AsRock Z77 Fatality "Performance" board?

[Mountain Mania]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157298

Still waiting on an official review of this great looking board (especially at the $160 price point).

I like the layout and the sheer room between the cpu socket and the first pci-E slot. My good sized Hyper 212 Evo can easily mount either way in a push pull config on this one.

Seems to have a decent feature set. Anybody have one yet?

[WilliamM2]

I'm pretty disappointed in it. It cost more than last years P67 performance, but has less PCI slots, less PCI express slots, no IDE, no floppy, etc.

I don't really care about the floppy connector, but the loss of IDE means I'll also have to buy two DVD-R drives, when the ones I have work perfectly. It's also 1 PCI-e short of what I need. I may grab the P67 Fatal1ty while it's still available.

[Mountain Mania]

I'm pretty disappointed in it. It cost more than last years P67 performance, but has less PCI slots, less PCI express slots, no IDE, no floppy, etc.

I don't really care about the floppy connector, but the loss of IDE means I'll also have to buy two DVD-R drives, when the ones I have work perfectly. It's also 1 PCI-e short of what I need. I may grab the P67 Fatal1ty while it's still available.

Ya, it doesn't make much sense for you if you have IDE drives. But for me I don't use floppies or IDE devices.....The spacing on the pci-E slots and the first pciE to the cpu socket is perfect.

I want to see a review commenting on the Lan, Audio and see a few benchmarks versus other Z77 boards.

[IMakeHomeMovies]

From what I understand, the Z77 chipset is much better then the P67, and more expensive as well.

IDE - I also have older parts, but I am thinking of getting a LGA 2012 board and CPU, and maybe it is time to dump my old IDE devices for cleaner Sata products.

I mean times change, and I think making the board with no IDE shows they are willing to take a risk for a board orientated to new builds with the latest technology.

I mean isn't sata faster then IDE anyways?

[WilliamM2]

From what I understand, the Z77 chipset is much better then the P67, and more expensive as well.

Much better in what way? None of the reviews I've read show much, if any, performance gains over the P67 or Z68 boards from a year ago. They won't run any CPU's that the P67 and Z68 can't run either, all you need is a bios update.

I mean times change, and I think making the board with no IDE shows they are willing to take a risk for a board orientated to new builds with the latest technology.

What risk? Most boards dropped IDE support years ago. It's a cost cutting measure now that it requires third party controllers, since Intel dropped native IDE support in 2006 or 2007.

I mean isn't sata faster then IDE anyways?

Not for optical drives. I haven't used an IDE hard drive in over ten years, only SATA, and now SSD's to boot.

I did end up getting the P67 Performance a couple of weeks ago, and I can say I'm not disappointed with it at all. Overclocks my 2500K to 4.4Ghz on stock voltage. It's $30 less than the Z77 model, has more PCI slots, more PCI-e slots, and IDE as well. You have to step up the the Fatal1ty Z77 Professional to get the same features, and the only advantage I could see with that board is crossfire capability, which I have no need for. Definitely not worth the extra $100 to me.

Ivy Bridge appears to be a disappointment too. Not much in the way of performance increases for Intel this year. That's the problem when there is no competition.

[IMakeHomeMovies]

Hey Will, thanks for the comments.

Yeah, the Z77 Fatal1ty Professional definitely has more features, I guess the 'Performance' board is really for new builds in which the person has to buy all new stuff and can get the latest. At least it's a good price for what you get.

Yeah, the whole, P67, Z68, Z77 chipset movement is a little concerning. Couldn't Intel have just done it right from the beginning instead of needing 3 chipsets to get to the Z77?

[WilliamM2]

Yeah, the whole, P67, Z68, Z77 chipset movement is a little concerning. Couldn't Intel have just done it right from the beginning instead of needing 3 chipsets to get to the Z77?

They usually offer at least three or four chipsets to support any new CPU. The only thing different this time, is that you don't have to run out and get a new board to support the new CPU's. Most would consider that a plus. And usually a new CPU has bigger performance advantages.

[alex666]

Hey Will, thanks for the comments.

Yeah, the whole, P67, Z68, Z77 chipset movement is a little concerning. Couldn't Intel have just done it right from the beginning instead of needing 3 chipsets to get to the Z77?

No, the z68 was the combo of p67 and h67. The z77 is a refinement of the z68. The z68 was the one Intel should have put out from the outset.

I love my z68 chipset. I'm running my 2500k at 4.5GHz and I'm using the Acceleration feature, with a 60G SSD paired with my 1TB Black Caviar. It works perfectly.

I'm disappointed with QuickSync as you really have to have the right software to utilize it. I'm also disappointed with Virtu, which supposedly would allow one to Use QuickSync even if they had a dedicated video card. So far, my impression is that Virtu has been more hypoe than actual proven utility and functionality. If that makes sense.

marty

[btdvox]

First post here. Long time Reader.

Thought I might add to this, I recently bought the ASROCK Z77 Fatal!ty Professional board.

I would really encourage users to stay away from the Extreme6 or Fatal!ty Performance baords as they use the Etron USB 3.0 EJ168H chip, which is notorious for having latency issues even when somethign is not plugged into the usb 3.0 connectors.

The Professional version has the new gen Etron USB 3.0 EJ188H chip which does not have this issue.

On top of that it has 16 Power phases which is one of the highest I've seen for Z77.

Cheers

[python134r]

First post here. Long time Reader.

Thought I might add to this, I recently bought the ASROCK Z77 Fatal!ty Professional board.

I would really encourage users to stay away from the Extreme6 or Fatal!ty Performance baords as they use the Etron USB 3.0 EJ168H chip, which is notorious for having latency issues even when somethign is not plugged into the usb 3.0 connectors.

The Professional version has the new gen Etron USB 3.0 EJ188H chip which does not have this issue.

On top of that it has 16 Power phases which is one of the highest I've seen for Z77.

Cheers

Thanx for the tip, will look into that and WELCOME!!!

[WilliamM2]

I would really encourage users to stay away from the Extreme6 or Fatal!ty Performance baords as they use the Etron USB 3.0 EJ168H chip, which is notorious for having latency issues even when somethign is not plugged into the usb 3.0 connectors.

The Professional version has the new gen Etron USB 3.0 EJ188H chip which does not have this issue.

The P67 Performance uses the EJ168 as well, I haven't had any issues with it at all after getting drivers from Etron's site (.112 or newer). The drivers on Asrock's site are over a year old, and do have issues. Although I never experienced any issues when there was nothing plugged in, not even sure how that's possible.