Motherboard Features Continued

Digi+ Power Control

Digi+ is an umbrella term that covers all of ASUS' advanced power control features. ASUS provides full digital controll of CPU/VRM power, iGPU power, and DRAM power, even going so far as to provide thermistors to monitor the VRM temperature (ASUS says it's easy to overheat the VRMs on an overclocked Ivy Bridge system, which can lead to CPU throttling).

While even most overclockers won't need to dive too deeply into this, all the controls are there for those who want to. There are even capabilities most enthusiasts wouldn't think of, such as the ability to limit the current draw of a processor, which is amusingly on the same screen as the "OC Now!" button.

Overclockers will spend time in this screen, where they can set the load-line calibration and current capability for both the CPU as well as the integrated GPU in Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors.

And, of course, there are the power settings for the DRAM. Honestly I don't know what "voltage frequency" means in this context!

Sensor Recorder

Here's a feature I haven't seen before: the ability to make records of various sensor readings. You can choose to monitor voltage, temperature, and fan speed of various points on the motherboard.

In the screen shot above, it's pretty obvious from the yellow CPU temperature trace when I started AIDA64's built-in system stress test. The fans on the Thermalright Silver Arrow cooler ramped up and brought the temperature down about 10 degrees from its initial spike, but you can see it's slowly climbing again.

You're not limited to real-time inspection, either. You can make long-term records as shown in the shots above. For overclockers, getting multi-hour temperature recordings when you're stress-testing your new settings is invaluable. For the rest of us, it's just cool.

Network iControl

This feature is probably most useful for gamers. It allows you to prioritize the network traffic for your computer. The most basic use of this feature is to give highest priority to the foreground program, as shown below.

But it's much more versatile than that. You can assign network priority on a program-by-program basis. For example, you could keep a long process like a program download at low priority, and a network game at high priority, so that playing online doesn't interrupt the download, but at the same time the download doesn't destroy your ping time. If you have a slower Internet connection and like to watch TV or videos online, you can use this feature to prioritize packets for these applications.

USB 3.0

ASUS' USB 3.0 implementation really has two parts: the four ports provided by the Z77 Express chip and four more ports provided by the two ASMedia 1042 controllers. With eight USB 3.0 ports, you're not likely to run out of places to plug in your high speed USB peripherals any time soon! ASUS enhances the performance of these ports with their own USB 3.0 Boost technology, and Benchmark Reviews looked into these ports and their performance in detail in our performance review of the ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe motherboard here. In addition to the performance, ASUS also provides AI Charger and USB Charger Plus features that provide extra power on these ports to more rapidly charge devices like tablet computers. This rapid charging feature is not limited to Apple devices as it is on some other motherboards, and it will also work even if the computer is asleep or hibernating.

In the last section I'll provide my final thoughts on the features of this motherboard.

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