Although it doesn't hail from the company's "Republic of Gamers" product line, Asus' P8Z77-I Deluxe still comes with a surprisingly-large and overclocking-friendly voltage regulator. Space on a mini-ITX motherboard is very valuable, so 10 high-capacity power phases that look like they were lifted from one of the vendor's LGA 2011 motherboards are moved onto an upright daughterboard.
Asus doesn’t waste any of the Z77 Express chipset's integrated SATA ports, placing four of these internally and two on the I/O panel as eSATA. Space that might have been used by a Bluetooth transceiver is saved by combining that function on Asus' dual-band mini-PCIe Wi-Fi controller from Broadcom. This is the only solution in our round-up with a 2x2 antenna array, which should improve transmit performance versus the 2x1-capable Realtek controller on ASRock's board.
We have the same concern about Asus only including two fan headers as we did with ASRock. However, at least Asus includes the ability to tweak fan ramp-up in a granular way through its Fan Xpert feature. It's also worth noting that there's more room to install a wider cooler on the P8Z77-I Deluxe. Because the board's PCH is mounted south of the CPU, the CPU interface doesn't have to be so close to the PCI Express slot.
Room on the back of the board is recovered by ridding the I/O panel of some of the 1/8" analog jacks you might otherwise expect to find. After all, in an HTPC environment, you'd like get sound from HDMI, while a desktop gamer interested in mini-ITX will probably be using a headset rather than a surround sound speaker system. Asus replaces those connectors with CLR_CMOS and USB BIOS Flashback buttons. The Flashback feature includes an IC that allows you to flash the board's BIOS from a USB flash drive without a CPU or memory installed.
That's not to say you can't achieve multi-channel surround sound, though. The trio of 1/8" jacks Asus does expose is fully configurable, making it possible to connect a 5.1-channel setup to the rear I/O panel (so long as you're willing to give up the mic input). You can even do simulated eight-channel output by using the front-panel audio jack. Or, use the optical out to get real-time encoded DTS. Asus is the only company in our round-up that licenses the DTS Connect technology supported by Realtek's ALC898 codec, making the feature unique to its P8Z77-I Deluxe.
Other Asus-only features include the company's TPU auto-overclocking switch (which we covered in some depth in Man Vs. Machine: Four Automatic Overclocking Techs, Compared) and its MemOK memory-underclocking button. MemOK is particularly useful for smoothing over compatibility issues with improperly-programmed RAM, though the company most notorious for that issue is no longer in the memory business. The TPU is going to be more practical for inexperienced overclockers; we simply prefer setting our own parameters. The ability to charge non-Apple tablets and smartphones even when the board is powered down is unique, too (Update: Both MSI and ASRock support this functionality only on Apple devices).
Two of the P8Z77-I Deluxe’s mounting holes are filled with screws, which secure its voltage regulator sink to the main circuit board during shipping. These must be removed prior to motherboard installation.

Asus' classic Wi-Fi antennas now support the Broadcom controller's 2x2 array, though the only visible change is in the color of its connector cables. Asus also changed its front-panel quick connector from a simple block design to a short extension cable, and packs this deluxe motherboard with twice as many SATA cables compared to lower-cost rivals. Bundled software also enables UASP mode for USB 3.0 in Windows 7 through an add-on ASM1042 controller.
- Mini-ITX And Z77: Go Small, Go Fast, Or Go Home
- ASRock Z77E-ITX
- Z77E-ITX Firmware
- Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe
- P8Z77-I Deluxe Firmware
- EVGA Z77 Stinger
- Z77 Stinger Firmware
- MSI Z77IA-E53
- Z77IA-E53 Firmware
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: Battlefield 3 And F1 2012
- Results: Skyrim And StarCraft 2
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Overclocking Compared
- Which Mini-ITX Z77-Based Board Is Right For You?


That technology is available from MSI and Asrock (and Gigabyte, but that's irrelevant in this roundup). Look up MSI i-Charger and Asrock App Charger.
There was a big discussion between editors over whether or not the P8Z77-I Deluxe should get an award. The only award for "best features" is Tom's Hardware Approved, and that award is reserved for products that are clearly and obviously superior. The P8Z77-I Deluxe was a better board, but we had to look fairly hard to see it (it wasn't clear or obvious).
LOL, welcome to Windows 8.
How about using Windows 7? Was a reason you HAD to use 8 despite encountering issues? Is there some contractual obligation or monetary incentive to use the lastest version regardless of performance issues? Or at least test them both, it's only 4 motherboards.
It's not like the 80s/90s where you needed a full size AT/ATX motherboard with many slots for the ST-506 controller, floppy disk controller, serial port, parallel port, Sound Blaster card, VGA card, token ring card, and an extra cooling fan.
EDIT:
I will later get a Mini-ITX later & Silverstone case, stick in a Noctua NH-C12P & Haswell i7, and my Nv 680. That will have very high power density and worthy of being my "main" PC. (and it will OC)
Edit: Thanks for the update!
i would like to see an OC comparison of how high they can push an i5-3570k instead of an i7-3770k because i7 OCs are a lot more consistent. i keep seeing and hearing about people struggling to get a good OC out of it on a wide range of boards with the i5. i have an asus p8z77-i deluxe and i was able to get my i5-3570k to 4.8ghz @ 1.22v stable with extreme load line, it was stable but a bit hot because of the limitations of my all in one cooler. i think i could easily get it 5ghz on my asus board. didnt know the asrock had an msata under neither the mobo, but there will be obvious problems with mounting anything other than an all in one if you plan on using a graphics card. the only thing i would change about my asus is its unfortunate color scheme that matches nothing, after its installed you cant see much anyway. i would have liked to see how the z77 gigabyte itx board compares
i was thinking about that, the dual ethernet ports with teaming is pretty cool but i heard bad things about the overclocking capabilities on it. ultimately i went with the asus because it had the best wireless, good overclocking, best cpu position [others move it around making it hard when you choose a heat sink]
me too. the dual ethernet with teaming is pretty cool but i heard it was a poor OCer. anyone else having trouble commenting?
Comapring features, performance, power, and price I think it is an easy pick for winner.
Since this is a review site, I'm not sure I understand why Gigabyte had any say as to whether or not you reviewed their board.
=====================
I'd like to see some mini-ITX gaming builds featured in the SBM, but let me throw out concern #1, and that's heat. Not of the CPU, or of the GPU, but internal case temperature, and its effects on other components (e.g. VRMs and drives). I used the ASRock board in a PC-Q08R, which has two fans, and still one day in the middle of a game the board died. It was an i5-3570K at stock, and a HD7870 also at stock. The CPU was on the warmer side of normal (60C-63C iirc), but what blew was apparently a VRM on the mobo. Maybe it was a fluke, but I've decided that to be long-term viable, the graphics card in such a build MUST exhaust its heat (such as the HIS "Black Hole" models).
Umm...NO!
Frankly, I really don't even like mATX and ATX is about all I use unless I'm building an HTPC or LAN box, or I need a 4-WAY then EATX.
Simply 'if' I want a small box + OC then undoubtedly the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe is my top tier choice. This has been proven to be the best choice for some period of time i.e. since it was released. The OC'ing components are 'origamied' (folded) on to the MOBO so it's essentially an ATX with one major exception (1) one PCIe slot not to mention less 'stuff' e.g. SATA ports, etc.