This weekend I received some new parts I ordered earlier this week for upgrading my computer, and building a new computer with my brother.

• Asus P8Z77-V PRO
  
• Intel I5 3570K
  
• Corsair 2x 8GB (PC3-12800)
  
• Radeon HD7850 (2GB)
  
• Arctic cooling freezer 7
  

The motherboard has a WiFi module, USB 3 ports and PCI Express 3.0, although I don't think I really need any of that stuff. The WiFi chip with external antenna seems to work quite well, at least as far as I can benchmark with our current broadband connection. Ubuntu's drivers were great, but the drivers loaded in Windows 8 (and I tried many versions) had some issues with my router, a D-LINK DIR-655, only getting between 1.5 and 2.5 mbps downstream while I get 12-13 mbps in Ubuntu. When in Windows 8 I connect to the ADSL modem I get full speed.

(After a total reset of the router, leaving the traffic shaping on, I now get normal speed again..)

Installation otherwise was relatively straight forward since both Windows 8 and Ubuntu managed to adjust to new hardware without trouble. I had some strange shutdowns initially with the following

"Anti-surge protection was triggered"

message in BIOS. I haven't seen it since I moved the RAM to the recommended slots given in the manual (#2 and #4 from the CPU). Different forums say different things, ranging from defect or too weak power supply to immature measurement technology on the chip itself.

The motherboard will automatically clock the CPU depending on the load, and between 1.56 - 3.78 GHz. Stock is 3.4 GHz. Next up is overclocking this thing. It should not be a problem reaching 4.5 GHz on air from what I have heard.