Expanded graphics card support, enhanced on-board features that include Thunderbolt on some models, and more-robust voltage control are all good reasons to consider paying a little extra for a higher-end motherboard. Today we examine five top choices.
The divide between Intel's mainstream and high-end platforms continues to confound enthusiasts. If you go with Intel's latest and greatest architecture, you're limited to four cores and 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 connectivity. Those specs seem pretty meager compared to Sandy Bridge-E's six cores and 40 lanes of 8 GT/s PCI Express. But, of course, Sandy Bridge-E centers on an older core design. So, in some apps, the Ivy Bridge-based Core chips are faster. In others, Sandy Bridge-E comes out ahead. How's that for a conundrum?
Gamers simply want their favorite titles to run better. And the Ivy Bridge architecture's better per-clock performance helps make that happen (not to mention dramatically lower prices). The 22 nm process Intel uses to manufacture those chips also helps cut power consumption. And while on-die HD Graphics engine is all but useless for 3D, its Quick Sync functionality facilitates great video transcoding acceleration. Ivy Bridge-based chips seem to hit similar overclocks, but with far more conservative cooling requirements. And the architecture's biggest limitation, a scarcity of PCI Express connectivity, is hardly a problem for power users building systems with one or two graphics cards.
The PCI Express on one of the boards we're reviewing today even has a repeater function that helps overcome the tiniest of Z77 Express' weaknesses in SLI or CrossFire configurations.
This platform's battle for enthusiast market share doesn’t end with basic specifications, however. Motherboard vendors must also convince their customers that Z77 Express-equipped platforms have the features and stability to match high-end X79 Express-based offerings. We received six motherboards that attempt to prove this point (though one of the products no longer qualifies for our final analysis).
The one motherboard in today’s line-up with a 48-lane PCIe 3.0 bridge is ECS’ Golden Z77H2-AX. Unfortunately, this platform climbed $40 beyond the budget limit of today’s round-up in the time we've been reviewing it. We're tired of seeing board vendors playing pricing games based on our review schedule (this isn't the first time we're seeing a curiously-timed price move). So, since we put the work in to review ECS' submission, we're including our already-gathered data and simply withholding the board from any award candidacy.
The only other $220-280 board with PLX's 48-lane PCIe swtich is also out of contention because its manufacturer chose to focus on a different high-end feature. But what other $40 feature could be worth its cost to the end user? Here's a hint: Zeus.
Three of the motherboards in today’s line-up include Thunderbolt technology, and one even has Intel’s $40 DSL3510 dual-channel controller. Choosing between its three-way SLI-capable and dual-port Thunderbolt-equipped products must have been difficult for Gigabyte, but we’re sure storage geeks like our own Andrew Ku will applaud its decision.
Our Z77 launch article stated that the chipset's integrated USB 3.0 controller was nothing to get excited about, though it did free up a couple of the PCH’s eight PCIe 2.0 lanes. The one thing we didn’t discuss was the platform’s ability to support three graphics cards, because the block diagram shown below is actually an update from Intel.
Intel had good reason not to discuss x8/x4/x4 capability when Z77 Express launched, because it required a new CPU that would only be introduced weeks later. Instead we got a future-looking block diagram that merely hinted towards that upcoming CPU’s triple-device support.
In an almost fickle move, Intel followed its Ivy Bridge architecture launch by stepping back from its original Thunderbolt-naming block diagram to a more generic triple-card diagram. The company was thus able to make many of us forget that the PC market was getting the short end of the Thunderbolt stick until properly-equipped motherboards were ready. But, in the time between the Z77 Express and Thunderbolt debuts, board vendors decided that they really didn’t want to give up PCIe 3.0 lanes for a second-gen controller.
You see, the desktop chips Intel manufactures for its LGA 1155 interface only have sixteen PCI Express lanes (the workstation-oriented Xeons get 20, curiously enough), and that number corresponds exactly to the number of lanes monopolized by gaming graphics cards. The benchmark data tells us that eight lanes adequately feed even dual-GPU flagship boards. However, dual-card SLI and CrossFire support is a mandatory minimum feature of enthusiast-grade motherboards. If it's going to work in the same high-end configurations, Thunderbolt needs to follow an alternative path.
