Of the nine boards we hope to cover across the Ivy Bridge release, we have a large range of prices and feature sets to consider. Styling seems to be of great importance to these companies, especially when they either all follow a similar color scheme or decide to spray everything with a coat of gold paint!

Today you may see many reviews with Sandy Bridge results being posted. We have decided to wait until we are allowed to publish Ivy Bridge results in order to fully test these boards to the limit, and show how they respond under the latest technology (and perhaps after a BIOS update or two). However, important chipset information is at our hands and we can discuss important changes to motherboard design—the long awaited addition of PCIe 3.0 and native USB 3.0 to the Intel mainstream chipset, but also to new technologies, such as Virtual V-Sync and HyperFormance that comes with Virtu MVP, or just how good ASUS' new memory topology might be.

  ASRock
Z77 Extreme4
ASRock
Z77 Extreme6
ASUS
P8Z77-V Pro
ASUS
P8Z77-V Deluxe
Price $141 $177 TBC TBC
Size ATX ATX ATX ATX
Power 8 + 4 8 + 4 12 + 4 16 + 4
Video HDMI 1.4a
DVI-D
D-Sub
DisplayPort
HDMI 1.4a
DVI-D
D-Sub
DisplayPort
HDMI
DVI-D
D-Sub
DisplayPort
HDMI
LAN Broadcom BCM57781 Broadcom BCM57781 Intel 82579V Intel 82579V
Realtek 8111F
Audio Realtek ALC898 Realtek ALC898 Realtek ALC892 Realtek ALC898
Mini PCIe No Yes No No
Wifi No No Yes Yes
SATA 6Gbps 2 + 2 2 + 2 2 + 2 2 + 2
SATA 3Gbps 4 + 0 4 + 0 4 + 0 4 + 0
USB 3.0 6 6 8 8
USB 2.0 8 8 10 8
Fan Headers 6 6 6 6
SLI/XFire Two GPUs Two GPUs Two GPUs Two GPUs
NA Warranty 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years

 

  Gigabyte
GA-Z77X-UD3H Wifi
Gigabyte
GA-Z77MX-D3H
MSI
Z77A-GD65
ECS
Z77H2-AX
Biostar
TZ77XE4
Price TBC TBC $180 $319 $169
Size ATX mATX ATX ATX ATX
Power 6 + 1 + 2 +1 TBC 8 + 2 12 + 2 10 + 2
Video DisplayPort
HDMI
DVI-D
D-Sub
HDMI
DVI-D
D-Sub
HDMI
DVI-D
D-Sub
HDMI
D-Sub
DisplayPort
HDMI
DVI-D
D-Sub
LAN Atheros Atheros Intel 82579V Realtek 8111E Realtek 8111E
Audio Via VT2021 Via VT2021 Realtek ALC898 Realtek ALC892 Realtek ALC898
Mini PCIe Yes No No mSATA +
mini PCIe
No
Wifi PCIe Card No No Yes No
SATA 6Gbps 2 + 0 2 + 0 2 + 2 2 + 0 2 + 2
SATA 3Gbps 4 + 0 4 + 0 4 + 0 4 + 0 4 + 0
USB 3.0 8 4 4 6 4
USB 2.0 6 10 10 6 8
Fan Headers 5 3 5 3 3
SLI/XFire Two GPUs Two GPUs Two GPUs Three GPUs Two GPUs
NA Warranty 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years 3 Years

There is a lot to digest regarding Z77. If you are planning an Ivy Bridge build, we want to hear what you want out of your boards or which ones you are considering to purchase. A little while after these boards, we should be tackling some rather interesting mini-ITX ones as well, so stay tuned!

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  • LancerVI - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link

    They've yet to fail me. I think I may take the plunge with Ivy Bridge. My 920 X58 build has served me well, but I have the itch and I've avoided scratching it since late 2008. I don't think I can hold off any longer!!!

    I feel the need for a new build.....NOW!!!
  • TrackSmart - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link

    Ha ha. We all get the rational or irrational urge to upgrade, whether we 'need' it or not. I would never stop someone from enjoying a new build. But that being said, the core i7 920 still holds its own pretty well. However, I suppose quicksync alone could be worth the upgrade if it is a feature you use heavily. That is one area where the performance gains are just phenomenal.
  • ImSpartacus - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link

    Shoot, I'm still rolling with an E8400. You're 920 has some legs.

    Unless you have a killer app in Ivy Bridge, just sit on your Nahalem machine.
  • LancerVI - Sunday, April 8, 2012 - link

    Believe me fellas. This is all irrational and I'm not ashamed to admit it!
  • mgl888 - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link

    Like :)

    I'm torn between waiting for Haswell next or upgrading to Ivy Bridge now.
    I'm on a E7200. Hahaha
  • Artifex28 - Monday, April 16, 2012 - link

    ...and I am burning this E6750. :D

    I give up. Time to upgrade. :)
  • prophet001 - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    Hmm...

    Rockin the Core 2 on the 975x with an 8800 gtx here :D
  • LancerVI - Monday, April 9, 2012 - link

    That's awesome! That's a great setup! The 8800GTX is on par, in my mind, with the 9700 Pro of yore.
  • jbuiltman - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link

    920 X58 being slow???? I have an AMD FX-60 Dual core with 2GB of DDR ram....That is slow.... :)
  • LancerVI - Thursday, April 12, 2012 - link

    Who said anything about being slow?? All I'm saying is I haven't built a new machine since 2008 and I have the itch.

    I realize it's a slight up grade or maybe even considered a side-grade, but it's an itch. I'll probably wait unitl Ivy Bridge-E and then see.

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