Final thoughts and rating
We can tell you that every motherboard manufacturer is putting considerable focus on the upcoming Z77 chipset from Intel. Designed to fully support the next-generation Ivy Bridge chips that are to supersede the current crop of mid-range Sandy Bridge CPUs, Z77 is destined to replace incumbent Z68 as Intel's performance chipset for the masses.
But Z68, while due to be pensioned off, is a decent performer in its own right. Indeed, with the addition of a new BIOS - FC for the reviewed board - and an updated Management Engine 8 driver, Z68 will also support the 22nm Ivy Bridge processor, albeit without some of the additional bells and whistles of Z77 that we can't talk about right now.
Gigabyte realises there's still merit for Z68. The firm is looking to corner the budget end of the market with the attractively-priced Z68AP-D3 model. Available for £75 and providing GPU-switching Virtu support and a gaggle of basic features, we recommend you put it on a shortlist for a (relatively) budget Intel Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge build.
The Good
Price - same as inferior H67 chipset
Virtu GPU-switching support
Decent layout
mSATA port
The Bad
No SLI support
Old-style BIOS
HEXUS Rating
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 motherboard
HEXUS Awards
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 motherboard
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 is available from Scan.co.uk and Dabs.com.HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
