Upgrade to iCore

Peter Tsang · 9 Sep 2011 at 08:42

Hi folks,

Now that I have a new graphics card, SATA-3 hard drive, 6600T case and the H60 cooler.

I want to upgrade to iCore, and keep my Q6600 in my bank's safe box.

I need advise on the motherboard seriously. What do you folks think about Asus P8Z68-V-PRO?

And by the way, are USB 3.0 bandwidth fully utilitzed?

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

Best regards
Peter

olivier renault · 9 Sep 2011 at 08:51

Peter Tsang said:
Hi folks,

Now that I have a new graphics card, SATA-3 hard drive, 6600T case and the H60 cooler.

I want to upgrade to iCore, and keep my Q6600 in my bank's safe box.

I need advise on the motherboard seriously. What do you folks think about Asus P8Z68-V-PRO?

Good board, but I'd get a gen 3 motherboard (PCIE 3.0 + Ivybridge support). Else it's good, but personally, I'd still get a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4

And by the way, are USB 3.0 bandwidth fully utilitzed?

Not really sure. There are some SATA3 USB memory sticks around, and possibly external hard drive enclosures. The only devices I can think off that would really benefit from it.

R088ieS86 · 9 Sep 2011 at 08:56

Unless things have changed between the P67 and Z68 chipsets then, afaik, you won't get the full speed possible from USB 3.0.
The X58 chipsets are the only way to get the full speed, unless there are some half way decent USB 3.0 PCI cards about.

Peter Tsang · 9 Sep 2011 at 09:01

olivier renault said:
Good board, but I'd get a gen 3 motherboard (PCIE 3.0 + Ivybridge support). Else it's good, but personally, I'd still get a Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4

Not really sure. There are some SATA3 USB memory sticks around, and possibly external hard drive enclosures. The only devices I can think off that would really benefit from it.

What good would Z68XP-UD4 do, please enlighten me? Thanks!

R088ieS86 said:
Unless things have changed between the P67 and Z68 chipsets then, afaik, you won't get the full speed possible from USB 3.0.
The X58 chipsets are the only way to get the full speed, unless there are some half way decent USB 3.0 PCI cards about.

Excuse me, do you mean that X58 is superior than Z68 and P67, sorry I am not really into the chipset side of things, so please tell me more, thank!!

Surveyor · 9 Sep 2011 at 09:47

R088ieS86 said:
Unless things have changed between the P67 and Z68 chipsets then, afaik, you won't get the full speed possible from USB 3.0.
The X58 chipsets are the only way to get the full speed, unless there are some half way decent USB 3.0 PCI cards about.

What is your source of information that USB 3.0 works better on X58 than P67 or Z68?

None of those chipsets natively support USB 3.0 so they all use a discrete add on controller.

R088ieS86 · 9 Sep 2011 at 10:17

I'll find it for you in a sec Surveyor, its been known for a while though.
Its the reason why the black magic intensity shuttle (HD capture card) doesn't work on the new chipsets properly.
As i said above I'm not sure if its the case with the Z68 boards though.

olivier renault · 9 Sep 2011 at 11:08

Peter Tsang said:
What good would Z68XP-UD4 do, please enlighten me? Thanks!

Excuse me, do you mean that X58 is superior than Z68 and P67, sorry I am not really into the chipset side of things, so please tell me more, thank!!

I don't think it has much over the P8Z68-V Pro tbh. Similar sort of boards, but I like the layout and looks. Secondly, the P8Z68-V pro doesn't introduce anything particular over the standard P8Z68-V. A few more SATA3 ports, USB3 ports, and a on-board power switch. You might as well go for the regular P8Z68-V, which has same VRM design, same Bluetooth support, ect...

Z68 should have :
- IvyBridge support.
- Gen3 boards support PCIE 3.0.
- Intel SRT (not very useful).
- Lucid Virtu (not very useful).
- QuickSync (useful in some cases of video transcoding).

To be honest, Gigabyte dropped a clanger on the new SandyBridge chipsets. Their P67 are good but expensive, their lack of UEFI, their spotty Z68 feature support, and now their contested claims about their boards supporting IvyBridge and PCIE3 natively. Someone there is gonna get the sack for sure. Their build quality is still solid though.

fowler002 · 9 Sep 2011 at 12:17

Asrock extreme4 gen3 similar price to the asus and gigabyte boards mentioned.

R088ieS86 · 9 Sep 2011 at 12:34

@Surveyor.

Can't find the original posts for you. I had a huge convo with the guys @ black magic about their intensity shuttle. USB 3.0 speeds can't be tested with HDD's because the don't reach the speeds possible to show the bottleneck.

Whats the problem is is that, like you said the USB 3.0 controller isn't native so uses a controller which in turn uses the PCIe lanes.

On mainstream boards, 1155 and 1156 the PCI bandwidth is centred around the x16 graphics lanes. (the whole only run cards at 8x, 8x issue)
This limits the PCIe 1.1 lanes to 250MB/s. which the USB 3.0 controllers use.

this isn't the case on the X58 boards.

Ah, saying that have a read of this, might explain it better than I can: link