Our today's conversation will be dedicated to that symbol of the Elder Futhark, which ...
Foreword
Choosing just one of the most suitable motherboards from the myriad available models is never easy. All sites of motherboard manufacturers offer their comparison systems, but they are all not perfect enough, they do not show the full picture, being limited to basic specifications and characteristics, like a set of logic that underlies the boards, they support various processors, indicating the number of ports and connectors. Last year, ASUSTeK decided to remedy this situation by preparing very detailed table models based on Intel Z87 logic. The comparison was carried out by almost fifty indicators, including not only the number of different ports or connectors, but also the presence of special capabilities or technologies. The "Customize Table" button made it possible to hide irrelevant parameters or immediately exclude boards that you were not interested in. The table could be sorted by any of the fields, clicking on the name of the model opened its image, and the button on the right allowed you to download all the data in csv format. When selecting motherboards from ASUSTeK for testing, I had to use this table many times. It turned out to be really convenient and detailed enough to highlight and show even those differences between the models that are not immediately visible.ASUSTeK prepared a similar table for new LGA1150 boards, which is located on the promo page models based on Intel 9 series chipsets. In the same way, you can independently exclude deliberately inappropriate boards or insignificant parameters, and a small survey will help to further facilitate the choice. You will be asked to answer four simple questions about the purpose of the computer, whether and how overclocking is planned, whether wireless technologies are necessary and the preferred form factor of the board.
Taking into account the answers received, the huge table will automatically be reduced to several models, from which it will be even easier to choose the most suitable one. For example, I was asked to look at MAXIMUS VII HERO or MAXIMUS VII RANGER and I completely agree with this choice. We really need to explore the capabilities of the new "Republic of Gamers" series motherboards and we will definitely do this in one of the following reviews, but for now we will test the Asus Z97-Deluxe model.
Packaging and equipment
The Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard is one of the flagship models, and therefore the design of its packaging is somewhat different from the boxes of ordinary motherboards. Outwardly, everything looks exactly the same - on the front side there is the model name and logos, and on the back there is an image of the board, a list technical characteristics and a short story about some of the distinguishing features. However, the front wall is made in the form of a hinged lid, it is fastened with Velcro, and through a large transparent window you can see how the board looks like.
Inside the box, the board packed in an antistatic bag is located in a separate compartment, and below in a two-compartment compartment there are components:
six Serial ATA cables with metal latches, half with two straight, half with one straight and the second L-shaped connector, cables are specially designed for connecting SATA 6 Gb / s devices (they are distinguished by white inserts on the connectors);
flexible bridge for combining two video cards in SLI mode;
Wi-Fi antenna;
rear panel cover (I / O Shield);
set of adapters "Asus Q-Connector", which includes modules for simplifying the connection of buttons and indicators of the front panel of the system unit, as well as a USB 2.0 connector;
user guide;
brochure detailing the specific features of Z97 series motherboards;
DVD with software and drivers;
"Powered by ASUS" sticker on the system unit.
Design and capabilities
Motherboards are high-tech devices, the design of which is developed taking into account the functionality and ease of use, and the attractive appearance is secondary. Nevertheless, the Asus Z97-Deluxe looks nice, and the round chipset heatsink and gold-colored inserts on the heatsinks of the processor power converter give it an additional charm. Powerful digital converter "ASUS DIGI + VRM" includes 16 phases and is made on a high-quality element base. The central radiator does not cool anything by itself; it is connected by a heat pipe to one of the radiators on the heating elements of the processor power converter and provides additional area for heat dissipation.
The Intel Z97 chipset makes it possible to bring out six SATA 6 Gb / s ports, two of them are included in the SATA Express connector, it shares the bandwidth with the M.2 connector, which has mounts for SSDs 60 or 80 mm long. The optional ASMedia ASM1061 controller adds two more SATA 6Gb / s ports, and the ASMedia ASM106SE controller adds another SATA Express port. Thus, theoretically, 10 SATA drives can be connected to the board at once, but there are some nuances, which will be discussed below, the number of available ports may be reduced.
PCI Express lines are used not only to implement the corresponding connectors, but also to connect additional controllers. The lack of free PCI Express lanes is typical for all modern Intel chipsets; they promise to fix this problem only in upcoming chipsets. The lack of lanes is especially acute in motherboards based on 9th series chipsets, which are equipped with M.2 or SATA Express connectors, since two PCI Express lanes are required to use any of these connectors. The Asus Z97-Deluxe model has a lot of additional controllers; to reduce the severity of the problem, an ASMedia ASM1187e switch has been added to the board, which turns one PCI Express line into seven. Nevertheless, the restrictions still remained, it was not possible to completely eliminate the shortage. The PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, which is based on four PCI-E chipset lanes, shares the bandwidth with an additional SATA Express connector and a controller that brings a couple of additional USB 3.0 ports to the rear panel. When using two of the listed connectors and controllers, the remaining one will be automatically disabled.
The board partially uses the logic set capabilities for dividing PCI Express processor lines. Not three, but only two PCI Express 3.0 / 2.0 x16 slots are able to share the bandwidth of sixteen PCI Express processor lines. It supports combining video cards in NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI or AMD 3-Way CrossFireX modes, in the latter case, for the third video card, you can use the PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, which is based on PCI-E chipset lines, belongs to the second generation of the interface and provides a maximum speed of x4 ... In addition to those already listed, there are four PCI Express 2.0 x1 slots for expansion cards.
The rear panel of the board looks good as it makes full use of the available space. A complete list of the output connectors is as follows:
hDMI, DisplayPort and mini DisplayPort video outputs;
Wi-Fi / Bluetooth module (AzureWave AW-CE123H);
four USB 2.0 ports, and four more can be brought out using two internal connectors on the board;
six USB 3.0 ports (blue connectors) appeared due to the capabilities of the Intel Z97 chipset and the additional ASMedia ASM1042E controller, and the ASMedia ASM1074 splitter using two internal connectors allows you to bring out four additional USB 3.0 ports;
two LAN connectors (network adapters are based on Intel WGI217V and Intel WGI211-AT gigabit controllers);
optical S / PDIF, as well as six analog audio connectors, the operation of which is provided by the eight-channel Realtek ALC1150 codec.
One of the distinctive features of the Asus Z97-Deluxe board is the presence of an integrated AzureWave AW-CE123H module, which is based on Broadcom circuitry and provides support for Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac wireless technologies in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, as well as Bluetooth V4.0. In addition, it should be noted the technology "Crystal Sound 2", aimed at improving the sound quality. The circuit uses a high-impedance headphone amplifier, special capacitors are used, the right and left channels are separated in different layers of the textolite, and the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe audio subsystem is isolated from the rest of the board to reduce interference. This is a fairly standard set of features that similar technologies have on motherboards from other manufacturers. A special feature of "Crystal Sound 2" is the "de-pop" function, which reduces the popping effect when connecting an audio system.
The schematic diagram of the board reveals a number of additional features. The board has six four-pin connectors for connecting fans, two of them are processor connectors at once, and all of them allow you to adjust the rotation speed of even three-pin fans. By the way, a connector has been added for connecting an additional temperature sensor, the fan rotation speed can be set depending on its readings. There are buttons for power on, reset, “Clear CMOS” for resetting BIOS settings, “USB BIOS Flashback”, which is intended for convenient firmware updates, and a “MemOK!” Button that allows the board to start successfully even if there are problems with RAM. We are familiar with the EPU (Energy Processing Unit) and TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) switches. The first one turns on the energy-saving mode, and the second one helps in overclocking the system, and in one position the processor will be overclocked only by increasing its multiplication factor, and in the second, a change in the base frequency will be added. The new "EZ XMP" switch allows you to immediately use the overclocking profile of the memory modules. A pair of DirectKey Connector pins can be brought out with a separate button or connected to the infrequently used Reset button on the computer case, which will make it possible to automatically enter the BIOS when the board starts up.
The complex of technologies "Q-Design", which simplifies the assembly and operation of systems based on ASUSTeK motherboards, should be definitely noted. “Q-Code” is a POST code indicator that allows you to pinpoint the source of startup problems. The “Q-LED” LEDs (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED) that light up during system initialization serve a similar purpose; with their help, diagnostics are less accurate, but performed much easier and faster. “Q-Slot” are convenient wide latches for video card slots, and “Q-DIMM” are single sided latches for memory modules. "Q-Connector" is a set of adapters that includes modules to simplify the connection of buttons and indicators on the front panel of the system unit, as well as a USB 2.0 connector. The complex of functions "5X Protection" includes a stable power supply, protection against overloads, against short circuits and against static electricity. Solid capacitors and a thin chromium oxide plated steel backplate that is resistant to oxidation and corrosion are designed to provide long life. Five ways to optimize system performance "5-Way Optimization" combines well-known features and technologies: TPU, EPU, DIGI + Power Control, Fan Xpert 3 and Turbo App. They enable the system to run faster, more economically and more efficiently.
All the main technical characteristics of the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard have been compiled into a single table, and by clicking on it, you can open a summary comparison table with the specifications of the previously tested models:
Asus Z97-A;
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 3;
MSI Z97 MPOWER.
BIOS Features
We studied the new look and new features of the UEFI BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards in great detail in the review of the Asus Z97-A motherboard. The Asus Z97-Deluxe BIOS looks exactly the same and has the same capabilities, so this time we will only recall the main features, without going into details.When entering the BIOS, we, as before, find ourselves on the page of the simplified mode "EZ Mode", but now it not only looks different, the list of its capabilities has significantly expanded. In the "EZ Mode" you can set the correct date and time, change the interface language, familiarize yourself with basic information about the system, load the default settings. You can configure the operation of memory, drives, fans and set the order of polling boot devices. With the help of "EZ System Tuning" you select the operating mode of the system, "Q-Fan Tuning" is designed to select the optimal fan speed, and the "EZ Tuning Wizard" will help you overclock the system and organize a RAID array.
The starting mode "EZ Mode" is designed to select the basic parameters of the system, and the full-featured mode "Advanced Mode" is used for detailed settings. Switching between modes is carried out using the "F7" key, and later the preferred mode can be made the starting one in the settings.
In the “Advanced Mode” mode, a new menu has appeared above the list of sections, which allows you to set the time and date, change the interface language, go to the main “hot” features: the list of the most common parameters “My Favorites” (F3), fan control “Q-Fan Control ”(F6), the“ EZ Tuning Wizard ”(F11). The "Quick Note" (F9) option allows you to write down and keep some important reminders, and the previous list of active "hot" keys is now hidden behind an intuitive icon in the form of a question mark, as before it can be invoked with the traditional F1 key. The "Main" section still provides basic information about the system, allows you to set the current date and time, you can change the BIOS interface language, including Russian, and in the "Security" subsection you can set user and administrator access passwords. However, even such a small section has already ceased to fit on one page, the “Security” subsection is not visible on the screen as before. To find it, you need to scroll the mouse wheel or flip with the keys, but the previous prompting scroll bar with arrows at the top and bottom has turned into a narrow inconspicuous strip without arrows. If you do not know in advance, it is difficult to guess that not all options of the section are initially shown.
