ASUS P8Z68-V Pro Z68 Chipset Motherboard Review @ [H]

Ran with both video adapters here. Just installed this new MB yesterday.

Initially, I didn't have the Intel video driver installed and I have 2 LCD connected to a GTX580.
So, I first disabled the 2nd LCD from Nvidia CP hooked up the 2nd LCD to DVI Intel adapter booted in Windows and installed the Intel driver from the Asus CD. Everything went fine there.
But I could not get the 2nd LCD to come on...&&???
Right-clicked in desktop and selected multipe displays to show "extend these displays" and the 2nd LCD came on driven by Intel video. And 1st LCD is running off the GTX580.

Did few other tests but disabled the Intel video since I didn't see any advantage yet. I can better manage the 2 LCD's with the Nvidia CP and Win7 video options.

So, yes it works
(forget the Sig, not updated yet)
 
This is my dilema.

I want to plug in 3 monitors. My two work/gaming LCDs which I want to use in dualview, and my 47 inch LCD which is for what I will stream 1080p to. I will only be using 1 set at a time (Either using the two LCDs or just watching the large LCD)


Would it be possible to have the HDTV connected to the HD internal graphics HDMI which hooking the 2 lcds up to a GTX 580? I don't need 3 independent screens, and cloning the main lcd to the HDTV is not a problem. I am not looking for a eyefinity gaming setup, I just want to have my three monitors plugged in and when I am done working switch to the HDTV.

I would just prefer to stick to Nvidia and not go SLI. Please help, I want to try to make my decision tomorrow, it has dragged on for so long.
 
mikekieran said:
This is my dilema.

I want to plug in 3 monitors. My two work/gaming LCDs which I want to use in dualview, and my 47 inch LCD which is for what I will stream 1080p to. I will only be using 1 set at a time (Either using the two LCDs or just watching the large LCD)


Would it be possible to have the HDTV connected to the HD internal graphics HDMI which hooking the 2 lcds up to a GTX 580? I don't need 3 independent screens, and cloning the main lcd to the HDTV is not a problem. I am not looking for a eyefinity gaming setup, I just want to have my three monitors plugged in and when I am done working switch to the HDTV.

I would just prefer to stick to Nvidia and not go SLI. Please help, I want to try to make my decision tomorrow, it has dragged on for so long.
Click to expand...

Based on the confirmation above you should be good to go.
 
Or you can get a cheap GT430 or even something older, and use that for the third monitor output, instead... (if you really want to stick to nVidia).

As for using the Intel IGP, it should be possible.
 
ppo said:
Ran with both video adapters here. Just installed this new MB yesterday.

Initially, I didn't have the Intel video driver installed and I have 2 LCD connected to a GTX580.
So, I first disabled the 2nd LCD from Nvidia CP hooked up the 2nd LCD to DVI Intel adapter booted in Windows and installed the Intel driver from the Asus CD. Everything went fine there.
But I could not get the 2nd LCD to come on...&&???
Right-clicked in desktop and selected multipe displays to show "extend these displays" and the 2nd LCD came on driven by Intel video. And 1st LCD is running off the GTX580.

Did few other tests but disabled the Intel video since I didn't see any advantage yet. I can better manage the 2 LCD's with the Nvidia CP and Win7 video options.

So, yes it works
(forget the Sig, not updated yet)
Click to expand...

Thanks ppo. Not sure how I never came up with this combination but it is working for me. I can't try all three monitors yet but as soon as I get a chance I'll post how that went. I am having a problem with it reverting to the Windows 7 basic color scheme because it says it's exceeding the available video memory. It thought I gave it the max in the BIOS but there is still some kind of issue there.
 
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I wanna pick this up, but I dont wanna pay 200+.... Is it realistic to expect this to drop in price once more retailers start selling it?
 
"The CPU socket area is clear of obstructions and I was able to test fit a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme to the board using an LGA1156 bolt-through kit without issues. Memory clearances were tight as usual, but it didn’t pose a problem. The VRMs are cooled through the use of passive blue anodized heat sinks."

