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The Z68 chipset is the fruits of one of Intel's most inspiring releases to this day. Sandy Bridge represents a step in technology which marks an architecture level that will last for a few years. This is comparable to when the 1st 64 bit processors were released and when the first quad core processors became affordable available.

The explanation for Sandy Bridge's success is that the CPU is way more interactive vis video performance than any CPU in the past. It's not simply a central processing unit, but it is a PC Gamers central processing unit - no other processor exceeds the i5-2500k for gaming performance. It is matched only by the i7-2600k (a hyperthreaded version of the i5). Shortly Intel will be releasing the Sandy Bridge-E enthusiast series with the x79 chipset, but that combination will run you $1500 on the cpu/mobo alone.

The Z68 chipset represents a perfect offering for the multi-user: the individual who espouses to be an enthusiast Computer gamer but also has many other uses for the PC - like graphical production, writing, college, development or anything you could think about for use with a P. C..

Taking the best from the P67 chipset - overclocking capabilities - and the H67 chipset - onboard video - the Z68 chipset provides an offering for those who like to overclock but also require the technical usefulness of the on board video (which is historically better for video trans-coding than a discrete 3d card). Along side the combo of the best of these other chipsets, the Z68 provides 2 unique offerings.

The first of these bonuses from the Z68 chipset is known as Virtu. Virtu is a 3rd party program which employs the on board video capabilities together with a discrete 3d video card - something any enthusiast pc gamer is going to use. Instead of having the on board video go to waste, Virtu will switch functions from the 3d discrete card to the on board if the current action would be more tightly fitted to the on board - such as Video trans-coding. This ends up having no effect on the gaming performance.

The other brilliant addition to the Z68 chipset is SSD caching. This provides one the power to acquire SSD speeds at a much lower cost. If one were to acquire an SSD to install system software and all programs for The speed of use - while keeping stored files on a HDD - you would spend at least $250 on a 120GB SSD for nominal effectiveness. With SSD caching, it is possible to get the same speed performance boost but with a 20-40GB SSD for no more than $100.

All in all, the Z68 chipset is simply a capstone for one of the most brilliant tech releases of computer hardware. AMD is still staggering from Sandy Bridge, and it'll take them years (if they're ever able) to supply an offering that will even compete in the same realm.