The column on the right now constantly displays monitoring information: frequencies, temperatures, voltages, and the contextual help information for the selected parameter has moved down. The bottom is no worse than on the right, but in addition to this, a new menu with hot keys has been added at the top, and the “Last Modified” option remains at the bottom, which does not get a separate “hot” key and the “F7” link to return to the simplified “EZ” mode Mode ". As a result, our field of view has increased in width, but it was quite enough before, but it has noticeably decreased vertically - this is a significant drawback of the new BIOS design.
As before, the "Main" section is not the first in the list, in front of it is the "My Favorites" page, which is designed to collect in one place all the parameters you use most often. Initially, the page is empty, when you press the "F3" key, a list of BIOS sections is displayed, which you can expand and select the options you need to save. The previous restrictions on adding parameters were eliminated in previous BIOS versions, however, the “My Favorites” section is still left aside, it cannot be selected as the starting point, like any other section.
The bulk of the overclocking options is concentrated in the "Ai Tweaker" section. It has always been rather big, and initially you see a far from complete list of parameters, since all of them are set by the board automatically, but as soon as you proceed to manual configuration, many options previously hidden as unnecessary appear.
For example, if you just change the value of the parameter "Ai Overclock Tuner" to "X.M.P." to automatically change the parameters of the memory subsystem, or to "Manual", then additional options will appear immediately. Some of the parameters are traditionally placed in subsections so as not to overly clutter up the main one. In particular, the memory timings are changed on a separate page, their number is very large, but it is quite convenient to use the capabilities of this subsection. Using the scroll bar, it is easy to see all the timings set by the board for two memory channels. You can change only a few of them, for example, only the main ones, leaving the default values \u200b\u200bfor the rest.
A separate subsection contains the options that have appeared thanks to the digital power system "DIGI +". Directly in the BIOS, you can control proprietary energy-saving technologies that allow you to change the number of active phases of the processor power supply depending on the level of its load. The technology to counteract the voltage drop on the processor under load "CPU Load-Line Calibration" can not only be enabled or disabled, but also the degree of resistance can be measured.
ASUSTeK boards have an advantage in the form of numerous options in the “Internal CPU Power Management” subsection related to the voltage converter integrated into the processor. In addition to the usual parameters available on boards from other manufacturers, which allow increasing the permissible limits of processor consumption, a number of additional options will make it possible to speed up the response time and reduce power consumption at rest.
The voltages in the "Ai Tweaker" section can be set both above and below the nominal, the current values \u200b\u200bare indicated next to the parameters that change them, which is very convenient. When changing the voltage on the processor, you can choose between three different options. It can be rigidly fixed at a certain value, you can only add or remove the required value in the "Offset" mode, or you can use the adaptive (interpolation) option. We talked in more detail about the differences between the three methods of changing the voltage on the processor in the review of the Asus Z87-K board. This completes the capabilities of the "Ai Tweaker" section, meanwhile, we have not yet found a whole group of very important options that control processor energy-saving technologies. This is a characteristic drawback not only of ASUSTeK boards, but also of most boards from other manufacturers. The root of the problem lies in the AMI BIOS, which underlies the UEFI BIOS of modern motherboards and in its irrational basic layout.
The capabilities of the subsections of the "Advanced" section are generally well known to us and understandable from their names. They allow you to configure the operation of a set of logic and additional controllers, various interfaces, enable specific technologies such as "Intel Rapid Start" and "Intel Smart Connect".
In the CPU Configuration subsection, we learn basic processor information and manage some processor technologies, such as virtualization technology. However, we still do not see the parameters related to Intel processor energy saving technologies, since they are hidden even deeper, on a separate page "CPU Power Management Configuration". Actually, initially only four parameters are visible on the screen, since the "CPU C States" option is set to "Auto", and all subsequent parameters are hidden. We specifically changed the value of the "CPU C States" option to "Enabled" to demonstrate a large number of previously hidden parameters that can be changed. They have a very significant effect on the power consumption of the system at rest, so it is better to set their values \u200b\u200bmanually, and not leave it to the discretion of the board. In the example below, the only thing left to do is to select the "Package C-States Support" parameter.
The “Monitor” section reports the current values \u200b\u200bof temperatures, voltages and fan speed, and the possibilities for adjusting the fan speed have expanded significantly. The new "Q-Fan Tuning" parameter allows you to calibrate the fans, this ability was first introduced in the BIOS of Asus motherboards. For all fans, you can select the preset speed control modes from the standard set: "Standard", "Silent" or "Turbo", leave the full speed of rotation, or select the appropriate parameters in manual mode. When manually configured, the "Allow Fan Stop" parameter allows the fan to stop completely. A sad drawback of many modern motherboards was the lost ability to adjust the rotational speed of three-pin processor fans, but now this function has finally returned to ASUSTeK motherboards. Not only all system sockets, but also both processor sockets are capable of reducing the rotational speed with a three-pin connection, and not just individual connectors, as on motherboards from other manufacturers. Note that in addition to the traditional temperatures of the processor and the board, the temperature of the chipset, the power converter and the temperature from an additional sensor that can be connected are separately indicated, and the speed control of the system fans can be made dependent on any of these temperatures. The number of revolutions of all six fans is controlled, and not just a few, as is often the case.
Next is the "Boot" section, where we select the parameters that will be applied at system startup. Here, by the way, you need to change the starting mode "EZ Mode" to "Advanced Mode". At the same time, you can disable the "Fast Boot" parameter for the duration of the setup, so as not to encounter problems when entering the BIOS due to the fact that the board starts up too quickly and you simply do not have time to press a key in time.
The next section “Tool” contains a couple of extremely important and regularly used subsections, as well as one that is almost useless. In addition, there is a new parameter "Setup Animator" that allows you to disable the beautiful, but quickly annoying animated screen change and thereby speed up the work in the BIOS.
The built-in utility for updating the firmware "Asus EZ Flash 2" is one of the most convenient and functional programs of this kind. One of the advantages is support for reading from partitions formatted in NTFS. So far only motherboards from ASUSTeK and Intel have this feature. Unfortunately, the ability to save the current firmware version before updating was eliminated altogether.
The Asus Overclocking Profile subsection allows you to save and quickly load eight complete BIOS settings profiles. Each profile can be given a short name to remind you of its content. Profiles can be exchanged by storing them on external media. The downside is that the error has not yet been fixed, due to which the disabling of the start image display is not remembered in the profiles.
In addition, in the "Tools" section there is a subsection "Asus SPD Information", where you can get acquainted with the information hardwired into the SPD of memory modules, including the XMP profiles (Extreme Memory Profile). However, the place for this subsection was not chosen well, because the memory latencies change in a completely different subsection, very far from here, and it is inconvenient to use the information provided.
With the help of the last section "Exit" you can load the default values \u200b\u200bof the parameters, save the changes made or discard them, but its capabilities successfully duplicate the "hot" keys, so it is not at all necessary to enter it. Thanks to the "F7" key in the lower right corner, you can always return to the simplified "EZ Mode", there is also the "Last Modified" option, which did not get a separate "hot" key. It displays a list of the last changes made, it is saved even when you reboot or shutdown the system. You can always look and remember what changes were made to the BIOS settings the last time.
A pop-up window similar to "Last Modified" turned out to be extremely convenient, which automatically shows a list of changes every time you save the settings. By looking at the list, you can easily check the correctness of the specified values \u200b\u200bbefore applying the changes, make sure that there are no erroneous or forgotten options. In addition, using this window, it is easy to find out the differences between the current settings and the values \u200b\u200brecorded in the BIOS profiles. After loading the profile, you will instantly see all its main differences from the previously set parameters in the window that appears.
The familiar appearance of the UEFI BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards has changed dramatically, a number of new functions and capabilities have been added. First of all, you notice a significant reworking of the simplified starting mode "EZ Mode", which has ceased to be useless. The number of parameters available for changing has increased, configuration wizards have been added, which, using several consecutive steps, help the user to get an overclocked system or organize the operation of a RAID array. It is still better to carry out detailed configuration in the fully functional Advanced Mode, but the starting one now quite successfully copes with the task of initial, preliminary system configuration. In addition, it should be noted the new advanced features of Asus boards for adjusting the fan speed. A real treat for fans of efficient yet quiet cooling. All settings can now be done directly in the BIOS, without the help of additional programs and utilities.
The new BIOS fonts and colors do not cause any objections, but the structural changes to the Advanced Mode pages turned out to be rather negative. On the right, monitoring information is now constantly displayed: frequencies, temperatures, voltages, and the contextual help information for the selected parameter has moved down. The bottom is no worse, but besides this, a new line with "hot" keys has been added at the top, and in the lower right corner there is an option "Last Modified" and a link "F7" to return to the simplified "EZ Mode". As a result, our field of view has increased in width, but it was quite enough before, but it has noticeably decreased vertically - this is a significant drawback of the new BIOS design. Even relatively small sections have already ceased to fit on one page, which is why hidden parameters may go unnoticed and not found by users. The situation is no better in large sections. Due to the reduced field of view, it is easy to accidentally scroll or scroll, and as a result, skip a required parameter or even an entire group.
The new UEFI BIOS looks different, but no deep changes have been made and this is also a minus. New parameters were added, but the general structure remained the same, the same set of sections with the same shortcomings. As before, the section "My Favorites" or any other cannot be set as the starting one, and why then waste time organizing it? Important parameters that govern processor power-saving technologies are still hidden deep in the BIOS, difficult to find and take a long time to reach. The subsection "Asus SPD Information" is still useless, because it is not at all where frequencies and delays change. random access memory... There are even previous errors, for example, profiles still do not remember turning off the start picture. In general, the BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards is very good, but it is upset with minor partial flaws, which, unfortunately, have not been corrected for years.
Proprietary software
Several years ago, instead of the usual set of heterogeneous and diverse looking proprietary programs, ASUSTeK's motherboards were supplied with a set of utilities "AI Suite". There is only one downside to this approach - you always have to download a large package, even if only one program is required from the set. However, as more and more fast communication channels develop, it becomes less and less significant, but all other advantages remain in force. Thanks to a single installer and common program shell, it is convenient to install, update, run and uninstall. They are designed for different tasks, but they are designed in the same style, and were originally designed to be used together. Over time, the composition and appearance of the utilities included in the complex has changed, for a detailed consideration of the capabilities of all programs included in the package, a separate review is required, but we will briefly describe their functionality.As before, the entire “AI Suite III” software package must be downloaded in its entirety, but during installation, only the necessary utilities can be checked. In addition, you can choose a location for installation, unlike many proprietary programs from other manufacturers, which are installed only on the system disk, which is much more convenient for them, and not for the user.
After loading the operating system, the "EZ Update" utility will automatically check for updates, and in the lower right corner of the screen will appear reminding of its existence, and a small panel will immediately hide. The panel reappears if you move the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen, it allows you to change the power-saving mode, fan speed profile, and go to system messages. In the settings, the panel display can be disabled.
The window “Dual Intelligent Processors 5” is the starting point in the “AI Suite III” software package. It not only performs information functions, reporting the current parameters of the computer. Directly from this window, you can go directly to configuring individual systems.
