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Asus P8Z68-V LX review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £76
inc VAT

All the features you’d want from an Intel motherboard, no matter what you plan on doing with your PC

Specifications

LGA1155, ATX, Intel Z68 Express chipset, supports: Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 (Sandy Bridge)

http://www.scan.co.uk

Asus motherboards are usually overflowing with features, and the P8Z68-V LX is no exception. Despite only costing £77, it has plenty of expansion and overclocking options that should appeal to a wide range of system builders.

Asus P8Z68-V LX

As well as four memory lanes capable of holding 32GB of DDR3 RAM, the P8Z68-V has two PCI-Express x16 slots, two PCI-Express x1 slots and three PCI slots. If you use two graphics cards then the second PCI-E x16 lane will only run in x4 mode, which may hamper performance on high-end GPUs. A dual-slot graphics card will also obstruct the second PCI-E x1 slot.

Owners of multiple hard disks will appreciate the four internal SATA ports, and SSD users can get maximum performance from the two SATA3 ports. We would have liked at least one USB3 header on the motherboard, but the four standard USB headers are very useful.

Asus P8Z68-V LX

The rear I/O panel is incredibly comprehensive, being comprised of four USB ports, two faster USB3 ports, a digital optical audio output and six analogue 3.5mm jacks, plus Gigabit Ethernet and a single PS/2 port for older keyboards. There’s also the choice of VGA, DVI or HDMI outputs if you’re planning on using your processor’s integrated graphics.

Asus P8Z68-V LX

The P8Z68-V is also one of the least expensive boards we’ve seen to use a UEFI BIOS. It has plenty of options to overclock the processor, memory and even the integrated GPU, so you should have no trouble squeezing some extra performance from your components.

For such a well-priced motherboard, we were surprised that Asus has managed to add so many features to the P8Z68-V. We would have liked a few more USB3 ports or headers, but in terms of value for money there’s nothing out there that we’d recommend instead.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor socket LGA1155
Form factor ATX
Size 305x229mm
Processor support Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 (Sandy Bridge)
Processor external bus 200MHz (DMI)
Chipset north bridge Intel Z68 Express
Chipset south bridge Intel Z68 Express
Integrated graphics No
Supported memory type DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600(OC)/1800(OC)/2200(OC)
Maximum memory speed PC3-17600
Memory slots 4
Maximum memory 32GB
Dual-channel support yes

Buying Information

Price £76
Supplier http://www.scan.co.uk
Details www.asus.com

Internal Ports

Power connectors 1x 24-pin ATX, 1x 8-pin ATX
PCI-E x16 slots 2
Dual graphics architecture CrossFire
PCI-E x4 slots 0
PCI-E x1 slots 2
PCI slots 3
Fan headers 4
Floppy ports 0
IDE ports 0
Serial ATA ports 4
RAID chipset (max disks) Intel Z68 Express (RAID 0, 1, 10, 5)

Features

Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Sound (ports) Realtek ALC887 (6x analogue out, 1x optical S/PDIF out)
USB2 ports / headers 4/4
Firewire ports / headers 0/0
Legacy ports 1x PS/2
Other ports 2x USB3, 2x SATA3, HDMI, DVI, VGA
Cables included 2x SATA
Brackets included none
Software included Norton Internet Security 2011

Setup and Overclocking

Voltage adjustment CPU/RAM/chipset
CPU clock max adjustment 200MHz

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