Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Gen3 Motherboard Review

When using any system outside of a chassis it is nice to have onboard buttons available to power and reset the system without shorting pins on the front panel connector.  Both buttons are backlit indicating power availability and making them easy to spot with the lights down.

The I/O panel is rather self explanatory.  On the panel you will find two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse connections.  Digital audio, Bluetooth ( 2.1+EDR ), eSATA, Firewire, USB (both 2.0 and 3.0 standards) dual Ethernet with one being controlled by an Intel Gigabit Phy, CMOS reset and 8-channel analog audio.

Internal SATA connections number eight.  The light blue connections are SATA3 spec while the white connections follow the SATA6 connections standard direct from the Z68 chipset.  The remainder dark blue SATA ports are SATA6 compliant and are provided by the onboard Marvell controller.

You may have noticed a single BIOS chip located near the SATA connections and below the internal USB3 panel connector.  The in the event of a failed BIOS flash or BIOS corruption you can replace this chip and be back up and running in short order.