Which z68 motherboard will be the best for long-term OC durability?

Which z68 motherboard will be the best for long-term overclocking durability?

  • Asus P8Z68-V Pro

    Votes: 12 46.2%
  • Asrock Z68 Extreme4

    Votes: 4 15.4%
  • EVGA ???

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4H-B3

    Votes: 3 11.5%
  • Intel DZ68DB

    Votes: 1 3.8%
  • Intel DZ68BC

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • MSI Z68A-GD80

    Votes: 2 7.7%
  • Saphire PI-CI7S33Z68 (tentative name)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    26

markmywords

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Motherboards with the Z68 chipset are to be released in a month. I'd like to start some kind of a resource where we can keep track of the manufacturers and features.

This is probably not the best format but a discussion thread might get unruly, so I thought to make this poll first, then the discussion.

Here's a question to start:
Which z68 motherboard will be the best for long-term overclocking durability?
 

markmywords

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Looks like the Asus P8Z68-V Pro is getting some early interest from the voters. I'm likely looking at that one too. It has 12+4 digitally-controlled phases, which appears important here, in part. The Asrock Z68 Extreme4 is enticing, and I would probably get an Asrock Z68 Extreme6 over an Asus P8Z68-V Pro were it available at launch, but that's not looking to be the case.

I've come across this really nice spreadsheet guide to the P67 boards: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AoXai57oo6AGdGRrbG1feUNZODVGNmluTF9ZMHlDR0E&w=245&h=910
The Z68s that are the P67's counterparts look to be very similar and even slightly better.

Based on that and this 5 P67 board review and OC comparison, http://www.techspot.com/review/380-intel-p67-motherboard-roundup/page23.html, I'm thinking Asus has the goods for durability (a generous # of phases and digital electricity delivery monitoring/control) and overclockability. An Asus Z68 Deluxe board would likely be amazing, as well, but I haven't seen anything on the internet about it yet, and it's 1 week to the Z68 launch.

A word on Gigabyte's boards, their Z68s appear to be out in Asia already, but lacking on-board video ports and losing the P67 OC comparison with their flagship board to a mid-high Asus board, their high phase count appears underwhelming. Maybe the actual components aren't as good as what Asus uses, and/or is it the DIGI VRM that's got Asus the edge?
 

markmywords

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The first Z68 boards are coming out in days time, and I've been checking out the reviews of the P67 Asus boards on Newegg - they're getting low ratings, something about booting and power state errors. A quarter of the ratings for the regular and pro P8P67 are 1 star. The deluxe seems to enjoy much higher ratings; I'm not sure what the difference could be. The poor reviews seem to be new, as well, so I'm not sure if it's even pre-B3- or BIOS- related. The P8Z68 Deluxe is as of recently slated to be among the first Z68 boards out so it might be a good way to go.

The Asrock P67 Extreme4 has high ratings as well and is in a lower price category than the Asus deluxe, so I'm thinking of going with the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 based on that.

Any suggestions?

Here's some more info:
The Asus P8Z68 series is a bit different from the P8P67 series in terms of power delivery. The prospect of a P8Z68 Deluxe was exciting. On paper, I don't see a reason to go above a P8Z68-V Pro (same 12+4 phase power for all 3 Z68 boards; up from the P8P67 Pro's 12+2 to the P8Z68-V Pro's 12+4, down from the P8P67 Deluxe's 16+2 to the P8Z68 Deluxe's 12+4). The Deluxe may even be losing the onboard ports (if that's what Virtu in d-Mode only means). However, considering the newegg reliability ratings of the P67 boards, the Deluxe may be worth it if the trend persists.
asus_z68.png.png

ASUSP8P67SPECTABLE.jpg

Asus may launch 2 more higher-end boards at the end of the month (Maximus IV Extreme-Z and Maximus IV Gene-Z).