Cool to hear the Ultra 120 Extreme fits. Just wanted to double-check: Can anyone confirm I'd be able to fill *all* 4 ram slots with Corsair Vengeance sticks (and their high heatspreaders) while using my old Ultra 120 Extreme? Tired of my vmware machines wheezing along and would like to stuff the new machine full of memory. :)
 
Unexploded said:
"The CPU socket area is clear of obstructions and I was able to test fit a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme to the board using an LGA1156 bolt-through kit without issues. Memory clearances were tight as usual, but it didn’t pose a problem. The VRMs are cooled through the use of passive blue anodized heat sinks."

Cool to hear the Ultra 120 Extreme fits. Just wanted to double-check: Can anyone confirm I'd be able to fill *all* 4 ram slots with Corsair Vengeance sticks (and their high heatspreaders) while using my old Ultra 120 Extreme? Tired of my vmware machines wheezing along and would like to stuff the new machine full of memory. :)
Click to expand...

You may have to raise the fan on the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler up ever so slightly. Unless you have the older clip style in which case that won't be possible. The newer plastic fan housings allow more flexibility on that.
 
Dan_D said:
You may have to raise the fan on the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler up ever so slightly. Unless you have the older clip style in which case that won't be possible. The newer plastic fan housings allow more flexibility on that.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Appreciate the quick reply. I've got both (clip & a plastic mount) as I found the clip to be kind of a pain in the ass when working in a confined case.
 
I turned the fan around and mounted it using the plastic mount on the side away from the DIMM slots. No interferences there. The cooling performance seems to not be degraded. (I switched to a third-party PWM fan.)
 
Is there a review any where on the P8Z68 Deluxe as opposed to the Pro version? Been looking for one without luck...

Thanks.
 
Does having the Vitru software make it easier to have just the onboard hdmi plugged up and use only the motherboard onboard sound for gaming when connected to a reciever? Currently I have 2 480s, and have to use toslink out on my Xfi titanium or else the HDMI audio out on the video card is really crappy Clipping the beginning of any audio played and changing the mode on the reciever.
 
QuadDragon said:
Does having the Vitru software make it easier to have just the onboard hdmi plugged up and use only the motherboard onboard sound for gaming when connected to a reciever? Currently I have 2 480s, and have to use toslink out on my Xfi titanium or else the HDMI audio out on the video card is really crappy Clipping the beginning of any audio played and changing the mode on the reciever.
Click to expand...

The Virtu software shouldn't effect that at all. Sorry.
 
Very simple question: since the available PCI-E lanes on the Z68 boards are no greater than what was available on X58, is there some kind of overall graphics performance advantage available? Since two-card GPU scaling is already at near 100% on i5 and i7, the only area where I could envisage gains would be 3-GPU performance - but this chipset can't even run that configuration.

So bottom line, is there any reason an X58 owner would want to upgrade aside from the energy savings from switchable graphics?
 
Maybe the energy savings from a 32nm then 22nm manufacturing process ? Especially in case of an overclock.
 
Matrices said:
Very simple question: since the available PCI-E lanes on the Z68 boards are no greater than what was available on X58, is there some kind of overall graphics performance advantage available? Since two-card GPU scaling is already at near 100% on i5 and i7, the only area where I could envisage gains would be 3-GPU performance - but this chipset can't even run that configuration.

So bottom line, is there any reason an X58 owner would want to upgrade aside from the energy savings from switchable graphics?
Click to expand...

Z68 has fewer PCI-Express lanes than X58 does. And yes, there are three GPU capable LGA1155 boards. They use an nForce 200MCP to multiplex the lanes. They don't really allow for any more bandwidth, but they do allow for the same amount of bandwidth to go where it needs to dynamically and avoid the two card 8x8 limit of the PCI-Express controller built into LGA1155 CPUs. The bandwidth needed by the most powerful GPUs still doesn't saturate the bus. So currently the 2600K overclocked like hell on the right board with three 3GB GTX 580's is probably the fastest possible configuration. The only time X58 makes any sense at present is if you are going to use a 6 core CPU. Even then you'll have to overclock the piss out of it to keep up with Sandy Bridge. Which clock for clock, it does well enough, but you typically still see slightly higher clocks out of Sandy Bridge than you do Gulftown.
 
fhiste said:
Thanks ppo. Not sure how I never came up with this combination but it is working for me. I can't try all three monitors yet but as soon as I get a chance I'll post how that went. I am having a problem with it reverting to the Windows 7 basic color scheme because it says it's exceeding the available video memory. It thought I gave it the max in the BIOS but there is still some kind of issue there.
Click to expand...
Earlier today I was running the setup you were describing: two monitors on the add-in GPU, and one via motherboard HDMI. Worked fine, bios set for graphics PCIE, mem 64mb, and iGPU Multi Monitor enabled. Even had sound going out though motherboard HDMI while playing WoW on the HD6950... which was nice because my Realtek audio is now borked to death ><
 
ir0nw0lf said:
That IPT stuff sounds a lot like TPM, which I believe went over like a lead balloon. Guess only time will tell.

