Layout

Already at a first glance the ASUS P8Z77 WS 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 equipped the P8Z77 WS with a 16+4+2 phase VRM design whereas the CPU can rely on 16 phases, the integrated graphics unit gets four phases and the memory gets its own two phases. Furthermore ASUS put a digital power design on the board, which comes meanwhile in the third generation. With their digital power design they promise that it emits 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 P8Z77 WS Deluxe. Officially supported are DDR3 - 2800 (OC) / 2600 (OC) / 2400 (OC) / 2200 OC / 2133 (OC) / 1866 (OC) / 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.

The power design is being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The PCH is being covered by a passive cooling block. The aluminium blocks around the CPU socket are quite big. In fact they are that big that installing big CPU coolers might be a bit complicated in some cases depending on the coolers clamping mechanism.