ASUS Z97 Motherboard Review And News Roundup

The first batch of ASUS Z97 motherboard news and reviews has hit the net and we've rounded them up below.

ASUS Z97-Deluxe Motherboard Review

Link: PC Perspective

The Z97-Deluxe is a great example of what a flagship board should be - stellar performance with every feature under the sun integrated including the kitchen sink. Ok, so maybe it didn't include the kitchen sink, but it really does have every other conceivable integrated feature you could ever ask for.

ASUS Maximus VII Hero Preview @ OC3D

Link: Overclock3D

ASUS have helpfully compared the Maximus VII Hero to their preceding Maximus VI Hero, which was certainly one of the better Z87 motherboards around. By putting the major changes in red it allows at 'at a glance' checklist of what is new. Which, as you can see by casting your eyes through the list, is support for the forthcoming 5th Generation Intel CPUs, higher memory overclocking (up from 3000MHz to 3200MHz), improved network hardware and configuration and superior audio options. Everything else has, as you'd expect, been tweaked and refined with more upto-date ROG Gamefirst and better fan control options, alongside the M.2 Socket 3 support.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZGDznDI09Wg[/video]

ASUS Z97 A, WS and Deluxe Preview @ OC3D

Link: Overclock3D

Most of us know ASUS more through their ROG series of motherboards, the Maximum and Rampage, than perhaps we know their more regular boards. However, these are the most popular by a long a way, finding their way into a large majority of system builders specifications due to their blend of performance and price.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13-Ta-vR6Xk[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGiu_XjGNkM[/video]

Asus Z97 Deluxe Motherboard Review

Link: TastyPC

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjfKa9Zjgqs[/video]

Upcoming Intel Based Motherboards [Preview] @ Anandtech

Link: Anandtech

The styling is easier to see here, especially with the power delivery heatsink reaching around three sides of the CPU socket. On the right there are some SATA Express ports, with an M.2 just between the chipset heatsink and what looks like the TPU switch. As the Deluxe is high up the scale of the board list, we see two USB 3.0 headers near the 24-pin ATX connector as well as an 802.11ac WiFi module on the rear IO. It looks like the audio also has had an update, and we move to Dual Intelligent Processors V (five).

ASUS (Intel) Z97-A [Preview] @ Hexus

Link: Hexus.net

Getting the obvious out of the way, the 9-series Asus boards look a heck of a lot better than the overly-yellow, gaudy offerings from last year. This time around, the design is understated and rather more functional-looking.

ASUS Z97 Motherboards Preview

Link: bit-tech

Each of ASUS's motherboards will fall into one of three ranges: the standard Z97 one, TUF (The Ultimate Force) or ROG (Republic of Gamers). For the Z97 one, ASUS is using a new colour scheme, with the subtle gold and black being a massive improvement (to our eyes) over the garish yellow and black one introduced on its Z87 boards. The company had six models on show; the Z97-Deluxe, Z97-WS, Z97-Pro, Z97-Pro (WiFi ac), Z97-A and Z97I-plus. However, given the extent of its Z87 range, you can expect more to trickle into the product stack after the launch.

ASUS Z97-WS Workstation (Intel Z97) Motherboard Review

Link: TweakTown

We were very impressed with how the new BIOS really brings it all together when setting a system up. It is much simpler to use and you really have no need to go into the advanced settings anymore. The ability to simply click EZ Tune in the BIOS, and a few more clicks and you have a fully overclocked system with almost no effort that gives you a great performance increases for next to no effort. If you thought that the latest generation of Intel CPU's were easy to overclock, ASUS has just made it that much simpler.

ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-Fi AC Intel Z97 Motherboard Review

Link: Legit Reviews

Not that I’m surprised, but there are some pretty solid gains in the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance. Without the AI Suite USB 3.0 Boost enabled, my Corsair Neutron SSD was able to hit 428.3MB/s sequential read and 379.7MB/s sequential write. After the USB 3.0 Boost was enabled, the performance jumped to 447.7MB/s read and 393.1MB/s write. That’s a gain of nearly 20MB/s read and a hair over 13MB/s write!

The motherboard ASUS Intel Z97 chipset @ OCLab.ru

Link: OCLab.ru (bring your translator)

See the full slide-deck presented at the ASUS Technical Seminar.

ASUS Z97-Deluxe Review @ OCLab.ru

Link: OClab.ru

Before proceeding to the description of the product, we would like to pay a little attention [to the] details.They develop continuously, but every year there are new interfaces connecting them, which should be massive.Yes, some motherboard manufacturers experimented with new interfaces, but the spread of such fees is not received. This year should be changed much - the company Intel has introduced a new chipset Z97M.2 and SATA Express

http://techreport.com/review/26401/a-first-look-at-sata-express-with-asus-hyper-express-storage-device

Z97 Close Up: Asus ROG boards

Link: bit-tech

You could question whether [the Ranger] reduces the premium factor of ROG, but Asus is still keeping the Maximus Formula and Extreme lines, and these are still the die-hard ROG boards that offer the top-end components and features as well as third party support for full-cover waterblocks (in addition to the Formula's built-in waterblocks of course) - something the Hero, for the moment, lacks.