileage may vary. Our CPU is a engineering sample. It remains to be seen how retail processors will perform until they reach end users in numbers.

Asus' channel boards aren't specifically aimed at overclockers, yet the P8Z77-V Deluxe comes fully featured and overclocks with ease. A quick OC can be as easy as upping the CPU multiplier and giving a small voltage bump.

Our processor begins to rise sharply in temperature when going above 1.25v. Even at this voltage, running multithreaded benchmarks and stability testing becomes difficult. We've settled on a final stable overclock of 4.6Ghz at 1.21v. At this voltage, temperatures are into the 80's with this CPU which is about the maximum we'd recommend for long term use.

Click to Enlarge

For benchmarks, we stopped at 5.0Ghz. Running higher than this simply generates too much heat.

Click to Enlarge

Out of three boards tested so far, overclocking has proven to be very similar between them. Air cooled overclocking is proving to be much less dependent on motherboard choice than has often been the case in the past. We'll need to get our hands on some faster memory to push beyond this still very nice DDR3-2644.

Click to Enlarge

Conclusions:
The P8Z77-V Deluxe is definitely a premium board and is priced high, but isn't bad at all when compared to many equivalent X79 motherboards. There's a stack of features, easy overclocking ability, BIOS maturity and a robust PWM system suitable for extreme overclocking.

There are few alternative motherboard choices when looking to build a system at the heart of a wireless home network. These networking capabilities are definitely worthy of mention and praise. The addition of DLNA support means the host PC can be wirelessly connected to any compatible device, even directly to many HDTV's.

Overclockers will find the board is overkill for air cooled setups and will find that the lower spec boards in the range will perform just as well. This is a board for users who want everything. If features are your primary criteria when selecting a board, you will get what you pay for with the Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe.

Pros:
  • Wireless networking with DLNA feature
  • Lots of extra I/O
  • Mature BIOS
  • Easy overclocking
  • Robust PWM
Cons:
  • Expensive - street price about $325 AUD



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All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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