In the upper left corner, the blinking arrow strongly suggests to carry out preliminary optimization "5-Way Optimization" before using the complex of programs. Optimization includes several steps and is performed automatically, however, advanced settings are available to select the preferred modes of TPU (TurboV Processing Unit), EPU (Energy Processing Unit), "DIGI + Power Control" and "Fan Xpert 3" functions. At the top right, a performance and energy saving profile is selected, and at the very bottom is a panel with monitoring indicators. Clicking on any of the fields will allow you to visually track the change in the corresponding parameters in the form of graphs for voltages, temperatures or fan speeds and a graph for the frequency of processor cores. The icon in the form of gears at the right edge of the panel will open the settings window, where you can set the permissible ranges of voltage, temperature and fan speed changes.
The central part of the window "Dual Intelligent Processors 5" allows you to go to the configuration of individual subsystems and the first is the TPU (TurboV Processing Unit) function. With its help, you can overclock the system: change the base frequency, multiplication factors of the processor cores, select the voltage change mode.
Fan Xpert 3 software allows you to select one of the preset modes, or independently adjust the temperature dependence of the rotation speed of any of the fans. The window in the lower left corner strongly recommends pre-calibrating the fans.
The program window "DIGI + Power Control" allows you to control the operating modes of the digital converter of the processor or memory power supply, if the next tab "DRAM" is selected. On the left, a value is selected, and on the right, the functionality is explained and the effect of changing a parameter is clearly illustrated.
The new "Turbo App" program will help you prioritize the use of running applications.
The following program "EPU" allows you to configure the operating parameters of the modes of energy saving "Auto", "Performance", "Max Power Saving" and "Away Mode".
Other programs included in the AI \u200b\u200bSuite III are also easy to find. An icon in the form of several cells is highlighted in the upper right corner of any window, which displays a list of the remaining installed utilities. They will allow you to quickly charge your mobile device, check for updates, provide system information, speed up the operation of USB 3.0 devices, and help with firmware updates.
Complex "AI Suite III" is the main, but not the only source of proprietary programs and utilities. The group of programs "Asus HomeCloud" provides access to your computer from the outside, allows you to organize the broadcast of multimedia files using the "Media Streamer" function. The "Wake on WAN" technology makes it possible to remotely launch and control a PC using a smartphone or tablet. Wi-Fi GO! will offer to synchronize files on your computer and smartphone, will allow you to use your smartphone as a keyboard and mouse. Cloud GO! Technology provides a unified interface for working with Asus WebStorage, Dropbox, Google Drive and Skydrive services with the ability to create data backups. A small utility "Asus Boot Setting" will help you automatically enter the BIOS the next time you start your computer. Powered by cFosSpeed \u200b\u200btraffic management optimization technology, Turbo LAN allows you to prioritize network bandwidth usage by various applications through an easy-to-use user interface.
ASUSTeK programs break the old ideas about the uselessness and uselessness of proprietary utilities. Now these utilities not only help in configuration and management, but also expand the capabilities of motherboards, which is an additional advantage of Asus motherboards.
Test system configuration
All experiments were performed on a test system with the following set of components:
Motherboard - Asus Z97-Deluxe rev. 1.03 (LGA1150, Intel Z97, BIOS version 1203);
Processor - Intel Core i5-4670K (3.6-3.8 GHz, 4 cores, Haswell, 22 nm, 84 W, LGA1150);
Memory - 4 x 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM G.SKILL TridentX F3-2133C9Q-32GTX, (2133 MHz, 9-11-11-31-2N, supply voltage 1.6 V);
Video card - Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD (AMD Radeon HD 7970, Tahiti, 28 nm, 1000/5500 MHz, 384-bit GDDR5 3072 MB);
Disk subsystem - Crucial m4 SSD (CT256M4SSD2, 256 GB, SATA 6 Gb / s);
Cooling system - Noctua NH-D14;
Thermal paste - ARCTIC MX-2;
Power supply unit - Enhance EPS-1280GA, 800W;
Case - an open test bench based on the Antec Skeleton case.
The operating system was Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64 bit (Microsoft Windows, Version 6.3, Build 9600) with the latest additions, a set of drivers for the AMD Catalyst 14.4 video card.
The nuances of work and overclocking
As for the features of operation and overclocking, the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard is no different from other boards from ASUSTeK. The assembly of the test system took place without problems, the firmware was successfully updated to the most current version at the time of checking the version.
The output of the boot image can be permanently disabled using the appropriate setting in the BIOS or temporarily, only for the current start using the Tab key, but we will not wait for the prompts to appear, but we will see another characteristic drawback. As the startup procedure progresses, the board will display a lot of useful information about the model name, BIOS version, processor name, memory size and frequency, number and type of USB devices, as well as a list of connected drives. However, it is impossible to find out the real frequency of the processor, the board reports only the nominal. In fact, its frequency will be higher not only during overclocking, but even during normal operation, since under load it will be increased by Intel Turbo Boost technology. This drawback is all the more annoying, since we know that motherboards from ASUSTeK, which belong to the "ROG" series, are able to correctly determine not only the nominal, but also the real frequency of the processor.
Modern motherboards start very quickly, but this advantage of ASUSTeK motherboards has turned into another drawback. Only at the first start, such a start speed is used that the user still has the opportunity to enter the BIOS, but subsequent reboots occur so quickly that it is already very difficult to do this and it will not work out on the first try. Asus Z97-Deluxe does not have a special DirectKey button for entering BIOS, but there are a couple of DirectKey Connector pins, to which you can connect the Reset button on the system unit. However, the principle of operation of the "DirectKey" button is not very convenient, because instead of rebooting and then immediately entering the BIOS, it first turns off the system, after which it must be turned on again, and only then "automatically" will you find yourself in the BIOS. Instead of a button, you can use the Asus Boot Setting utility, there are no such remarks about its functionality, but the program must be installed first, in addition, it is suitable only for users of Microsoft Windows operating systems. So at the setup stage, the easiest way is to do without buttons and utilities altogether, just disable the Fast Boot option in the Boot section, which works by default, in order to save yourself from unnecessary difficulties with entering the BIOS.
After loading the operating system, it may seem that the board provides the normal operating conditions for the processor, but this is not the case. If you manually enable all Intel processor power-saving technologies on the "CPU Power Management Configuration" page in the "CPU Configuration" subsection of the "Advanced" section of the BIOS, the system will become noticeably more economical. A small additional saving can be achieved if in the “DIGI + VRM” subsection of the “Ai Tweaker” section you set the optimized operating mode of the board power converter using the “CPU Power Phase Control” parameter. In addition, in the "Internal CPU Power Management" subsection, you can enable the "Power Decay Mode" option and set the balanced mode for the "CPU Integrated VR Efficiency Management" parameter.
Like other models by ASUSTeK, the board provides the opportunity to use the Asus MultiCore Enhancement function, which at any load level will allow increasing the processor multiplication factor to the maximum value provided by Intel Turbo Boost technology only for a single-threaded load. Initially, the parameter is set to "Auto", but it does not function, and to enable it, you need to start overclocking, for example, change the memory parameters using the "X.M.P." profile. To achieve more significant results, it is suggested to use the “OC Tuner” parameter in the BIOS or the “TPU” switch on the board, however, any automatic overclocking methods are imperfect, when choosing the optimal parameters manually, you always get a better result.
The most rational thing is to overclock the processor without increasing the voltage on it, but on an Asus board you cannot simply increase the processor multiplier and not change anything else. In this case, the voltage on the processor cores will be automatically increased by the board, and the voltage converter integrated into the processor will immediately detect an increase and independently begin to raise the voltage even more under load. All this, most likely, will lead to overheating and certainly to a waste of energy and we will not be able to achieve any energy efficient overclocking. To avoid the board automatically raising the voltage when the processor is overclocked, it is necessary to set the “CPU Core Voltage” parameter to manual mode, but do not touch anything else. In this case, the voltage is not increased by the board, and therefore is not overestimated by the converter integrated into Haswell processors.
Just in case, you can also disable the technology to counter voltage drop on the processor under load "CPU Load-Line Calibration" and the "Internal PLL Overvoltage" parameter. They may be needed only at very high overclocking, but at normal overclocking they are not needed.
Only overclocking without increasing voltage can be energy efficient. It will significantly increase productivity, speed up calculations, and at the same time, the total energy consumption, despite the increase in power consumption per unit of time, will even decrease, since due to the acceleration of calculations, the amount of electrical energy required to carry out the same volume of calculations will decrease. Only such acceleration will have a minimal effect on environmental pollution, will not have a negative impact on the environment, which was convincingly proved long ago in the article “ Power consumption of overclocked processors". However, during the tests of motherboards we have a different task. It is necessary to provide the maximum possible and the most varied load, check the boards when operating in various modes, which is why we do not use the optimal overclocking method, but the one that allows us to achieve the best results. For motherboard tests, the higher the frequency and voltage, the better, because the greater the load on the board. Only when working in extreme, close to the limit conditions, can problems be identified more easily and quickly, errors and deficiencies can be detected.
Previously, we always increased the voltage in the "Offset" mode, plus a similar adaptive or interpolation mode became available for LGA1150 processors, however, for Haswell processors, both options were unacceptable. As you already know, when you add any, even the smallest value to the nominal voltage, the stabilizer integrated into these processors immediately notices changes and when a load appears, the voltage begins to increase even more. All this naturally leads to an increase in heat generation, temperature, and as a result, this method of overclocking turns out to be inapplicable due to overheating. To avoid this negative effect, Haswell processors have to be overclocked at a constant, constant and fixed voltage. It is for this reason that during testing of motherboards we overclock the processor to 4.5 GHz while fixing the voltage on the cores at the level of 1.150 V while simultaneously using the parameters recorded in the "X.M.P." profile for memory modules.
Of course, when overclocking with fixing the voltage on the processor cores, energy-saving technologies partially stop working, the processor multiplier at rest drops, but the voltage does not drop anymore and remains unnecessarily high. We have to reassure ourselves that this is not for long, only out of necessity and only for the duration of the tests, and, besides, it has almost no effect on the system's power consumption at rest.
By the way, earlier we published the article “ LGA1150 Haswell Processors - Normal Operation and Overclocking Methods". This material is intended to explain to new users of the LGA1150 platform the basic principles of selecting the optimal parameters for operating in nominal mode and for overclocking Haswell processors on motherboards from various manufacturers. There you will find illustrated recommendations on how to enable Intel energy-saving technologies and increase the allowable limits for processor consumption, how to overclock them with an increase in core voltage, and without that.
Performance comparison
Comparison of motherboards in terms of speed is traditionally carried out in two modes - when the system is operating under nominal conditions, and also during overclocking. The first option is interesting from the point of view, which allows you to find out how well the motherboards work with the default parameters. It is known that a significant part of users are not engaged in fine tuning the system, they only set in the BIOS standard values \u200b\u200bof parameters, which are not optimal, but do not change anything else. So we first measure the speed of the systems in programs for various purposes and in computer games, almost without interfering with the default settings set by the boards. The results in the diagrams are sorted by performance level, and the figures for the Asus Z97-Deluxe are highlighted for clarity.In the Cinebench 15 photorealistic 3D rendering speed test, we run the processor tests five times and average the results.
The Fritz Chess Benchmark utility has been used in benchmarks for a very long time and has proven itself to be excellent. It produces well-repetitive results, performance scales well depending on the number of computational threads used.
