Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Zotac Gaming GTX 1650 Super review
Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition Driver Overview
Guru3D Winter 2019 PC Buyer Guide
Corsair QL120 and QL140 RGB fan review
Promo: Windows 10 Pro for $13 With Office 2016 For $33
Corsair Void RGB Elite Wireless Headset review
Team Group PD400 Portable SSD review
AMD Athlon 3000G review
Team Group T-Force Delta Max 1 TB SSD review
Guru3D Rig of the Month - November 2019

New Downloads
PCMark 10 Download v2.0.2153
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.2 driver download
GeForce 441.66 WHQL driver download
CPU-Z download v1.91
GPU-Z Download v2.28.0
3DMark Download v2.11.6846 + Port Royale
HWiNFO64 Download v6.20
AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.1 driver download
Crystal DiskMark Download v7.0.0f
AMD Ryzen Master Utility Download v2.1.0.1424


New Forum Topics
Will Nvidia ever offer more modern Post-AA in their control panel beyond just FXAA? Bizarre issue I can't figure out Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition Driver Overview AMD Radeon Adrenalin Edition 19.12.2 driver download & discussion Are we ever going to get a new NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL ??? 5700XT Overclocking Thread ASUS X370 Open Letter/Feedback Status Log Utility for mitigations CVE-2017-5715 and CVE-2017-5754 status check Flew 2000 miles for a 3970X New PlunderVolt Vulnrebility Hits Intel processors - vCore vs Intel SGX




Guru3D.com » Review » Gigabyte G1.Sniper.2 motherboard review » Page 2

Gigabyte G1.Sniper.2 motherboard review - The Series 6 chipset

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 08/29/2011 01:00 PM [ ] 0 comment(s)

Tweet

 

The Series 6 chipset

So really the Z68 is pretty much merely a small update. You can look at the chipset as a combination of H67 and P67, as it carries the H67 support for the internal graphics on the Sandy Bridge processors and the motherboards will have the proper monitor outputs that P67 does not have. It works vice versa as well, the H67 chipset was not allowed to be overclocked by Intel. The Z68 however does come with full overclocking potential, meaning you could use say a Core i7 2600K processor, use the internal graphics and you can still overclock to over 4 GHz, and in fact we took the processor close to 5 GHz which is the top limit our processor can take really.

Features wise, it's pretty much all the same though.

The Intel 6 series chipset

Paired with Sandy Bridge based processors come motherboard chipsets, ten in total of which five are intended for desktop processors, namely the P67, H67, Q65, Q67, B65 and now Z68. Next to the new chipsets is also a small socket change. The previous Clarkdale Core series processors were seated onto a LGA 1156 package (socket). The new SB processors do not share that same socket, Intel placed them onto socket LGA 1155, one pin less. 

The primary reason here is that a last generation processor will not work with a series 6 chipset and vice versa. So you can't install by accident, a Clarkdale based Core i5 on a H67/P67/Z68 motherboard.

Now, luckily this doesn't mean you'll be needing a new cooler, your old LGA 1156 CPU cooler is compatible with the LGA 1155 motherboard measurements. Let's have a look at the primary features of the Z68 Platform Controller Hub chipset.

Segment Corporate SMB - B65 Consumer H67 Consumer P67 Consumer Z68
Socket LGA 1155 LGA 1155 LGA 1155 LGA 1155 LGA 1155
Memory channels / DIMM per channel 2 / 2 2 / 2 2 / 2 2 / 2 2 / 2
USB2.0 14 12 14 14 14
SATA Total (Max number of 6Gb/s) 6 (2) 6 (1) 6 (2) 6 (2) 6 (2)
PCIe 2.0 8 8 8 8 8
PCI Yes Yes No No No
Integrated Display 2 2 2 n/a 2
Performance Tuning No No No Yes Yes

Above, you can see the primary desktop chipsets released, H67, P67 and Z68. For end consumers like you and me the H67 chipset will be less performance targeted and comes with support for monitor connectivity. The one significant difference in-between H67 and P67 is that the P67 does not support the embedded GPU inside the processor or any of its functions. P67 requires a dedicated graphics card. The Z68 combines the strengths of both H67 and P67.

As such the Z68 chipset is targeted at performance and enthusiast end users, allowing much more tweaking and providing performance features.

As you can understand, we'll be testing a lot of these Z68 chipset based motherboards, some of which will also have support for the new EFI BIOS, a graphics user interface BIOS that is fascinating. Have a peek at a combined block diagram we compiled and compare closely the P67 and Z68.

ASUS P8Z68-V-Pro

As you can see, H67+P67=Z68. Interesting to know is that the new Z68 series chipsets will come with SATA3 (6G) controllers and SATA2, all of them will very likely come with USB 3.0 supported by using an NEC controller. Z68 will have 16 PCIe lanes available for your graphics card (x16) but can be split down into two x8 PCIe lanes for graphics cards if you'd like to pursue a multi-GPU setup, hence SLI and Crossfire will run quite well on them.

The Intel Platform Controller Hub's (PCH) SATA2 ports can be configured in RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 with Intel's Rapid Storage Technology and now also Intel Smart Response Technology. Let's talk about that as it is a pretty big thing with this chipset release.




26 pages 1 2 3 4 next »



Related Articles
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme review
With all that mega-core galore on the Threadripper 3000 processor releases, a new baby chipset has been born, T-Rex, aka TRX40. In this review we check out the loaded TRX40 Aorus Xtreme from Gigabyte...

Gigabyte GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING OC review
We review the Gigabyte GTX 1660 SUPER GAMING OC 6G,  a product with a triple-fan cooler as well being factory tweaked with a Boost allowance of 1860 MHz. Will it make all the difference compared to...

Gigabyte Aorus KD25F 240 Hz Monitor review
Going from fast to faster, in this review, we will take a look at the Aorus KD25F gaming monitor. This 1920x1080 pixels sized monitor can do something very special and that would be refreshing at 240...

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming OC review
We review the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Gaming OC edition. The non-Ti product is more value targeted and sits in NVIDIA's mainstream line of the GTX 1660 series products. Gigabyte has already factory...

© 2019