ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard with USB BIOS

Pros: -Asus Quality
-ITX
-Overclocking is easy
-Powerful
-Multi-Monitor Setup
-Raid

Cons: Absolutly none as of yet and I don't expect any at all.

Other Thoughts: This is a great little motherboard, most people that are not into building computer see this little setup and think it's just a little powerless PC but it's a real monster!

i7-3770k 4.6GHz on 1.35v WEI 7.8
Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz WEI 7.9
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD WEI 7.9
On board GPU WEI 6.5 [upgrading to 7950 sometime]
Asus 27" Monitor
Blue Bitfenix Prodigy

Pros: Asus quality is why I've been using their MB products for years. Here are some attributes I like about this board:
Excellent layout.
Easy and fast computer build.
Easy to navigate paper manual.
Simple to use BIOS.
USB 3 has been great for Rsync backups.
Low Power!
Rock Stable, runs 24/7 (6 months now.)

Running dual boot Linux Mint and Windows Pro 7. Also Windows XP as guest under Linux using VirtualBox. I use this system for software development, business accounting. LAMP is installed for offline testing. Very fast to boot with the hybrid drive. The BIOS is very easy to use and overclocking is simple to adjust if that's your thing. I'm using the onboard graphics for my dual monitor setup. Plenty of room for a high end graphics card, but I'm not into gaming, it's a of my waste of valuable time, so the slot remains empty.

Cons: Could use a couple more SATA connectors. No need for the eSATAs. Two DisplayPorts and two HDMI ports would have been cool.

Other Thoughts: My Build:
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe Motherboard.
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core.
SilverStone Sugo Series SG05BB-450-USB3.0 w/sfx 450W PS.
G.SKILL Trident X Series 2 x 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 1866 F3-1866C8D-16GTX.
Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Hybrid Drive.
Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642 SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive.
SAMSUNG Slim 8x DVD Writer SATA SN-208DB/BEBE.
Dual LED Monitors, HP and Samsung.

Pros: It is a very powerful motherboard, that seemed perfect for my mini itx build.

Cons: Disgustingly unstable. Blue screens when i startup something remotely "intensive". This does not occur only a couple of times. Its ironic how my dell inspiron laptop, with a generic motherboard is infinity more stable than this motherboard. Iam disgusted that i have spent hours of my time trying to accomplish a project that is just wasted, because of this faulty motherboard.

Other Thoughts: It might seem to be a good little package, but sometimes it might seem too good to be true.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are getting BSOD. Can you send me a copy of all the dump files and zip them in a folder so the files don't get corrupted.

Here is a link below where you can try updating the bios and drivers to see if that will help with the instability. Make sure you select the O/S you have installed.

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=1&s=39&m=P8Z77-I+DELUXE&os=&hashedid=HZucw55lWQiBcdKV

You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty USA

Pros: Awesome layout
Superb Bios like always from asus
Best ITX overclocking board you can buy, Bit pricy though.
Documentation/Manual always excellent
Like always... Thanks for all sata cables and accessories thats huge plus.

Cons: To this part im huge asus fan, But...And this is first time ive had this happen. It really sucked when I fired it up first time and got chassis intrusion error. Since ive built alot of systems this aint big deal but to a newb this would have been headache, Asus forgot to put chassis intrusion jumper on header on board...Thank goodness I have bag of scrap from previous builds, Looked in manual what jumpers to short on board. Needless to say it was pain since I had to take 660ti out again and everything. -1 egg for quality control.

FIY if this happens to you, you have to clear cmos after setting intrusion jumper.

Other Thoughts: Like always great product from asus just little more attention to detail would have been nice. Thats how you get RMA's from newbs.

Pros: Board Layout is very good, especially in my prodigy case. I like the built in wifi and bluetooth although I never had a need to use it.

Cons: Asus support is a joke. I bought this board from a local retailer and when I opened the box the plastic piece had popped off and bent the pins on the board. Local retailer wouldn't take it back because of their policy on board damage so I had to send it in. Asus reflowed a new socket on their for me and got it back to me fairly quickly. I got to t-shoot the new board for about 5 hours before I realized the reflowed the bios battery with the board <.< flux was plastered all around the socket and it was just a mess. Board worked great for about 2 weeks though, then things slowly began to fail. First my usb 3 jumper then I had a gimicky stick of ram and the day after that started my pcie slot went out... So great that was a good month or 2 of use. Called Asus to setup and advance rma because the onboard graphics were still working and there was a better chance of me getting a new board that way... which is what I should have gotten in the first place. Any way it takes them about a 2 weeks to get me the replacement form then I wait another week for the board. Board came in with the plastic popped off the socket and more bent pins. Called Asus only to have them tell me they couldn't open an rma on that board until the other one was closed out, so I had to send that board back to them first. I said forget it shoved both boards and all the accessories they came with back in their original boxes, shoved them in the asus box and sent them both back to Asus to prevent a card charge. Wrote em a letter too. I'm done flipping the bill for the shipping on all of the Asus screw ups.

Other Thoughts: I'm thoroughly angered about this whole endeavor, shame on Asus for this shoddy support I've been receiving. People on the phone are great and polite and helpful but they have massive limitations pushed on them as to how they can help you.

3770k hasn't failed to disappoint me around every turn either, and I had low expectations to begin with. I miss my 8120. Can't wait for the new AMD designs to come out. I think after this I'm never going Intel or Asus again.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you received a replacement unit with bent pins as well. Did you call Asus and take a photo of the bent pins. Please provide me with your serial number and RMA number so I can look into your case for you.