Even the board engineers at Intel appear to have conceded the need to prioritize PCI Express bandwidth for discrete graphics, as indicated by this snippet of its DZ77RE-75K block diagram:
On Intel's board, four of the Platform Controller Hub's measly eight PCIe 2.0 lanes go directly to its Thunderbolt controller, leaving only four lanes behind to feed its three PCIe x1 slots, two third-party SATA controllers, secondary gigabit Ethernet controller, and a PCIe to PCI hub. The math doesn’t even work out until we consider the x1 device cropped from the bottom of the above image, a PCIe to x4 hub that is forced to cram the bandwidth of all FireWire, PCI, and PCI Express-based add-in cards into a single 5 Gb/s lane. Phew!
The bandwidth squeeze might get even tighter for the dual-port Thunderbolt controller on Gigabyte’s Z77X-UP5 TH, since the high-speed component is theoretically capable of matching all of the bandwidth allowed by Intel's Direct Media Interface 2.0, which joins the Z77 Express PCH to an LGA 1155 processor. In other words, in theory, Thunderbolt devices could consume all of the chipset’s bandwidth, with not a single bit left for Ethernet, internal drives, or even a keyboard and mouse. Doh!
Granted, we think it'll be a very long time before enthusiasts buy any combination of devices that fully tax a dual-port Thunderbolt controller, but the theoretical problem still brings us back to the processor interface's biggest weakness: its scarcity of PCIe 3.0 lanes.
Like Intel, MSI’s Z77A-GD80 offers but a single Thunderbolt port. Unlike Intel, MSI doesn’t force a bunch of devices to share a single PCIe lane. MSI instead eliminates the PCIe hub, along with half of the board’s PCIe-based features. PCIe x1 slots one and three are connected to the same lanes as slots two and four, and cannot be used simultaneously. Moreover, you have to similarly choose between the board’s third-party SATA or IEEE-1394 controllers.
The divide between Intel's mainstream and high-end platforms continues to confound enthusiasts. If you go with Intel's latest and greatest architecture, you're limited to four cores and 16 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 connectivity. Those specs seem pretty meager compared to Sandy Bridge-E's six cores and 40 lanes of 8 GT/s PCI Express. But, of course, Sandy Bridge-E centers on an older core design. So, in some apps, the Ivy Bridge-based Core chips are faster. In others, Sandy Bridge-E comes out ahead. How's that for a conundrum?
Gamers simply want their favorite titles to run better. And the Ivy Bridge architecture's better per-clock performance helps make that happen (not to mention dramatically lower prices). The 22 nm process Intel uses to manufacture those chips also helps cut power consumption. And while on-die HD Graphics engine is all but useless for 3D, its Quick Sync functionality facilitates great video transcoding acceleration. Ivy Bridge-based chips seem to hit similar overclocks, but with far more conservative cooling requirements. And the architecture's biggest limitation, a scarcity of PCI Express connectivity, is hardly a problem for power users building systems with one or two graphics cards.
The PCI Express on one of the boards we're reviewing today even has a repeater function that helps overcome the tiniest of Z77 Express' weaknesses in SLI or CrossFire configurations.
This platform's battle for enthusiast market share doesn’t end with basic specifications, however. Motherboard vendors must also convince their customers that Z77 Express-equipped platforms have the features and stability to match high-end X79 Express-based offerings. We received six motherboards that attempt to prove this point (though one of the products no longer qualifies for our final analysis).
| Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ASRock Z77 OC Formula | Asus Sabertooth Z77 | ECS Z77H2-AX | |
| PCB Revision | 1.03 | 1.02 | 1.0 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express |
| Voltage Regulator | 14 Phases | Twelve Phases | 15 Phases |
| BIOS | P1.00 (07/30/2012) | 1504 (08/03/2012) | 120424 (04/24/2012) |
| 100.0 MHz BCLK | 100.0 (+0.00%) | 100.30 (+0.03%) | 99.78 (-0.22%) |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | 1 | None | None |
| USB 3.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| USB 2.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Network | Single | Single | Single |
| eSATA | None | 2 | 2 |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Yes | No (flash button only) | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical Only | Optical Only | Optical Only |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Video Out | HDMI | HDMI, DisplayPort | VGA, HDMI |
| Other Devices | None | None | Bluetooth, WiFi |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 3 (x16/x16/x0, x16/x8/x8) |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | 1 (4-lanes from PCH) | 1 (4-lanes from PCH) | None |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 2/0 | 3/0 | 2/0 |
| Mini PCIe | None | None | 1 |
| USB 2.0 | 3 (6-ports) | 3 (6-ports) | 1 (2-ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) | 1 (2-ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | 4 | 4 | 3 (includes 1x mSATA) |
| 4-Pin Fan | 2 | 6 | 1 |
| 3-Pin Fan | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| S/PDIF I/O | Output Only | Output Only | Output Only |
| Power Button | Yes | No | Yes |
| Reset Button | Yes | No | Yes |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | No | No |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | Pass/Fail LEDs | Numeric |
| Legacy Interfaces | Serial Port | None | Serial, 2x PCI |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 2 x SATA 3Gb/s 1 x mSATA 3Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | 2 x 88SE9172 PCIe 4 x SATA 6Gb/s RAID 0/1 | 2 x ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s | 2 x ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s |
| USB 3.0 | EJ188H PCIe Intel Z77 Integrated | ASM1042 PCIe Intel Z77 Integrated | TUSB7320 PCIe Intel Z77 Integrated |
| IEEE-1394 | None | None | None |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | BCM57781 PCIe | WG82579V PHY | RTL8111E PCIe |
| Secondary LAN | None | None | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC898 | ALC892 | ALC892 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | Not Specified | Not Specified |
| Warranty | Three Years | Five Years | 3-yr Parts, 2-yr Labor |
The one motherboard in today’s line-up with a 48-lane PCIe 3.0 bridge is ECS’ Golden Z77H2-AX. Unfortunately, this platform climbed $40 beyond the budget limit of today’s round-up in the time we've been reviewing it. We're tired of seeing board vendors playing pricing games based on our review schedule (this isn't the first time we're seeing a curiously-timed price move). So, since we put the work in to review ECS' submission, we're including our already-gathered data and simply withholding the board from any award candidacy.
The only other $220-280 board with PLX's 48-lane PCIe swtich is also out of contention because its manufacturer chose to focus on a different high-end feature. But what other $40 feature could be worth its cost to the end user? Here's a hint: Zeus.
| Motherboard Features | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH | Intel DZ77RE-75K | MSI Z77A-GD80 | |
| PCB Revision | 1.0 | 01 | 1.0 |
| Chipset | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express | Intel Z77 Express |
| Voltage Regulator | Twelve Phases | Ten Phases | 14 Phases |
| BIOS | F9 (08/23/2012) | 0049 (07/13/2012) | V1.1 (06/12/2012) |
| 100.0 MHz BCLK | 100.10 (+0.10%) | 99.78 (-0.22%) | 100.0 (+0.0%) |
| I/O Panel Connectors | |||
| P/S 2 | None | 1 | 1 |
| USB 3.0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| USB 2.0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| IEEE-1394 | None | 1 | None |
| Network | Single | Dual | Single |
| eSATA | 1 | 1 | None |
| CLR_CMOS Button | No | Back To BIOS | Yes |
| Digital Audio Out | Optical Only | Optical Only | Optical+Coaxial |
| Digital Audio In | None | None | None |
| Analog Audio | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| Video Out | VGA, DVI-D, HDMI | HDMI | HDMI, VGA |
| Other Devices | Dual Thunderbolt | Thunderbolt | Thunderbolt |
| Internal Interfaces | |||
| PCIe 3.0 x16 | 3 (x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, x8/x4/x4) | 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) | 3 (x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, x8/x4/x4) |
| PCIe 2.0 x16 | None | None | None |
| PCIe x1/x4 | 3/0 | 3/0 | 4 (two shared)/0 |
| Mini PCIe | None | None | None |
| USB 2.0 | 2 (4-ports) | 3 (6-ports) | 3 (6-ports) |
| USB 3.0 | 3 (6-ports) | 2 (4-ports) | 1 (2-ports) |
| IEEE-1394 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| SATA 6.0 Gb/s | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| SATA 3.0 Gb/s | 4 (1 shared w/mSATA) | 4 | 4 |
| 4-Pin Fan | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 3-Pin Fan | None | None | 2 |
| FP-Audio | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| S/PDIF I/O | Input and Output | Output Only | None |
| Power Button | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reset Button | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CLR_CMOS Button | Yes | No | No |
| Diagnostics Panel | Numeric | Numeric | Numeric |
| Legacy Interfaces | 1 x PCI | 2 x PCI | Serial Port |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |||
| Chipset SATA | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 3 x SATA 3Gb/s 1 x eSATA 3Gb/s | 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s |
| Chipset RAID Modes | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 | 0, 1, 5, 10 |
| Add-In SATA | 88SE9172 PCIe 1 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s | 2 x 88SE9172 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 x eSATA 6Gb/s | ASM1061 PCIe (Shared w/FireWire) 2 x SATA 6Gb/s |
| USB 3.0 | Intel Z77 Integrated 2x VL-810 4-port Hub | Intel Z77 Integrated 2x GL3520M 4-port Hub | Z77 Integrated Only |
| IEEE-1394 | None | TSB43AB22A PCI | VT6315N PCIe (Shared w/SATA) |
| Gigabit Ethernet | |||
| Primary LAN | WG82579V PHY | WG82579V PHY | WG82579V PHY |
| Secondary LAN | None | WG82574L PCIe | None |
| Audio | |||
| HD Audio Codec | ALC898 | ALC898 | ALC898 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | Not Specified | Not Specified | Not Specified |
| Warranty | Three Years | Three Years | Three Years |
Three of the motherboards in today’s line-up include Thunderbolt technology, and one even has Intel’s $40 DSL3510 dual-channel controller. Choosing between its three-way SLI-capable and dual-port Thunderbolt-equipped products must have been difficult for Gigabyte, but we’re sure storage geeks like our own Andrew Ku will applaud its decision.
