Asus Joins the Ivy Bridge PCIe 3.0 Motherboard Race

Asus has joined the likes of MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock with its Z68 PCIe Gen3 motherboard supporting Intel's 2012-bound Ivy Bridge processors.

Asus unveiled three socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel Z68 chipset, which feature PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. The new motherboards are PCI-Express 3.0 compliant, complete with Gen3 switches and electrical components.

ASUS PCI-Express Gen3 Motherboard Specifications:

The P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 lacks display connectivity, which means that LucidLogix's Virtu graphics switching works only in D-mode. Additional features above and beyond the other two boards include an additional Gbit LAN and eSATA (PWR eSATA) port.

The P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 matches the P8Z68 Deluxe in features, except offers iGPU display connectivity (DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub) and has one fewer Gbit LAN & eSATA ports.

The P8Z68-V/Gen3 is slimmed down further with its HD audio lacking DTS and two fewer SATA 6 Gb/s ports.

All three motherboards feature 16-phase Digi+ CPU VRM, an Intel-made gigabit Ethernet controller, LucidLogix Virtu support. The motherboards also offer two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4), and two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and PCI slots.

In the European press release, the P8Z68 Deluxe/GEN3, P8Z68-V Pro/GEN3 and P8Z68-V/GEN3 have recommended price tags of €229, €185 and €159, respectively. In the U.S., the P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 looks to be priced around the $250 range, with the P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 around $200 range, and the P8Z68-V/Gen3 rounding the group out at under $200.

You need to be logged to post a comment

There are 26 Comments. B

Top Comments

21

ojas , October 3, 2011 7:21 PM

Thank god geek-speak is the same in all languages, otherwise that German spec-sheet would have gone over my head...

Otherwise specs look great, and

vaughn2kNow all it needs is the Ivy Bridge...

Other Comments

8

vaughn2k , October 3, 2011 7:11 PM

Now all it needs is the Ivy Bridge...
21

ojas , October 3, 2011 7:21 PM

Thank god geek-speak is the same in all languages, otherwise that German spec-sheet would have gone over my head...

Otherwise specs look great, and

vaughn2kNow all it needs is the Ivy Bridge...
1

verbalizer , October 3, 2011 8:36 PM

already being discussed in the thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/303971-28-bridge-sandy-bridge-news-rumors-reviews

All we need now is Ivy, and more space for those RAM slots...
0

ahnilated , October 3, 2011 9:02 PM

My question is when are they going to stop limiting the motherboards PCIE channels?
0

alyoshka , October 3, 2011 9:29 PM

12 USB2 Ports and 4 USB3 Ports..... what ever happened to Com1 and Com2....?
Good old days, now I'm wondering what all do I need to stick into the USB ports.....
1 External HDD USB2
1 External HDD USB3
1 USB Scanner
1 USB Printer
2 USB Pen Drives
1 iPod
1 iPad
1 Nokia WP7
1 Wifi Dongle/3G Dongle
That makes a total of 10 Devices
I know I ain't going to be using them all at once, if I do, it's worst case scenario.
And they still have a total of 16 Ports.....
0

alyoshka , October 3, 2011 9:32 PM

Now all they need to do is come out with a mobo that has only USB ports into which you can just plug the rest of the things, the processor& the gpu must be the only devices that aren't yet in the USB plugin form. the rest is already there.
0

CaedenV , October 3, 2011 10:16 PM

alyoshkaNow all they need to do is come out with a mobo that has only USB ports into which you can just plug the rest of the things, the processor& the gpu must be the only devices that aren't yet in the USB plugin form. the rest is already there.

LOL, reminds me of an article on Toms a very long time ago about a computer that had only 1 Ethernet, and a bunch of USB cables. Problem was that the BIOS at the time did not natively support USB mouse/keyboard, so the box was completely useless. lol, those were the days!

I want a pair of thunderbolt connectors, a pair of Gbit Ethernet, and a salvo of USB 2/3. I always bought mobos with com and parallel ports for that 'Just in case' assurance, but I haven't used either port in well over 8 years. Fire wire would be a plus, but even that is mostly useless these days
0

trevorvdw , October 3, 2011 10:40 PM

alyoshkaThat makes a total of 10 DevicesI know I ain't going to be using them all at once, if I do, it's worst case scenario.And they still have a total of 16 Ports.....

Yes because nobody has made a USB hub.
0

DjEaZy , October 3, 2011 11:12 PM

... under ASUS PCI-Express Gen3 Motherboard Specifications... there is ATi CrossfireX... ATi... are they really allergic to AMD? It's now AMD CrossFireX!!!
-1

Usersname , October 3, 2011 11:54 PM

Reviews please...Now!
0

clonazepam , October 4, 2011 12:36 AM

CaedenVLOL, reminds me of an article on Toms a very long time ago about a computer that had only 1 Ethernet, and a bunch of USB cables. Problem was that the BIOS at the time did not natively support USB mouse/keyboard, so the box was completely useless. lol, those were the days!I want a pair of thunderbolt connectors, a pair of Gbit Ethernet, and a salvo of USB 2/3. I always bought mobos with com and parallel ports for that 'Just in case' assurance, but I haven't used either port in well over 8 years. Fire wire would be a plus, but even that is mostly useless these days

Reminds me of a Win95 machine I purchased that came with a USB driver CD. It should have been labeled, "install at your own risk, back up all of your data, and have a spare HDD on-hand just in case".

Can't wait to see the enthusiast version of Asus pci-e 3.0 board. Maybe 4 pcie-3.0 x16 slots operating at x8,x8,x8,x8 with a little help from nVidia. I'm not buying, no way, just want to see it, n3rd pr0n...
0

anonymous@guest , October 4, 2011 1:42 AM

So why are they calling these Ivybridge when they are using Sandybridge chipsets? Z68=Sandybridge, Z77=Ivybridge!
0

clonazepam , October 4, 2011 1:51 AM

munter78So why are they calling these Ivybridge when they are using Sandybridge chipsets? Z68=Sandybridge, Z77=Ivybridge!

Probably in the same way that Intel made "i7" branded cpus for 1366 and 1156, and now even 1155. It's been known for awhile now that Z68 supports the new 1155 chips.
2

JohnnyLucky , October 4, 2011 2:12 AM

Intel is confusing me with their naming convention.
0

JohnnyLucky , October 4, 2011 2:17 AM

It's about time Asus jumped in. Other news reports indicate ssd and gpu manufacturers are preparing to migrate to PCI-e 3.0.
0

pacioli , October 4, 2011 2:44 AM

munter78So why are they calling these Ivybridge when they are using Sandybridge chipsets? Z68=Sandybridge, Z77=Ivybridge!

Actually the CPUs are sandy bridge and Ivy Bridge... the chipset LGA (1155) is called Cougar point
0

iam2thecrowe , October 4, 2011 3:36 AM

I thought asus were never going to release an 8x/8x board, they are so slow off the mark. Now all we need is for gigabyte to get their act together and put out a board with a proper UEFI instead of their hybrid bios crap, and there will be a good range of motherboards to chose from.
-3

mickey21 , October 4, 2011 7:53 AM

Yeah, I kept looking for the 2012 processor information.
0

Lutfij , October 4, 2011 8:22 AM

the article missed the fact that the maximus range of boards will also see this new boost in PCI-E slot...i'm beginning to wonder where these articles are being written up from and under whose watch? - this comming from noticing 3 month old news of transformers peripherals...
0

quantum mask , October 4, 2011 1:24 PM

ahnilatedMy question is when are they going to stop limiting the motherboards PCIE channels?

When they need to.

Display more comments