You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty USA

Pros: It's a lot for a little thing. Wifi picks up well even though I moved the antennas to the inside of the case. It has a easy to use bio mod that makes setting up your power management and order start up a snap.

Cons: The board has a split off that requires you to run the same two mounting hardware to also brace that peace, with out a tiny philips, I would have never gotten it in there. Slight delay in the cpu fan kicking in during boot up.

Pros: Lots of connections.
built my first custom pc around this MoBo.
Overall, i'm glad I went with it.
I had to update the BIOS (read further), which was very easy.
the form factor just seemed to fit my needs very well, as a hybrid gaming pc / htpc.

Cons: The 82579v integrated LAN on the board is worthless.
I've been trying to diagnose the issue ever since I got the machine up and running.
I am constantly getting a Event ID 27 error in Windows Event Viewer.
a connection will not remain stable for any longer than 5-15 minutes.
I don't have to restart the machine or anything, but every 5-15 minutes the connection just drops suddenly and then comes back.
no IP change, no DHCP or DNS changes or anything.
It cancels any transfers i'm doing, any game connections i'm in, any media streaming i'm doing to other devices on the network as well.
At first I thought it was server issues, or even router issues, because every time I'd go in and double check to see if my connection was still up, it would say I had a connection.
wasn't until after i sat stalking status windows, i saw the connection tripping.
I've tried replacing the ethernet cable.
tried updating the drivers.
tried updating the BIOS.
tried changing the power management options in the driver configuration.
tried changing the link speed and other management options for the driver config as well.
tried even switching out to a different power strip / surge protector.
the problem is with the integrated NIC
I am able to connect via the integrated Wireless (which works fine, have been able to keep a connection for days without any problems)
There are other ethernet connected devices on the same network, to the same router/modem, and those devices have been able to stay connected for days, no connection interruptions.

Other Thoughts: I've never had such an issue with any ASUS hardware I've purchased in the past.
I went with ASUS on the MoBo because they always seemed like Premium MoBos.
but until the integrated hardware issue can be addressed, I'm left rather bitter.
If it can be resolved, i'll be giving the MoBo the 5 eggs it deserves.
until then I'm left with a machine that can't run on all cylinders.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for providing detail information about the disconnect/reconnect issue with LAN on this motherboard. We're sorry to hear about your experience with it. Has this issue started from the beginning? It is likely to be driver-related. Can you roll back drivers to the earliest version since OS install and test with each driver update/change? To continue support, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-8957 in the subject line). Thank you.

For support information, please visit http://support.asus.com. For service, visit http://service.asus.com. For motherboard warranty, visit http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!Motherboard%20Warranty/c1c20; Refurbished products/accessories: http://www.service.asus.com/warranty.aspx#!refurbished-warranty/c16us. For RMA status, visit: http://am.eservice.asus.com/rmaweb/search/rmCustomerQueryAction.do?.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Perfect MB for my HTPC. Built this system to replace my RCN TiVo Cable Box.

Cons: Nothing! Works great!

Other Thoughts: ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe LGA Mini-ITX Z77
Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
Rosewill 9.5" EPS 8-Pin Male to ATX 4-Pin Female Cable (adapter to connect PSU to Motherboard)
Intel - 520 Series 120GB SSD
IN WIN BP655.300TB3L
Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe 4-tuner digital cable TV card
LG Blu-Ray Burner WH14NS40
Western Digital MyBook USB 3.0 Ext 2TB Drive
Windows 8 Media Center Pro Build

Pros: -Small form factor
-Quality build
-Plenty of space around the CPU socket for larger cooler (I used the Prolimatech PRO-SAM17 Samuel 17 CPU Cooler)
-Lots of awesome features in such a small size

Cons: -Front panel audio connector on the board gets in the way of installing a card with a large heatsink. I couldn't install the Radeon I listed below until I removed it
-Software would not install on Windows 8. Doesn't matter though, Windows 8 installed all the drivers automatically

Other Thoughts: My build:
-LIAN LI Black Aluminum PC-Q18B Mini ITX Media Center / HTPC Case
-SeaSonic SS-520FL 520W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS PLATINUM
-2 x Western Digital WD AV-GP WD20EURS 2TB SATA 3.0Gb/s
-1 x Kingston HyperX 120GB SATA III MLC Internal (SSD)
-PowerColor Go! Green AX7750 1GBD5-NH Radeon HD 7750 1GB
-Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core
-Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 PC3 12800
-Prolimatech PRO-SAM17 Samuel 17 CPU Cooler

Pros: -Tiny
-Tons of features (USB 3.0, Built in Wi-Fi, etc.)
-PCIe 3.0

Cons: -Certain cpu coolers might not fit, but it's mini-itx so that's bound to happen

Other Thoughts: Case-Cooler Master Elite 120
Motherboard-ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe
PSU-Antec 650w
GPU-Gigabyte 7950
CPU-3570k
CPU cooler-Cooler Master GeminII M4
Ram-Gskill 8gb stick 1600mhz
SSD-Samsung 128gb 830 series
HDD-Hitachi 1tb 7200rpm

Really pleased with the motherboard so far. I was surprised with the number of features it has, especially for such a small board. Fitting everything in my case was a bit difficult, but everything fits.