The x264 FHD Benchmark v1.0.1 (64bit) test allows you to evaluate the system performance in terms of video encoding speed in comparison with the results available in the database. The original version of the program with the encoder version r2106 allows using AVX processor instructions for encoding, but we replaced the executable libraries with version r2334 in order to be able to use the new AVX2 instructions that appeared in Haswell processors. The average results of five passes are shown in the diagram.
We measure performance in Adobe Photoshop CC using our own benchmark, which is a creatively reworked Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed \u200b\u200bTest that includes typical processing of four 24-megapixel digital camera images.
The popular archiver WinRAR 5.10 Beta 4 is used to measure the time spent on packaging the distribution kit of Adobe Photoshop CC, and the results are averaged. As in the previous test, the faster the set of actions is performed, the lower the result, the better.
Computer metro game: Last Light is very beautiful, but highly dependent on the performance of the video card. We had to use Medium Quality settings to maintain playability at 1920x1080. The diagram shows the results of passing the built-in test five times.
F1 2013 races are much less demanding on the computer's graphics subsystem. At 1920x1080, we set all the settings to maximum, choosing the "Ultra High Quality" mode, and additionally enabled all available image enhancement features. The built-in test is run five times and the results are averaged.
The new version of the game Thief did not receive high marks, but the graphics are very high quality, there is a built-in performance test, and in addition, you can use AMD Mantle technology. In order to be able to see the speed gain from overclocking the system in the future, we had to set low quality settings “Low Quality”. If you often play computer games, you have a good video card and a powerful processor, then there is no need to overclock it.
Related models, when working under the same conditions, should demonstrate approximately the same level of performance, this is what can be seen in the diagrams. Motherboards are periodically swapped, but the difference in speed is small, the performance of the systems is almost the same. Now let's see what results the systems will show when overclocking the processor and raising the memory frequency.
Again, the difference is almost invisible, in terms of performance, not only when working in nominal mode, but also when overclocked, the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard functions perfectly fine.
Energy consumption measurements
Power consumption of systems during operation in nominal mode and during overclocking is measured using the Extech Power Analyzer 380803. The device is switched on in front of the computer's power supply, that is, it measures the consumption of the entire system "from the outlet", excluding the monitor, but including losses in the power supply itself. When measuring consumption at rest, the system is idle, we wait for the complete cessation of post-start activity and the absence of calls to the drive. The results in the diagrams are sorted as consumption increases, and the Asus Z97-Deluxe is highlighted for clarity.
In contrast to the simple model Asus Z97-A, which favorably differs from other motherboards in power consumption below the average level, the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard, which is full of additional features and controllers, consumes much more. However, it is too early to draw conclusions, since all the boards operate with sub-optimal default settings. Let's try to enable all processor energy-saving technologies, forcibly activate in the BIOS settings all the options of the CPU C-State group, which are set to Auto by default, in order to see the real relationship between the models.
All boards, except for the Gigabyte model, have reduced power consumption, but the Asus Z97-Deluxe board remains the most wasteful. It can no longer be said that it consumes much more than the average level, but the difference is clearly visible.
Just in case, we remind you that in test systems we install a discrete AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card, but if we refuse it and switch to using the graphics core integrated into the processors, then the total consumption of ordinary systems should fall even below 30 W. The economy of Haswell processors alone is very impressive and looks tempting, but it's a pity that with the default settings, motherboards do not allow us to enjoy this advantage; manual correction of BIOS parameters is required.
To create a load on the Haswell processor, we returned to the "LinX" utility, which is a graphical shell for the Intel Linpack test, and the version 0.6.4 we use uses AVX instructions for calculations. This program provides a load much higher than typical, but if one program can load more work and warm up the processor than usual, then it is quite possible that another can also, which is why we create a load on the processor when measuring power consumption using the LinX utility. Under load, both boards from ASUSTeK turned out to be more economical than their rivals, but this is not an advantage, but a consequence of their characteristic drawback. Regular non-ROG motherboards from Asus drop the processor frequency under high load, which makes them consume less, but also runs slower.
Now the LinX utility is used by us to measure the power consumption of systems, previously we have repeatedly used it in tests of cooling systems, because it heats up processors very much. However, the Linpack program underlying it gives the system performance in gigaflops as one of the resulting indicators. "FLOPS" ( FLoating-point Operations Per Second) - the number of floating point operations per second, "giga" - ten to the ninth power. To clearly show the difference in performance, I carried out additional tests in the LinX utility, when the allowable limits of processor consumption in the BIOS of the Asus board were increased and the processor frequency did not drop even under high load. It turned out that the speed of calculations will be about 5% higher.
Only now it became clear that additional tests could not even be carried out, the result was predictable in advance. It is known that changing the operating frequency of a Core processor by 100 MHz leads to a speed difference of about 2–2.5% in computing tasks. Under high load, the frequency of the Intel Core i5-4670K processor on Asus boards drops from 3.6 to 3.4 GHz, the difference is 200 MHz, so a four or five percent lag behind motherboards from other manufacturers could be predicted in advance. However, the differences in power consumption and speed between ASUSTeK's LGA1150 motherboards and other manufacturers will be noticeable only at high enough loads. Performance tests in the previous chapter of this article did not reveal any noticeable difference in speed between the boards under normal loads.
Now let's estimate the power consumption when overclocking systems and no load. Even during overclocking, we always make the most of all processor energy-saving technologies, and therefore the arrangement remains the same as it was with the economical settings when operating in the nominal mode. Compared to the "Eco" settings, the consumption of the boards does not change or increases by only 1W. By the way, note that during overclocking with increasing voltages, Asus and MSI boards consume even less than in the first diagram when operating in nominal mode, but with sub-optimal default settings. Once again, the undesirability of standard settings and the need to enable processor energy-saving technologies are confirmed, since not all of them work initially on LGA1150 motherboards. Unfortunately, the above does not apply to Gigabyte's motherboard, power-saving modes are not enabled on it, there is no saving, nevertheless, the multifunctional Asus Z97-Deluxe still consumes a little more.
It should be added again that for a total assessment of the level of energy consumed by the system, it is necessary to load the video card with work, and the final result will depend on its power. In power consumption tests, we use only the processor load, but if we measure the power consumption when the discrete AMD Radeon HD 7970 video card is running in games, then the total power consumption of a conventional system will significantly exceed 200 W, approaching 250 W when operating in nominal mode and exceeding this value during overclocking. ...
When overclocked under load, the power consumption of MSI Z97 MPOWER and Asus Z97-A boards is compared and becomes the same. The flagship model Asus Z97-Deluxe consumes noticeably more, however, despite its many additional controllers and a strengthened power system, it still turns out to be more economical than the simple entry-level Gigabyte gaming board, which continues to waste energy.
The considerable power consumption of the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard is not encouraging, but in order to justify it, it should be noted that it is due to a large number of additional features and controllers, a powerful power converter system. All energy-saving technologies work properly for this flagship model, but the fundamental laws of physics cannot be canceled, more complex boards are usually less economical, and individual exceptions to the general situation do not change.
Afterword
The test results for the Asus Z97-Deluxe motherboard turned out to be logical and somewhat predictable. This model looks good, easily overclocks, provides a normal level of performance in typical applications when working not only in the nominal mode, but also during overclocking. Nothing else could be expected from a flagship board of such a large and well-known manufacturer as ASUSTeK. The power consumption of the board is slightly higher than average, but this is understandable, because the number of its capabilities and additional controllers is very large: two additional SATA controllers, two USB 3.0, two network controllers, plus a module providing support for wireless technologies and a PCI Express line switch. The complex of functions "ASUS 5X PROTECTION" provides a stable power supply, protection against overloads, against short circuits, against static electricity and a long service life. Crystal Sound 2 technology is designed to improve sound quality. The complex of technologies "Q-Design" simplifies the assembly and operation of the system. Thanks to the rich proprietary software, "5-Way Optimization" technology, numerous buttons and switches, you can select the desired operating mode without even entering the BIOS. However, it should be noted that in the UEFI BIOS of ASUSTeK motherboards, the simplified "EZ Mode" startup mode for inexperienced users and preliminary settings has been significantly redesigned, and the full-featured Advanced Mode provides full control over the system. A set of programs "Asus HomeCloud" will provide remote access to the computer and streaming of multimedia files. Wi-Fi GO! will ensure the joint work of a computer with a tablet or smartphone. The flagship board Asus Z97-Deluxe is very good, its high rating is natural, but a natural limitation for the buyer is a considerable price, such a model is purchased only by those who really need its advanced capabilities.The new Z97 Express chipset presented by Intel Corporation immediately attracted increased attention from the computer community. In fact, it is an upgrade of the existing Z87 Express chipset, although there are innovations - one of them is the ability to connect drives via the PCI Express bus. The M.2 connector (NGFF) is intended for this, which is replacing mSATA.
In addition, most motherboards will now be equipped with SATA Express connectors. M.2 and SATA Express will deliver 10Gb / s throughput, which will improve the speed of popular SSDs.
So, we decided to test six motherboards based on the new chipset and tell the readers about their advantages and disadvantages. For testing, we used the fastest processor available at the time of testing - a quad-core Intel Core i7-4770K.
Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 (average price 5200 rubles)
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The packaging of the model is made in aggressive colors - its entire back side is literally strewn with all sorts of inscriptions telling about the undeniable advantages of this motherboard.
The use of the Intel Z97 Express chipset provides the user with the ability to overclock both by increasing the multiplier of computing cores and by increasing the base frequency. Four DIMM slots support DDR3 memory modules up to 32 GB (with the maximum available memory frequency in BIOS being 1600 MHz), and three PCI Express 3.0 slots are used to organize the graphics subsystem, one of which operates in x4 mode.
The processor power subsystem is made according to an eight-channel scheme. For heat removal from the transistors of the converter, two aluminum radiators are responsible, which are pressed with screws. The chipset is also cooled by an aluminum radiator, and its efficiency is quite high - during operation, the temperature did not rise above 50 degrees.
The HDA 5.1-channel audio codec Realtek ALC1150 is responsible for the audio section, and here it is worth highlighting the thoughtful design of the subsystem as a whole - each of its elements is designed to achieve maximum efficiency. To improve the quality indicators, special capacitors manufactured by Nichicon and a pre-installed Texas Instruments OPA2134 amplifier are used. According to the manufacturer's specifications, it has a neutral tone and is suitable for all genres of music. In addition, if desired, the user can easily replace it with a more suitable one for his personal tastes and musical preferences.
The drives are powered by six SATA III ports supporting AHCI, Intel Smart Response modes, as well as RAID 0, 1, 5, 10. In addition, the board has SATA Express and M.2 PCIe connectors supporting data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps
Like most other manufacturers, Gigabyte uses UEFI Dual BIOS on its board. The interface is easy to use - all options are available with the mouse.
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 WiFi-BK (cost not determined)
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This time Gigabyte decided to change the packaging style of its new product - strict black and white colors prevail in the design. The front of the box is decorated with the name of the board and the logo of the Ultra Durable 5 Plus concept, while the reverse side is almost completely reserved for a schematic image of the motherboard and a listing of its specifications.
The delivery set pleased us - in addition to the user's manual and a disc with drivers and proprietary software, six SATA cables with decorative braids, a plug for the back of the case, CrossFire and SLI bridges, as well as hard adapters for combining three and four video cards based on NVIDIA chips are included. In addition, in the box we found an expansion card with a wireless module, an external antenna and an additional cable for connecting Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 to an internal USB. There is also a bracket in the 3.5-inch compartment of the case for outputting two USB 3.0 ports.
