ASUS P8Z68-V "LE" vs the other ASUS Z68s

[DesiPower]

The "P8Z68-V LE" is $40 cheaper than "P8Z68-V", although I do not see any significant difference. I want to go for the LE but wondering if it lacks any key feature when compared to the others.
On comparing on Newegg I found that the LE has one less PCI slot, 2 less USB 2.0, no e-sata and no bluetooth. I hope those are the only differences... maybe ASUS stripped down a few things and came up with a cheaper model to compete with the other manufacturer's entry level Z68s?

 

[jeffjeff666]

That's the only I noticed too. 40$ cheaper I am considering buying it. No eSata but I guess you can buy a eSata to external eSata bracket for a few bucks. http://ncix.com/products/?sku=23329 I don't know how the P8Z68-V LE performs compared to the ASRock PRO3-M which has very good ratings. It should be the same as the P8Z68-V without all the extra features which I don't need anyway.

 

[DesiPower]

I prefer sticking with ASUS, time tested quality and more warranty!

 

[jeffjeff666]

Never thought about the warranty. That makes a difference so I will definitely go with the ASUS P8Z68-V LE.

 

[sep]

I was looking for more information about the ASUS P8Z68-V LE and can't find it on ASUS website. No reviews?

 

[Dahak]

Some times i have seen the that some variations like the LE be limited by region,

But here is the differences that I see the LE removes the following
SLI Support, 1x PCIe 16x slot, 1x PCI Slot, eSata, Realtek Lan vs Intel Lan, Bluetooth, lower power design, 4+2 phase Vs 16 phase on V, some other features removed from there DIGI+ power management

If you want more details go to the asus global site, www.asus.com and select global it will list it there

maybe ASUS stripped down a few things and came up with a cheaper model to compete with the other manufacturer's entry level Z68s?

Pretty much

 

[sep]

I'm ok with the downgrade except these items...can you tell me what I might expect to notice?

4+2 phase Vs 16 phase
Realtek Lan vs Intel Lan

 

[DesiPower]

I too was worried about this part of Dahak's statement

...power power design, 4+2 phase Vs 16 phase on V, some other features removed from there DIGI+ power management

I am not to worried about the LAN, its 1 gb, and I don't think Realtek is that inferior...

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

I too was worried about this part of Dahak's statement

{about power phases}

I am not to worried about the LAN, its 1 gb, and I don't think Realtek is that inferior...

For basic internet usage, you will see less than 1% difference between the Intel and Realtek chips. Unless you run a server-style proper 1Gigabyte network don't even think twice about it.

About the power phases, think of them as filters. The more power phases a board has the cleaner and more consistent (less jitter) the power flow to the components will be. This usually only matters in high-end overclocking situations. For most uses, I would say up to ~1.3v or around 4.4Ghz (my personal educated guess) I would not worry and be happy with 4. Only if you are playing with serious tweaks such as in excess of 1.4v, 4.6-5.0ghz, LLC, etc should the extra power phases become prudent.

 

[sep]

Ordered this board yesterday. I'll post once I get it put together ; )

 

[manderson]

You'll love it. I went with the Deluxe version and the i7-2600 processor . I little more pricey, but I don't like onboard video, and it has a few more features. I'm not an over-clocker, so I enabled the EPU and TPU. The board is extremely stable.

 

[AlucardX]

For basic internet usage, you will see less than 1% difference between the Intel and Realtek chips. Unless you run a server-style proper 1Gigabyte network don't even think twice about it.

About the power phases, think of them as filters. The more power phases a board has the cleaner and more consistent (less jitter) the power flow to the components will be. This usually only matters in high-end overclocking situations. For most uses, I would say up to ~1.3v or around 4.4Ghz (my personal educated guess) I would not worry and be happy with 4. Only if you are playing with serious tweaks such as in excess of 1.4v, 4.6-5.0ghz, LLC, etc should the extra power phases become prudent.

I'm now considering the same board. I've been trying to decide between Asrock, Asus, etc. My only concern with this board was the power phases. I've searched around a bit and found examples of people overclocking to 4.5ghz without an issue. I suspect that if you're not going to go crazy with really high overclocks and water cooling, a "regular" 4+2phase design should work.

 

[timoseewho]

I actually just got myself a P8Z68-V LE and had absolutely no problems with it. I haven't done any overclocking mind you, but just saying it's good:].

 

[GotNoRice]

I personally went with the regular P8Z68-V because it does 8x/8x crossfire while the LE is limited to 16x/4x. Also the P8Z68-V has really nice heatsinks around the CPU socket. 5Ghz for me with my i5-2500k was no problem at all and I can push 5.2 with a bit more voltage. Intel LAN was definitely worth it for me also as the integrated LAN is even better than the Intel Pro/1000 CT PCIe 1x adapter I was using before.

 

[sep]

I actually just got myself a P8Z68-V LE and had absolutely no problems with it. I haven't done any overclocking mind you, but just saying it's good:].

