Launched at the beginning of the yr, Intel'southward 32nm Sandy Span processors arrived alongside the new socket LGA1155 and two accompanying 6-serial chipsets, the P67 and H67. Each platform presented a different value perspective: the pricier P67 supported Intel's unlocked "K" serial enthusiast processors with advanced overclocking options, while the cheaper H67 had access 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 arrangement architect considering someone who wants to overclock heavily probably has a discrete graphics card, while someone who's using Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics fleck likely wouldn't want to exist bothered with overclocking -- note the word "likely."

At that place exists a third, smaller group of individuals who desire squeeze extra performance out of their processor and memory, just don't require the graphical muscle of a full-diddled video bill of fare. To fill up that void, Intel has released the Z68 chipset, which is somewhat of a hybrid of the P67 and H67: it allows you to overclock while simultaneously using the broiled-in graphics engine. But there's more to information technology...

Along with combining the functionality of its previous chipsets, Intel has infused the Z68 with some impressive new features that should go far more appealing to a broader demographic. By cramming more 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's Smart Response Technology (SRT) is ane of the more noteworthy additions as it boosts system performance past using a small-scale solid state drive for caching purposes. SRT is to an extent like to what the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drives offer, except it's considerably more flexible. This is an attractive feature among hardware buffs, as full-fledged SSDs are still too expensive for widespread adoption. Nosotros'll exist fully testing this adequacy on this review.

Intel is besides shipping the Z68 with LucidLogix Virtu GPU virtualization software, which offers power savings by assuasive your system to toggle between a discrete video card or Sandy Span'southward built-in graphics engine for a specific task -- think of Nvidia'southward Optimus engineering on the desktop. Needless to say, we're eager to examine both features courtesy of Asrock's latest Z68 Extreme4 motherboard, so let'southward get this show on the road.