Sunday, October 1st 2017
ASUS Motherboard Segmentation Explained - "Prime" Series takes Backseat
With its new Intel 300-series chipset-based motherboard family, ASUS is redoing the segmentation of its various motherboard brands, with the objective of avoiding too many similarly-priced products that bloat the lineup and confuse buyers. The company articulated its segmentation using a triangle (pictured below). At the bottom of this triangle is the mainline "Prime" series, and interestingly, the TUF (The Ultimate Force) series. The TUF series has until now been attributed to moderately expensive motherboards that are designed with very high durability. They are now relegated to the bottom of ASUS' product-stack, targeted at first-time builders and entry-level gamers. These boards are still built "tough" in that they feature high-grade components, but not as many CPU VRM phases as some of ASUS' more expensive boards.
Another revelation is that the company's mainline "Prime" series, which has served as the bedrock of the company's motherboard lineup before sub-brands such as ROG came along, is now entry-mid range, with just two SKUs based on the Z370 chipset. The Prime Z370-A is recommended for those users who want to cut through the marketing clutter and pick a board that maxes out this platform without too many frills. This move also ends the possibility of higher Prime-series SKUs such as "Deluxe" and "Premium," which were previously associated with SKUs bursting at the seams with onboard connectivity options.
The "Republic of Gamers" (ROG) brand has a clear sub-division, with boards featuring just the "ROG" moniker next to brands such as Crosshair (AMD MSDT), Maximus (Intel MSDT), Rampage (Intel HEDT), and Zenith (AMD HEDT), making up the upper-end; and the Strix brand making up the upper-mid range bulk. The ROG Crosshair, Maximus, Rampage, and Zenith sub-brands will get extensions such as "Ranger," "Hero," "Formula," "Impact," "Gene," "Extreme," "Code," and "Apex;" while the ROG Strix brand will be sub-divided as Strix-E (topmost), Strix-F (second-best), Strix-G (micro-ATX), Strix-H (entry ATX), and Strix-I (mini-ITX). Some of these SKUs may get the "AC" extension denoting a WLAN module with 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.x.
Another revelation is that the company's mainline "Prime" series, which has served as the bedrock of the company's motherboard lineup before sub-brands such as ROG came along, is now entry-mid range, with just two SKUs based on the Z370 chipset. The Prime Z370-A is recommended for those users who want to cut through the marketing clutter and pick a board that maxes out this platform without too many frills. This move also ends the possibility of higher Prime-series SKUs such as "Deluxe" and "Premium," which were previously associated with SKUs bursting at the seams with onboard connectivity options.
33 Comments on ASUS Motherboard Segmentation Explained - "Prime" Series takes Backseat
My The Ultimate Force Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 pushed this CPU to 5.0GHz, very rugged. Now the Tuf line is bottom barrel stuff, poposterous!
Lets add more confusion with Strix which the word looks stupid, is it pronounched Stricks or Strikes? Then sub categories for products.
I honestly felt TUF sounds better than Strix.
IIRC ROG has been around longer than Prime
Well their gpus certainly aren't silent or stealthy lol.
Well I think strikes sounds better than stricks, stricks feels like restricted...
Just have one range of gaming boards and one range of Prime/general boards. Its a shame the deluxe model is no more, I have many deluxe boards.
I guess they feel most of the buyers of high end boards are gamers so thats where the marketing goes.
Where are the rugged power delivery systems, extended warranty and no frills design? All gone
Wank with way to many options
More wank with lights and to many optiosn
extra wanky features
:P
Starting with ROG line. Why in heaven would a gamer bother with hardcore overclocking and nitrogene features (s/he wants stable gaming, no crashes or excesive heat), and why would a hardcore benchmarker bother with RGB LEDS and looks?
Etc, etc.
Maybe I am old and all todays kids do all the liquid nitrogen stuff and tensionmeters checks when they come back from school???????
if anything TUF should of been the best all around board for hardcore Ocers, Gamers/mainstream. Rog should of been catered to gamers that don't do extreme oc.
This could be most most Off Topic post for these thread except for mine pointing this out.
Or to the next guy/gal to point this out to me
What I really hate nowadays is the terrible software most hardware manufacturers provide and their hideous design: Splash screens at start up, weird shaped interface, settings that aren't saved unless you're running their sh***y software, privacy offenders... Those are the kind of things I really despise.
So, as long as I can still set up *everything* including custom curves for DC fans directly in the BIOS I'm cool with whatever hardware design silliness they come up with.
And sadly this is not just limited to Asus or even mainboards. I'm staring at you, Razer.
That said, I set aside my recent 270 ROG board for something a bit more neutral (from Supermicro). It's still another 270 though (but more PCI slots and other interfaces). I like boards to be neutral. It also has a graphic BIOS interface, but almost too many options. It's overwhelming. They have a 299 brewing up as well, but I hope they improve the BIOS there. One positive about ASUS is it had an EZ Mode.