With Intel's next generation processors firmly on the horizon, we should also turn to what motherboards will be on offer when we have the opportunity to root around in our pockets to invest in an next generation system.  With appropriate vendor support, 6-series motherboards will support these new processors with little more than a BIOS update, however to get the most out of the new processor, we have to look at the new range of motherboards about to hit the market.  This brief look at some of them is by no means an exhaustive list, however we would like to know what you find most interesting and would like to be reviewed over the next few months.

7-Series Chipsets

As with all of Intel’s major chipset releases, we have the opportunity to pick from a wide range of models to suit different needs, price points, or even business models.  With Sandy Bridge, we also had distinct segregation – H67 had IGP but no overclocking, P67 did not have IGP but overclocked, and Z68 had both.  Thankfully this time all the new chipsets have IGP outputs to take advantage of the IGP, and the main differences lie in PCIe configuration limitations and use of Intel’s Smart Response Technology:

The beauty of Ivy Bridge predominantly comes in the form of PCIe 3.0, which should alleviate many of the PCIe bus bandwidth bottlenecks in multi-GPU setups, and native USB 3.0 on board.  Some vendors may expand these features – PCIe lanes may be increased through a PCIe 3.0 PLX chip (similar to NF200 on X58), or third-party USB 3.0 controllers will be added to the boards.  In this brief look over some of the 7-series motherboards, we will see both in action.  However that PLX chip looks fairly expensive.

ASUS

The big motherboard vendors will have at release their usual gamut of motherboards to fit a variety of price points, and ASUS is no exception.  The usual lineup from ASUS should consist of several channel board models (LE, -V, Pro, Deluxe, WS, Sabertooth), to then be followed by a variety of Republic of Gamers motherboards (Gene, Maximus, Formula) over the next few months.  Today we have images detailing several of these products.

ASUS Sabertooth Z77

The Sabertooth Z77 is part of ASUS’ range of TUF motherboards, supporting an unparalleled level of motherboard cooling control all wrapped up in a five-year warranty.  I have been lucky enough to see this board in action, and there are some fun new features to get to grips with: Fan Xpert 2 allows complete fan control, with onboard optimization of fan levels. There is even a feature that allows the fans to keep spinning for a short while after the PC is turned off to remove that stagnant warm air from components.

ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe

The P8Z77-V Deluxe represents the top end of the ASUS channel board range, and immediately we can see that ASUS is now starting to put on-board Wifi onto these boards.  I had a good chat with one of ASUS’ PR, and in their view if at least 25% of their users require a feature, it will be added.  Well it turns out that at least a quarter of people according to ASUS use a wireless connection for their PC to get to the internet, and as such this feature should be added across the range.  In my eyes, this is a welcome addition which can only add value.  The Deluxe also sports Intel network controllers, a feature that works its way down to the other channel boards.

ASUS P8Z77 WS

The WS (workstation) motherboard from ASUS is becoming a staple of their range.  This Z77 model, aside from featuring DVI output (rather than HDMI/DisplayPort which the models above do) and dual Intel network controllers, contains a special PCIe 3.0 PLX chip to increase the number of PCIe 3.0 lanes on the motherboard.  This gives the PCIe layout to reach x8/x8/x8/x8 all in 3.0 mode, which becomes useful for multi-GPU simulators in increasing GPU-to-GPU throughput.  It will be interesting to see if this PLX chip has any performance decrease associated with it like the NF200 did.  This WS board supports Intel’s 3^rd Generation Intel Core Xeon processors and ECC memory to fit into the workstation category, albeit with more overclock options than a standard workstation board.

ASUS ROG Maximus V Gene

The Gene range of ASUS’ Republic of Gamers boards caters to the crowd wanting small yet powerful systems, with all the functionality of the main size boards (albeit missing a few PCIe ports).  The Maximus V Gene doesn’t fail to disappoint – as it has the ROG treatment, we still get access to the ROG forums with dedicated ASUS employees to help optimize any configuration.  The port on the IO panel is of interest – this is what ASUS calls an ‘augmentation port’, which provides space for both a mini-PCIe slot and an mSATA port.  This would allow users to supply their own wifi module and mini-SSD as required, without taking up valuable space around the rest of the board.  Other ROG features include PCB isolation for the audio to reduce electromagnetic interference, and ROG exchange – the ability for users to share overclocking results for similar systems and setups and see exactly all the settings required to make those overclocks. 

