ASUS Reveals Entire Line-Up of New Intel Z97 Motherboards

At a media event in Bangkok last week, ASUS revealed their entire line-up of new Z97 motherboards, ranging from the regular series to their popular ROG (Republic of Gamers) and TUF (The Ultimate Force) motherboard series.

Before we dive into the specifics of the various motherboards in the following pages, let us first look at what the new Z97 Express chipset series has to offer. As a start, the new chipset will support LGA 1150 processors, which means all 4th generation (including the upcoming refresh) and next generation Core processors (codenamed Broadwell). Essentially, the Z97 is an upgrade to Z87 and will feature support for the new PCIe M.2 storage that offers speeds of up to 67% faster than SATA Gen 3 ports. With a dedicated 1x2 PCIe M.2 storage port, devices plugged into that slot will be supported and managed like any other drive by Intel Rapid Storage technology.

Intel will also be launching the mainstream H97 Express chipset at the same time as the Z97. The H97 will come with support for only one single discrete graphics card (as opposed to three on the Z97) and it will also not allow CPU overclocking. The new PCIe M.2 storage is still going to be a part of the H97 although Dynamic Storage Accelerator would probably not be featured (similar to H87).

On ASUS’ regular range of Z97 motherboards, you’ll find the new 5-way Optimization feature that now comes with an upgraded Fan Xpert 3 and a new Turbo App that lets you change system settings dynamically, all controlled from within a single app. The rest of the features like TPU, EPU and DIGI+ Power remain pretty much the same as their previous Z87 series of motherboards.

For Fan Xpert3, ASUS has incorporated multiple thermal sensors on the motherboard for easy monitoring. There’s also an extra thermal header that you can easily attach a thermal probe to monitor whatever device you have inside your PC. With all the critical temperatures being monitored closely, Fan Xpert 3 then gives you further control of all the fans you have in your system. Now with a more precise hardware-level PWM/DC support for all kinds of fans, you can have very precise fan speed control to get that perfect balance between temperature and fan noise.

The other component of their new 5-way optimization feature is the new Turbo App. It is basically a performance management application that runs in the background of Windows. What it does is it remembers all your performance settings so that it’s automatically activated when the application is executed. Inside the app, you can preset the system performance (the processor clock speed) to use for each individual app as well as audio settings and network prioritization. You can also use it to automatically overclock your PC too.

Besides enhancement on the software side of the board, ASUS will also be bringing SATA Express to their new 9 series motherboards. With speeds comparable with M.2, the new SATA Express ports will give M.2 storage devices a run for their money since a SATA Express drive can be in the same 2.5-inch/3.5-inch form factor, unlike M.2, which is in its own unique form factor. SATA Express ports are also backward compatible with existing SATA cables and the ports are reusable for normal SATA drives if you choose not to use it for SATA Express. ASUS will be supporting SATA Express with a new HYPER EXPRESS enclosure that lets you use either two M.2, mSATA or 2.5-inch SSDs. ASUS did not show us a working sample of the enclosure although they promised it will be ready in June for Computex.

On the audio portion of the motherboard, ASUS has upgraded it to Crystal Sound 2 by enhancing the board layout with audio shielding and dedicated PCB layers for audio. According to ASUS, the shielding helps greatly in reducing digital noise while the dedicated layers improve channel separation of the left and right audio channels. The audio circuitries have also been enhanced with premium Japanese grade audio capacitors while the built-in audio amplifier will support high-end headphones with high impedance.

There will be four motherboards in the TUF series for the Z97 chipset, two from the Sabertooth family (ATX) and another two from the Gryphon family (micro-ATX). The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 (ATX) and Gryphon Z97 Armor Edition (micro-ATX) will come with the Thermal Armor which serves as protection as well as directing airflow through critical components in the motherboard. The two boards will also come with the TUF Fortifier steel back plate that serves to keep the board from bending and for improved thermal dissipation. According to ASUS, the steel back plate can reduce operating temperatures by as much as 7 degrees Celcius.

If you’re not into the armor and back plate, then the Sabertooth Z97 Mark II (ATX) and Gryphon Z97 (micro-ATX) would be great choices since they come with the same server grade high quality components you can expect from any of the TUF motherboards.

Besides aesthetics, ASUS has also updated the board with new alloy chokes that look somewhat like a meat tenderizer. The bumpy top of the chokes increases the surface area by 18.5%, leading to better heat dissipation and reducing temperatures by as much as 9.35 degrees Celcius.

On the two motherboards equipped with thermal armor, you’ll find a small fan mounted at the rear I/O panel that helps draw cool air into the motherboard. But that’s no ordinary fan as it also functions to reduce dust accumulation in the system. You can manually set the fan to expel dust by reversing its airflow every time it boots or at certain intervals. Obviously this isn’t new as we’ve seen this feature in another brand's graphics cards before, but it’s nice to see that ASUS is serious in dealing with dust issues.

For gamers, there will be a total of three new ROG motherboards under the new Maximus VII branding. As a start, ASUS will introduce the Hero, Ranger and Gene motherboards, while the high-end Extreme and Formula as well as the smaller mini-ITX Impact will come at a later time. What’s new is the Maximus VII Ranger, which according to ASUS will be targeted at the mainstream gamer with very affordable price points. In fact, the Maximus VII Ranger will be the cheapest ATX board in the entire ROG series, so it’s worth checking out if you’re on a tight budget.

Besides a new design with better matching colored connectors and a new black nickel coated processor socket (not that you’ll ever see it with the heatsink installed), the new Maximus VII series does come with a few new features.

First off, ASUS will introduce a new KeyBot feature that instantly gives your keyboard added controls to your system. The KeyBot uses a customized microprocessor that powers a dedicated USB port, which means your keyboard has to be connected to that special USB port to fully enjoy its functions. Once connected, your keyboard can be used to boot your PC into specific modes. For example, pressing the F11 key can instantly boot your system in an overclocked mode while F12 lets you boot by enabling XMP (eXtreme Memory Profiles). Apart from that, KeyBot also lets you program macro keys, shortcuts as well as often-used functions like mail, web browsing or multimedia controls. There’s also the Smart Login feature that allows you to automatically fill up any username and password in web dialog boxes although honestly, we didn’t think it’s quite that secure since it stores your password in the clear, offering no encryption whatsoever.

Networking on the new ROG motherboards has also been improved with an upgrade from Intel’s I217-V to I218-V Ethernet controller. According to ASUS, using an Intel network controller does have its advantages since the CPU and chipset would all work together nicely under the same Intel ecosystem. In addition, ASUS claims that its throughput has been tested to be far more superior to other network controllers. Besides chip-level enhancements, ASUS is also using premium LANGuard RJ45 connector for better throughput and signal coupling. LANGuard RJ45 connector comes with in-built ESD guards and surge-protection components for better protection against static discharge and even lightning strikes.

Gamers will also find the upgraded GameFirst III to be even more useful and intuitive in helping to assign priority to game packets. The user interface has been upgraded to make configuration easy and you can now optimize any applications with preset modes, including media streaming and file sharing. There is also built-in network monitoring that lets you test your bandwidth as well as historical network usage data for each and every of your application.

Finally, there is also the new Sonic SenseAmp feature that detects and automatically sets the headphone impedance for optimal performance. With the new feature, you no longer need to manually switch the impedance; the board does it all automatically, ensuring you’re getting the right level of power delivered to your headphone. This is a useful feature especially if you have a variety of headphones that you use for various purposes.

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