I got this after my old MSI board died due to corrosion (due to my neglegence and carelessness).
This board, along with an i5 2500k and 8GB of Corsair memory gave me a noticeable increase in performance and stability over my old lga 775 system. I saw significant increases in loading times and game performance over my old system, even with the same 9800gtx+ graphics card. My old system was actually not bad either, so it really is saying something that I saw a significant increase in performance.
Download and install the drivers from ASUS website. Don't use the CD. You will find some of the drivers a bit tricky to install as some of the technologies have to be enabled in the BIOS before you install a driver for it: the Intel Graphics Controller and the iGPU mode for Lucid Software. Otherwise, the system was very straightforward to setup and the BIOS is just superb. All the ASUS proprietary software runs nicely, no bugs, no glitches and the interfaces look great. You can tell this product is very dependable especially when you can update the BIOS from the OS environment and overclock your CPU as well, without any problems at all. You can feel the stability of this board, the more you utilize it's many features.
I can't say anything on it's switchable graphics as I haven't tried it out as yet, but I can tell you it won't be fun. The Lucid Software is horrid and hard to understand. for now, I recommend running your system in dGPU mode by hooking your display up to your graphics card unless you can't help it and, wait for a new release of the virtu software.
The packaging is not too firm though, the board was just sitting in a cardboard insert within a plastic bag, no rigidity aside from the outer box itself. The accessories are very very basic. I could remember getting motherboard screws with my old MSI board and this board didn't include any. You will feel a bit shortchanged by the few additional items you receive but at least the board smells great :)
Bottom line: Good for upgrading from LGA 775, with tons of features, solid construction, great overclockability and reliable power management, you can't go wrong at all with this product provided the package doesn't get banged up too much.
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Customer Review: Asus P8Z68V-Pro
Geoffrey Straubinger
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So far so good but not perfect
OK I admit I don't know what a 5 star motherboard is like. I've built a few AMD Phenom x6 and Intel I7 2600K systems with Gigabyte mother boards and have been very happy. I wanted the Z68 chipset in this one. The boards came out very similar in my research and to be honest I don't remember the exact reason I chose this one but I'm happy.The feature set of this board is great. Lots of USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. 2 SATA controllers with 8 ports. Built in Bluetooth is nice.I really like the headers they supply for the front panel lights and switches and USB (I'd like to buy more of those, they only give us one).My biggest complaint so far is the high speed PCIe 2_16 x4 slot is on the edge of the board so I couldn't install the NVidia GTX560 in that slot because it is a double wide card. The headers for USB, HD audio, Front panel and 1394 are in the way. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, I need more research on this.The other thing that may not have anything to do with the MB is that I could not use the stock Intel CPU heatsink/fan. Running the I72600K at full bore it was reporting temps of 94-96C. I put in a CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ and they went down to 67-72C. The same CPU has run much cooler other systems I've built and this case seems to have better airflow.
