ASUS Announces its Mainline Z87 Classic Series, with a New Look

[btarunr]

ASUS announced a fleet of socket LGA1150 motherboards, covering its mainline (classic), Republic of Gamers (ROG), and The Ultimate Force (TUF) lines. With this series, ASUS is adopting a new color scheme for its mainline motherboards, breaking away from the black PCB with blue heatsinks scheme it maintained since the first LGA1156 motherboards, almost four years ago. The new mainline motherboards from ASUS feature black PCBs with golden-colored heatsinks covering the VRM and PCH, and simpler naming. ASUS' first wave of Z87-based mainline (classic) motherboards include the entry-level Z87-C and Z87-A, mid-range Z87-PLUS and Z87-PRO, and premium Z87-DELUXE.



The Z87-C covers the basics, including 4- phase CPU power, four DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory, a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot wired to the CPU, a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4) wired to the PCH, two other PCI-Express x1 slots, and three legacy PCI slots. Display outputs include DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI. Storage connectivity includes eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. 8-channel HD audio, four USB 3.0 ports, a single gigabit Ethernet connection, make for the rest of the board. This is the most affordable Z87-based motherboard from ASUS, and could occupy a sub-$100 price-point.

The Z87-A is a few notches above the Z87-C, with a stronger 8-phase CPU power, an expansion-slot loadout that includes two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16/NC or x8/x8), wired to the CPU, a third PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4), wired to the PCH, and two each of PCI-Express x1 and legacy PCI; ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and other connectivity that includes 8-channel HD audio with optical SPDIF, gigabit Ethernet, and a few other ASUS-exclusives. The board supports 2-way SLI and CrossFireX, and should be the cheapest option for multi-GPU builds.

Moving on to the mid-range, we begin with the Z87-PLUS, which builds on the feature-set of the Z87-A. It features the same electrical system, while upping the ante with overclocker-friendly features, and connectivity. You find features that stabilize memory and CPU overclock at the push of a button, an obscene twelve SATA ports, the same expansion slot layout as the Z87-A, and the same connectivity options.

The Z87-PRO is designed for people who will opt for nothing less than the top socket LGA1150 processor. You get all ASUS-exclusive features of the Z87-PLUS, and 12-phase CPU power backed by EPU, two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots wired to the CPU (x16/NC or x8/x8), a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (electrical x4, wired to the PCH), four PCI-Express x1 slots, eight internal and two external SATA ports, six USB 3.0 ports, 8-channel HD audio, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), display outputs that include DVI, D-Sub, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Leading the pack for ASUS' mainline Classic series, is the Z87-DELUXE. This board is probably the most connectivity-rich model in ASUS' entire portfolio of LGA1150 motherboards. It offers 16-phase CPU power, the same expansion-slot layout as the Z87-PRO, but drops in ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, 802.11ac WiFi, dual gigabit Ethernet, and display outputs that include HDMI and/or DisplayPort. There are a few more overclocker-friendly features on offer.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[HumanSmoke]

Asus taking styling cues from ECS and Eddie Plein

 

[Vancha]

Gold and yellow? That's just horrible. Either/or, but never both.

 

[dj-electric]

I don't know if i should be mad at asus or just love them for this

 

[HammerON]

I was thinking "Goldmember" the movie
"Goldmember: Dr. Evil, can I paint his yoo-hoo gold? It's kind of my thing, you know.
Dr. Evil: [comes over to Goldmember] How 'bout no, you crazy Dutch bastard?"


I do like the colors though.

 

[TheLostSwede]

That is just vomit inducing...

 

[Sinzia]

Well, I know what series of boards I wont be using for a haswell build.

 

[buggalugs]

I like them. They look better than the current series with blue heatsinks.

 

[buildzoid]

It's better than the massive mix of white blue and turquoise. The best looking boards come from MSI and Gigabyte

 

[20mmrain]

Gold and yellow? That's just horrible. Either/or, but never both.

very ugly!

 

[CameronBanna]

This is a joke right?

 

[m1dg3t]

They couldn't buy back Asrock so they borrowed their colour scheme?

 

[Johnny Utah]

the GOLD/YELLOW is a big mistake...they should have sticked to BLUE
even if it has great specs i will certainly NOT buy such a board. i need a black/blue/red MB

 

[Octavean]

I see some of these Asus boards still have the Asus proprietary Thunderbolt "TB_Header" which was first seen on Asus Z77 motherboards.

The problem there is that this was supposed to support the Asus ThunderboltEX add-in card at or near the introduction of Ivy Bridge Processors into the retail market. Needless to say Asus never made the ThunderboltEX add-in card available. Presumably this was due to Intel refusing to certify it.

So what then is the point of adding the Thunderbolt "TB_Header" to new Z87 motherboards,.....?

Maybe they retooled it to meet Intel certification,....?

Who knows but it seems kind of pointless.

As for the color scheme, don't really care all that much. All else being equal the color of the board wont make it go faster or make it more stable,....so meh.

 

[micropage7]

gold with matte black would be good
and the yellow, can they use bright yellow with matte black only
or gold with matte black

 

[theonedub]

I was thinking "Goldmember" the movie
"Goldmember: Dr. Evil, can I paint his yoo-hoo gold? It's kind of my thing, you know.
Dr. Evil: [comes over to Goldmember] How 'bout no, you crazy Dutch bastard?"


I do like the colors though.

I like it, too.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

Thank god I don't like Asus boards. Other then their TUF series.

 

[jalex3]

They couldn't buy back Asrock so they borrowed their colour scheme?

Asrcok used gold tastefully, but this is just tacky.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Thank god I don't like Asus boards. Other then their TUF series.

I agree the matte black is the way to go.

 

[radusorin]

ten SATA 6 Gb/s ports,

an obscene twelve SATA ports,

Were the 10/12 SATA ports ... I dont see theme

 

[Assimilator]

Everything I've read about Haswell says its chipsets will have 6x SATA3 ports. Yet every Z87 board I've seen so far has at least 8x SATA ports, and I can't see any additional SATA controllers. Can anyone in the know confirm/deny the number of SATA ports that Z87 will natively support?

And I wish mobo manufacturers would stop putting VGA and DVI on "high-end" boards. Give us more DisplayPort/HDMI connectors and use the space saved on the back panel for useful stuff, like additional USB ports.

Were the 10/12 SATA ports ... I dont see theme

Honest question: are you blind?

 

[badtaylorx]

z87 may represent a massive shift in the perception of enthusiasts with concern to motherboard manufacturing. With this major gamble on the part of Asus, we may see Gigabyte and ASRock leapfrog Asus and MSI.

 

[McSteel]

Asus taking styling cues from ECS and Eddie Plein

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/1341945687_no-mold-gold-teeth.jpg

ECS is the OEM for many (all?) ASUS boards, actually. Don't know about Eddie, though.

 

[15th Warlock]

Too.. much.. bling...

I'm so glad the ROG series retain their motif, what was Asus thinking when they designed their mainstream boards?

 

[PLSG08]

The blue and black theme was already great..... WHY ASUS :C

EDIT: Well actually the colors grew on me, I kinda like it the second time I look at it :/