Specification
Product Details
- Brand: Intel
- Model: BOXDZ68BC
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 2.00" h x
13.00" w x
10.00" l,
3.05 pounds
- Memory: 32GB
Features
- INTEL CORP. BOXDZ68BC SINGLE PACK DZ68BC ATX Z68
Product Description
Intel Desktop Board DZ68BC - Extreme Series - motherboard - ATX - LGA1155 Socket - Z68 - USB 3.0, FireWire - Gigabit LAN - onboard graphics (CPU required) - HD Audio (10-channel)
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
By Scott Horne
I get Intel motherboards for stability and support. This is the first one I have found that supports UEFI. I wanted to put 6 1TB hard drives in it and end up with a single 4.5 TB boot drive. I cheered when the bios showed my 6 disk raid 5 configuration as bootable. However Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise wouldn't let me use it unless it divided the drive into 2TB partitions. A call to intel blamed the hard drives. I didn't pursue that and just accepted the situation. Maybe there is some sort of incompatibility with certain hard drives? Mine are Seagate SV35.5 designed for multimedia use.I am running 6 1TB drives in Raid 5, an extra 2 TB drive on the Marvel for backup, a blue ray drive on the Marvel. I have a MSI GeForce 570GTX card as the main video card for the primery monitor and a secondary GTS450 to drive two secondary monitors. I use the integrated Intel HD graphics to drive a fourth monitor. 16 GBs of Corsair memory.No problems with anything except the RAID5 situation. Note also that each of the Intel SATA ports can be configured for online replacement, which I think is a higher end feature. I like the skull lights, control buttons on the board, and the new USB bluetooth attachment. Good board.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By Scott
*** UPDATE Sept-2012 ***I have changed my rating of this board from 5-stars to 3-stars because Intel has made a complete mess of bios updates the last few months, effectively crippling some key features for everyone, and actually turning it into a brick for some customers. Used with BIOS 0028 or earlier, I would stick by my 5-star rating. But BIOS 0035, 0036, and 0037 (current as of this date) have broken overclocking features and, in general, caused multiple stability problems. And once 0035 or later is loaded, the board can no longer accept an earlier BIOS. It has been several months since 0035 was released, and despite two subsequent releases (0036 and 0037), the problems have not been fixed.So my opinion now is that if BIOS 0028 has all the features you need, this is still a 5-star board as long as you stick with 0028. But it's a 1-star board if you load 0035, 0036, or 0037!*** End of Sept-2012 update ****** ORIGINAL REVIEW ***This is going to be a lengthy review, so let me start with a summary...I am very pleased with this board. Plenty of SATA ports, plenty of USB2 and USB3 ports, integrated video, integrated audio, (2) PCIE x16 slots with support for SLI/Crossfire, and LucidLogix Virtu included. Add four memory slots with total capacity of 32gb, an eSata port, and a 1394 firewire port.Lots of diagnostic LED's in case you have a bad component and can't boot. There is even a header for a serial port, although you will need your own cable and backplane adapter if you want to use it. Networking is provided by onboard Intel 1gb LAN adapter, plus an included Wifi G/N + Bluetooth adapter (installation optional).I've been running this board for two weeks now and it has been rock-solid. I briefly loaded/tested XP just to see how the board/drivers supported XP, and then subsequently proceeded with loading Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Both installations went smoothly, although the XP drivers are a little harder to find/download. (An earlier review here incorrectly stated that USB3 did not work with XP; that is NOT the case as USB3 works just fine on XP.)No issues whatsoever during installation/setup. I have attached a number of USB2 devices (printers, cameras, iPhone, iPad, joystick), and two TV tuner devices (one PCI Hauppauge HVR2250, and a network-based SiliconDust HDHomeRun). I tested fireware, esata, and USB2 with a Western Digital MyBook external drive, and tested USB3 with a Lacie external usb3 drive and Corsair usb3 flash drive. All the ports and their drivers worked perfectly.I have very slightly overclocked the board, raising the standard clock range of 3.4-3.8Ghz up to 3.8-4.2Ghz. No voltage changes were needed to accomplish