Looking at the forums here, and at various overclock sites, the "PRO" of this board is BY FAR more popular than the regular -V variant. Is there a good reason for this?

 

As far as I can see, there is little difference between these:

• PRO has more USB 3 ports. Both have plenty for my, many ;-) controllers and such.
  
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• PRO has 12 phase power for the CPU, vs 8 phase in the plain -V. IMHO that may be on the diminishing returns side of things, but I do plan to overclock.
  
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• PRO has 4 chassis fan connectors? I read this somewhere vs the -V has only 3? Unable to verify this at ASUS site.
  
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• My RAM vendor's site (GSkill) lists the Premium, Deluxe and PRO variants in their "Qualified Motherboards" List. For my RAM they do not mention the LE LX etc. but I to me, if the PRO is listed, the regular -V should be fine too?
  

Is there something I am missing? The PRO really seems to be the board of choice.

 

Just now building i7-3770K, D14 cooler, GSkill 8GB 2133 11-11-11-30, GTX 570 (a gift), in a Corsair 550D case, ASUS P8V77-V.... or should that be -V PRO?

 

Other build comments welcome.

• PRO has 12 phase power for the CPU, vs 8 phase in the plain -V. IMHO that may be on the diminishing returns side of things, but I do plan to overclock.
  

 

Where did you see that?

 

• 
  
• PRO has 4 chassis fan connectors? I read this somewhere vs the -V has only 3? Unable to verify this at ASUS site.

I've been researching both boards -- and from what I can gather, yes, the V-PRO has 4 cha fan connectors, while the -V has 3.

 

• My RAM vendor's site (GSkill) lists the Premium, Deluxe and PRO variants in their "Qualified Motherboards" List. For my RAM they do not mention the LE LX etc. but I to me, if the PRO is listed, the regular -V should be fine too?

I always go to the motherboard's site to get RAM stick quals. Here's the link for the -V PRO :

 

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z77V_PRO/#MSL

 

I don't see a G.SKILL set on the QVL with those exact timings. Make sure you compare the part numbers on the QVL with the sticks you're looking at. I'm paranoid about that sort of thing after running a couple of machines where I got careless and didn't pay attention to the QVL's.

Closest match I see on the QVL is:

G.Skill F3-17066CL9D-8GBPID in 2x4gb pairing at 9-9-9-24 and 1.65v.

 

Is there something I am missing? The PRO really seems to be the board of choice.

 

I'm leaning toward the -V PRO because it has Wifi on it -- which I make use of in my house -- on my current Wifi ASUS board. Also, the -V PRO also has Intel LAN, as opposed to Realtek on the -V.

But please, tell me more about the 12 vs 8 phase power to the cpu. That's one difference that I have missed.

 

Just now building i7-3770K, D14 cooler, GSkill 8GB 2133 11-11-11-30, GTX 570 (a gift), in a Corsair 550D case, ASUS P8V77-V.... or should that be -V PRO?

 

Other build comments welcome.

 

That's a Noctua D14? Haven't run one but I hear good things.

 

I'm probably going to build an i7-2700k, H100 cooler, ASUS P8V77-V PRO, eVGA GTX680. I'm re-using my monstrous Silverstone TJ09 case. Not sure on the memory, power supply, or SSD yet. Probably 256 gig SSD. Probably 750+ watt power supply, Seasonic / Corsair / PC Power & Cooling. Probably G.Skill or Corsair memory. I'm not ruling out Mushkin either, but I'll have to compare what I find for sale vs. what's on the QVL. Your post has made me get off my lazy butt and start doing those comparisons.

I am wondering the same about the P8Z77 MB. Looking at the P8Z77-LE since I don't need WiFi or any other extras except for 1 PCI-E 3.0