ASUS P8Z77-V PREMIUM Pro Reviews

Overall Asus P8Z77-V Premium makes a very good impression, although there are a few things which we would ideally like to get fixed. And among them are not only the ones related to this specific model, but the things that we see across all Asus products. For example, the absence of hot key list on the start-up screen or the incorrect information displayed when start-up image is disabled. High price is also a drawback to some extent, but at the same time it serves as a guarantee that this mainboard won’t be a random purchase, but it will rather end up in the system of a user who really needs it and has thought things trough. Let’s try to determine who could be a potential ideal target for a product like Asus P8Z77-V Premium.

This is a motherboard for those who want more than just a board for the gaming environment, but still be able to take on all comers in the gaming arena. Sometimes, and me and JJ both laugh at this statement (Some of the best features you can’t see) and in some strange way that happens to be true. Electronically this motherboard is designed to be able to work under stress and load changes and other things to help make it stable in ways you can only see in a real life situation like if you see the lights flickering as there is a power loss or surge this board is designed to keep providing steady power so the system stays running. Now obviously if there is a power loss completely unless you are using a UPS your system will shut down, but the programs you we working on have a better chance of still being their when you restart the system.

Asus’s P8Z77-V Premium is a top-specification Ivy Bridge motherboard with every feature you could possibly need. For most people, though, it will be overkill. The SSD caching function works on any motherboard with an Intel Z77 chipset, so if you’re willing to find somewhere to mount a separate SSD you’ll still able to take advantage of the chipset’s caching functions. If you’re desperate for Thunderbolt’s high speeds, this is the only motherboard that currently has the port, but the vast majority of people will be fine with USB3. Nonetheless, if you want the most feature-packed Intel motherboard there is, the P8Z77-V Premium is the model to have.

The ASUS P8Z77-V Premium proved to be one hell of a motherboard. Not to sound cliché, but it comes equipped with everything but the kitchen sink. For the enthusiast power user that requires a huge feature set, it is hard to argue against the P8Z77-V Premium. All of the bells and whistles to come at a price though. Currently you can purchase the P8Z77-V Premium at Amazon for $449.99 with Free Prime Shipping. Newegg carries the P8Z77-V Premium for the same price. As Dan said though it looks to us as you are getting what you are paying for. The motherboard's huge feature set does lend to it needing a bit more ventilation and you need to aware of the way the BIOS sets and resets boot drive priority because of the 32GB mSATA caching SSD addition. The ASUS P8Z77-V Premium is all about feature set and will require a hardy enthusiast to push it to its fullest and we have to say we truly like the Thunderbolt implementation.

We were very excited to see the implementation of Thunderbolt on a PC. After witnessing its performance and realizing we were running a monitor daisy chained through an external drive it really was a sobering experience. The Thunderbolt technology really is the main star of the show for the Premium board but we cannot let that overshadow the board as a whole with its multitude of features. The premium brand is exactly what it says: it is the Premium offering from ASUS and could even be a segment board like the ROG or WS if ASUS wanted it to be due to its insane amount of features. At the end of the day it has a good spot as the flagship for the channel P8Z77 board lineup. The board offers more features than you could shake a stick at and it ensures the board can run all of them without compromise, and that is no easy task. The Thunderbolt on this board is fully Intel certified and is the first Intel certified solution to be available on the market as such. The board also carries 4 way SLI/Crossfire support, dual Gbt Intel NIC’s, included mSATA 32GB SSD, ASUS SSD Caching II, 20 Phase VRM, Wi-Fi GO! capability with full Wi-Fi support along with Bluetooth as well for a complete wireless solution. All in all, this board is packed chock full of features.