this, just simple turbo multiplier changes using Intel's "Extreme Tuning Utility". It continues to be completely stable, and max CPU temp under full load is only 52C using a Zalman 9900 Max air cooler. (Sorry, I did not test temps with the stock cooler.)Bottom line, I would not hesitate to recommend this board. If you are looking for a quality Z68-based board with Intel quality, a 3 year warranty, and lots of features (including overclocking capability if you have an unlocked cpu), I don't think you can go wrong here. Nothing is perfect and I would like to give it a "4.5", but since Amazon doesn't allow half-stars I am rounding up to 5-stars.Now, the gory details for those who want them....I bought this board to replace an aging pentium-D system. I paired it with an Antec P193v3 case and CP850 PSU, Intel i7-2600k cpu, Zalman 9900max cooler, Intel 510 Sata-III 120gb ssd (boot drive), 2 WD Caviar Black 1tb Sata-III drives in raid-1 (data drive), 16gb of Corsair ddr3 (with low profile heat spreaders), and a GeForce GTX-560ti 2gb video card.The board is physically well made, having no odd jumpers or questionable traces. A previous reviewer mentioned his board having "glove prints" and misaligned jacks, but I had none of that. The board is stamped "Made in China", so it is possible (as with a lot of Chinese imports) that there are quality variations between boards or batches. In any case, my particular board looks absolutely perfect and exactly what I would expect from Intel.Documentation in the box is adequate but sparse. The included full color "quick reference" sheet that comes in the box shows everything you need for making physical connections. For more detail, you will want to download the Product Guide and Technical Product Specification PDFs from Intel's download center. I did find the technical document a little lacking in detail, especially as regards some of the BIOS options. But on the positive side, all documents are professionally written in English with no sign of the more common "bad translation" you see with many electronics products.8 SATA drive ports: There are (6) SATA ports that support RAID via the Intel Z68 chipset: (2) Sata-III (6gb/s) and (4) Sata-II (3gb/s). The onboard Marvel controller adds (2) more Sata-III ports that support RAID via Marvel's software RAID, for a grand total of (4) SATA-II and (4) SATA-III ports.14 USB2 ports: There are 6 external USB2 ports, 2 of which are "high current, always on" for charging external devices like smartphones or tablets. The motherboard has 4 additional USB2 headers, providing 8 more USB2 ports for case front panel or (optional) back-plane adapters. Note that the included Wifi/Bluetooth module, if you use it, plugs into 1 of the 4 headers thus using (2) of the USB2 ports.4 USB3 ports: There are 2 external USB3 ports, and an internal header for 2 more for connection to case front panel or (optional) back-plane adapters.32gb max memory: Four memory slots, supporting up to 32gb of dual-channel DDR3.Other ports: There are two 1394 Firewire ports (one external, one internal header), and an eSata port. The onboard sound support provides 5.1 speaker, microphone, line-in and optical SPDIF-out ports. The Realtek drivers can also be used to configure the microphone port as another speaker port, and this happens automatically if you choose 7.1 sound in the Realtek utility. So if you want to plug a microphone into the back panel, make sure you set Realtek for 5.1 sound or the rear mic socket won't work! In addition to those external audio ports, the motherboard also has headers for front-panel connection of either Intel HD Audio or AC97 audio, depending on what your front panel supports.Graphics: Integrated graphics (with Intel Quicksync) support is one of the reasons I chose a Z68 chipset board. It supplies (2) external DVI connections, 1 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI port so just about any monitor can be connected (although you'll need a DVI-to-VGA adapter to connect an older VGA-only monitor). The included LucidLogix Virtu software allows dynamic switching between the onboard Intel graphics (low power, fast encoding) and a discrete 3D video card (Cad, Games, etc), so you get the best of both worlds.Slots: There are two PCIE 2.0 x16 slots that support Crossfire/SLI (one is 8x electrical). There are two PCIEx1 slots, and three conventional PCI slots. Most graphics cards are dual-width, so you will lose access to the PCI slot adjacent to the PCIEx16 slot(s) when