# ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer Review



## rakesh_sharma23 (Dec 27, 2014)

*ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer Review*







Z97-Pro Gamer from Asus is a high-performance entry-level gaming enthusiast motherboard with 10Gibt/s M.2 and SATA Express connectivity, Intel Gigabit Ethernet, exclusive Supreme-FX audio with Sonic Radar II and GameFirst-ll and LAN-Guard networking technologies, supporting two video cards in SLI or CrossFireX to deliver pure gaming fun.

However the motherboard cannot be called a High-end gaming board because it does not have a PCIe switching chip to support up to four video cards. On the other hand, the ASUS Z97-PRO Gamer offers more features than average motherboards.

Now let’s see what this Intel Z97 chipset based board have for us.

*Packing*
Board comes in a nice black cardboard box with model number, image of the board and details about supporting technology and features.





















*Inside the box*





*Looks*
Board is in a Red-black ROG theme with black PCB and black heat-sinks with red graphics.









*Specification*





*Layout*
Detailed layout of board.





1. Intel LGA 1150 socket, supporting current 4th generation and 5th generation CPU.




2. 4 x DIMM slots supporting maximum 32GB of 1600/1333MHz DDR3 or up to 3200(O.C.) DDR3 memory.




3. ATX Power connector (24-pin EATXPWR).




4. ATX CPU Power Connector (8-pin ATX12V).












5. Intel Z97 Express Chipset.




6. USB 3 Port.




7. 4 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s Ports
8. 1 x SATA Express port, compatible with 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s Ports.




9. System Front panel Connector 




10. 3x USB 2.0 Connectors




11. Serial Port connector
12. TPM Connector




13. Digital Audio(SPDIF Out) connector
14. Front panel Audio connector




15. M.2 Socket 3 for M-Key, type 2260/2280 devices








16. Back I/O Ports. 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s), 1 x DVI-D. 1 x D-Sub, 1 x HDMI, 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s), 4 x USB 3.0 (blue), 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x Optical S/PDIF out, 6 x Audio jack(s)




17, 18, 19, 20. Expansion Slots -2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (Single at x16, dual at x8/x8), 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (max at x4 mode, black), 2 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
21, 22, 23, 24, 25. 1 x CPU Fan, 1 x CPU OPT Fan and 3 x Chassis Fan Connectors. All fan headers are having single F90P02 Power MOSFET rating 1.3A max on 12volts controlled by ASUS Fan Xpert 3 featuring fan auto tuning function and multiple thermistors selection for optimized system cooling control.




26. Thermal sensor connector.





*Removing Heat-sinks*
Heatsinks are made up of dense aluminum with thermal pad installed, giving great passive cooling to VRM MOSFETs and Z97 chipset.








Perfectly designed heatsinks and board layout results in given a great socket room to install some big after market Air cooling solutions.

















*Components Layout*
Let’s now see what all components Asus have planned for this board.




1. Digital 8-phase CPU Power VRM Section. Each phase consists of two MOSFETs 6030DLB (N-Channel 30v 1.9mOhm 100A logic MOSFET) and 4030DLA (N-Channel 30v 2.4mOhm 100A logic MOSFET), one ferrite filter coil and one filter capacitor. In this board Asus used 10K Black Metallic capacitors.
2. Asus DIGI+ VRM Asp 1257 voltage controller chip.




3. 2-phase DRAM VRM section driven by Richtek RT8120F controller chip.




4. Asmedia ASM 1442K chip managing output display ports.




5. Intel i218v one Gigabit Ethernet controller chip with Asus LAN Guard technology providing advanced signal-coupling with premium surface-mounted capacitors improve throughput, while surge-protected and electrostatically-guarded components (ESD Guards) protect your motherboard from lightning strikes and static electricity.








6. NuvotonNCT6791D Super I/O Chip. The Nuvoton NCT6791D also adds thermal sensor support, made possible by a separately available thermal probe attached to a couple of pins near the Clear_CMOS header. 




7. Asmedia ASM1083 PCIe to PCI bridge chip for legacy PCI slot support.




8. Asmedis ASM1480 PCIe bus switch chip, allowing single GFX card to run at x16 and dual cards at x8/x8 PCIe bus.




9. Intel Z97 Express Chipset.




10. SupremeFX 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC  i.e. 7.1 audio generated by Realtek ALC1150 codec, shielded with metallic cover against electro-magnetic interference, providing 115 dB signal-to-noise ratio for  analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for  analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. A semi-transparent line on motherboard separates the whole audio section from the rest of the board in order to minimize interference. Audio section is having premium ELNA Capacitors 100uf/16v for DC voltage filtration and few 10uf/16v for audio signal filtration. In addition Asus used one 4580 Op-amp (Same op-amps used in Asus Xonar DX & D2X Sound card) for front 2-channel output acting as Headphone Amp allowing headphone up to 300ohms impedance. So licensing under Stereo mode produces high audio quality with excellent dynamic range. When configuring under 7.1 mode and compared with Xonar DX, no doubt DX gives more rich audio experience but SupremeFX is far more better than any other onboard audio solution I have ever came across. Looking at back of the motherboard, the audio section separation line is illuminated with 12 bright red LEDs giving a red border line between audio section and rest of the motherboard.








































RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) suite is used for testing test ASUS Z97-PRO GAMER SupremeFX High Definition sound card against Asus Xonar DX Sound card. You can see clearly the difference between Noise level, dynamic rang and Total harmonic distortion percentage produced by SupermeFX Sound card.
RMAA Asus Xonar DX








RMAA SupremeFX










11. All the automatic overclocking and BIOS management is handled by this TPU TurboV chip.








12. UEFI BIOS is stored in a Winbond 64MB 8-Pin DIP Package chip, installed in a DIP socket 8-Pin for easy user replacement.




13. Two stage M.2 Socket 3 power supply section.




14. CMOS Battery.





*Features*
Standby Power LED lights up to indicate that the system is ON, in sleep mode or in soft-off mode and four QLEDs checks key components(CPU, DRAM, VGA Card and booting devices) in sequence during motherboard booting process. An error and LED flashes indicating some problem with the corresponding component. Although you might miss those if you have Window8/8.1 installed and FAST BOOT enabled




ASUS Z97-PRO GAMER board provides over-current protection on USB ports and DRAM connector.  Motherboard is equipped with many over-current protection shunt resistance, to protect against any overload on USB ports and short-circuit on DRAM connector.












With ASUS ESD Guards Z97-PRO GAMER is actively protected against sudden electrostatic discharge (ESD). All I/O connectors are protected by adding on-circuit ESD TVS diodes.





*Testing*
Test system configuration - Intel i7-4770K, Kingston blue 2x2GB 1333 DDR3 RAM, Samsung 830 SSD 256GB, Cooler Master 500 Watts PSU, Asus HD-7750, Asus Xonar DX Sond Card, WD 1TB Green, HP DVD RW Drive.





















*BIOS*
Asus EZ-Mode, a slick and smooth animated basic system configuration interface to simplify tweaking for less experienced users. First screen showing the motherboard model, CPU installed, CPU frequency, CPU temperature, fan speeds, DRAM installed, DRAM speeds and also options to enable XMP, Intel Raid Storage technology and boot priority from here.












Now Moving into Advanced mode































*Bundled Softwares*





































*Overclocking*
Instead of manually overclocking Intel i7-4770K processor, I decided to let Asus Dual Intelligent Processors 5 take over and automatically overclock 4770k with stock Intel cooler.
I was surprised to see that Asus auto-tuning overclocked 4770K up to 4.32GHz stable that too with stock cooler. If proper cooling is provided Asus auto overclocking can result higher stable clocks. And for all enthusiasts, Asus provides tons of tweaking ability with this board to manual overclock your CPU.
































































*Benchmark*
HyperPi 0.99  32M (Lower is better)





*Power Consumption*
Wattage reading as per displayed by APC Pro 1000VA (Model no. BR1000G-IN) UPS.





*Pros*

Affordable Gaming board
Great ROG theme
Great performance features
Packed with lot of protection features
Excellent Onboard audio quality
Auto Overclocking for beginners
Quality Components

*Cons*

Higher Total harmonic distortion and audio interference even after shielding and isolating audio section from rest of the board electronics, when compared with five years old audio Xonar Sound card.

At the conclusion I found ASUS Z97-PRO GAMER as an affordable ATX board for the entry level gaming enthusiasts, with superb build quality, offering some of great features available with its ROG series boards.  For beginners using Asus own 5-Way optimization tool or EZ Tuning wizard in the BIOS to allow the board to auto-overclocking and set a nice solid overclock based with clock speeds of right around 4GHz.


*Manufacturers Info*
Site Link

Thanks.


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## gupsterg (Jan 25, 2015)

Even though the VRM heatsinks don't have supports on the rearside of the board there is good contact indents in the thermal material.

The detailed photos answered a few question I had in my mind about the board, as it is on my short list for next rig, thanks for posting.


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## robplumm (Jan 25, 2015)

Good stuff. 

Apparently not being released in the US?


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## benielishackove (Mar 19, 2015)

@rakesh_sharma23 Shalom be upon you bro,best review I have ever came across and with my luck its my board, I needed to ask you about the audio alc1150 frequency response would you say its better for music making ? flat response ? or im way off 
are the leds red only ?
are the hdmi audio out and SPDIF shielded and get some benefits from asus's design ?
when compering to evga gt610 hdmi out what should I use ? on board analog\SPDIF\HDMI ?
I use it with a receiver pioneer vsx923-k 7.2 for pcm dolbytruehd dtshd (games not so much) 
I always resample pcm to 96khz 24bit to lower the noise level ? am I m doing right ? 
thank you so much brother may god bless you and your !


