I wish Asus would offer the superior Realtek ALC889 audio on all its boards, like Gigabyte does.

The mainstream ALC892 has lower specs, particularly as to the S/N ratio.

Asus only implements ALC889 on its top-of-the line products. I wonder how much they save on a lower-tange board by using the ALC892 instead.

Sounds like empty ASUS advertising. And I'll tell you why. BTW I am the happy owner of the deluxe version.

1. nice-looking boxes with good accessories? Come on! You should compare set of accessories to Maximus series of ASUS. Deluxe accessories are poor.

2. Installation of drivers is so buggy and really a lot of people struggling with that. Try search "cannot install AI Suite II".

3. You are measuring power consumption. It so much depends on how you have configured your system and that is the point, because strength of motherboard is the convenience and possibilities to adjust motherboard for your needs. And flexibility is what you should test, not the +-2 points in a game or synthetic benchmark. Motherboard generally defines power consumption of overall system and that depends on drivers, components, features and how motherboard can use or control them.

Suggestion: you should create 3 user profiles
a) audiophile, medium to large silent case, silent components, audio quality, minimum interference, medium power saving. workload - browser and music, seek silence, measure noise.
this depends on how you will be able to configure PWM/nonPWM fans, what noise is coming from integrated audio.
b) eco family, small to medium case, minimum cheaper components, maximum power saving, medium noise. workload - browser, media and medium quality graphics in games, seek min power, measure - power consumption.
And of course it depends how you manage to configure power consumption, what EPU provides etc.
c) gamer. medium to large case, good graphics, medium noise, overclocking. workload - gaming, seek max fps, measure gaming performance.
this of course depends on SLI/CrossFire options, so called overclock tuner, etc.

comparing idle power consumption of motherboards is like comparing door handles of autos.

Thanks but could you tell me if P8Z68-V Pro is better on worst OVERCLOCKER than Asus p67 ?

Thanks !