The form factor of the board is ATX. Despite the fact that the design has a contrasting color scheme (a combination of black and red), it can be called austere and quite interesting. Among other things, the advantages of the product include the abundance of all kinds of connectors.
To install video adapters, four full-size PCI-Express slots are provided - the first two share 16 lines of the 3.0 standard received from the CPU, while the third and fourth use only 4 lines of the 2.0 standard. When using multiple graphics adapters, the lines between the slots are distributed according to the scheme x8 + x8 + x8 + x8. Three PCI Express x1 slots are provided for connecting additional expansion cards, which are located between the full-size connectors.
The sound subsystem of the motherboard is based on the Creative Sound Core3D quad-core sound processor, protected by a metal shield. To reduce interference, the audio path is partially separated from the general PCB array. To make this solution look even more impressive, the platform is illuminated along the perimeter with red LEDs installed on the back of the board.
ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 (cost not determined)
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ASRock strives to provide motherboards for different market segments, covering all areas as fully as possible.
The model provided for testing is not top-end. Nevertheless, both the packaging and the bundle do not cause any complaints.
The board comes in a black box with a strict but pretty design. There is nothing superfluous on the front side - the name of the model is at the bottom, logos of the supported technologies are slightly higher and, of course, the drawing in the center reminds of the most interesting functions.
The package bundle is common - several booklets, instructions, DVD with drivers and software, a dummy bracket for the rear panel of the case, cables, a hard bridge for SLI and an HDD saver cable. Alas, there is no front USB panel in the kit.
The processor is powered by a 12-channel converter (Digi VRM). There are two radiators for cooling the power circuits, and heat pipes are not used here - the radiators are completely independent. But the manufacturer did not save on capacitors - they are gold-plated and, according to the manufacturer, are supplied from Japan, which should ensure stability and durability.
There are six SATA III ports for connecting drives. four of them are controlled by the Intel Z97 chipset, while the other two use the Asmedia ASM1061 controller. Naturally, there is SATA Express and an M.2 slot implemented by the new chipset.
In the lower left corner of the board there are two buttons for power on and reset, as well as a digital indicator of POST codes, which helps to identify the cause of the problem if it occurs.
Like most other manufacturers, ASRock uses UEFI BIOS on its board. The interface is easy to use - all options are available with the mouse.
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 (average price RUB 5700)
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This motherboard comes in a relatively modest package - no transparent windows, no nested boxes, no carrying handles. But the package bundle did not disappoint - it includes a bunch of paper manuals, a cardboard plate on the door handle with a request not to disturb, a set of M-Connectors, a set of stickers for labeling cables, a plug for the interface panel of ports, SATA cables, an SLI bridge, and a DVD with drivers and software.
The manufacturer also did not save on the layout - an excellent processor power subsystem and three full-speed (16 lines each) PCI Express x16 slots, spaced far enough from each other to easily install video cards with three-slot cooling systems. There are six SATA-III connectors, in addition, the chipset supports the operation of the M.2 (NGFF) port, for the needs of which two PCI-E lanes are allocated. In general, the basic functionality is pretty good. The power supply of the central processor is implemented according to an 8-channel scheme, while all the MOSFET elements are cooled using massive radiators. As it should be, the board has an additional 8-pin power connector, through which twice the current can pass as compared to the standard ATX12V connector, which is important when overclocking the system.
The cooling system consists of three elements - two heatsinks based on power transistors of the CPU power regulator, interconnected by a heat pipe, and a heatsink on the Intel Z97 Express system logic set. The radiators are securely fastened with screws. The fins of the heatsinks on the power elements of the CPU power circuit no longer look like a dragon's head - this image has survived only on the chipset heatsink covered with a solid plate.
To control the POST progress, the board is equipped with a digital indicator that helps to determine the possible cause of failures at startup. Interestingly, after loading, the indicator reflects the current temperature of the processor - a very useful innovation that is quite rare.
The UEFI system, which has come to replace the familiar BIOS, is equipped with a fashionable graphical interface. A wide range of overclocking settings and other useful options (profile management, BIOS update, etc.) are presented in full.
Asus Maximus VII Gene (average price RUB 8500)
This motherboard is shipped in a dark red cardboard box. Traditionally, on the front cover you can find a description of some features of the board, and on the back of the box you can find an image of the board and a short list of its technical characteristics. The package bundle is not bad: in addition to the board itself, a detailed manual is supplied, a disk with drivers and applications, six SATA interface cables, a dummy plug for the back of the case, an SLI bridge, Q-Connector adapters for connecting control buttons and indicators, a set of stickers for marking interface cables and a plate on do not disturb door.
The micro ATX board is made on a black PCB. The power subsystem of the Extreme Engine Digi + III is made according to an 8-phase scheme, while massive aluminum radiators connected by a heat pipe are used to cool the MOSFET.
There are eight SATA III ports, six of them are powered by the Intel Z97 Express chipset, while the two additional ones are controlled by the ASMedia ASM 1061 controller. All SATA connectors are parallel to the board, so even full-size expansion cards will not complicate the connection of drives. In addition, the board is equipped with an M.2 connector, which allows connecting drives via the PCI Express bus.
Of the interesting features, you can highlight a special ROG Connect button, designed to activate the system control mode using a slave PC. It is also used to launch the USB BIOS FlashBack mechanism, which allows you to update the firmware from a USB flash drive without booting the system. In addition, the board contains several built-in sensors that monitor the temperature in the most critical places. Using their readings, the UEFI BIOS automatically adjusts the rotational speed of the processor and system fans to achieve the most efficient cooling at low noise levels.
Asus Z97 Deluxe (average price RUB 10,300)
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The Asus Z97 Deluxe motherboard comes in a regular size black box. No frills such as a hinged lid or carrying handle are provided. In addition to the card itself, packed in an antistatic bag, the kit includes a rear panel interface blank (black), six SATA III cables, an SLI bridge, a user manual, a CD with drivers and software, adapters to simplify connection of chassis cables, and an external antenna ...
The model is made in ATX format, the dimensions of the board are 305x244 mm. The color of the PCB is black, and all the main connectors and slots are made in the same colors.
The proprietary Digi + Power Control solution is responsible for the operation of the power system, supporting 16 phases. Cooling of power circuits is carried out by rather large radiators connected by a heat pipe. The round heatsink of the chipset is also large enough; no problems with cooling it arose during testing.
The board is equipped with many built-in temperature sensors - the processor, VRM of the processor and RAM, the chipset, as well as two PCIe slots are monitored. Among other things, you can use up to three additional temperature sensors that connect to the provided connectors (sensors are available separately).
The model uses a BIOS version with UEFI support, developed by AMI. Mouse and Russian are supported, which is pretty nice. There are also two options for accessing the settings - the simplified EZ Mode and the full list of all available Advanced Mode options.
Our testing has shown that, despite not very high performance gains compared to the previous platform, motherboards based on the Intel Z97 Express chipset will confidently occupy their niche in the field of productive gaming computers. When summing up the results, the Asus Maximus VII Gene model became the leader, which became the "Editor's Choice". But the "Best Buy" badge rightfully went to the Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 board - in our opinion, it has good functionality at a very attractive price.
The ASUS Z97-A motherboard is one of the most expensive in this review. Nevertheless, when creating it, ASUS did not resort to using a scattering of additional controllers, deciding to do with the very minimum, and also cut down the solutions demanded by enthusiasts, typical for more expensive models. In other words, the Z97-A embodies all the properties of the Intel Z97 chipset, but practically does not go beyond Intel's specifications. However, similar words can be said about almost any motherboard from this review. The interesting thing about ASUS Z97-A lies in the fact that, having followed the path of cost reduction, the developers still did not cross the border beyond which high-end products turn into consumer goods.
In other words, ASUS Z97-A can be described as a model for budget enthusiasts. At a price of about $ 145, this board not only looks decent on the outside, but also, having all the overclocking functions, makes it easy to overclock processors. The processor power circuit has a digital eight-phase design, high-quality electronic components are used, and the cooling system copes with its role with dignity. It should be noted that at first glance, two heatsinks on a MOSFET, pressed with spring-loaded plastic nails, do not inspire much confidence, but in fact, the heating of the power converter during operation turns out to be very insignificant.
At the same time, the developers have cleared space around the processor socket, which makes it possible to install arbitrarily massive cooling systems on the CPU. The PCIe x16 slot for the video card is additionally moved one position away from the LGA1150, and the heatsinks of the voltage converter are very low. Only the fact that the distance from the edge of the processor socket to the first DIMM slot is only 28 mm is worrying - this can cause mechanical problems when using large air coolers and memory modules with high radiators in the slots closest to the processor, but an overwhelming most motherboards.
By the way, you should pay attention to the fact that the depth of ASUS Z97-A is 244 mm, standard for the ATX format. And this is good, because, firstly, it allows you to rigidly fix the motherboard in the case with all nine bolts, and secondly, it allows engineers to comfortably distribute connectors and switches over the board. Actually, this is why the Z97-A is distinguished by an extremely thoughtful design: all connectors are located on the bottom and right edges of the board, which is ideal for simple cable routing inside the case.
The board in question offers a wide range of expansion card slots, typical of flagship rather than inexpensive motherboards. However, it should be borne in mind that out of the three available PCIe x16 slots, only two are connected to the processor, and when installing two-component multi-GPU systems, they work according to the 8x + 8x formula. The third, outermost slot is powered by PCI Express lines from the chipset and operates in 2x mode. In addition to this, the board offers two PCIe x1 slots as well as two PCI slots, which are operated via an optional ASMedia ASM1083 controller. It should be noted that the places for the PCI slots were not chosen very well. A dual-deck graphics card installed in any of the PCIe x16 graphics slots will block the adjacent PCI slot.
To connect storage media, the board has a full set of six regular SATA 6 Gb / s ports (with support for RAID 0, 1, 10 and 5), two of which can be combined into SATA Express. In addition, the board also has an M.2 slot, which, however, can accommodate only a few drives on the market that work via PCI Express 2.0 x2. Numerous SATA drives in M.2 format are not supported by the board. Also keep in mind that installing an M.2 PCIe SSD will disable both PCIe x1 slots on the board.
As for the USB ports, all of them, like SATA, work through the chipset. Four USB 3.0 are brought out to the rear panel, two more can be connected via a needle connector. There are two USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, but six more are available as onboard connectors.
It is curious that ASUS engineers have implemented a full set of various connectors on the Z97-A for connecting to the monitor's graphics core built into the processor. There are four different options: HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub and DisplayPort, with modern Haswell processor graphics capable of driving three displays simultaneously.
In addition, the rear panel of the board has a PS / 2 port for a mouse or keyboard, a gigabit network socket, for which the Intel I218V controller is responsible, as well as audio connectors: optical S / P-DIF output and five analog jacks.
Until now, we have not had to say that ASUS has seriously saved on something in its Z97-A, but such things still exist. And that's an audio codec. The cheap eight-channel Realtek ALC892 is used instead of the ALC1150 typical for high-end and mid-range motherboards. However, ASUS developers have spent a lot of effort to achieve good sound from it, for which they applied the entire range of engineering solutions they have: shielding the analog part, spacing the channels across different layers of the board, using high-quality Japanese capacitors in the sound path and using a powerful operational amplifier.
