14 DAY TRIAL // As everyone expected, top motherboard makers have already started to showcase Intel Z68-based boards at the CeBIT 2011 fair, which takes place right now in Hannover, Germany, the first models to be spotted coming from Asus and MSI.
Taking a good look at the Asus P8Z68-V Pro it becomes apparent that the board has many things in common with its P67 brothers, Asus using a similar PCI slot arrangement as well as the same black and blue color theme.
This also means that we get similar features such as the company's EPU and TPU technologies, USB 3.0 support, SATA 6Gbps and on-board power and reset buttons, to name just a few.
MSI also took a similar approach when it designed the Z68A-GD80 which looks strikingly similar to the P67A-GD80.
As a result, users get all “Military class components,” OC Genie support, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gbps, voltage measurement points, on-board power and reset buttons and a slew of other features.
Where both boards differ however, from their P67 counterparts, is in the back, as the rear I/O panel has now received the addition of a wide variety of video outputs, including HDMI and DVI.
The Z68 chipset comes as a hybrid between the P67 and the H67 and was designed so as to allow for overclocking Sandy Bridge CPUs while using the integrated graphics.
Presently, this isn't supported by the P67 or H67 chipsets as the first one lacks the flexible display interface (FDI) that is required in order to use the on-die GPU while the latter doesn't allow for CPU multiplier adjustment.
In addition, the Z68 enables motherboard makers to split the 16 PCI Express lanes available from the CPU in two x8 PCIe slots, and implements SSD caching.
This function however, won't become available right of the bat as it has to wait for Intel to release the 10.5 version of the Rapid Storage Technology driver.
The first solutions based on the Z68 chipset are expected to arrive in the first week of May. (via ComputerBase)