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## Caring1 (Mar 19, 2015)

Great review, might have been better posted in here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/reviews.5/
Had to scroll for 5 minutes just to post this.


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## rakesh_sharma23 (Mar 20, 2015)

benielishackove said:


> @rakesh_sharma23 Shalom be upon you bro,best review I have ever came across and with my luck its my board, I needed to ask you about the audio alc1150 frequency response would you say its better for music making ? flat response ? or im way off
> are the leds red only ?
> are the hdmi audio out and SPDIF shielded and get some benefits from asus's design ?
> when compering to evga gt610 hdmi out what should I use ? on board analog\SPDIF\HDMI ?
> ...



First Thanks bro. About ALC1150 audio.. for causal music making it's ok,, but if you are in professional audio making.. bro you will need some pro stuff.
Board LED are red only.

Digital audio output did not get any benefits from shielded audio circuit from ASUS.. 
And sample rate for your Pioneer receiver is good for music.




Caring1 said:


> Great review, might have been better posted in here: http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/forums/reviews.5/
> Had to scroll for 5 minutes just to post this.



Will post more reviews as suggested. Thanks.


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## OneMoar (Mar 20, 2015)

with digital audio you won't get any noise
so SNR means nothing


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## Abhishek kumar (Apr 5, 2015)

sir my question is that can i attach three asus nvidia geforce 210 graphics card to this motherboard for 6 display


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## benielishackove (Apr 18, 2015)

@rakesh_sharma23 Is there any reason why this motherboard will not run GameFirst 3 ? (its max support is for GameFirst 2, on asus web site & utilities). I didn't build my rig yet so I'm asking if I download the GameFirst 3 from ASUS, from other motherboard support page, any chance it will work ? As there aren't many differences between motherboards that support that version and the z97 pro game... And please HELP me!!! what can I do to clean the fingerprints of the pc shop employs from the MoBo + a white powder like substance, that would not come out with passive cleaning.  Should I contact ASUS ? or the local pc shop ? The problem is that i have the motherboard for 3.5 months because I waited for parts for my rig so i cant return it, but I have 36 months warranty (but with my luck they would not help me) I didn't take a close look when I bouget it and didn't open the box until a few days ago to take a very close look and got sad from what I have seen 
Thanks in advance
Peace! Beni


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## benielishackove (Apr 18, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> with digital audio you won't get any noise
> so SNR means nothing


can u give me tips for listening to music in digital I use mpc-hc and ffdshow to output to reclock lets say a 320kps mp3 would it get any benefits from up sampling and switching from 16bit to 24bit ? i have noticed pcm has more quality then ac3 am i right ? any way to stream mp32dts from the pc ?


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## HarvesterOfSorrow (Jun 16, 2016)

I have this board and it didn't come with motherboard speaker? So is it integrated to this?


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## rakesh_sharma23 (Jun 16, 2016)

HarvesterOfSorrow said:


> I have this board and it didn't come with motherboard speaker? So is it integrated to this?



No motherboard manufacture provides a speaker or buzzer along with the product these days. It use to be a part of cabinet, but now a days many PC case manufacturers also don't care about to add one.. But it's very cheap and you can get it easily at any electronics or computer shop.


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## jboydgolfer (Jun 16, 2016)

i havent installed a MoBo speaker in atleast 10 years, im guessing more. 
never liked the beep.


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## Jetster (Jun 16, 2016)

Nice pictures


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## Caring1 (Jun 16, 2016)

Pictures, so many pictures.
A heads up would be nice, or spoilers to save bandwidth.


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## R-T-B (Jun 16, 2016)

rakesh_sharma23 said:


> No motherboard manufacture provides a speaker or buzzer along with the product these days. It use to be a part of cabinet, but now a days many PC case manufacturers also don't care about to add one.. But it's very cheap and you can get it easily at any electronics or computer shop.



My EVGA z170 FTW has one soldered on the mobo.


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## Jetster (Jun 16, 2016)

Caring1 said:


> Pictures, so many pictures.
> A heads up would be nice, or spoilers to save bandwidth.



They are pretty small (under 200kb) but this is when the Logitech free wheel shines


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## HarvesterOfSorrow (Jun 16, 2016)

rakesh_sharma23 said:


> No motherboard manufacture provides a speaker or buzzer along with the product these days. It use to be a part of cabinet, but now a days many PC case manufacturers also don't care about to add one.. But it's very cheap and you can get it easily at any electronics or computer shop.


I found speaker from my old asrock mobo, works fine


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