Asus introduces three new PCI-Express 3.0 motherboards based on the Z68 chipset

Asus has recently revealed three new motherboards featuring the support for the upcoming Ivy Bridge, as well as PCI-Express 3.0 (which we’ll let either MSI or Gigabyte judge if real), based on Intel’s successful Z68 chipset: the P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3, the P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 and the P8Z68-V/Gen3.

They have a few features in common, including the 16-phase Digi+ CPU VRM, as well as Intel’s gigabit Ethernet controller, the Lucid Virtu support and the same layout of expansion port; two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (x16/NC or x8/x8), one PCI-Express 2.0 (electrical 2.0 x4), as well as two PCI-Express 2.0 and two PCI legacy (connected to an ASMedia bridge chip).

The P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3 is the most loaded, even the lack of display connectivity is compensated by the added gigabyte Ethernet with a Realtek 8111E controller and extra USB 3.0 port. The additional SATA and USB 3.0 ports are controlled by an added PCI-Express 2.0 bridge chip from PXL. The Lucid Virtu on the other hand only works in D-mode for a load-balancing between multiple GPUs. The other USB 3.0 uses a controller from NSC/Renesa. Also included in the features are the HD audio, Bluetooth 3.0 and the FireWire.

The P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3 has a less features in connectivity, getting rid of the Realtek-controlled Ethernet port while adding the iGPU display connectivity with DVI, HDMI an D-Sub, it also gets rid of one eSATA port.

The P8Z68-V/Gen3 has even less compared to the DELUXE, featuring the same step down as the PRO, it has two fewer SATA 6Gbps ports and lack the DTS decode feature on the HD audio CODEC.

Here is a sum up of the specs (in German, although self-explanatory, no idea where it comes from, sorry):

The price range is around $250 for the P8Z68 DELUXE/Gen3, around $200 for the P8Z68-V PRO/Gen3, while the P8Z68-V/Gen3 will most likely be under the $200 mark. No release date announce though.

Source