EDIT: Z68 search is enabled as of this post on the Egg, BTW. 13 current results, price range from $119.99+$7.56 to $349.99+$9.48.
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TPM was never the bugbear that it was painted to be. One rumor that made TPM look bad (and was never actually talked about on-the-record by anybody, including, if not especially Apple) was that TPM would be used to basically enable DRM in hardware. One thing that *nobody* on sites like Slashdot would even remotely consider was the one thing that everybody behind TPM (including Intel, RSA, Microsoft, and even the NSA) was stressing are/were the basic uses for TPM in the area of hardware-based cryptgraphy/identity-protection (an absolute must for any form of secure communications through a normally insecure medium, such as the Internet); instead, the Slashdotters sound like a bunch of paranoids from what has been called the *tinfoil-hat brigade* that are so against anyone even remotely connected with the government having anything to do with encryption that they are perfectly willing to risk our identities to satisfy their fears. While plenty of motherboards support TPM modules (including Intel chipsets as old as G31, AKA "Bear Lake"), purchasing the modules themselves is not exactly easy, as most are customized for specific purposes; there is no such animal as a general-purpose TPM module. (That is despite that every operating system for general-purpose use - including Windows, every GNU Linux distribution, every UNIX, an BSD, and OS X back to the first Intel versions of Leopard, has hooks for TPM.) Instead of a far-easier to deploy TPM-based solution, proprietary, difficult to deploy, and very cumbersome (and often incredibly vulnerable due to those quirks) solutions based on dongles (that don't connect to the TPM module at all) have remained in force (such as the current military solution based on the Common Access Card).
 
CorpX said:
I wanna pick this up, but I dont wanna pay 200+.... Is it realistic to expect this to drop in price once more retailers start selling it?
Click to expand...

If you have a MicroCenter near by, they carry both this board, and the baby-brother P8Z68-V.

P8Z68-V PRO: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364206
P8Z68-V: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364996

The only feature the V-PRO has that the V-non-Pro does not is iGPU Level Up (which is not cnnected to Lucid Virtu, which is a feature both boards support) - is that feature worth $20 more? (That is the price difference betwen the two ASUS motherboards.)

PS: MicroCenter has added the P8Z68-V LX. Like the P8Z68-V Pro, it supports iGPU LevelUP - it's also (thanks to a $5 launch price-cut) $55 less than the P8Z68V, $65 less than the Pro, and less than half the price of the P8Z68 Deluxe.

P8Z68-V LX: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0371775
 
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I am very dissappointed about the Virtu feature. When I first heard about it I was very interested because of the possible power saving capabilities. After reading some tests I discovered that there is no power saving at all. That must be due to the immaturity of this technology. The Virtu software has to be able to power down the discrete graphics card. Since current discrete GPU's are meant to be used as a standalone solution they simply don't support powering down. With a but of luck future cards will suport this. Until then Virtu is only interesting for people who use the transcoding capabilities of the iGPU.
 
Mr. D. said:
I am very dissappointed about the Virtu feature. When I first heard about it I was very interested because of the possible power saving capabilities. After reading some tests I discovered that there is no power saving at all. That must be due to the immaturity of this technology. The Virtu software has to be able to power down the discrete graphics card. Since current discrete GPU's are meant to be used as a standalone solution they simply don't support powering down. With a but of luck future cards will suport this. Until then Virtu is only interesting for people who use the transcoding capabilities of the iGPU.
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It also has benefit for multimonitor users, but only if you aren't going to try and game across them such as in an Eyefinity / NV Surround setup.
 
will be buying the pro on thursday, it's my first ever build...hopefully it's $200 well spent
 
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