ASUS P8Z68-V Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS P8Z68-V Motherboard Review - Not everyone can afford or even wants to buy super expensive motherboards. While these tend to get the most attention, there is certainly a need for more budget oriented solutions. With this in mind we examine the ASUS P8Z68-V. This board is about as plain-Jane as a modern "big name" motherboard gets.
 
I just upgraded my home server to an i5 2500k on the P8Z68-V LX -- amazing board for the money ($60 board after the $60 instant rebate for buying a cpu/mobo @ MicroCenter). Couldn't ask for more on a simple home server using the iGPU and running Ubuntu 11.10. It shares a ton of features with the more expensive P8Z68-V Pro that I run in my gaming rig for a fraction of the price.
 
That's the board I like, and the P67 version. Anyway, I hope you do get an LX it'd be nice to see the differences between the NIC and sound.
 
Love my P8Z68-V, one of the best boards I have owned in a long time. I got mine months ago when they were first released and have been very happy. Paid $155 at the time, which is a fair price for what the board offers. No issues, runs very stable, overclocks well (4.8Ghz 24/7 at decent voltage on air) and has all the features I was interested in.
 
I'm wondering about how the overclocking was done on these boards, particularly in regards to CPU voltage.

http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTMwNDc5MjA0Mk5wN3JsQkNqbTdfOF8xX2wuZ2lm
http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTMxODA1MDY1M1ppeTY5YkpSSkNfNl8xX2wuZ2lm

The first image above is from the P8Z68-V Pro review, the second from this review.

In both cases it's showing a very high CPU voltage. This seems to occur when overclocking using Offset mode.

The problem is that the voltage shown in the bios isn't the same voltage you are going to have under load in windows. So if you are using offset based on the voltage displayed in the Bios to achieve a target voltage, you are in many cases going to WAY over volt your chip when you are in windows, as shown in both screenshots.

Setting a manual voltage solves this, but has the side effect of maintaining that voltage even while idle, increasing idle power consumption.

So Offset is the best method to use, but you just have to be careful not to overvolt your chip accidentally.

I still got a great result but I was unable to take the processor further without throttling it.
Click to expand...

At that voltage, I would expect it to be throttling! The chip is being run at almost 1.7v.....

Here is my chip at ~1.45v. CPU-Z is capable of accurately displaying the voltage with this motherboard.
2500kcpuz.jpg


And even using a mediocre Hyper 212+ I get nowhere near throttling at these settings. In-fact, this processor is downright cold compared to the Q9650 @ 4.4Ghz I was running before.
 
Sorry, might be oblivious here, but is this the new GEN3 version of the board, or no...
 
Kyle & Daniel,

Quick editorial note:

You've got the Crystal Disk Mark graphics switched with the Asus P8P67 EVO review...
 
This board sits in my wife's machine mated to a 2500k (not yet overclocked but will be whenever I get off my butt and do it...she even has an H60 in there) and is much nicer than I expected when I picked it up from Microcenter. Board and processor on sale back a few months ago for 249 couldn't be beat.

As a side note...Bummed to see that the 2600k is that much faster than my 875k so that means her PC is better than mine! Maybe I won't overclock hers since mines running at 4ghz. LOL
 
Got one of these for $100 at Microcenter B&M when bundled with a 2600k. Excellent board.

Wanted to wait for the GEN3, but couldn't pass that deal up.
 
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Mysticode said:
Sorry, might be oblivious here, but is this the new GEN3 version of the board, or no...
Click to expand...

If you can't find the Gen3 flavor of this board and the better lineup it isn't a big deal. Gen3 only offers out of the box ivy bridge support, and PCIE 3.0. The originals have been upgraded to support ivy bridge, and considering even multi-GPU users have a hard time maxing out of the bandwidth of PCIE 2.0 - Not having 3.0 isn't a huge loss. It realistically won't make much difference until at least another 3-4 years.
 
Thanks for your comment Mchart. The Gen3 ones are a similar price so I see no point in not getting it and future-proofing yourself that bit more, right?
 
Dan, Kyle, a question I've had for awhile on ASUS mid-line boards:

Is there something about the DIGI-VRM system that makes the heatsinks less necessary, or are there radical design differences from the boards of other vendors?

ASUS has gone relatively modest with their heatsink setups on the P8P67/P8Z68 boards, no heatpipes, heatsinks aren't overly large, quite a contrast, from say Gigabyte's Z68XP UD4 or UD5, with less components around the socket too.. But their boards yield great overclocks, which seems to draw the conclusion that their voltage regulation doesn't need a lot of cooling.

Or is it just that the other vendors don't really need it that much either, and we're getting some flash to dazzle us?
 
Mysticode said:
Thanks for your comment Mchart. The Gen3 ones are a similar price so I see no point in not getting it and future-proofing yourself that bit more, right?
Click to expand...

I bought the pro version of this board off of Newegg a week ago. Would have bought the Gen3 but it was sold out. Gen3 is the same price.

Yes, if you can get the Gen3 get it - But if you can't the reality is that it really won't mean much.
 
