After taking a look at a couple of Asus’ MicroATX Z77 boards we are moving up in size to the standard ATX products. Asus has been (as we have told you) working on integrating the same feature set you find in their ROG boards down into their mainstream and even channel boards. This move is also helping them to restructure the feature set at each level and offer the right features to the right market segment. We started off with the gateway product into the ROG line (the Maximus V Gene) and then dropped to the other end of the spectrum with the P8Z77-M Pro. Now we are going to check out the lower end of the mid-range motherboards in the P8Z77-V. This board is a step up from the P8Z77-M Pro in both size and the features that it brings to the table. Let’s take a look shall we?
Conclusion – We have said it before, Asus is a company that appears to set the market trends and in many ways the direction that other manufacturers will take. We have already seen many of their stock features show up in other manufacturer’s products and we expect the same will continue to happen. With the Z77 line up we are seeing more of the direction that Asus talked about with us back in 2010 when they said they would continue to introduce features on their top-end products (the Republic of Gamers line) and then allow those to trickle down to the rest of their products. The P8Z77-V is an excellent example of this with features like Smart Digi+ controls, FanXpert2 and many other items that were once only found in the realm of the ROG line. We are looking forward to getting this on the test bench and trying out some of these new features and also seeing if the P8Z77-V has the performance to match the feature set.Discuss this in our Forum
