Board Software

Software needs to be installed using Armory Crate and this posed a problem. The software on the USB flash drive refused to install properly while the installer obtained from the product page seemed to have problems installing Fan Xpert 4. In the end we had success by downloading the entire 4 GB Armoury Crate package from this link but even then several sections of the suite refused to install without updates, many of which seemed non-existent or took an age to download and install. With a 1 Gbit download speed we have confidence this was the software or an issue with the ASUS servers and not our Internet connection, but eventually we got there.

The primary reasons you'd want to install any of the software are Aura Sync for configuring and synchronizing your GB lighting across the motherboard, any attached LED devices and compatible components and also Fan Xpert 4. Honestly, we'd rather have Fan Xpert 4 available as a standalone software as it does give you one of if not the best Windows-based fan control suites of any manufacturer, with the ability to fine tune fan curves, switch between smart and fixed RPM modes and even pick from alternative temperature inputs for system and pump fans such as thermal or coolant probes, which is extremely useful for situations involving watercooling. At the very least it's useful for configuring your fan speeds within Windows using your preferred stress tests, which is obviously not possible from the EFI BIOS.