EVGA Z68 FTW review

EVGA’s Z68 FTW is an LGA1155 motherboard aimed exclusively at overclockers and enthusiasts. It has all the features you’d expect from a high-end board, as well as several more that you probably didn’t even know you needed.

Running multiple graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire is practically recommended, because the Z68 FTW has an incredible five PCI-Express x16 slots. You’ll need to use at least one, however, because there’s no video outputs on the rear I/O panel to make use of an Intel processor’s integrated GPU. There’s also one PCI-E x1 slot, but the mammoth heat sink next to it could prevent you from using certain expansion cards. Its four memory lanes can hold a maximum of 16GB DDR3 RAM.

Six SATA ports and two SATA3 ports should be enough for several hard disks and optical drives, but there are two eSATA ports on the rear I/O panel if required. These are in addition to six USB ports and two USB3 ports, as well as a further four USB headers and two USB3 headers on the motherboard. Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one FireWire and six analogue audio jacks complete the rear panel.

At stock settings, the Z68 FTW was outperformed by less expensive boards, but the wealth of overclocking options in the UEFI BIOS should let you push your components further than on other systems. There’s even a second eight-pin power socket on the motherboard to provide a more stable voltage to the processor and memory.

For most people, the Z68 FTW will seem like overkill. It’s an expensive board that is only worth its £192 price if you plan on building an overclocked gaming rig with two or more graphics cards. Everyone else will find the Asus P8Z68-V LX is better value for money.