Layout

Already at a first glance the ASUS P8Z68-VPro looks very good with it harmonic design. The colors look suite nicely and the different blue tones on a black PCB are calming. The layout itself is well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers.

ASUS provided the P8Z68-VPro with a 16+2 phase current supply whereas the CPU can rely on 16 phases and the memory gets its own two phases. Furthermore ASUS implemented a digital power design which should emit less electromagnetic radiation than its analogue counterpart. Therefore ASUS claims that the system stability can be enhanced even further, especially during extreme overclocking.

Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the P8Z68-VPro. Officially supported are DDR3-2200+ / 2133 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 with up to 32 GByte capacity. The DIMM-slots are quite close to the CPU socket which might cause some compatibility problems with big coolers especially when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders.

Northbridge, Southbridge as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The aluminium blocks around the CPU socket are quite big. In fact they are that big that installing big CPU coolers might not be possible in some cases depending on the coolers clamping mechanism.