I can pretty much echo most of the statements here, I really like everything about the board except for one thing:

I've had complete system restarts while playing one game (Heroes of Newerth), but no others.

I'm curious about the torture testing you guys use. What paces do you send it through? I was never able to get a torture test to crash my machine and any kind of way to duplicate my crashing would be helpful for troubleshooting.
 
Thanks a lot for this review. I bought the PRO/GEN3 version of this board not long ago and am quite pleased with it, although I haven't yet tried overclocking it (I'm new to OCing and still trying to learn before messing with anything).

As such, I'm interested to hear the response to GotNoRice's remarks as well. I also noticed the voltage disparity in the pictures while reading the review.
 
I'd *almost* bought that ASRock board that [H] reviewed so poorly a few days back, and then this EXCELLENT review helps point me in the right direction to go, but...

...well, it's kinda a shame that when [H] does a review, there isn't a link right in the post to buy the thing on Newegg with a small discount (even just free shipping). That'd be kinda cool. I'd pretty much have clicked right through and immediately bought it after reading that review.
 
I've been very happy with this board with an i3 and an Adaptec 6805 running a RAID 5 array. Unlike some UEFI boards, this board is okay with Adaptec controllers.
 
Heh 1.672v holy hell. I don't use offset on any of my boards.

edit: ah, I might have figured this one out ... at 1.672 volts with load-line regular, a full IBT load will drop that to about 1.50 volts ...
 
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GotNoRice said:
The problem is that the voltage shown in the bios isn't the same voltage you are going to have under load in windows. So if you are using offset based on the voltage displayed in the Bios to achieve a target voltage, you are in many cases going to WAY over volt your chip when you are in windows, as shown in both screenshots.
Click to expand...

Yep I use offset, but I base that offset on the voltage CPU-Z shows, not the BIOS. You don't run games or video encoding from the BIOS. :p I run at about 1.32V with my current OC, and it goes under 1V when idle.

I'm using the even cheaper version of this board btw, the "LE" version, and it's been great so far. It can't do SLI, but I have no interest in microstuttering, driver problems, extra heat/noise, and buying a new PSU. ;) I've heard the onboard sound isn't great, but I never tried it since I have a discrete card.
 
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@GotNoRice

I noticed the same thing. It is also in the P8Z68 Pro review. You can see the voltage is about .1v(maybe a lil more) higher in CPUz screenshot than what they ran it at in the review.

I'm an amature at this so I didn't say anything when I saw the same issue in the Pro review. Hopefully the [H] crew can get back at us on this. I tried forever to hit 4.8-5.0 at around 1.425 vcore lol.:D

These guys are constantly reviewing new gear so, it's probably a case of shit happens.
 
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Just wanted to sound in on these family of boards from Asus. I recently picked up the P8Z68-V LE, i7 2600K, 8 Gb of cheapy Wintec RAM slapped it together with my older 6850 CF cards and was up and running OC at 4.4 Ghz within 15 minutes on stock cooling. Haven't had a hiccup for a second. Very pleased with the results. BTW the OC was achieved through the use of the UEFI Bios automated OC solution. absolutely painless. Temps are all 35-50ish C idle-load. I was a little bummed about the CF not being 8x8 found this out after putting everything together and getting it up and running so pulling apart and returning it was out of the question.... My level of lazy in this case was over 9000.
 
The Asus P8Z68-V boards are stellar. I have the V LX + 2500k that I picked up at Microcenter for $225 TOTAL. What a steal. The build quality and ability to OC on a board this cheap is incredible. All I did was add 0.05v to my vcore and I had my 2500k running at a rock solid 4.5 Ghz. I could probably get a good 4.8-5.0 out of this board/CPU but why bother when 4.5 Ghz is such overkill anyways?
 
I bought this board along with a 2500k a few weeks ago and I'm having some serious stability issues. I haven't been able to determine yet where the problem lies but I'm leaning toward the board. A memtest shows no issues and the CPU doesn't get hotter than 80C.

The computer locks up either in Prime95 or BF3.
 
qtwre said:
I bought this board along with a 2500k a few weeks ago and I'm having some serious stability issues. I haven't been able to determine yet where the problem lies but I'm leaning toward the board. A memtest shows no issues and the CPU doesn't get hotter than 80C.

The computer locks up either in Prime95 or BF3.
Click to expand...

Stock @ 80C doesn't sound normal, so you must be overclocked ... (although that's a topic for a separate thread though probably.)
 
xorbe said:
Stock @ 80C doesn't sound normal, so you must be overclocked ... (although that's a topic for a separate thread though probably.)
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Yeah that seems extremely hot for these CPUs, even if you are overclockd. My 2500K barely goes above 55C @ 4.6ghz (really only when running LinX/prime). I'm not using top-of-the-line cooling or anything either (Hyper 212+)
 
The review was pretty positive, but notice no awards given to it. Did it not deserve any?
 
Bontakun said:
Can we expect a P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 review as well?
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Would be a waste of time and money. The only difference is the addition of PCIE 3.0 and out of the box ivy bridge support. No differences besides that.
 
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