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ASUS unveils Z87 Lineup

Tradeshow & OC events by leeghoofd @ 2013-05-17

A while back Europes' media was invited to visit the lovely city of Amsterdam. At the Club Excellence, right in the heart of the popular neighborhood, the ASUS team unveiled it's new Intel 4th generation motherboard lineup. Based on Intel's Z87 chipset, the mainstream motherboard lineup got a complete overhaul in the looks department. Gold is the brand new 2013 theme, while being promoted as original, we have seen this color scheme before on several competitors boards. Look wise it seems a missed opportunity, but luckily there's more below the surface. The ROG lineup get's a new addition in the shape of the HERO version. Similar with the TUF series, were the Gryphon mATX which sees the daylight. Sadly we are still under NDA, so remaining pretty limited to disclose most of the new innovative features. All we can do is list the basic specifications and leave you with some first impressions and event pictures.

Classic Z87 Lineup

The new Gold color scheme was heavily discussed, as looks are really determining for most users when buying a new motherboard. Love it or hate it scheme, if we snoop round on the internet the feelings are quite mixed.

In the tradition of the Z77, the entry level boards Z87-A and C. Strangely enough the C version is the most basic one, sporting a 4 phase setup, single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4, two PCI-Express x1 and three legacy PCI slots. Storage wise a total of eight S-ATA 6GB/s ports, with four in angled postion should satisfy most data desires.

The Z87-A, has a beefed up 8 Phase CPU power setup, two PCI-Express 3.0 X16 slots, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4, two PCI-Express x1 and one Legacy PCI slot. Supporting 2-way SLI and CrossfireX out of the box. a whopping total of ten S-ATA 6GB/s are at your disposal.

Z87-PLUS looks pretty identical to the previous mentioned Z87-A board in the PWM department. Two extra added SATA 6 GB/S ports. Max of 32GB and 2800MHz (OC) ram clock supported and some more overclocker friendly features should differentiate this board from the cheaper Z87-A version.

Moving on to the Z87-PRO, with a souped up 12 Phase CPU Power PWM, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCI-Express x1 slots and a slightly trimmed down version on the SATA ports ( 10 ) where eight are internal and two external are ones.

The Z87- DELUXE version will be as usual the most feature rich, to satisfy the most demanding enthousiasts. A 16 Phase PWM setup, three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, four PCI-Express x1 slots, dual gigabit Ethernet and WIFI 802.11ac support.

The Z87- Workstation (WS) version, was by far the best looking board out of the mainstream audience targeted versions. Mainly due to it's different heatsink design and the all black PCH heatsink colour. Utilising a new phase choke design, similar to the ROG versions. Four PCI-Express x16 slots with 4way SLI support and two PCI x 1 slots and 10 SATA 6GB/s ports complete the WS model.

The Z87i-DELUXE is ASUS high entry model for the small form factor market. Don't you love the upright Phase PCB ?

The Z87 UEFI BIOS will become more user friendly and adaptive, similar as with included software AI suite.

TUF series up next ->

Comment from Teemto @ 2013/05/17

I see some familiar faces

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