Our Z77 launch article stated that the chipset's integrated USB 3.0 controller was nothing to get excited about, though it did free up a couple of the PCH’s eight PCIe 2.0 lanes. The one thing we didn’t discuss was the platform’s ability to support three graphics cards, because the block diagram shown below is actually an update from Intel.
Intel had good reason not to discuss x8/x4/x4 capability when Z77 Express launched, because it required a new CPU that would only be introduced weeks later. Instead we got a future-looking block diagram that merely hinted towards that upcoming CPU’s triple-device support.
In an almost fickle move, Intel followed its Ivy Bridge architecture launch by stepping back from its original Thunderbolt-naming block diagram to a more generic triple-card diagram. The company was thus able to make many of us forget that the PC market was getting the short end of the Thunderbolt stick until properly-equipped motherboards were ready. But, in the time between the Z77 Express and Thunderbolt debuts, board vendors decided that they really didn’t want to give up PCIe 3.0 lanes for a second-gen controller.
You see, the desktop chips Intel manufactures for its LGA 1155 interface only have sixteen PCI Express lanes (the workstation-oriented Xeons get 20, curiously enough), and that number corresponds exactly to the number of lanes monopolized by gaming graphics cards. The benchmark data tells us that eight lanes adequately feed even dual-GPU flagship boards. However, dual-card SLI and CrossFire support is a mandatory minimum feature of enthusiast-grade motherboards. If it's going to work in the same high-end configurations, Thunderbolt needs to follow an alternative path.
Even the board engineers at Intel appear to have conceded the need to prioritize PCI Express bandwidth for discrete graphics, as indicated by this snippet of its DZ77RE-75K block diagram:
On Intel's board, four of the Platform Controller Hub's measly eight PCIe 2.0 lanes go directly to its Thunderbolt controller, leaving only four lanes behind to feed its three PCIe x1 slots, two third-party SATA controllers, secondary gigabit Ethernet controller, and a PCIe to PCI hub. The math doesn’t even work out until we consider the x1 device cropped from the bottom of the above image, a PCIe to x4 hub that is forced to cram the bandwidth of all FireWire, PCI, and PCI Express-based add-in cards into a single 5 Gb/s lane. Phew!
The bandwidth squeeze might get even tighter for the dual-port Thunderbolt controller on Gigabyte’s Z77X-UP5 TH, since the high-speed component is theoretically capable of matching all of the bandwidth allowed by Intel's Direct Media Interface 2.0, which joins the Z77 Express PCH to an LGA 1155 processor. In other words, in theory, Thunderbolt devices could consume all of the chipset’s bandwidth, with not a single bit left for Ethernet, internal drives, or even a keyboard and mouse. Doh!
Granted, we think it'll be a very long time before enthusiasts buy any combination of devices that fully tax a dual-port Thunderbolt controller, but the theoretical problem still brings us back to the processor interface's biggest weakness: its scarcity of PCIe 3.0 lanes.
Like Intel, MSI’s Z77A-GD80 offers but a single Thunderbolt port. Unlike Intel, MSI doesn’t force a bunch of devices to share a single PCIe lane. MSI instead eliminates the PCIe hub, along with half of the board’s PCIe-based features. PCIe x1 slots one and three are connected to the same lanes as slots two and four, and cannot be used simultaneously. Moreover, you have to similarly choose between the board’s third-party SATA or IEEE-1394 controllers.
No comments:
Post a Comment