Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge Processor Review

The Z77 Express chipset, which was designed to be the companion to Intel’s high-end Ivy Bridge-based desktop processors, debuted a couple of weeks back. We have already posted a large round-up of Z77 Express-based motherboards and covered the details of the chipset, so we won’t be going in depth again here. If you’d like to check out our Z77 Express motherboard round-up, it is available right here.

Intel 7-Series Chipset Comparison Table

What we do have for you here is a feature comparison of the other new 7-Series chipsets arriving alongside the flagship Z77. As you can see, the main difference between the chipsets is their support for overclocking, Smart Response Technology, and management and vPro-related features. The Z75 and Z77 also offer support for flexible PCI Express lane configurations and some of the chipsets offer one or two SATA III ports. Also note, that all of the chipsets now offer native USB 3.0 support on up to 4 ports.

G.SKILL F3-17000CLQ9-16GBZH Memory Kit

Ivy Bridge also has support for the latest XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) v1.3 code, for easy memory optimization and overclocking. You can expect an influx of fresh memory kits to arrive alongside Ivy Bridge, like the G.SKILL kit we have here. The G.SKILL RipJaws Z memory kit pictured above consists of four, 4GB, DDR3-2133 sticks of memory (total 16GB), model number F3-17000CLQ9-16GBZH. The sticks run at 1.65v with CL9-11-10-28 timings, and are XMP 1.3 compatible.