installing discrete graphics card(s). Intel placed the PCIEx1 slots on the opposite side of each PCIEx16, so they won't be blocked.My first power-on went perfectly. Everything started up first time and all devices were recognized in the BIOS. There are a series of LEDs on the edge of the board that show the BIOS initialization step-by-step, and a two-digit display for trouble codes. There is also a physical "Back to BIOS" button which boots with default settings (really useful if you enter an incorrect value that prevents the board from booting). All these would be a great help if the system wasn't booting - but I did not get to try them out because everything worked!A check of the BIOS version showed it was about 4 months old, so using another computer I downloaded the latest BIOS file from Intel's web site onto a USB flash drive. Shutdown, plugged in the flash drive, restarted and held down F7 to enter BIOS update. Chose the file on the flash drive, and waited while the update loaded. Possibly the easiest BIOS update I have ever performed.The Corsair Vengeance 4x4gb memory I purchased is rated at 1600MHz, but Corsair set the SPD memory profile to 1333MHz. That causes the motherboard to initially identify it as 1333 and set the speed accordingly. A little digging in the "Performance" menu of the BIOS allowed setting memory detection to XMP mode. On the next boot, the board automatically read the XMP profile and set the DIMMs for 1600MHz. A boot to "Memtest86" proved all the memory to be recognized and working correctly.Like most boards, the Sata controller defaults to AHCI mode and must be changed to RAID if you want to use the built-in RAID support. Another reboot (with Sata set to RAID) gives the "ctrl-I" option to get into the Intel RAID configuration. I created a RAID-1 set from the two Caviar drives, and left the Intel 510 drive as a non-member disk. (Note that current Jan-2012 Intel RAID drivers will pass TRIM commands to SSD drives in RAID mode as long as they are NOT a member of a RAID volume.)I planned to ultimately install Windows 7 Pro x64, but wanted to see how XP functioned first just to compare my old system. Note that Intel does NOT recommend or support XP on this board, so if you attempt XP and have problems, don't go crying to Intel. Fortunately, it was easy to get XP installed and running. Any competent person with a modicum of computer experience will have no problem. But again, Intel does not support using XP on this board, so if you proceed with XP be ready to support yourself if you have any problems.The integrated USB 3 ports worked just fine with XP, contrary to what one of the earlier reviewers here stated. That reviewer misdiagnosed his problem with USB3 multiple times, first leaving a bad review for his Lacie USB 3.0 drives, then leaving a bad review for this DZ68BC motherboard. He later found the problem was actually a defective front panel in his Corsair 400R case, but to date has not updated his DZ68BC or Lacie USB 3.0 hard drive reviews after finding his mistake.With the successful XP experiment out of the way, I turned to the Window 7 x64 Ultimate installation.Windows7 x64 setup saw all the disks using its built-in (Microsoft) RAID drivers, and allowed me to delete the XP partition and start fresh. It also installed perfectly using built-in (Microsoft) RAID driver. FYI, there is a great chart on Intel's web site that shows when you do and do not need to load Intel drivers during Windows installation at ([...]). Bottom line, if you are using a boot drive less than 2tb with Windows Vista or 7, you do not need to load the Intel drivers before/during Windows installation. They should, however, eventually be installed as they provide better health monitoring, recovery and migration capabilities.If your monitor is attached to the integrated video, it will look horrible during Windows7 setup. But don't be concerned, this happens because Windows does not have a driver for the onboard Intel HD3000 graphics. The very next step after installing Windows 7 is to run the "Intel Express Installer" from the included CD. This utility installs all the drivers for the Intel chipset and onboard devices (including integrated video and Intel RAID drivers). While some of the drivers are outdated and will need to be subsequently updated from the Intel web site, using the Express Installer is still the best way to ensure a complete initial setup.The Express Installer places links on your desktop for later downloading of