All these Z77 boards we are seeing are not the finished designs the heatsinks will be different on the finished board. They do it with all new boards it was the same with the 1155 and X79 ones.
If the rumors are to believed, Q2 is when Ivy Bridge and Z77 will hit. I'm sure that there is much more polish and shiney things to come along before we get to see the final results.
Indeed, but ASUS seem to have been very quiet at this years CES - only a ROG soundcard and a new Headphone Pre-amp (for ROG mobo bundles)... and the 7970 of course. Wonder what they are up to?
Gigabyte don't seem to planning Thunderbolt on their boards, but the higher-end MSI should have it by launch.
While writing the article I did try and find out something definitive - looks like the boards on show are engineering samples, the final boards are bring worked on now.
I don't think Thunderbolt is a required part of the z77 spec.