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Intel Z68 Has Landed.

post #1 of 11
5/11/11 at 12:39am
Thread Starter 
And is starting at only $119!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Intel%20Z68

First Reviews are in as well:

Anandtech - General

Anandtech - Asus P8Z68-V PRO

TomsHardware

Finally, I can only find the new SSD311 at FTIC as of right now, for $130 in either form. -EDIT- Yanked, not available anywhere.
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post #2 of 11
5/11/11 at 12:59am
Hmm, Z68 chipset is missing in Newegg Power search. It is found only in Advance search. BTW Z68 is close to "south bridge". Low-end Z68 mb are lots lower than I expected.
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post #3 of 11
5/11/11 at 6:44am
Whats the deal with gigabyte not including video ports on most of their boards. Pretty much defeats the purpose imo.
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post #4 of 11
5/11/11 at 6:52am
Gigabytes High-End boards only allow using the iGPU through means of the Virtu software. You install a dedicated GPU, and with that software you can use the features of the integrated GPU through a connection on your dedicated card.

Anyhow, i want something like the P8P67 EVO, just with Z68 - the important part being the Dual GBit Ethernet, with at least one of them being an Intel LAN chip.. too bad i haven't seen anything yet.
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post #5 of 11
5/11/11 at 9:48am
I just bought this at Newegg for $159.
This z68 micro ATX motherboard does have HDMI out.

I decided to purchase the i5-2500k at Micro Center.
I'll be building my high end HTPC this weekend.
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post #6 of 11
5/11/11 at 10:27am
The Intel website now lists the DZ68DB motherboard (which it didn't yesterday), although I don't know if any stores actually have it yet today.

That it's a full ATX board limits its utility for HTPCs I would think.

Since there's little or no reason to overclock an HTPC, is there any advantage of a Z68 over an H67 other than possibly the "SRT" SSD caching (Which also strikes me as unnecessary in an HTPC. If there's a reason why in an HTPC that would be more useful than simply using the SSD as a boot drive, I'd be interested to hear it. Using a 5400rpm green hard disk and then worrying about using an SSD to cache that disk seems like a strange approach to me, but maybe I haven't considered all the possibilities.)
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post #7 of 11
5/11/11 at 10:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevcairiel View Post

Gigabytes High-End boards only allow using the iGPU through means of the Virtu software. You install a dedicated GPU, and with that software you can use the features of the integrated GPU through a connection on your dedicated card.

That make sense.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevcairiel View Post

Anyhow, i want something like the P8P67 EVO, just with Z68 - the important part being the Dual GBit Ethernet, with at least one of them being an Intel LAN chip.. too bad i haven't seen anything yet.

That is the MB I have today and it is one solid board. That is what I want too instead of H67 will be Z68 and with the dual Gigabit ethernet to improve the network speed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 View Post

Whats the deal with gigabyte not including video ports on most of their boards. Pretty much defeats the purpose imo.

Wow you and I had exactly the same thought as soon as I clicked on that page
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post #8 of 11
5/11/11 at 11:12am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zon2020 View Post

The Intel website now lists the DZ68DB motherboard (which it didn't yesterday), although I don't know if any stores actually have it yet today.

That it's a full ATX board limits its utility for HTPCs I would think.

Since there's little or no reason to overclock an HTPC, is there any advantage of a Z68 over an H67 other than possibly the "SRT" SSD caching (Which also strikes me as unnecessary in an HTPC. If there's a reason why in an HTPC that would be more useful than simply using the SSD as a boot drive, I'd be interested to hear it. Using a 5400rpm green hard disk and then worrying about using an SSD to cache that disk seems like a strange approach to me, but maybe I haven't considered all the possibilities.)

Actually, the only advantages I can see are twofold. Firstly, you could underclock and undervolt the CPU portion while cranking up the GPU portion and have similar power envelope to untouched while having enough horsepower to do some actual de-interlacing if you need it. OR you can use something like a HD6450 that can handle ANY video you throw at it and still have quicksync enabled for transcoding.
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post #9 of 11
5/11/11 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArtosDracon View Post
... Firstly, you could underclock and undervolt the CPU portion while cranking up the GPU portion and have similar power envelope to untouched while having enough horsepower to do some actual de-interlacing if you need it. ....
I am not positive, as I'm out of that particular biz at the moment, but I am fairly I read in an Anandtech article or somewhere similar that the HW deinterlacing is all fixed function circuitry, and therefore not dependent on frequency. I could be wrong, though.
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post #10 of 11
5/11/11 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hlkc View Post
That is what I want too instead of H67 will be Z68 and with the dual Gigabit ethernet to improve the network speed.
Dual Gigabit LAN Support (with One Intel LAN)
P8Z68 DELUXE features dual Gigabit LAN design which complies with 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) standard and allows a PC to serve as a network gateway for managing traffic between two separate networks. Moreover, this motherboard also implements one Intel® Gigabit LAN controller which reduces power consumption during normal operation and enhances faster transfer speed through dual interconnection between the Integrated LAN controller and Physical Layer (PHY).
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post #11 of 11
5/11/11 at 10:27pm
Except the P8Z68 DELUXE doesn't expose the video connector either, and i kinda want that.

Edit:
I just got the P8Z68-V PRO, if my plans pan out and i need the second ethernet, i'll just put a PCI-e card in there.
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