Launched at the outset of the twelvemonth, Intel's 32nm Sandy Bridge processors arrived alongside the new socket LGA1155 and 2 accompanying six-serial chipsets, the P67 and H67. Each platform presented a different value perspective: the pricier P67 supported Intel'south unlocked "Chiliad" series enthusiast processors with advanced overclocking options, while the cheaper H67 had admission to Sandy Bridge's built-in graphics.

Neither chipset offered both features, ultimately forcing users to assess their priorities. However this hasn't been a major deal for the boilerplate organisation builder considering someone who wants to overclock heavily probably has a detached graphics card, while someone who's using Sandy Bridge'southward integrated graphics flake probable wouldn't want to be bothered with overclocking -- note the word "likely."

There exists a 3rd, smaller grouping of individuals who want squeeze extra performance out of their processor and memory, simply don't crave the graphical muscle of a full-blown video card. To fill that void, Intel has released the Z68 chipset, which is somewhat of a hybrid of the P67 and H67: information technology allows you to overclock while simultaneously using the baked-in graphics engine. Just in that location'due south more to it...

Along with combining the functionality of its previous chipsets, Intel has infused the Z68 with some impressive new features that should make it more highly-seasoned to a broader demographic. By cramming more than features into the Z68, the visitor has finer created a new enthusiast-grade chipset, while the P67 has been demoted to somewhat of a mid-range offering.

Intel'south Smart Response Engineering science (SRT) is one of the more than noteworthy additions as information technology boosts system performance by using a small solid country drive for caching purposes. SRT is to an extent similar to what the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drives offer, except it'southward considerably more than flexible. This is an attractive feature amongst hardware buffs, every bit full-fledged SSDs are still as well expensive for widespread adoption. We'll be fully testing this capability on this review.

Intel is also shipping the Z68 with LucidLogix Virtu GPU virtualization software, which offers power savings by allowing your organization to toggle between a detached video card or Sandy Bridge'southward built-in graphics engine for a specific task -- think of Nvidia'southward Optimus technology on the desktop. Needless to say, we're eager to examine both features courtesy of Asrock's latest Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, so let'southward go this prove on the road.