I tried and got to 4.2 without a problem, but backed off for now. When I get time in the winter months I'll go back at it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I did a comparison between the P8Z68-V, -V-Pro and -Deluxe about a month ago in a thread here, attempting to account for the differences in price according to features.

The V-LE escaped me. I recently discovered (correct me if wrong) that the power-phase design on the V-Pro was the same as on the flagship Maximus IV Extreme-Z. If it isn't, it's more than sufficient.

It's about priorities, desires, and future plans. I always try to get a board that has ample power-management features, but for relatives who want a PC and ask me to build it to budget, I've been able to churn out reliable machines with $100 motherboards.

I'm just happy this time that I spent $200 versus $350 on a board for my Z68 project. I won't miss the extra features enough to regret it.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I'm now considering the same board. I've been trying to decide between Asrock, Asus, etc. My only concern with this board was the power phases. I've searched around a bit and found examples of people overclocking to 4.5ghz without an issue. I suspect that if you're not going to go crazy with really high overclocks and water cooling, a "regular" 4+2phase design should work.

My Biostar with only 4 phases got my 2500K to 4.3GHz, and I'm pretty sure it's the chip and not the board that is holding me back. I would have went Asrock but other it's so heavily price-gouged here that it is not worth to spend the $110 extra on just a mobo. My boards never cost my than $90 except for my $140 Gigabyte P965-DS3 and that is only I'm impatient enough to buy the E6300 right after release, and that lasted for 5 years with OCed to 2.8GHz.

 

[fluxcapacitorMB]

I just picked up the LE from Fry's yesterday as a combo with an i5 2400 and 8GB ddr3 1600. I was previously running a Gigabyte p45 board w a C2D e7200 and 4GB DDR2 800 and I must say....this new setup FLYS!!! Generally post is so fast the boot screen won't even show and the welcome screen on win7 x64 doesn't show either. Just bam straight to the desktop w all my stuff loaded in less than 5 seconds. I couldn't be more pleased.

This was quite a hassle of a reformat. My Windows drive is an OCZ vertex 2 60GB SSD, which I forgot to secure erase before tearing apart the old setup. I also had win7 installed on a 100GB HDD partition and in the past this was how I secure erased. For some reason though I kept getting an error about the drive being locked when attempting to secure erase. After several hours I finally put the video card, psu, HDD w 100GB install and the SSD back into the old board and it secure erased on the first try. BEYOND a major PITA.

The new setup though is silky smooth on everything. Crysis has never ran so smooth on max settings w my existing 5750. I benched Sandra real quick on the old setup before setting this up and got like 25.5 gflops or whatever CPU and about 4.4GB/sec on the memory. Now I'm getting like 97glops CPU and about 22.5GB/sec mem!!!! Nice little jump . Can't wait to see if I can actually play Rage now, and try some huge, huge Civ 5 games. Starcraft II used to get choppy w alot of units going at it so that'll be dope to see running perfect too.

Anyway just wanted to post my experience...will keep posting here on my progress. Also if anyone has any tips or suggestions for this setup by all means post here please.

 

[Mem]

I personally went with the regular P8Z68-V because it does 8x/8x crossfire while the LE is limited to 16x/4x. Also the P8Z68-V has really nice heatsinks around the CPU socket. 5Ghz for me with my i5-2500k was no problem at all and I can push 5.2 with a bit more voltage. Intel LAN was definitely worth it for me also as the integrated LAN is even better than the Intel Pro/1000 CT PCIe 1x adapter I was using before.

I feel the Asus P8Z68 V is a very good priced board,has all the features I need,however I'm waiting for the Gen3 version which should start appearing sometime next week.

 

[R4in]

,however I'm waiting for the Gen3 version which should start appearing sometime next week.

Same here, I'd rather get a gen3 now so i dont have to upgrade for the new GPUs

 

[aviat72]

V, PRO, and Deluxe have the same 12+4 power phases. The LE/LX have 4+2.

For the purpose of overclock stability, the power delivery is one of the key factors. Think in terms of a V8 versus an inline 4. Both will run at highway speeds. But it is when you are passing and need to go from 60 to 80mph that strength of the V8 will show up. When you stress an overclocked system, it is only then the excess capacity of the higher end boards will show up.

The V is the best value if your port needs are satisfied.

 

[DesiPower]

I went for LE, someone else pointed our earlier about the rail difference. I did some mild overclocking using the ASUS utilities and it was a breeze, ran for a few days without any problems. I went back to stock after that, why stress the system if you dont need it. BFBC2 runs at full HD without any issues and so does BF3 beta. I have one 6850.

Another major difference is dual gpu. LE supports only 4x and xfire on the 2nd port, no SLI. I wonder what how a dual 6850 will perform... or even if its worth trying..

 

[sep]

I went for LE...

It's a good board, but yes SLI will only do 16+4 so you wont get 8+8 or 16+16. Anyone know of some reviews showing the performance?