Test System

Initial Setup

Getting the ASUS Z97-DELUXE installed and running took a bit of extra work because I had to plug all the additional goodies in, but everything else worked without a hitch. I was pleased to find that the bottom PCIe x16 slot is connected to the system via the Intel Z97 PCH, so installing the ThunderboltEXII card does not take any bandwidth away from SLI or Crossfire configurations. Likewise, installing the ThunderboltEXII card did not interfere with the buttons on the board's bottom edge.


The TPU and EPU switches are also accessible, and the USB 3.0 ports for front-panel wiring are far enough from the top PCIe x16 slot so as not to interfere with large VGA coolers or backplates. Even the large-ish CoolerMaster TPC812 I used fit nicely, the VRM coolers standing out far enough to catch some of the CPU cooler's airflow.


Once inside the OS, I took a CPU-Z screenshot with all the pertinent tabs open, so you can see how the system idled for me, BIOS freshly installed. Shipping boards might feature a version older than what I used for testing since the 0801 BOIS was only released this past Friday, which also had me re-run a bunch of tests in order to publish test results with the most recent BIOS.

Power Consumption

We measure CPU power consumption since one of our first tasks is to truly verify system stability. I isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, and total wattage passed through. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design. Total system power consumption is no longer reported as this figure can change depending on what VGA is installed. The sole board-only power measurements possible without physically modifying a motherboard are those taken via the 8-pin CPU connector, making it the only figure of value worth reporting. I use wPrime with eight threads selected in the options since it provides a consistently high workload throughout the full length of the test and runs long enough for the VRM and CPU to produce a fair bit of heat. Most average workloads will draw far less than that, although distributed computing applications are quite similar. This is not supposed to test stability since I use several other applications to do so, but merely to provide repeatable power draw numbers anyone can replicate. The meter used is an off-the-shelf Zalman unit that has been on the market for some time. It provides similar results in my test environment when compared with a FLUKE 337 clamp meter.


The ASUS Z97-DELUXE's power delivery design performed really well, with stock performance generating very good numbers due to a relaxed Turbo profile. It also performed decently with overclocked setting, matching the voltages my CPU test with the Z87 platform required. It really seems as though the board is optimized for efficiency at stock, but once you change a few settings, there is substantially more performance to be had as required.