Fremont, CA (May 21, 2012)  - Further demonstrating its market leading innovation and  technological leadership, ASUS  is  proud to announce the launch  of its P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard — the flagship of the P8Z77 Series and the  first Intel certified motherboard  in the market to offer the latest Thunderbolt connection interface. The PREMIUM  designation has been reserved for only the best motherboards with the latest  technologies, and the P8Z77-V PREMIUM maintains this standard. In addition to the onboard Thunderbolt  connection on the P8Z77-V PREMIUM, ASUS also offers the same  technology on the P8Z77-V  PRO/THUNDERBOLT to give consumers a wider range of choices. 
     
    “Intel and ASUS have  worked closely on the implementation of Thunderbolt™ technology onto ASUS  motherboards”, said Jason Ziller, Intel’s Director of Thunderbolt  Marketing.  “The P8Z77-V PREMIUM is the first Thunderbolt certified  motherboard in the industry, a testament to its solid design and  compatibility.”                 Thunderbolt  onboard offering unmatched performance and functionality
    Thunderbolt is a new, high-speed I/O  technology designed for performance, simplicity and flexibility, with lightning  fast transfer speeds that are twice that of USB 3.0 and up to 20 times faster  than USB 2.0. It offers simultaneous bi-directional 10Gbps transfer speeds over  a single cable, with the flexibility to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt-ready  devices with a single connection as well as offering full display port support  for a 7th Thunderbolt or display port equipped monitor. This allows for  a clutter-free computing experience while offering unprecedented levels of  performance. Users can connect multiple Thunderbolt-enabled external storage  drives to a Thunderbolt-enabled display and transfer files while watching HD  movies, all without experiencing any lag. In addition for content professional  this connection has been designed form the ground up for multimedia offering low latency with  highly accurate time synchronization for professional audio and video  applications. PC enthusiast and gamers can take immediate advantage combining  Thunderbolt and on-board Lucid Virtu MVP to enjoy top-notch graphics  performance.                 Strength  through cooperation and expertise in design
      With its long history of working with high  tech vendors, ASUS is able to show its strength and commitment to  innovation with a close relationship to three of the leading brands currently  producing products with Thunderbolt technology, Elgato, LaCie, and PROMISE.
            "Elgato  is delighted to work with ASUS to bring the world’s first portable Thunderbolt  drive to Windows," says Markus Fest, Elgato's CEO. "The powerful  combination of ASUS' new PREMIUM board technology and the Elgato Thunderbolt  SSD dramatically outperforms state-of-the-art portable USB 3.0 or eSATA  drives."
     
      “LaCie is  pleased to work with ASUS to showcase the power of Thunderbolt technology in a  Windows environment,” said Erwan Girard, Business Unit Manager for Professional  Solutions, LaCie. “Our solutions will deliver the unprecedented speeds and  advantages of this technology to PC demanding users, especially those working  in digital media applications who continually strive for more performance.”
     
      PROMISE is a  leading supplier of sophisticated RAID storage solutions catering to customers  from the enterprise to SMB, as well as SOHO and digital home applications. They  currently offer the world’s first Thunderbolt enabled RAID storage solutions  and have previously worked with ASUS to develop a diversified portfolio to meet  customer’s requirements.
     
      In addition to  this close partnership with these three vendors ASUS has work very close with  Intel to ensure the most care is taken in offering the best implementation  taking extra care to fine tune PCB and Trace Design and overall routing of the  Thunderbolt implementation to offer the best performance, compatibility and  overall functionality for this high speed connection.
            Truly  a premium motherboard with unmatched connectivity, functionality and features
    The title of PREMIUM carries certain  expectations, and as such, the P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard boasts several new  features pushing pass the limitations of the Z77 chipset, such as true 4-way  NVIDIA® SLI™ and 4-way AMD CrossFireX™ on the latest PCIe Gen 3.0 slots for  maximum graphics performance. Also introduced is advanced SSD Caching II,  allowing users to cache additional frequently used programs and files using  multiple SSDs to instantly upgrade system performance. A 32GB mSATA based SSD  is also onboard, enabling Intel® Smart Response and Rapid Start Technology™ for  super-fast boot up and resume times. Network traffic is handled by a pair of  Gigabit Intel LAN ports, ensuring high speed transfers for outstanding network  performance. In addition in conjunction with ASUS’ exclusive Network iControl  users can customize their network performance to their specific usage. Rounding  our connectivity the premium also features the fastest USB 3.0 implementation  via USB 3.0 Boost support extending performance for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0  devices.
   
    Dedicated to providing the latest  innovations, the P8Z77-V PREMIUM and P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT provides users with the best and most  complete solutions available, such as Dual Intelligent Processor 3 with SMART  DIGI+ Power Control – the most advanced VRM design implementation for unmatched  control and tuning to the VRM for maximum efficiency and performance and  extended overclocking potential, Wi-Fi GO! for extended wireless functionality  – DLNA serving or streaming, easy file transfer to mobile devices and remote  desktop. These functions work alongside the on-board dual-band wireless as well  as the newest Bluetooth 4.0 standard. Rounding out the advanced feature set is  an unmatched level of fan controls offered within the UEFI or in Windows via  the most advanced and robust fan controls of any motherboard via Fan Xpert 2.  The P8Z77-V Premium truly affirms an unmatched attention to design detail and  feature integration to position itself as a one of its kind Z77 chipset-based  motherboard.
        Available Models       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Models	P8Z77-V PREMIUM	P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT
CPU Socket	Intel® Socket 1155 for 3rd/2nd Generation Core™ i7/Core™    i5/Core™ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors
Chipset	Intel® Z77 Express Chipset
Memory	DDR3 2800(O.C.) MHz	DDR3 2600(O.C.) MHz
Digital CPU Power Design	Dual Intelligent Processors 3 - SMART DIGI+ Power Control
	Digital 20-Phase Power           (16-Phase for CPU &           4-Phase for iGPU)	Digital 12-Phase Power           (8-Phase for CPU &           4-Phase for iGPU)
Digital DRAM Power Design	V	V
PCIex16 Slots	4*PCIe 3.0 x16	3*PCIe 3.0 x16;
Multi-GPU	4-Way CrossFireX™/SLI	CrossFireX™/SLI
Graphics	Thunderbolt/DisplayPort/HDMI	Thunderbolt/HDMI/DVI-D/RGB
Gb LAN	2 (Intel)	1 (Intel)
Wireless Connection	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n           Dual band 2.4/5GHz & Bluetooth v4.0	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Audio	8-ch HD, DTS	8-ch HD, DTS
Storage	1*mSATA 3.0 Gb/s with 32GB SSD onboard           6*SATA 6Gb/s           3*SATA 3Gb/s           2*eSATA 6Gb/s	4*SATA 6Gb/s           4*SATA 3Gb/s           1*eSATA (with bracket support)
USB 3.0	6*USB 3.0  (4 ports at back panel, 2 ports at mid-board)	6*USB 3.0 (4 ports at back panel, 2 ports at mid-board)
TPU/EPU           (with onboard switch)	V	V
ASUS SSD Caching II	V
ASUS Wi-Fi GO!	V	V
ASUS Fan Xpert 2	V	V
USB BIOS Flashback	V	V
USB 3.0 Boost	V	V
Network iControl	V	V
LucidLogix Virtu MVP	V	V