ASUS Official Z68 Poll

[Mason@ASUS]

Hello Legit Reviews community.

With the recent introduction of Intel's new Z68 chipset, I'm running this poll to get your feedback and gauge your overall reaction. I know a lot of you have had the chance to check out some of the P67 boards out there. For those of you who have spent some time with our P8P67 series boards, do you feel that its strong foundation and feature set including overclocking, SLI, dual slot spacing, USB 3.0, etc., are there reasons that you might consider a Z68 board?

For those of you interested in using an SSD, is it a must that you get the full maximum performance of the drive or are you interested in using SSD Caching or what Intel calls it, Smart Response Technology? Intel SRT allows you to combine a fast SSD with a slower (but higher capacity) mechanical HDD into one logical drive and receive the benefits of the drive performing much faster than an HDD but still having the storage capacity of the HDD.

Feel free to comment on the Z68 chipset and the features it offers and let us know why you are or why you aren't inclined to upgrade to Z68 if you are planning to upgrade your build. Thanks!~

[FZ1]

I think the P8P67 is a really nice board with very good overclocking potential and a solid feature set. I think upgrading from a P67 to a Z68 doesn't make a lot of sense unless you can sell the board for near what you paid for it. Otherwise, it's more cost effective to get an SSD as the main OS drive and not have the extra step of SRT and get better performance. Intel didn't do consumers any favors by launching the Z68 when they did. That said, those coming off of other platforms would be foolish to buy a P67 board over a Z68. The H67 is a lot cheaper so I can see why people would still buy it for HTPC's and such.

[XstollieX]

The Z68 is a nice chipset without a doubt. Currently I'm running a x58 and a gulftown i7 970 as my main machine but the z68+2600k is looking very promising as a replacement. Personally I may wait for the Z79 to hit the market and see what it has to offer before I make any decisions on the future of my machine.

[DragonFury]

if I needed a new motherboard for the 2600K CPU I have I would pick up a Z68. but since I already have a mobo no real need to upgrade it. I voted for, X58 and Gulftown FTW! I prefer 6-core support, because I have one of them too.

[KABLE]

Z68 is indeed a nice chipset. I won't be buying a new computer until sometime next year so I won't be buying a Z68 board. However, with that said, if I were to upgrade in the near future (very near future), I would go with a Z68 board even if u didn't have the money to buy an SSD for SRT Caching. Just having the option to give my computer that extra oomph when it starts to slow down and age is a major selling point to me. As others have already said, if it were released earlier than when it was released, I'm positive that sales would be better. Unless you want the most up-to-date technology 24/7, upgrading to Z68 from a Sandy Bridge motherboard just seems illogical.

[Tator Tot]

I'm gonna be holding off for Bulldozer.

Though, if I was to build a new system, I would definitely be going for a Z68 system with an nVidia GPU (only for the Optimus technology.)

[Sttm]

An Asus poll on a site I commonly visit about Z68 and I didn't notice it until after I bought an Asus Z68 motherboard. Wow.

I was going to wait until Bulldozer, because I have built AMD systems 3 times now and wanted to see what they will offer. Except AMD seemed to have some issue with the FX chips and pushed back the release from June to Q3 and I am tired of using a 3 year old PC and had money in my hand. So I went Intel and I went Z68.

Why Z68? Well it does not seem to cost much more then P67 and has more features and no apparent drawback. I bought the P8Z68-V Z68 which is the entry level Z68 for $199. The main feature of Z68 that I am looking forward to trying is Virtu. I use a dual monitor setup and I want to see if Virtu will allow me to use the integrated GPU to playback video and Blu Rays on my right monitor while using my discrete for gaming or working in Maya or Zbrush. No idea if that will be actually possible. I probably will also make good use of Quick Sync too.

I will hopefully find out this time next week after all my parts come in and I get them installed.