Asus P8H77-M Pro

Asus P8H77-M Pro review

If Intel's new Ivy Bridge chips haven't exactly been a revelation on the desktop, the first of its new 7 Series chipsets have been a lot more satisfying. Previously, we've only had a taste of motherboards based on the premium Z77 chips, as seen in the Asus P8Z77-V Pro. But thanks to the new Asus P8H77-M Pro, it's time to take the Intel H77 for a spin. In simple terms, the H77 chipset is a slightly more mainstream and multimedia-orientated alternative to the full-featured Z77 platform. That means it shares most of the same features, including the well-established Intel LGA1155 socket and hence support for both older Sandy Bridge CPUs, such as the Core i5-2500K, and the latest Ivy Bridge specimens such as the Core i5-3570K. Vital statsChipset - Intel H77Socket - Intel LGA 1155Graphics support - Intel integrated, PCIe 3.0, CrossFireX, Lucid Virtu MVPUSB 3.0 - Two ports, plus headerMultimedia - VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, optical S/PDIF, 6.1 soundHowever, there are detail differences that you'll either be pretty relaxed about or regard as non-negotiable deal breakers, depending on the workloads your PC spools up.