Other cool new features in AI Suite III:














In the TPU section, voltages can now be entered manually via the keyboard - you can type in the voltage instead of using the slider to make adjustments.






















For EPU, we’ve added granular control of TDP limiting making possible to set the maximum power of the processor in 1W increments from 10 Watts to 67 Watts. Handy if building a low power file server or low-noise HTPC.






















Add-on USB and SATA controllers can also be set to switch off when there are no devices attached or for hot-pluggable devices, helping to shave off that last few Watts of power consumption.



















EPU and TPU switches are also placed on the motherboard, negating the need to use AI Suite III if you prefer simple. All you need to do is slide the switch you wish to use while the system is powered off, then power the system on and let the EPU/TPU microcontrollers take care of the rest.


Obviously, using the hardware switches is more limiting than AI Suite III options, however, we’ve provided two stages to the hardware TPU overclock feature. Moving the slider to position one will over clock two cores to 4.3GHz, one core to 4.2GHz and the last core to 4.1GHz. If all four cores are loaded, the core frequency will cap at 4.1GHz. Setting the TPU slider to this position automatically applies the XMP profile for your memory as well – no need to enter UEFI at all!


Using position two results in a 4.25GHz overclock on all four cores. This profile is suitable for good aftermarket air coolers.

TUF Motherboards


Video overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEvU75Twh2c


Over the years the TUF series of motherboards has become known as the de-facto standard for users who want reliability above all else. That’s because the components, feature set and validation process of these motherboards is designed with that in mind – and it’s all backed by a 5 year warranty.




First up, the TUF mainstay Sabertooth, armed with Z87:














Z87 Sabertooth Features




Z87 Sabertooth stability test at 4.8GHz DDR3-2400






TUF Feature Rundown



TUF Armor has been modified with new venting to improve thermal dissipation in hot spots. Air is directed by vents to the back of the motherboard:
















Every IO port has dust covers, to help keep things tidy:







PCIe slot dust covers...









The TUF Fortifier- bringing up the rear in style.



To improve motherboard rigidity and thermal dissipation, the Fortifier is placed at the back of the board. For those of you wondering, the Fortifier does not have any special PC case requirements – it’ll fit all cases that are suitable for an ATX motherboard.










TUF Components


TUF motherboards feature components that tolerate wider temperature ranges whilst providing longer lifespan. As an example: Conventional solid polymer capacitors used on motherboards are rated between -55C and +105C, in comparison the capacitors we’re using on TUF motherboards can tolerate temperatures between -70C and +125C. Rated lifespan of these capacitors is up to 5X higher than standard solid capacitors. We team these up with military spec certified MOSFETs and high efficiency chokes to ensure the on-board power delivery circuitry outlasts the lifespan of the platform.








Software - Thermal Radar 2

Tying this all together is attention to thermal control. Specialized software called Thermal Radar 2 rounds out the package to ensure system temps are under control in all circumstances. Thermal Radar II is part of the AI Suite III package and available for TUF motherboards only.


The Sabertooth provides you with no fewer than 8 fan headers. The primary CPU fan header can control both 3-pin and 4-pin fans, while all chassis fan headers will control 4-pin and 3-pin fans in DC mode (3 pin). The lower chassis fan headers are accompanied by thermistor inputs, which can be used with the supplied thermal probes to monitor the temperature of components or peripherals.





Eight fully controllable fan headers




Once fans and probes are setup, use Thermal Radar 2 to calibrate each fan:



















Granular fan control – and it’s available for every on-board fan header:





Set gradients for fan speed according to temps








Or set static RPM...







Save your settings to profile or use presets

Many of you asked for a micro-ATX sized TUF board. The wait is over:





The Z87 Gryphon – Micro ATX done the TUF way…









Z87 Gryphon Features






Gryphon comes without the Fortifier and Thermal Armor, although they’re available to purchase as optional extras. Either way, there’s no compromise on component quality or software features. And it’s covered by a 5 year warranty just like the Sabertooth.

ROG Motherboards






The ROG line of motherboards are designed specifically for gamers and overclockers. Enhanced audio, cooling and gamer centric software are a few of the features available on ROG.


For die-hard overclockers, the Extreme series continues to lead the industry with innovative overclocking functions and hardware tweaks to squeeze every last ounce of performance from the platform.













Maximus VI Extreme





Most of the features above are fairly self-explanatory. We’ll detail the ROG exclusive features below. Let’s start with the new OC Panel:









The new OC Panel




OC panel is a plug in device that provides external control and display of system temperatures, voltages and overclocking. It can be hand-held, stand on its own, or be mounted in the drive bay of a case:













OC Panel connects to the motherboard via a data cable, and needs one SATA power cable to function:











Overview of available functions in “Normal Mode”:


















OC panel allows monitoring of system temperatures, speeds together with control of CPU Level-Up overclocking and fan profiles.




For extreme overclockers there’s a host of additional features:












Subzero Sense: Provides a temperature readout for K-Type thermal probes. No need for an additional digital temperature monitor when using subzero forms of cooling.


VGA SMB: Connect your compatible graphics cards to the OC Panel via this header for hardware level control of GPU power functions such as Loadline, Switching Frequency, OCP and voltage. Compatible with CHIL buck controller based GPUs only.




VGA Hotwire: For GPU modders. Connect these headers to each of your GPUs for real-time voltage control.




Slow Mode: Down-clocks the CPU to minimum ratio. A helpful feature to use between benchmark runs and for saving screenshots when system stability may be an issue.



