Can you still remember what kind of student you were in high-school? Were you the studious type who never left his room and had no social life? Were you the party animal who skated by and barely passed his courses in time for graduation? Were you active in sports or band and spent a lot of time in extra-curricular activities after school? Were you the prom queen who came from a privileged family and was not expected to do anything except marry rich and live happily ever after? Truth is, most people in high-school are a combination of many archetypes and that lack of firm identity and purpose is merely a symptom of insecurity.
Looking at the latest crop of Intel Z77 motherboards, it is ironic to see the parallels between the two. Many mainboards are simply a mishmash of features and a lot leave me asking, "Who is this for?" Some put on an aggressive look and adorn the heatsinks with guns or knives, some demand attention through a combination of weird color schemes and some have features which were merely copied from other mainboards. In order to make a connection with their fans, mainboard manufacturers have to understand what their products are about and which segment of the market they belong to. You cannot address the needs of all users in one board for you will run the risk of driving the price too high or overwhelming the users completely out of their curiosity. Niche users have a different set of needs and this is something ASUS understood, hence the creation of the Republic of Gamers, Sabertooth TUF and Workstation mainboard product lines.
The ASUS P8Z77 WS motherboard is the latest addition in ASUS’ workstation motherboard lineup, designed for reliability and server-level compatibility. The ASUS P8Z77 WS is an enthusiast-class mainboard based on Intel's latest Z77 platform, supporting both 2nd generation 32nm and 3rd generation 22nm Intel Core processors. Outfitted with a pair of Intel server-class Gigabit LAN ports, USB Boost functionality and SSD Caching capabilities, the ASUS P8Z77 WS delivers high-performance connectivity to the LGA1155 platform. The ASUS P8Z77 WS motherboard is also one of the few Z77 mainboards capable of PCI-E Gen 3 4-way SLI/CrossFireX, providing significant graphical horsepower over any other LGA1155 motherboard in the market.
