Friday, August 21st 2009
ASUS Presents TUF Series Sabertooth 55i
Here's our ASUS LGA-1156, Intel P55 motherboard for the day: TUF Series Sabertooth 55i. As a short history lesson, ASUS' TUF series motherboards was touted as a parallel to its Republic of Gamers (ROG) series, and was unveiled back in March as the "Marine cool" design, although no products made it to the market. The selling points of TUF series is unparalleled durability and next-generation motherboard components, including "breakthrough innovations in materials--ceramic and metal--for exceptional Cooling". Here's hoping this one does. The Sabertooth i55 comes across as fairly mid-range within the P55 motherboard lineup, as far as features go, but banks heavily on design innovations.
For starters, the CPU is powered by a 12+2 phase VRM, while the four DDR3 DIMM slots rely on a 2-phase VRM. For the greater part of its features, the Intel P55 chipset pithes in. Additional storage controllers provide extra SATA ports, supporting ASUS DriveXpert technology. Expansion slots include two PCI-E 2.0 x16 (arrange as x8, x8 in SLI and CrossFireX), two PCI-E x1, and two PCI. Here's where the unique features start: metal heatsinks with ceramic coating that boosts surface area by 50% for better heat dissipation. On the components front, it features durable "TUF-branded" MOSFETs, and capacitors. The DDR3 DIMM slots lack retention clips on one end, a feature implemented by ASUS with several recent motherboards, that makes sure the clips don't interfere with installed graphics cards. Although there's adequate clearance on this board, it is utilised by providing a placeholder for a fan dedicated to memory cooling. In a short presentation, ASUS describes its innovations. There's no word on its availability and pricing.
Source:
Coolife.com.cn
For starters, the CPU is powered by a 12+2 phase VRM, while the four DDR3 DIMM slots rely on a 2-phase VRM. For the greater part of its features, the Intel P55 chipset pithes in. Additional storage controllers provide extra SATA ports, supporting ASUS DriveXpert technology. Expansion slots include two PCI-E 2.0 x16 (arrange as x8, x8 in SLI and CrossFireX), two PCI-E x1, and two PCI. Here's where the unique features start: metal heatsinks with ceramic coating that boosts surface area by 50% for better heat dissipation. On the components front, it features durable "TUF-branded" MOSFETs, and capacitors. The DDR3 DIMM slots lack retention clips on one end, a feature implemented by ASUS with several recent motherboards, that makes sure the clips don't interfere with installed graphics cards. Although there's adequate clearance on this board, it is utilised by providing a placeholder for a fan dedicated to memory cooling. In a short presentation, ASUS describes its innovations. There's no word on its availability and pricing.
23 Comments on ASUS Presents TUF Series Sabertooth 55i
the fan frame thing looks awesome too, built in ram cooling.
ceramic heatsinks seem pretty cool too, its good to see something new there.
This has made my 'list of i5 boards mussels likes'
The material used in fabricating this package is the ceramic I'm talking about. It doesn't insulate:
They used to call them "ceramic FCPGA".
Honestly i was thinking the same thing, but if they claim it works, they arent likely to be kidding.
I mean why pay for ceramic coated staff if we dont see first two of these mobos,1 ceramic and 1 not and watch the temps....
I am really tired of this marketing staff...
the marine board was obviously never meant for retail, they talked about a built in UPS and such.
also there is a spot for another nic
seriously, that fan frame thing is the dumbest thing ive seen put on a motherboard, if its not ducted at all its gonna do diddly squat, a fan mounted in the center facing down on all sockets is effective not this.. "lets cool one quarter side of the modules rubbish". bah!
I think the colour is disgusting, there really isnt anything at all about this motherboard i find appealing.
As one side cools down, the heat spreads out from the hot side to the cool side, lowering the overall temperature.
and you know, since the air is actually ducted by the ram itself... stick a piece of paper over the top of the ram, and it would cool all four modules perfectly.
Obviously this is more to "stock" ram than doesn't have funky spiked heatspreaders. Most of those you can get the top mounted fans already, with no need for this.
I wouldn't mind owning this "dubest thing ever" on my next motherboard, as I already have a case fan outputting on top of the memory modules. Might have to mod a similar frame on the same spot for my mobo just to give you more grief! :p
P.S. the marine is cooler looking mobo:D
Love the look of that mobo tho bout time computer parts stopped looking like disco balls.
i've got two ports on my mobo that are Jmicron and would work with my E-sata cage (intel dont) but because theyre right angle, no cable will reach to let me connect them to a rear bracket.