Speccing up a PC for a friend who only tends to play poker (many tables), few games (a GTX 460 does him fine)...I would suggest just getting a P67 board but the only reason I'm not recommending a Z68 board is because i don't fully understand its features. Something about Lucid that switches between the integrated graphics and dedicated...? Please enlighten me! What else am i missing that could make a Z68board appealing.
Z68 allows you to use intels built in graphics on the CPU ie. the 2500K comes with either intel HD2000 or HD3000 chip, Z68 also allows expantion for intel smart response via an ssd drive on the mobo which increases loading times of repeatedly used programs and files im currently using the GA-Z68-D3 which is the cheapest of the Z68 series and it is a great board with loads of potential for the price p.s im sure the Z68 does everything the P67 boards do and more
Z68 over P67, in my opinion, the advantages are QuickSync, lucid virtu and SSD caching (or SRT). lucid virtu is meant to use your i5-2500k's HD graphics when needed instead of your dedicated card, however, it's a bit of a gimmick IMHO. SSD caching is using your small SSD, and files that you access frequently will be automatically will be copied onto it, and used from it instead of your HDD, meaning that files you access frequently will be opened far faster and should make your system feel alot faster, even though your SSD is tiny (and therefore cheap). QuickSync allows you to transcode, and encode and decode I believe alot faster. I guess it's done in hardware, and by your CPU, but this is only really valuable if you do this kind of thing alot, eg. converting movies, or transferring them onto your ipod. To be honest, as the post above says, SSD caching is essentially why you'd buy z68 over p67 unless you specifically benefit from quicksync, and z68 is only gain, no loss over p67. And since z68 is not that much more expensive than p67, I spose you may as well buy it. That gigabyte board in particular is very cheap and seems decent. Correct me if I'm wrong though on any of this though XD
I wouldn't say that it is the only reason. For example i bought my Z68 board because of the IGP and the inability of NVIDIA or ATI cards to drive two different displays without using elevated GPU voltage and clocks. You probably wanted to say "decreases loading times". It would be a very bad cache if it would increase loading times .
Yep. The short formula is : Z68 = P67 + support for display outputs from the IGP + QuickSync + SSD caching. The issue with QuickSync is that the support is so far only in paid applications. The issue with SSD caching is that it only works for system partition, only with small enough SSD and there are few other limitations as well. For me, display outputs were something i needed because of the NVIDIA/ATI issue. For some others, the QuickSync or SSD caching can be the most important feature. If you have no use for any of these features, you must only decide if it is worth for you to have a backup display output in case your main graphics card will die. If it does, with P67 you need to find other graphics card or wait until RMA goes through. With Z68, you can still use your computer - true, not for gaming, but for browsing and other stuff the IGP will be more than enough.
I agree with the above though, for 10-15 pounds more Z68 = P67 + support for display outputs from the IGP + QuickSync + SSD caching. Strange to see so many "Pro Z68" arguements in this forum, I thought I'd been preaching to the wall here. Z68 has for some reason been dismissed on most websites, somewhere on the forum I was told the manufacturers don't like it either.