Pause Switch: Halts the system at the hardware level. Useful for heavy load benchmarks where the CPU or GPUs are heavily stressed. Allows the system to be paused so that temperatures can be better controlled during the benchmark.






Every Z87 ROG motherboard is compatible with the new OC Panel. However’ it is only bundled with the Maximus VI Extreme. It will be available to purchase separately for the Z87 Gene, Formula or Hero.








Maximus VI Gene




Maximus VI Gene is back. New gaming oriented software and new hardware additions. We’ll get into the gaming oriented features a little later. It makes sense to cover the new mPCIE Combo II feature now, however.


NGFF Socket II: Is a new socket standard with PCIeX2 bandwidth. NGFF compatible SSDs can be used with this interface, meaning you can plug a NGFF SSD directly into this header on the board (sold separately) and use it as a cache drive to bolster system performance.


In previous generations the ROG line-up was comprised of three models – Gene, Formula and Extreme. Formula will come a little later, but there’s a new model that’s available at launch called Hero:





Maximus VI Hero




Hero fills a void for an ATX size mid-range gaming board. It’s aimed at budget conscious gamers and that want ROG centric features as part of their new build – SupremeFX, GameFirst II and an overclocking oriented UEFI are all standard.




Maximus VI Hero video overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rHUSQrljs




Gaming Features








SupremeFX




Gene, Formula and Hero have a specialized audio solution called SupremeFX. Based on Realtek’s latest ALC1150 chipset and the Cirrus Logic DAC, the ROG team has optimized the PCB layout of these boards by isolating layers and spacing sensitive traces away from other areas of the motherboard. Shielding is also utilized to minimize spurious noise from entering signal lines. High quality capacitors are used for power supply decoupling to minimize ripple and provide a low impedance at audio critical frequencies.


On the software side, the latest addition to the package is Sonic Radar:






The Sonic Radar GUI





Sonic Radar is a HUD that is useful in FPS games. It shows a visual representation of where sounds are coming from. The location of footsteps, gunshots, explosions and anything else is shown in the 360 degree HUD while gaming:





BF3 – Sonic Radar showing direction of audio effects






The HUD can be made more transparent and its location on the screen changed. Sonic Radar very useful feature when gaming with stereo headsets, where surround effects are simulated and may not be easy to pinpoint.




On the subject of headsets, Perfect Voice has been added to improve the clarity of VOIP calls. It’s a software based filter that uses digital signal processing to remove noise pickup from your mic while making a call:






DSP helps reduce ambient noise for clearer comms




Perfect Voice works with any plug in microphone/headset to clean up voice transmission during calls.






ROG RAMDISK








With high density memory modules and kits becoming the norm, many of us have an abundance of free memory on our systems that never gets utilized. ROG RAM Disk has been coded to take advantage of that free space to help speed up the system.





ROG RAM Disk GUI




Unlike many free RAM drive tools, ROG RAM DISK has no size limitations – up to 80% of the free memory (not used by the OS) can be configured as a RAM drive.


To get you an idea of how fast a RAM drive is, check the screenshot below:





10000 MB/s sequential write speeds




Applications stored on ROG RAM DISK are written to hard storage (HHD/SSD) when the system is prompted for shutdown.






Of course, re-installing games to the RAM DISK would be a painful experience. That's why ROG RAM DISK has a feature know as Junction Mode.










Setting a junction point to a game folder allows critical game files to be transferred to the RAM DISK without interfering with the original installation. Just point the software at the game folder and it will take care of the rest. This way, critical files such as maps can be accessed directly from the RAM DISK, speeding up load times.

UEFI


ROG motherboards are known for having a comprehensive UEFI for overclocking. That hasn't changed for Z87, we’re providing more options than ever. Maximus VI Extreme UEFI pcitured - options will vary according to model.
















The Maximus VI Extreme has lots of hardware settings available for tweakers. Many of these require on-board hardware to work – you won’t find these on other boards. This is stuff we tested extensively during platform development that helps to wring out the most from each CPU.


We’ve spent a lot of time refining parameters so that manual tuning isn't needed to get the most from the system. Manual tuning is of course still possible if manual tweaking is preferred.


The ROG boards have been tuned to work with all kinds of memory modules. There are more profile presets than ever before:




















LOADS of memory profiles








There’s multiple types of profile for each configuration and all popular DRAM ICs – and some unpopular ones, too!


To make things easier still, there’s a neat community resource known as ROG Exchange that works with our Z87 ROG motherboards that allows you to share UEFI profiles with friends.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4OBzSefkiDw


If stuck with UEFI settings, ROG connect allows getting help from a friend who can share settings in a profile that can be downloaded and used by others.






SSD Secure Erase from UEFI




There’s more to ROG UEFI’s than overclocking, however. A neat n+1 feature of the ROG Z87 UEFI is that it incorporates a secure erase tool for SSDs.







Supported SSDs can be secure erased directly from UEFI, restoring them to original performance levels easily.




Stability Tests:


Maximus VI Extreme stability test at 4.8GHz DDR3-2400









Maximus VI Hero stability test at 4.8GHz DDR3-2400









Maximus VI Gene stability test at 4.8GHz DDR3-2400


















Overclocking Guides/Videos for Z87 Motherboards:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jq3TE-1whi8


http://kylebennett.com/ASUS/OCingGuidev0.99.zip

These are incredible .. can't wait to see the ROG's .. Thanks Raja.c.

Like what I am seeing, thank you for sharing with us.

Np. Thought posting the entire stack made sense.