Gigabyte

Whenever a new chipset comes out, Gigabyte tend to do one of two things – either release a few boards to cover particular price points (usually models from UD3 to UD7), or release more than 10 or even 20+ products for the chipset.  This latter method of attacking the market could perhaps overwhelm users into deciding which model to purchase, or that reviews could end up with so many boards to review it is hard to decipher which are the important ones.  Nevertheless, Gigabyte for the 7-series launch has decided to attack the market with the latter, in the following models:

Gigabyte G1.Sniper 3
Gigabyte G1.Sniper M3
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Wifi
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Wifi
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H
Gigabyte GA-Z77MX-D3H
Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H
Gigabyte GA-H77-DS3H
Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V

‘D’ means ‘All solid capacitor design’
‘U’ means ‘Double copper PCB design’

My guess is that this list is by no means complete, exhaustive or final (and perhaps includes models for sale in other parts of the world).  No doubt we will see a UD4/UD4H, all the way up to UD7 as well.  Gigabyte does have a microsite dedicated to their 7-series products, which does provide an informative list of what should be on offer. 

The main features Gigabyte is going to be advertising with their 7-series launch is the almost ubiquitous placing of mSATA connectors on most of their boards, and that the UD3 and above boards come with wifi cards.

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H

Almost at the top of Gigabyte’s range at release is the GA-Z77X-UD5H.  We see that the placement of the mSATA port is just below the CPU, which in the grand scheme of things should be ok as long as the user never wants to remove it (I can just imagine it being relatively stressful to take it out when a system is built and in a case).  Also, all the boards in the range have both D-Sub and DVI outputs on the IO, which means on some models that they take up space for any PS/2 ports.  This is despite the UD5H still sporting a PCI slot for legacy, even if it is taken up if a second dual slot GPU is used.  As always, all Gigabyte models should support TPM, and in the case of the UD5, we have extra SATA ports and dual USB 3.0 headers onboard – all of which would be obscured by a full length third GPU.

G1.Sniper 3 and G1.Sniper M3

If we go back all the way to CES this year, Anand caught glimpse of the G1.Sniper series that Gigabyte had on display:

Given what we know about the Gigabyte range, we have some features to point out – if you want mSATA, it looks like you have to invest in a full size ATX style board.  Unfortunately, that also means investing in a board that uses a PLX chip to give 4-way x8 performance for multi-GPU setups.  Both boards seem to have specialized capacitors to deal with their audio solutions, which on the Gigabyte microsite states is the Creative Sound Core 3D – which is a step in a positive direction from normal Realtek audio solutions.

ASRock

ASRock are now becoming a stable option when it comes to buying motherboards.  As a company, they are now producing a large amount of good product with an expected ten million motherboard sales in 2012, and seem to have enough backing to perhaps push it a little forward ahead of other competitors.  When it comes to releasing new chipsets, ASRock have recently always been releasing their Extreme series (numbered currently from 3 to 9), and their gaming Fatal1ty series for more enthusiast style users.  For the most part, their cheaper offerings often hit a nice price/feature ratio that is comfortable on the wallet.

