ASUS P8Z68M-Pro: A little disappointed

[birthdaymonkey]

I thought I'd share a few thoughts on this motherboard, which just arrived yesterday for use in an HTPC.

While I am "a little" disappointed, the motherboard seems to work pretty well. I popped a G620 and 4GB of Gskill 1333, and it booted up like a champ. Driver installation was painless in Win7 64, although I did have to download the LAN driver and copy it onto a flash drive. The board has the features I wanted and they all work: WASAPI over SPDIF optical and eSATA. (In fact it was the only mATX board on Newegg that offered both of these.)

I have two problems with it. The first is that it seems much more cheaply built than the other Asus mATX board that I own. The Asus P8P67M-Pro, which should presumably be in the same class as the Z68M-Pro based on the naming scheme and price, has a 12-phase power design compared 6-phase on the Z68. It has beefier heatsinks on the VRMs, a superior PCI slot configuation, comes with a much nicer padded IO shield, and more cables. It is also SLI capable (not that I plan to SLI my HTPC).

My second problem is that I get CPU whine on the Z68M-Pro. As soon as I installed the graphics drivers, I heard that characteristic high-pitch electrical noise like some old CRTs make. Based on my reading on this issue, I can't be 100% sure this is the Z68M-Pro and not the CPU itself, but my bet is on the motherboard. I had to disable all C-States to make the noise go away. I have a discrete GPU en route, which might allow me to re-enable C-States for reduced power and heat. I'm hoping that if I disable the IGP the noise will not come back (since it didn't appear in the first place till I installed the video drivers).

Anyway, TLDR: It's a decent motherboard, but not up to the standard set by Asus's previous "Pro" series mATX. Unfortunately, it seems that the P8P67M-Pro is no longer available either.

 

[Puppies04]

I can pretty much guarantee you the squeel is coming from the mobo annoying isn't it, and yes installing a discrete GPU will make it stop even with the c states turned back on.

 

[dpk33]

I'm really new to motherboards and computers in general, but aren't power phases only important in terms of overclocking?

 

[Kenmitch]

I'm really new to motherboards and computers in general, but aren't power phases only important in terms of overclocking?

For the most part this feature is only looked at by overclockers.

This is from my MB's Asus page. To me it sounds like it's something that would be of benefit to ever non overclockers. Stock SB's should be entitled to some loven from the MB

" ASUS DIGI+ VRM design features a digital programmable microprocessor onboard and upgrades motherboard power delivery to a digital standard. The 12+2 digital architecture delivers twice the precision power, intelligently adjusting PWM voltage and frequency modulation with minimal power loss through BIOS tuning and exclusive user interface to increase over-clocking range while performance reaches its full potential. It also adjusts frequencies dynamically, cutting radiation interference by half to enhance system stability through enabling spread spectrum. The DIGI+ VRM digital power design empowers users with superior flexibility and perfect precision to ensure optimized performance. extreme system stability, and greater power efficiency. "

I doubt you'd hear " Oh I don't need that " from a person who is researching a MB to build a new rig. It does have it's benefits other than overclocking stability.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

I didnt have any noise issue with the Asus P8Z68M Pro when I used it. I matched it up with the Intel® Core™ i5-2300 and used the IGP (Integrated Graphics on Processor). So I would have to advise that you contact technical support for Asus and see what they say on the noise issue.