ASUS P8Z68-V PRO Motherboard

On-Board Peripherals

The Intel Z68 chipset is a single-chip solution and is also known as PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip supports two SATA-600 ports and four SATA-300 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 5 and 10). The manufacturer added two additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by a Marvell 88SE9172 chip, supporting RAID 0 and 1. The SATA ports are located on the motherboard edge rotated 90°, so video cards won’t block them.

Figure 5: SATA-300 ports (light blue), SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (gray), and SATA-600 ports controlled by the Marvell chip (dark blue)

Additionally, there is an eSATA-300 port on the m
otherboard rear panel, controlled by a JMicron JMB362 chip. There is no support for a floppy disk drive controller or an ATA-133 port.

This motherboard has 12 USB 2.0 ports, six soldered on the rear panel and six available through three headers located on the motherboard. It also has four USB 3.0 ports, two available on the motherboard rear panel and two available through a front panel connector, controlled by two ASMedia ASM1042 chips. The motherboard comes with an I/O bracket for you to install these two ports on an available expansion slot from your case.

This motherboard has two FireWire ports, available through two headers on the motherboard. So, if you plan to use them, you will need to either buy an adapter or a case with two FireWire ports. These ports are controlled by a VIA VT6308P chip.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using a Realtek ALC892 codec. Finally, Realtek is disclosing the specifications of this chip, which include 97 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 90 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs. These specs are good for the mainstream user, but if you are looking into working professionally with audio editing, you should look for a motherboard that provides an SNR of at least 97 dB for the analog input.

The portrayed motherboard comes with independent analog audio outputs, meaning that you won’t need to use the line in or mic in jacks when connecting an eight-channel analog speaker set, and an optical SPDIF output. You also can add a coaxial SPDIF output or route digital audio to your video card to have digital audio in its HDMI connector using the available “SPDIF_OUT” header.

This motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by the chipset, using an Intel WG82579V chip to make the interface with the physical layer.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel, with six USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth receiver, eSATA-300 port, optical SPDIF output, HDMI connector, VGA connector, DVI-D connector, one Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, and independent analog 7.1 audio outputs.

As you can see, there is no mouse or keyboard PS/2 connector, so you must use USB or Bluetooth devices with this motherboard.

Figure 6: Motherboard rear panel