Together with the codec, some of the features that make aSUS boards so convenient when using them in overclocking experiments. For example, the Z97-A lacks a POST controller, convenient Reset and Clear CMOS buttons, and the ability to restore firmware without installing a processor and memory on the board. Nevertheless, the ASUS Z97-A still retains the Power On button, diagnostic Q-LEDs, a button to overcome problems with memory settings MemOK !, as well as an EZ XMP switch that allows you to activate the XMP profile.
The package bundle of ASUS Z97-A looks a bit richer than that of other motherboards of this price level. Thus, ASUS did not skimp on the SLI bridge and Q-Connector pads, which make it easier to connect small wires to the board during assembly. However, the included I / O Shield is not a soft backing, but a standard tin plate that causes multiple installation problems.
As for the BIOS shell, in this case we are faced with a typical ASUS UEFI with its familiar pros and cons. Its undoubted advantage is the human-readable EZ Mode and the modernized graphical interface, but there are also disadvantages - poor configurability of the shell for individual user needs and work in a resolution of 1024 × 768.
EZ Mode offers the most basic settings and system information in a simplified interface. With its help, the user can get information about the processor and hardware, change the order of polling boot devices, enable XMP and access the fan settings. In addition, the EZ Tuning Wizard is also available from here, allowing you to enable overclocking or configure a RAID array. However, these possibilities are far from being exhaustive, so we recommend using the "advanced" interface mode.
It contains all the typical settings of the classic BIOS, which are presented in a familiar hierarchical structure. Of course, the interface has become more modern, a mouse works in it and there are even animation effects, but in fact this is the good old BIOS Setup. The main structural innovation is the appearance of the My Favorites page, which the user can construct independently by transferring frequently used options to it.
In addition, a very convenient Last Modified window has appeared in the BIOS, allowing you to see a list of the last settings changed.
One of the important advantages of the UEFI motherboard ASUS Z97-A is the ability to configure the fan speed. Any of the five fans that can be connected to the board allows flexible interactive control (up to stopping) depending on the temperature of a particular node. In this case, both three and four-pin connections are supported.
One of the very first motherboards based on Intel Z87 that visited our lab was ASUS Z87-Plus. At that time, the manufacturer found it necessary to equip its product with two additional controllers for SATA and USB 3.0 interfaces, thus outlining the image of a modern platform. The simpler model Z87-A was in many ways, starting from its size, designated as a compromise.
As you know, the next stage of evolution (with the release of the updated Intel Z97 logic) of motherboard equipment is a new type of interface - SATA Express, which combines the usual SATA and PCI-E. Thus, today an increase in throughput is achieved and the type of interface socket is unified, which is best implemented with the introduction of its compact type - M.2.
All this was implemented by the company's engineers on the Z97-A. In foreign stores, the price of the device at the time of this writing has already dropped below $ 150. In addition, this model has acquired hitherto inaccessible opportunities in the mainstream segment of the motherboard market.
Before dwelling on them in detail, we give the general characteristics of the device.
| Model | |
| Chipset | Intel Z97 |
| Processor socket | Socket 1150 |
| Processors | Xeon, Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium, Celeron (Haswell) |
| Memory | 4 DIMM DDR3 SDRAM 1333/1600/1866 * / 2000 * / 2133 * / 2200 * / 2400 * / 2500 * / 2666 * / 2800 * / 2933 * / 3000 * / 3100 * / 3200 * (OC), max 32 GB |
| PCI-E slots | 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (x16 + x0, x8 + x8) 1 x PCI Express 2.0 [email protected] 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 |
| M.2 | 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x2 |
| PCI slots | 2 (ASMedia ASM1083) |
| Integrated video core (in the processor) | Intel HD Graphics / 4400/4600 / P4600 / P4700 |
| Video connectors | DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI, DVI-D, D-Sub |
| Number of connected fans | 6x 4pin |
| PS / 2 ports | 1 (keyboard / mouse) |
| USB ports | 6 x 3.0 (4 rear connectors, Z97) 8 x 2.0 (2 rear connectors, Z97) |
| SATA Express | 1 (Z97) |
| Serial ATA | 6 x SATA 6Gb / s (Z97) |
| RAID | 0, 1, 5, 10 (Z97) |
| Built-in sound | Realtek ALC892 (7.1, HDA), Texas Instruments RC4580 |
| S / PDIF | Optical, on-board connector (output) |
| Networking capabilities | Intel I218V (Gigabit Ethernet) |
| Firewire | - |
| LPT | - |
| COM | 1 (internal) |
| BIOS / UEFI | AMI UEFI |
| Form factor | ATX |
| Dimensions, mm | 305 x 244 |
| Additional features | TPM connectivity, Thunderbolt header, power button, AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX and NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI support, Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED) |
At first glance, being equipped with an ever increasing number of various interface outputs can only evoke positive emotions, but not everything is as simple as we would like. There was no significant change in the PCH design, and now the maximum number of its capabilities represented by only eight PCI-E lanes is obviously not enough for everyone. Let's take a closer look at this aspect in the UEFI review.
Packaging and equipment
ASUS products of the eightieth series did not have an overly flashy look of their own packaging; The tradition was picked up with the only exception that now the abstraction on the topic of planar technologies has been replaced by a very specific image of a system logic cooler with a small part of the board itself. In this way, the proprietary 5-Way Optimization approach was simultaneously designed.
Actually, optimization should be understood as the ability to use a complex of five utilities that are part of Ai Suite 3, or rather one of the modules - Dual Intelligent Processors 5. Other utilities included in its composition are indicated on the back of the package with a brief explanation of the essence of the changes introduced or new opportunities acquired by the computer. In addition to the software component, the hardware was not forgotten: a full photo of the device and a table with specifications will allow you to evaluate the capabilities of the Z97-A without opening the package or visiting the official product page on the Web.
More details about the utilities can be found in one of the brochures supplied in the kit. Inside the box are:
- user's Guide, which details UEFI sub-clauses (in English);
- DIY Guide QR code, leading to the official website page, where detailed instructions for assembling a PC are posted;
- software product manual in English;
- cD with drivers and proprietary software;
- company logo sticker;
- plug for the body, standard design - with embossed symbols and icons for nest designations;
- three SATA 6Gb / s cables, one of which has an L-shaped connector at one end;
- one flexible bridge for organizing SLI from two video cards;
- a set of adapters for convenient connection of ASUS Q-Connectors.
Slightly more interesting bundle compared to cheaper products, by the way, it coincides with the set of the Z87-Plus, which was once tested. The only caveat is the absence of a mounting screw in the kit for securing devices connected to the M.2 socket. Perhaps it will be included in the delivery of the latter.
Appearance and functionality
The image of the board looks complete, the abundance of expansion slots excludes empty spaces on the PCB, and the dimensions correspond to a full-fledged ATX format. Having listened to dissatisfied customers, the manufacturer changed the main leitmotif in the color scheme of the device. The golden color of the radiators has shifted towards brass tones, and some of the plastic elements are now inconspicuously gray.
The back of the product is freed from electronic components. Simple radiators of power elements use spring-loaded plastic nails for their fastening, and the chipset cooler is securely fixed with screws.
It is a massive bar made of light alloy material. It was decided to emphasize the development of the proprietary solution Dual Intelligent Processors up to the fifth generation. Its area will obviously not raise any questions regarding the temperature of the "south bridge".
There are no problems with identifying the serial numbers of the SATA interface outputs. The fifth and sixth have been incorporated into the SATA Express. All of their cases are located along the surface of the PCB. No third party controllers are available here.
The lower right corner of the product is full of various connectors and switches. The bottom row is filled quite traditionally, but above it there are: DRCT block (although there is plenty of room for a full-fledged Direct Key button there), T_SENSOR contact group for connecting a thermocouple (not included in the kit), two state switches - a two-position TPU and a regular EPU. The latter are equipped with LED indicators soldered in close proximity to them. In the first active position, green lights up, and for the second position of the TPU, an orange glow element is implemented.
Do not lose sight of the presence of four indicators on the PCB, forming a solution called Q-LED. These are four red LEDs that light up when the corresponding system node is initialized during POST. So, BOOT_DEVICE_LED was placed next to PCH.
DRAM_LED is located next to the MemOK! Button in the upper right corner of the product. Here, an unprecedented EZ_XMP switch is found, which activates the XMP profile without user participation in the system configuration procedure using UEFI. In this case, the activation process is confirmed by a green LED carefully wired here. A little surprise is the presence of the CPU_OV contact group, apparently, especially for those users who decide to start their extreme experiments with a simple product, without resorting to buying something more suitable.
Also, the Z97-A could not do without a system-on indicator, which is located again at the corresponding PWR_SW button - literally on the lower border of the board. Nearby is the TB_HEADER socket, which is useful for those who want to equip their board with the fastest interface available today; this is possible with the purchase of a ThunderboltEX II card, and the Z97-A is the youngest model at the time of writing this review, allowing such an expansion of the system's capabilities.
Somewhat controversially, in my opinion, the PCI slots were placed. The use of the number of video adapters is limited to two devices - the third connector, which is connected to the chipset, is content with only two PCI Express 2.0 lines. The rest of the PCI-E x16 slots share sixteen processor lines of the third revision absolutely equally thanks to four ASM1480 switches from ASMedia Technology Inc.
A separate approach to the implementation of the sound component has now also touched the base model, but for some reason it did not work out ideologically to refuse to use the budget ALC892 from Realtek. In addition, they decided to equip the Z97-A with a network controller from Intel. Next to it is a small coil with an open, non-insulated body. Frankly, I was seriously surprised by the high-frequency squeak emanating from the board in standby mode, and I put it in first place among the main suspects.
The approach to implementing the VRM node is kept from the previous series; then it was the same for the Z87-Plus and Z87-A models. In addition, I will note here the presence of the ASM1440 switch, whose role is reduced to the distribution of priority in using the M.2 slot or two of the simplest PCI-E.
Radiators for cooling power elements have become more complex, adding a little in their heat capacity. The role of a heat conductor is traditionally performed by a gasket about one and a half millimeters thick.
The PWM controller has been renamed and its model has managed to add one to its numbering, so now it's ASP1252. The power regulator implementation scheme has four channels with a doubled number of elements in each of them. It is easy to verify this by counting the number of auxiliary drivers. Power cells manufactured by NXP Semiconductors, typical of the budget class of products, are used. These are PH6030L and PH4030L.
The back panel of the previous generation caused a number of comments. This time, its concept has been significantly revised, and now you can only complain about the close proximity of DVI-D and USB sockets. But if we take into account the probable attraction of the latter for the needs of interface cables, then problems should not arise. Otherwise, it is close to the standard, which I recently began to consider GA-Z97X-SOC Force. Apparently it was not so easy to place four USB sockets of the second revision here, but otherwise everything is fine. Traditionally, the ASM1442 level converter was involved.
As a small summary, I would like to dub the Z97-A board a self-contained product, whose target audience is not system builders at all. A large number of various helpers, tools for simplifying system configuration, overclocking and initial diagnostics of possible problems demonstrate the complete readiness of the product for experiments, and a variety of interface elements will equip a PC with the basis in its face with the most modern equipment. The next step is to examine the software support. UEFI capabilities
The microcode update procedure went smoothly. For this, the EZ Flash Utility was used, whose version is now listed as 02.01.
