This motherboard
takes the intermediary position between the premium and basic motherboards of Intel
Z77 Express chipset-based Asus. It has richer features than the basic models,
stands out with more powerful voltage regulator and supports Flashback BIOS USB
tech. At this same time, it’s not the power-saving model as the basic products.
In our previous motherboard review, we have
considered the ASUS P8Z77-V model having the same name with the name of the
entire series of the Intel Z77 Express chipset-based ASUS motherboard. This is
the most basic and advance model among the topping products the company offers.
And it’s a truly good product. Its functionality is above the average level
including wireless interface, but its price is far from cheap to make it within
the reach of everybody. Of course, you can easily choose a basic model and
less-expensive ASUS P8Z77-V LK or even simpler and cheaper, which is ASUS
P8Z77-V LX, but its functional range is much smaller. It will be good if it’s
enough for you, but you will need a motherboard which has functions as ASUS
P8Z77-V, but your budget can’t have it? Yes, it turns out that you don’t need to
look ahead for that kind of product. ASUS itself offers the same mainboard at a
significantly cheaper price. Sometimes the most advanced model of the basic
motherboard can be better than the most advanced ones from the flagship
products. ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS belongs to the previous genres, so let’s see how
it does to satisfy our expectations.
Packing and accessories
The way of packing of P8Z77-V LE PLUS is
designed in the additional way of ASUS. The name of the product model, icons
about features and the tech of the products are printed on the front side of
the box. On the back, there’s a photo of the motherboard along with the
technical specs and brief description of some features. The box has standard
size but it’s thinner than usual thanks to the special way of packing. The
cardboard sheets separating the motherboard and its accessories are longer than
necessary, so it curves on the motherboard, creating an envelope. On the back,
there’s SATA cable while I / O, CD and user manual are placed on the bottom of
the box. Based on this kind of traditional packing and the small number of
accessories that help distinguishing the basic products, the box is very thin.
The accessories are not so many, but they
include everything you need to use the motherboard:
·
Four Serial ATA cables with
metal connector locks, two of which are specifically designed for SATA 6 Gbps
devices (with white inserts in the connectors);
·
A flexible bridge for two-way
Nvidia SLI graphics configurations;
·
I/O Shield for the back panel;
·
User manual;
·
A brief assembly guide with
instructions in several languages;
·
DVD disk with software and
drivers;
·
“Powered by Asus” sticker for
the system case.
Design and functions
ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS has the standard form
factor with the size of 305x244 mm. its PCB layout method is almost the classic
example, which makes it friendly. This model is actually pretty similar to LK
P8Z77-V and P8Z77-V, we have reviewed before, but we can detect some
differences if we take a close examination.
Like its premium cousin, this motherboard
has a SMART DIGI + digital electric system which works with the Dual
Intelligent Processors 3 (TurboV Processing Unit and Energy Processing Unit)
tech. it includes 6 phases for CPU and 2 extra phases for the CPU-integrated
graphic core. It sits among the premium and basic models which have 8 + 4 and 4
+ 1 electric phase, respectively. Some of its hot components are covered with a
radiator on the spring bolt. The chipset radiator is more safely secured by the
screws. Anyhow, the temperature of the components of the motherboard is not
extremely high at wither high load or overclocking settings.
Like the rest of the ASUS motherboard, this
model can step up to 32 GB DDR3 SDRAM. It supports 800-3200 MHz memory
frequency with the Ivy Bridge CPUs. The interesting thing is that 3 ASUS
motherboards all have the same selections and the layout of the expanded slot.
The motherboard can share 16 PCI Express
3.0/2.0 ports among the blue and grey graphic slots like x8/x8, so you can
build a SLI or CrossFireX configuration with it. For a CrossFireX subsystem,
the black slot can be used. It works in x4 PCIe 2.0 mode but disable 2 PCIe 2.0
x1 slots. Additionally, there’re 2 PCI slots for the expanded card. Like its
premium cousin, this motherboard has advanced disk connection. 4 SATA 3 Gb / s
ports (blue) and 2 SATA 6 Gbit / s port (grey) provided by this chipset is
supplement with a SATA 6 at the eSATA 6 Gbit / s control panel (dark blue) and
one based on the additional Marvell 88SE91xx controller.
The connectors are available on the back of
the motherboard:
·
Universal PS/2 connector for
keyboard or mouse;
·
Two USB 2.0 ports, another
eight ports are laid out as four onboard pin-connectors;
·
D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI and
DisplayPort video outs;
·
eSATA 6 Gbit/s port implemented
via Marvell 88SE91xx controller. Another internal SATA 6 Gbit/s port supported
by the same controllers is located in the lower right corner of the board;
·
Four USB 3.0 ports (blue
connectors), two of which are implemented via ASMedia ASM1042 controller.
Another two ports and one more internal pin-connector for two additional USB
3.0 ports are provided by Intel Z77 Express chipset;
·
A local network port (network
adapter is built on Gigabit Realtek RTL8111F controller);
·
An optical S/PDIF and six
analogue audio-jacks provided by eight-channel Realtek ALC889 codec.
Like many other ASUS motherboards, this
model has spacious and useful Q-Slot latch on the graphic slots but the memory
slots have regular latch. It lacks Power, Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, but it
has a Flashback BIOS USB button (allowing namesake BIOS updated feature) and a
MemOK! Button (allowing the motherboard for successfully booting in case of
having problems with the system memory).
The TPU switch (TurboV processing unit) can
be used to overclock CPU automatically when the EPU switch (Energy Processing
Unit) allowing power saving mode. DRAM LED-based is supplemented with Standby
Power, BIOS Flashback, EPU and TPU indicators.
The motherboard offers 4 connections for
the fan, all of which are 4-pin. CPU fan connection can only adjust the 4-pin
fan while other connections can reduce the sped of both 4-pin and 3-pin fans.