the Intel Desktop Utilities, Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, and Lucid Virtu. Desktop Utilities is a must-have for monitoring system temperatures and voltages. The Extreme Tuning Utility is interesting, but really only needed if you plan to tweak performance and overclock. The Lucid Virtu software is for dynamic switching between integrated graphics and a discrete video card.Another word about using both integrated graphics and a discrete video card, along with Lucid Virtu. This requires some changes in the BIOS before you can install Lucid and get it working. By default, the BIOS options are set to disable integrated graphics is a PCIe graphics card is detected, so you need to change this in the BIOS by setting the Integrated Graphics to ALWAYS be active. This ensures the Lucid program can see/use both adapters.I was skeptical of the Lucid Virtu software. But I ran a "Windows Experience Test" with and without the Lucid Virtu software running, and was pleasantly surprised to see the same results -- no discernible performance penalty for having Virtu running. The integrated video adapter with Intel Quicksync can make transcoding video several times faster. Lucid Virtu allows both the integrated and descrete video cards to be active, with a single monitor output, and automatically switch between them as needed. This gives the best of both worlds -- the ability to use Intel quicksync when transcoding video, while using the discrete PCIe video card for 3d graphics and games.So far, I have to say this board has met all my expectations. Loads of ports, booted up first time, all BIOS options worked as expected, and has been completely stable so far (burned in for three weeks now). It runs Windows 7 x64 very fast, very smooth. It also works with XP if you must have XP, but it is unsupported with XP so don't try it unless you have the skills and patience to support yourself!.I have observed one quirk in the BIOS that is worth mentioning. The board has a CPU Fan header, plus (3) more headers labeled FRONT, REAR, and AUX. All four show up in the BIOS along with a current RPM reading and "duty cycle" setting. While it *appears* that the duty cycle can be changed independently for all four, the duty cycle setting for the AUX fan is non-operational. Whatever duty cycle is set for the REAR fan (even if you don't have one attached) is used for both the AUX and REAR fans - but the RPM is reported independently. According to Intel, this behavior is "by design", but it is confusing since changes to the AUX duty cycle are accepted yet completely ignored in favor of whatever the REAR setting is. (Intel has stated this will be fixed in a future BIOS release.)All in all, the board has been excellent and has exceeded my expectations.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
By rseiler
I upgraded to the DZ68BC from a veritable antique Intel P4-era board, which to its credit was still working 8 years later. I expect nothing less from the DZ68BC, which is designed for Intel's Sandy Bridge (and with a future BIOS upgrade, Ivy Bridge) era CPUs, which should be good enough for years to come.The board works as expected with an Antec Three Hundred case, 8GB of G.Skill memory (max total 32GB), Core i5-2500, and a Crucial M4 SSD. The flash upgrade--easily done by putting it on a USB stick--went perfectly, and Windows 7 x64 installed startlingly fast.There's USB 2/3, DVI, Displayport, HDMI, Wifi (G and N), Bluetooth, and about everything else you can think of, though you're out of luck if you need a parallel (LPT) port for an old printer (in that case, get a USB-LPT adapter). Ditto serial, though note that they include pins onboard if you want to supply your own serial ribbon cable out to the back of the case.Loads of SATA ports (SATA2 and SATA3)--so many, that you can very likely stick with the native Intel ports and not bother with the pair of Marvell ones (I actually disabled my Marvell SATA ports, which speeds boot time quite a bit).Comes with a broad array of on-board LEDs for diagnostic purposes, including a coded 2-digit display. For good measure, the board also includes a glowing skull, since what good board wouldn't (yes, you can disable it in the BIOS)?
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4 stars. "Good board with caveats" I get Intel motherboards for stability and support. This is the first one I have found that supports UEFI. I wanted to put 6 1TB ...
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