The most active readers have probably already seen the updated interface in the Z97-Deluxe review. First of all, the simplified EZ Mode was reworked. A little more attention is now paid to drives - their number and device models can be seen without entering a separate menu. The mechanism for quickly selecting the profile of the system's functioning was forced to give way, which in fact means activating the operation of TPU or EPU modules - now it has become more compact. The rest of the tools remained in place: calendar and system clock, interface localization, XMP activation for DRAM, quick fan configuration.
Q-Fan Tuning is now slightly more powerful. Now in one click you can configure the mode of operation of the required channel. It is assumed that the processor cooler is controlled by the PWM method, while the other fans change their speed by changing the supply voltage. In addition to four ready-made operating scenarios, including Full Speed, we added a manual mode for making changes to the control algorithm. Now everything is done in the best possible way, the only disappointment is the impossibility to perform calibration in order to understand the correspondence of the percentage ratio and the real value of rpm for each of the products. Only proprietary software within the framework of work from under the OS has such luxury. However, this is not all the UEFI capabilities, somewhat deeper settings will be available in the Advanced Mode of the environment display mode.
The analogy of the updated UEFI with Microsoft's Modern UI suggests itself, and if in EZ Mode everything looks very laconic, then in Advanced Mode, in my opinion, such trends have led to a deterioration in the perception of the picture of what is happening.
The very concept of filling the sections has remained unchanged. They decided to move the reference field down, that's why the usable area in working with the settings has become even less. It is also a controversial point, because the information about the system that replaced it takes up an unacceptable amount of space. In addition, at the top there are now illustrated symbols for starting some mechanisms, which also reduce the usable working area. The first of them echoes the very first My Favorites tab, where you can make a choice in favor of the most frequently used mechanisms when setting up UEFI, pinning them to an empty field.
Qfan Conrtol turns out to be the same master of Q-Fan Tuning. Such discrepancies of the same windows look a little surprising.
EZ Tuning Wizard hides two mechanisms - system overclocking and RAID configuration. The first one is indeed a somewhat broader toolbox than using a ready-made TPU profile. So far, not everything is smooth with its functionality, in particular - the displayed numbers are far from reality, but the mechanism itself is actually efficient.
In the Main section, you can see firsthand the inconvenience of the new stylistic approach. Not only that such a modest section didn’t fit on one page, the peculiar naming of subsections, such as CPU or Memory Information, which do not have definite meanings, are not separated from other elements in any way, and the groups themselves are also not delimited in any way. Thus, confusion arises, and it will only be more difficult for an unprepared user to navigate in such a monotonous array of information.
The filling of the partitions has been developed by the manufacturer for years, in particular, Ai Tweaker turned out to be literally unchanged in relation to its progenitors based on Intel Z87.
In other words, the Z97-A has the whole complex of overclocking measures, in addition, there are a number of proprietary mechanisms that make it possible to simplify such a task for novice overclockers, speech about OC Tuner and EPU Power Saving Mode.
As for the possibilities in the field of supply voltage management, everything is in perfect order here - no simplifications are observed, and the presence of Extreme Over-voltage only adds confidence in the strength of the VRM node.
The most important parameters are summarized in the table:
| Parameter | Adjustment range | Step |
| BCLK Frequency (MHz) | 80-300 | 0,1 |
| PLL Selection | Auto / LC PLL / SB PLL | |
| Filter PLL | Auto / Low BCLK Mode / High BCLK Mode | |
| Internal PLL Overvoltage | Auto / Enabled / Disabled | |
| CPU Core Ratio (Multiplier) | 8-80 | 1 |
| CPU Load-line Calibration | Auto / Level1 ... 9 | 1 |
| CPU Current Capability (%) | Auto / 100 ... 140 | 10 |
| CPU Core Voltage Override (V) | 0,001-1,92 | 0,001 |
| CPU Input Voltage (B) | 0,8-2,7 | 0,01 |
| CPU Cache Ratio (Multiplier) | 8-80 | 1 |
| CPU Cache Voltage Override (V) | 0,001-1,92 | 0,001 |
| DRAM Frequency (MHz) | 1400-3400 800-3200 |
200 266 |
| DRAM Voltage (B) | 1,2-1,92 | 0,01 |
| CPU System Agent Voltage Offset (V) | (+/-) 0,001-0,999 | 0,001 |
| CPU Analog I / O Voltage Offset | (+/-) 0,001-0,999 | 0,001 |
| CPU Digital I / O Voltage Offset | (+/-) 0,001-0,999 | 0,001 |
| PCH Core Voltage (V) | 0,7-1,5 | 0,0125 |
| PCH VLX Voltage (V) | 1,2-2,0 | 0,0125 |
| Max. CPU Graphics Ratio (Multiplier) | 8 (by CPU) -60 | 1 |
| CPU Graphics Voltage Override (V) | 0,001-1,92 | 0,001 |
The Advanced section contains system settings that do not directly affect its performance. PCH Storage Configuration has succinctly replaced the SATA Configuration menu item. Of the interesting things, I would like to note the maximum allocation of only 512 MB of memory for the needs of the integrated video processor.
One of the useful features of the board is the ability to independently control each of the USB channels, which I had a chance to use during the experiments. The involvement of the new M.2 socket in the system is located in the Onboard Devices Configuration subsection, where by default two separate soldered PCI-E x1s are activated.
Another variation on the naming of the quick setting for the system coolers is at the first place on the Monitor page. This time, it hides a kind of calibration, when the lower limit of its operability is determined for each device, after which this value is adjusted (again in percent) for the corresponding channel. In addition, there are also remnants of the direct purpose of the section - information about the current temperature and voltages at important system nodes.
There is also the most complete range of settings for the operation of system coolers in terms of UEFI capabilities. The main innovation is the choice of the reference temperature source for the four fans (everything is unambiguous for the CPU channel). This functionality was previously available only to older models. But, objectively speaking, the only innovation is the ability to choose the T_SENSOR1 sensor among others, because the temperature of the PCH CORE and MB actually does not practically change during various loads or their absence. Do not forget that the Z97-A external thermocouple is not supplied with, therefore, such a mechanism can only be described as a pleasant option.
During the whole time of working with the board, there were no problems with the POST procedure. The hardware initialization phase was quick, because Fast Boot was initially activated. However, there are a number of settings that can be changed if desired. Of the most useful parameters, I note the fixation of the Setup Mode display mode.
A new feature has appeared in the Tool section - disabling animation. It is implemented as a delay when moving from one section to another, again following the latest trends when working with the interface. It is completely incomprehensible why this is needed in UEFI, especially given the obvious slowness of its operation when moving from section to section. We have already successfully tested the utility for updating the microcode version. The traditional eight profiles for saving settings are also in place, as well as the ability to save an unlimited number of them to external media.
I was a little surprised by the ASUS SPD Information module, having failed to read the first XMP profile of our RAM kit, although there were no problems before.
The Exit page was designed as a full-fledged section, but nothing new appeared there.
The ability to display a complete list of changes immediately before the procedure for applying new settings has not disappeared anywhere.
For those who are still not familiar with the set of hotkeys, there is a help window, invoked by pressing F1.
There can be no complaints about the UEFI content, since it is borrowed from the products of the previous generation, which fully satisfies the needs of the modern user, and newfangled trends in the design of the interface are a matter of purely individual preferences. The EZ Mode rework looks very good, and the result of the system tuned using the EZ Tuning Wizard will be described in the next section, where we will conclude that it is advisable to implement such a mechanism.
Complete software
And again, in spite of the next generation of products, the approach taken in the field of manufacturing a support disc remains unchanged. Obviously, fewer and fewer users are resorting to using it, and the mechanism itself, which has been worked out for years, does not give reason for comments and, accordingly, the need to change anything there.
For some reason, among other things, there was no proprietary driver for USB 3.0 from Intel, yet the rest is in place, as usual, with an excess of some third-party software. The installation wizard completed without errors.
The set of utilities is not so rich against the background of competing products, but a large number of various utilities can outshine the proprietary AI Suite of the same unchanged third version.
The developers made an annoying mistake by not adding to this wizard a very important, without exaggeration - very interesting Turbo LAN. You can install it yourself from the main menu of the support disk.
This utility is a work of the third party developer cFos Software. It is known as cFosSpeed. It is noteworthy that for the domestic market there is a special price for it, so I strongly recommend that everyone who is interested to carefully study its huge potential, which cannot be compared with the Killer Network Manager. There is a great variety of ready-made presets for a variety of software, sorted by purpose and with the corresponding priority. There are four categories, and the general idea is to give the highest priority to games, streaming media, and VoIP applications while limiting the operation of peer-to-peer clients. But this is only her outer shell.
The true capabilities are so broad that at least a separate review should be devoted to such a product. Settings are a treasure trove of tabs that will be appreciated by true enthusiasts.
In addition to performing direct customization, a variety of auxiliary tools are available. For example, a log with graphs of traffic accounting curves.
Further, monitoring of current connections with the ability to directly control each process based on the creation of a temporary or permanent rule.
At first, everything looks very frightening for an unprepared user, therefore, using the context menu of the program, you can use only a few, but therefore not at all secondary settings. I note that the line calibration works very mediocre, and this is due to the remote location of the company's server.
The next surprise was a careful study of the composition of a typical, at first glance, audio codec management console from Realtek - ALC892. Inside there was a kind of proprietary software from Creative (Sound Blaster Cinema or Sound Blaster Pro Studio), which is equipped with a great variety of competing multimedia products. It was called DTS UlrtaPC II, and the whole essence of the changes made to the sound, as it should be, is a special manipulation, similar to the intervention of a conventional equalizer. But be that as it may, there are really a lot of ready-made options proposed, and all of them seriously change the sound picture.
In addition, in addition to the scenarios for using the system, the choice of the sound source is also important. Each of the options has its own set of presets.
AI Suite 3 includes not much software compared to older motherboards.
There were no problems with obtaining information about the system, even with RAM, in contrast to the UEFI environment. I note a slight shift in the design of the complex in the color leitmotifs: they have become darker, having lost the original shades of blue.
Push Notice represents engineers' new vision of the relationship between portable gadgets and the desktop. And if everything is clear with the PC mode status page, then the other tabs are depressing with their emptiness, obviously, the product is in the initial development stage. There were practically no reviews on the Play Market at the time of writing the review, and the restriction in the form "Before using Push Notice, you must first connect your PC and mobile device to the same network, and register your mobile device on your PC" does not look very friendly ...
The slightly updated Dual Intelligent Processors module (up to the fifth version) has already been touched upon in the Z97-Deluxe review. Its content for the Z97-A model is somewhat more modest, but the essence remains the same, and all because the main modules wander from version to version without changing their content.
The content, in turn, also depends on the corresponding settings in the UEFI environment, because the AI \u200b\u200bSuite is nothing more than a software add-on for the OS. So, for example, the settings of the DIGI + VRM submenu look much more modest.
Together with the whole complex, I added the Fan Xpert module to its serial number. Now his version is third. At first glance, nothing significant appeared there.
Before fully adjusting the operating mode of the coolers, as before, it is necessary to perform their calibration procedure, which is done correctly here. Upon completion, each of the channels receives a kind of passport with the characteristics of the product.
