Z68 vs P67

oceanclub

I'd considered upgrading to a P67, but had put my decision on hold and now find there's a bit of raving going on about the Z68:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/11/intel-z68-motherboards-are-out/
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=741&Itemid=69&limit=1&limitstart=14

The big draw seems to be the ability to use a smallish SSD drive as a "cache" for a larger standard drive:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=60

Any opinions yay or nay?

P.

Unregistered.

oceanclub wrote: »

I'd considered upgrading to a P67, but had put my decision on hold and now find there's a bit of raving going on about the Z68:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/05/11/intel-z68-motherboards-are-out/
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=741&Itemid=69&limit=1&limitstart=14

The big draw seems to be the ability to use a smallish SSD drive as a "cache" for a larger standard drive:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=60

Any opinions yay or nay?

P.

SSD caching is great. Not as great as a dedicated SSD as if you use many different applications all the time then you will lose performance every now and again when data in the cache has to be evicted to make room. How often this will happen depends on 1) The size of the SSD (limited to 64GB by intel) and 2) Your usage.
The biggest advantage is that you can combine a 20GB SSD with a massive hard disk and get SSD-like performance for cheap. Heavy gamers, multitaskers will need a bigger SSD for caching for the reasons I outlined already, but for everyone else this should be a mega-handy upgrade.

Aside from that, will you be using the PC for? If you don't see yourself using the IPG, then P67 is fine if you don't want the SSD caching. Consider the cost of the z68 premium + the cost of a small SSD vs the cost of a slightly larger standalone SSD.

The Omen 666

glad someone else mentioned this coz i had been wondering the same. but i guess if ur not going to need the whole video encoding enhancements in a big way or interested in utilising the ssd cache aspect then p67 is good. But as i was reading in tomshardware, seems a pity that z6e is what p67 should have been...

intel dont have confuse things with 4 chipsets for for lga1155 and a new socket on the way... jeez

i guess z68 would be great for laptop, using the inbuild graphics for browsing etc and switch to dedicated card for games and intensive work. I think nvidia have something like this already and lucid have a way of doing his too

sometimes u want all the bells n whistles but i dont think i need z68 so will prob stick with p67 when i build next month...unless bulldozer blows the market open!!!

oceanclub

Unregistered. wrote: »

Aside from that, will you be using the PC for? If you don't see yourself using the IPG, then P67 is fine if you don't want the SSD caching. Consider the cost of the z68 premium + the cost of a small SSD vs the cost of a slightly larger standalone SSD.

I mainly use my PC for serious stuff - you know, gaming - so I reckon a Z68 with a largish SSD drive would be the way to go, especially if the Z68 M/B doesn't cost much more than the equivalent P67?

My only concern would be that the P67 ones have been through 3 revisions now, so presumably a lot of teething problems have been sorted out, while this wouldn't be the case with the Z68...

P.

Tea_Bag

oceanclub wrote: »

I mainly use my PC for serious stuff - you know, gaming - so I reckon a Z68 with a largish SSD drive would be the way to go, especially if the Z68 M/B doesn't cost much more than the equivalent P67?

My only concern would be that the P67 ones have been through 3 revisions now, so presumably a lot of teething problems have been sorted out, while this wouldn't be the case with the Z68...

P.

If you're getting a large SSD then there is no point paying the premium for Z68.

oceanclub

Tea_Bag wrote: »

If you're getting a large SSD then there is no point paying the premium for Z68.

I'd be planning to use the SSD as a cache rather than my boot drive though.

(Seemingly you can't use one SSD as both)

P.

Tea_Bag

oceanclub wrote: »

I'd be planning to use the SSD as a cache rather than my boot drive though.

(Seemingly you can't use one SSD as both)

P.

Why? if you get an 80gb+ SSD you have no need for a HDD for anything other than storage.

im using an Itel X25m 80gb and ive a 500gb Samsung F3 and its more than enough.

ive got all my programs installed on my SSD, and i havent even bothered moving my "library" folders over to the HDD. only thing ive got on the 500gb is my music collection and some of my photo's.

games installed on my SSD at the moment are:
Mafia
Mafia 2
Lego star wars 3
Dirt 2
Portal 2
Assasins creed 2

And Office 2010
Open Office
**** loads of Programs,

aand 20gb still free.

Honestly, it wasnt that long ago when we were still using 20gb HDD's and getting by just fine.