For the 7-series, ASRock have fully updated their website with models we expect ASRock to launch:

H77M
H77 Pro4-M
H77 Pro4/MVP
Z77 Pro4
Z77 Extreme4-M
Z77 Extreme4
Z77 Extreme6
Fatal1ty Z77 Professional
Fatal1ty Z77 Professional-M
Fatal1ty Z77 Performance

ASRock Z77 Extreme6

If we extrapolate from our look at ASRock boards for P67 and X79, the Z77 Extreme4 and Z77 Extreme6 should be a pair of good boards to consider out of the starting block.  As we can see, the Z77 Extreme6 goes all out on the black and gold livery ASRock demonstrated with X79, and plugs in a USB 3.0 front panel which doubly acts as a SSD holder.  On the board itself, we still see a 4-pin molex connector rear its ugly head again above the PCIe ports, and if I'm very much mistaken, we also have a Floppy drive port on the south side of the board.  I did quiz ASRock once as to why they're putting legacy ports back onto some of their lineup, and the response I got was 'some people want that functionality'.  I could perhaps see the requirement in industry when a 6-figure piece of industrial equipment still uses floppy drives (and the cost of upgrading that equipment is too high for USB), however I would relegate that function to the lower end of the spectrum.

ECS

ECS have always been somewhat odd when trying to predict what of their main channel products will reach the market.  They tackle each chipset differently, deciding what proportion of the market will invest in it, then design products at various price points to suit that need.  This is all despite being a primarily OEM manufacturer and distributor.  When it comes to the 7-series chipsets, it is clear that while they will be more important than Sandy Bridge-E was, it could swing either way whether they will outstrip Sandy Bridge before we get Intel's next architecture down the line.

Nevertheless, ECS have dutifully supplied a couple of images of their top-end upcoming boards, and to be honest, I'd say they were taking a leaf out of ASRock's book..

ECS Z77H2-AX

The Z77H2-AX is ECS' answer to the 7-series, and it looks packed with functionality.  If I'm not mistaken, if we ignore the ASRock-like gold and black, we have a mSATA port blow the SATA ports, and built in Wifi and Bluetooth modules on the IO panel.  This is despite also having video outputs.  The ECS board I reviewed for X79, whilst it was under rebate, was quite a bargain in terms of functionality and price, so I hope that ECS can deliver similar for the 7-series.

MSI

Whilst CeBIT is in full swing, MSI, along with the other manufacturers, has used the opportunity to showcase their future 7-series products.  Alongside the X79 Big Bang-XPower II (which I recently reviewed and liked rather a lot), MSI is promoting their Z77A-GD80 – a 7-series motherboard with Thunderbolt support.  Anand was able to have a quick look at the board at CES before the Thunderbolt port was officially added, and VR-Zone has confirmed that the model on show at CeBIT does have it on board.  We expect this little extra will cause an extra $20-$30 on the price of these boards however, so it may be possible that there are Thunderbolt/non-Thunderbolt versions of various products up and down each vendor's line.

Out of the blocks, MSI is officially treating us to at least seven boards across the 7-series:

Z77A-GD80
Z77A-GD65
Z77A-GD55
Z77A-G45
Z77MA-G45
ZH77-G43
B75A-G43

MSI Z77A-GD80

In a style common of previous MSI boards, the blue-black livery is included with an SFC (Super Ferrite Choke) power delivery.  We also get OC Genie buttons and voltage read points as is common on MSI's top end products.  In a similar style to the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H mentioned previously, users of three GPUs on a system such as this will perhaps lose a large amount of the functionality on the bottom of the board.  Nevertheless, the USB 3.0 header on board is at 90 degrees, focusing the usage of such a port for the front of the case.

Biostar

Biostar is not a company we've had much chance to look at here at AnandTech for a while, however their few motherboard releases over the past year have come and are available for purchase.  For the launch of the 7-series products, Biostar plan on launching a series of five boards:

TZ77XE4
TZ77XE3
TZ77A
TZ77B
TZ77MXE

However one motherboard has graced my inbox in any shape or form - the TZ77XE4:

Biostar TZ77EX4

Biostar have also gone with a three-GPU style setup, this time plumping for a three slot gap between all the GPUs, giving air for them to breathe a little better.  Aside from this, there is not a lot I can gather from the solitary, low resolution image, and solid information is not forthcoming until I receive a response from Biostar.  Information will be updated when I have it!

Conclusion

We have a lot to look forward to when it comes to these new and exciting 7-series motherboards.  Let us know what you would like to see!