Asus has joined the likes of MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock with its Z68 PCIe Gen3 motherboard supporting Intel's 2012-bound Ivy Bridge processors.
Asus unveiled three socket LGA1155 motherboards based on the Intel Z68 chipset, which feature PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. The new motherboards are PCI-Express 3.0 compliant, complete with Gen3 switches and electrical components.
ASUS PCI-Express Gen3 Motherboard Specifications:
The P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 lacks display connectivity, which means that LucidLogix's Virtu graphics switchingworks only in D-mode. Additional features above and beyond the other two boards include an additional Gbit LAN and eSATA (PWR eSATA) port.
The P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 matches the P8Z68 Deluxe in features, except offers iGPU display connectivity (DVI, HDMI, and D-Sub) and has one fewer Gbit LAN & eSATA ports.
The P8Z68-V/Gen3 is slimmed down further with its HD audio lacking DTS and two fewer SATA 6 Gb/s ports.
All three motherboards feature 16-phase Digi+ CPU VRM, an Intel-made gigabit Ethernet controller, LucidLogix Virtu support. The motherboards also offer two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical 2.0 x4), and two each of PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and PCI slots.
In the European press release, the P8Z68 Deluxe/GEN3, P8Z68-V Pro/GEN3 and P8Z68-V/GEN3 have recommended price tags of €229, €185 and €159, respectively. In the U.S., the P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 looks to be priced around the $250 range, with the P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 around $200 range, and the P8Z68-V/Gen3 rounding the group out at under $200.