Z77 Express: The Perfect Replacement For Older Machines

The components of Intel’s Maho Bay platform, including the Z77 Express chipset and Ivy Bridge-based processors, have been floating around our SoCal lab all year. And yet, the company waited until April to to slowly roll its parts out, allowing channel partners to clear as many Sandy Bridge-based machines as possible before relegating the architecture to "prior-gen."

The Z77 Express chipset was quickly followed by Ivy Bridge-based processors, and both of our stories on those parts came to the same conclusion: mainly, that the new generation of hardware is barely better than the Z68 Express and Sandy Bridge architecture it replaces.

Nevertheless, Maho Bay's improvements still make it the preferred choice for anyone replacing an older system. If you're already running a machine that center on Sandy bridge, an upgrade doesn't make sense. But if you're stuck with a Core 2- or Phenom-based box, Z77 Express and an Ivy Bridge-based processor are the logical path forward.

If you're patient enough to hold off on Sandy Bridge, sticking with two- or three-year-old hardware for this long, then X79 is probably totally out of the question. It's a good thing, then, that the Maho Bay platform inherits its predecessor's mainstream pricing. On the other hand, if you're savvy enough to read Tom's Hardware, then you probably also share our high expectations for quality, stability, and robust features.

With that degree of frugality in mind, we begin our Z77 Express-based motherboard round-ups right in the middle of the enthusiast market: between $160 and $220.

Motherboard Features ASRock Z77 Extreme6 Asus P8Z77-V Pro Biostar TZ77XE4 PCB Revision 1.02 1.02 5.0 Chipset Intel Z77 Express Intel Z77 Express Intel Z77 Express Voltage Regulator Twelve Phases Sixteen Phases Twelve Phases BIOS P1.30 (04/12/2012) 0906 (03/26/2012) Z77CF412 (04/12/2012) 100.0 MHz BCLK 100.46 (+0.46%) 100.30 (+0.30%) 100.01 (+0.01%) Internal Interfaces PCIe 3.0 x16 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) 2 (x16/x0 or x8/x8) PCIe 2.0 x16 1 (4 lanes from PCH) 1 (4 lanes from PCH) 1 (4 lanes from PCH) PCIe x1/x4 1/0 2/0 1/0 Mini PCIe 1 None None USB 2.0 3 (6 ports) 4 (8 ports) 2 (4 ports) USB 3.0 1 (2 ports) 2 (4 ports) 1 (2 ports) IEEE-1394 1 None None SATA 6.0 Gb/s 4 (1 shared w/eSATA) 4 4 SATA 3.0 Gb/s 4 4 4 (1 shared w/eSATA) 4-Pin Fan 2 6 1 3-Pin Fan 4 None 2 FP-Audio 1 1 1 S/PDIF I/O Output Only Output Only Output Only Power Button Yes No Yes Reset Button Yes No Yes CLR_CMOS Button No No Yes Diagnostics Panel Numeric Pass/Fail LEDs Numeric Legacy Interfaces Serial, Floppy, 2 x PCI 2 x PCI Serial, 2 x PCI I/O Panel Connectors P/S 2 1 1 1 USB 3.0 4 4 2 USB 2.0 2 2 4 IEEE-1394 1 None None Network Single Single Single eSATA 1 (shared w/SATA) None 1 (shared w/SATA) CLR_CMOS Button Yes No No Digital Audio Out Optical Only Optical Only None Digital Audio In None None None Analog Audio 5 6 6 Video Out VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, DVI-D DisplayPort, HDMI, VGA, DVI-D Other Devices None 802.11n Wi-Fi Module None Mass Storage Controllers Chipset SATA 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 4 x SATA 3Gb/s Chipset RAID Modes 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10 0, 1, 5, 10 Add-In SATA ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s 1 shared w/eSATA ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ASM1061 PCIe 2 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 EJ168A PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated 2 x ASM1042 PCIeIntel Z77 Integrated Z77 Integrated Only IEEE-1394 VT6308P PCI 2 x 400 Mb/s None None Gigabit Ethernet Primary LAN BCM57781 PCIe WG82579V PHY RTL8111E PCIe Secondary LAN None AR9485 PCIe Wi-Fi None Audio HD Audio Codec ALC898 ALC892 ALC898 DDL/DTS Connect Not Specified DTS Connect Not Specified