Next Gen: ASUS Z87 Deluxe/SATA Express

The ASUS Z87 Deluxe/SATA Express is a modified Z87 Deluxe to provide a technical demonstration of SATA Express. It exhibits the fact that ASUS is not only developing motherboards with next generation SATA Express, it has them already working. As the name suggests, SATA Express swaps out standard [S]ATA data connectivity for PCI-Express, allowing speeds well beyond 6Gbps through a proposed set of future upgrades through to 40Gbps. The new connector is backward compatible with SATA, allowing up to two devices to be plugged in the same space as one SATA Express. Tweaktown's storage guru, Chris Ramseyer, has put together a detailed preview explaining everything about the new SATA Express [SATA 3.2] standard, including benchmarks exhibiting performance we can expect to see. As no SATA Express drives yet exist, TT used an ROG RAIDR to demonstrate the performance, with throughput exceeding that of existing SATA 6Gbps drives. Once you've finished browsing our gallery, hit the link below for TT's preview. [gallery include="" size="medium" link="file" template="file-gallery" columns="2"] This SATA Express cable design is not the final-shipping version. Foxconn was kind enough to provide an early, functional design for ASUS. Expect the final products to a more refined connector with single cable.