Serephucus

My games alone take up almost 500GB. Couple that with applications, image files of my non-Steam games I keep on my hard drives, and I'm already looking at 600GB. Then there's the 1.5TB of media...

If I were doing this - I probably won't be, not sure yet - I'd get a 64GB SSD with a 1TB HDD for my OS and applications. Alternatively, maybe a 32GB SSD for OS and 32+1000 for applications.

The Omen 666

"If Quick Sync means nothing to you, and SSD caching doesn’t sound all that appealing, a P67 board is probably fine. But it bothers me to know I’m missing out on a feature to which I should have access. That’s what Z68 solves. Using a combination of Z68, a K-series CPU, your favorite discrete graphics card, and Virtu, all bases are covered, from overclocking to gaming and media transcode [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]performance[/COLOR][/COLOR]. " Tomshardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z68-express-lucidlogix-virtu-ssd-caching,2888.html


Think alot of people will buy z68 for features the prob wont ever use but because they're there.

Dublin_Gunner

Tea_Bag wrote: »

If you're getting a large SSD then there is no point paying the premium for Z68.

Unless you encode lots of video, the integrated GPU with AVX extensions will save you tonnes of time.

And also it can use the on-die GPU for regular things, and only utilise the main GPU for gaming etc, saving on power.

With z68 boards touted to be around the same price as P67 counterparts - I see no reason to buy a P67 board.

Plus, Intel are due to release a range of 20GB SSD's purely for the function of HDD caching on z68, and they'll be cheap.

Unregistered.

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

With z68 boards touted to be around the same price as P67 counterparts - I see no reason to buy a P67 board.

That's the biting point really.

oceanclub

I think I'm going to opt for the ASRock Z68 Extreme4; it's already available on Hardwareversand and seems to be getting decent reviews:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-z68-extreme4-asus-p8z68-v-pro-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3,2939-18.html
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/4074/asrock_z68_extreme4_intel_z68_motherboard_review/index11.html

P.

Burgo

With regards to the gigabyte z68 boards, none of them that i've seen have any video ports, considering that one of the selling points of the z68 platform is the fact you can use onboard graphics its seems rather idiotic to leave them out.

oceanclub

Am finally buying this, but note that the only available memory on Hardwareversand that are on their recommended list (http://www.asrock.com/mb/memory.asp?Model=P67 Extreme4) are slower speeds:



The M/B is 1066MHz by default. 1333-2133MHz supported.

I'm thinking of going for the 8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL7
(F3-10666CL7D-8GBXH).

http://www.gskill.com/products.php?index=346

I'm really interested in stability over over-clocking; is this speed fine, or should I really opt for faster memory and get it elsewhere?

P.

Dublin_Gunner

Buy your ram at memoryc.com

Cheap, Irish company, and free delivery.
/OT rant/Why the hell would you give the Germans even more money? (they're already sucking our economy dry)./rant over/

oceanclub

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Buy your ram at memoryc.com

Well, If I did go with them, should I spend the extra €70 on faster memory (going by memoryc.com's prices)?

€96:

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3/8gbgskillddr3pc310666ripjawsxseriesforsandybridge77721dualchannelkit.html

€168:

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3/8gbgskillddr3pc3170002133mhzripjawsxseriescoolingfanforsandybridge911928dualchannel.html

P.

VenomIreland

Anyone know when intel are releasing that 20GB SLC SSD? I am definitely going to get a Z68 board and one of those when I upgrade in a few weeks.

Dublin_Gunner

oceanclub wrote: »

Well, If I did go with them, should I spend the extra €70 on faster memory (going by memoryc.com's prices)?

€96:

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3/8gbgskillddr3pc310666ripjawsxseriesforsandybridge77721dualchannelkit.html

€168:

http://www.memoryc.com/computermemory/ddr3/8gbgskillddr3pc3170002133mhzripjawsxseriescoolingfanforsandybridge911928dualchannel.html

P.

You should buy neither.

Buy these:

GSkill RipjawX 1600Mhz €85.91

Definitely don't go for the 2100mhz kit unless you either feel like spending double the money, or plan on doing memory benchmarks all day long waving your e-penis.

You will notice little to no performance improvement with the faster ram in actual applications.

1600Mhz is the sweet spot, and for €85 for 8GB you really can't go wrong.

Or go for 2 of these and save around €1 lol (exact same memory, only single modules!)