All that we managed to find in the updated version is the presence of a button and the area corresponding to its positioning on the curve graph with the name Extreme Quiet. In other words, there are no radical innovations here, and it is still difficult to come up with what the manufacturer could wish for, because the functionality of the product is already at an excellent, exemplary level of performance.
Now, after a protracted interlude, let's move on to the main highlight of the program, a new, fifth in a row, module from the complex, called Turbo App. From the review of the older sister in the person of Z97-Deluxe, it is known about the ability of this component to apply some ready-made profiles with increased or reduced system performance for each individual application, or even individually activate, if necessary, the desired multiplier participating in the formation of the operating frequency processor.
But the main thing was missed that time, because at the same time for each application you can apply (right from here) the profiles of the settings of the utilities for interacting with the sound and network adapters. There are a number of controversial points: how the system will behave when you run several programs with different settings, for example - an audio player and a game - with different profiles for the codec, remains a mystery. But the very possibility of maneuvers, as well as the convenient form for their implementation, evokes the feeling of knowing the fact of the offensive new era work with familiar applications.
Actually, there is nothing surprising in the fact that to this day the ASUS company is a pioneer in the development of various sides of the symbiosis of hardware and software components of its own products. The new Turbo App module is not just another useless utility, the number of which for some vendors sometimes reaches indecent, but becomes a dense row of other programs already proven in business, forming a kind of connecting link between them. For this, the developers deserve exceptional praise. Overclocking potential
First, let's touch on the standard capabilities of the product in the area of \u200b\u200bincreasing the system's performance, and start with a new mechanism - the EZ Tuning Wizard. It was mentioned in the review of UEFI capabilities, and then we were promised an increase in processor speed in the amount of 32%, and for RAM - 36%; all of this can be achieved using the Gaming / Media Editing profile. Indeed, it is these ratios (relative to the standard capabilities - 3.4 GHz and 1.6 GHz, respectively) that were demonstrated during practical tests. As a result, the processor frequency was 4488 MHz, and the RAM modules - 2176 MHz. Moreover, this formula turned out to be valid for any type of load. The CPU voltage increased to a modest 1.25 V during operation, and during idle time it decreased to the prescribed 0.7 V. The RAM also functioned with delays according to the XMP profile.
The picture looks quite idyllic, so the system underwent more serious testing with the same settings, since the possibility of successfully overcoming a stress test with such a low CPU voltage seemed very doubtful. It turned out that in more severe conditions it increased to a significant 1.37 V, which ultimately led to overheating of the CPU and activation of throttling. It remains to wish the manufacturer not to be satisfied with what has already been achieved, but to continue to improve its own mechanisms, the number of which now reaches at least three.
Two more automatic overclocking modes can still be activated inside UEFI, or by resorting to the functionality on the PCB in the form of a TPU state switch. In any case, the first mode, now called Ratio Tuning, turns out to be quite familiar about the products of the previous generation, made with the use of Intel Z87. When using it, the processor operates at a frequency slightly above 4 GHz, while there is no visible increase in voltage. The RAM functions according to the XMP profile - the frequency is 2133 MHz.
In simpler state, energy saving technologies function correctly. In short, nothing has changed in this scenario.
The next position of the switch on the board, or changing the selection inside UEFI to BCLK + Ratio Tuning, accordingly modifies the approach in the overclocking process by fixing the base frequency at around 125 MHz. The final processor frequency is 4126 MHz, RAM - 2 GHz, the latency formula is based on the XMP profile values.
In this case, the CPU voltage turns out to be fixed at around 1.17 V, which in the end is even a slightly lower figure compared to the previous case. At the same time, energy saving continues to successfully fulfill its direct functional duties.
Both of these overclocking methods may not be in the least impressive, but in retaliation, the operation of a system based on such settings is completely stable.
Hand-made strength tests began with the search for the maximum value of the reference frequency, at which the system operates absolutely stable. It turned out to be 186.2 MHz, which is a good result.
I liked the board's behavior in case of setting inoperable parameters: several unsuccessful launches were replaced by a proposal to make changes to the settings, in which the POST procedure does not proceed as expected.
Unexpectedly, there were problems when overclocking the CPU using the settings already checked before. Literally in the first minute of stress testing operating system began to report a lack of power on a certain USB device, as a result of which it was out of use.
Thanks to the extensive capabilities of UEFI, we managed to find out that it's all about two ordinary USB 2.0 ports located on the back panel. Regardless of their involvement in the operation, the message appeared again and again, so I had to turn them off. It is difficult to say whether this is the fault of design errors in the design, or it is a problem of a particular instance of the Z97-A. Anyway, after that everything worked without question. With an increased total voltage of the CPU to 1.9 V, for the ring bus - up to 1.3 V, and on computing units - up to 1.35 V, the Core i5-4670K was able to work at a frequency of 4.7 GHz, and the ring bus at this - at 4.4 GHz.
The selection of the supply voltage stabilization mechanism took a little more time. As it turned out, none of the nine pre-prepared profiles adequately copes with the obligations imposed on the LLC mechanism itself. I finally mastered the choice in favor of Level 8: at maximum load, it increased the required voltage by 0.02 V, and the average during testing turned out to be 1.914 V. Lower LLC values \u200b\u200bone way or another lead to a voltage drop below the required 1.9 V , which threatens possible instability during the operation of the system. In this mode, the test bench consumed energy within the range of 99-299 W, which is slightly more than was recorded in the GA-Z97X-SOC Force review; especially frustrating is the excessively high value typical of the system downtime. The temperature in the VRM zone reached 72 ° C, while the radiators were able to warm up at their highest point only to 52 ° C.
There were no problems with overclocking the RAM, while we managed to fix a slight change in the configuration of secondary delays (relative to the line of motherboards based on the eightieth series), which are set according to the device's own preferences. The frequency was 2666 MHz with a supply voltage of 1.75 V and a delay formula of the form 11-13-12-30-1T.
On the whole, I was completely satisfied with the subject's behavior. The revised concept in the design of UEFI initially introduces some element of confusion, but, gradually getting used to it, you can fully start working with the settings. The functionality of another switch - EZ_XMP - has been successfully tested in practice. What wishes can be expressed to the manufacturer at the expense of all this abundance - unification into a single "console", because their simultaneous activation threatens the system with complete confusion. Imagine: automatic overclocking, power saving boost and additional mechanical XMP profile locking. All this (at the same time) should not happen, and testing such a fantasy in practice resulted in a complete mess.
Test stand
The stand includes:
- processor: Intel Core i5-4670K (3.4 GHz);
- cooler: Cryorig R1 Ultimate;
- thermal interface: Noctua NT-H1;
- memory: G.Skill F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM (2x4 GB, 2133 MHz, 9-11-10-28-2T, 1.65 V);
- video card: Gigabyte GV-N580SO-15I (GeForce GTX 580);
- drive: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 (128 GB, SATA 6 Gb / s, AHCI mode);
- power supply: XFX XPS-850W-BES (850 W);
- operating system: Windows 8.1 Pro x64;
- drivers: Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility (10.0.14), Intel Management Engine Interface (10.0.0.1204), GeForce 335.23 (9.18.13.3523), PhysX 9.13.1220.
The following applications were used as tests:
- AIDA64 4.30 (Cache & Memory benchmark);
- Futuremark PCMark 8 (bundled with Microsoft Office 2013 SP1 Standard);
- Futuremark 3DMark 13;
- Batman: Arkham City;
- F1 2012;
- Hitman: Absolution.
| Product | Microcode version | AIDA64 | BenchDLL | PCMark 8 | 3DMark 13 |
| 0902 | 4.30.2954 | 4.1.611-x64 | 2.0.228 | 1.2.362 | |
| Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SOC Force | F5 | 4.30.2946 | 4.1.611-x64 | 2.0.228 | 1.2.362 |
Test results
When the XMP profile is activated in the bench set of RAM, it seems that there is a direct interference with the Turbo Boost technology (relative to the standard settings). As a result, the Core i5-4670K ran at 3.8 GHz regardless of the type of application being launched.
Therefore, expectations regarding the level of performance are the most demanding.
In real games, everything turned out to be not so rosy - the tested model lost all her confidence. Therefore, the overall result is still a draw. In general, this is how it should be when it comes to high-end products based on the same chipset and functioning with similar settings.
System power consumption
The measurements were carried out after passing all other tests in the "steady" computer mode using the Luxeon AVS-5A device. The methodology consisted in fixing the weighted average consumption of the test bench "from the socket" during the Prime95 test using the In-place large FFTs profile and also when the computer was idle after the test was completed.
Continuing to talk about the uniform behavior of devices with identical parameters, one cannot fail to note their absolutely identical level of electrical energy consumption. One could state a very energy-efficient VRM in the Z97-A, but its strange behavior during overclocking does not allow doing this. The 99W idle threshold outlined in the section above is not a final number. For a long time after the stress testing procedure, it turns out to be exactly like that, but if you wait well (more than ten minutes), then gradually the system's appetites begin to fade, decreasing in numerical terms to the expected 88 watts. Repeated experiments only repeated this scenario.
The manufacturer's proprietary solution in the field of increasing energy efficiency is the activation of the EPU. This time, the behavior of the Z97-A practically coincided with its predecessor, the Z87-Plus. The supply voltage of the computing units was kept at the 1.01 V boundary by all means, the CPU frequency was 3.6 GHz for a very short time, dropping to the nominal value (3.4 GHz), especially with a load that takes a long period of time. Such measures allow reducing the final consumption level to 79-137 watts.
Conclusion
If we briefly summarize the information obtained while working with the device, then this model turned out to be much more interesting than its closest predecessors in the person of Z87-A and Z87-Plus. The current arsenal, both hardware and software, makes such a product the most attractive among this list due to the presence of the most relevant interfaces and equipment with advanced proprietary software.
The last point deserves unconditional praise, and, apparently, it's not for nothing that the description of the capabilities of these utilities occupies most of the back of the box. It is quite difficult to convey to experienced users the idea of \u200b\u200brethinking the approach to the purchased product as a software and hardware complex, and not just a physical device in the form of a board and accompanying delivery items. Beginners are even more unaware of their existence. ASUS does not provide any ridiculous experimental utilities, but allows the user to approach the process of working with a computer in a new way, and not only directly behind him.
Having reduced the notes of optimism, one cannot but recall the negative moments. The insignificant savings on the audio codec are completely incomprehensible, while significant steps have been taken to improve the audio component, including those expressed in hardware innovations that are not quite typical for such a market segment. Also, the full mechanism for using all new types of interface sockets is not clear: apparently, only one of them can be used at a particular time. It's a little offensive to see two lonely USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel, but problems arose with them during serious overclocking; the conclusion is that there are only two of them on purpose. By the way, the new version of the microcode (1008) released during the preparation of the review did not settle anything in this misunderstanding.
Be that as it may, it is Z97-A that will now become an example of a modern, typical motherboard with all the richness of its equipment, which in the future can be used as a guide when choosing a motherboard for a new computer.
In connection with the upcoming update of the Intel processor line, which announced that during the year we will see three new series: Intel Haswell Refresh (May 2014), Intel Devil`s Canyon (June 2014) and Intel Broadwell (late 2014 - early 2015), then it was quite logical that a new line of system logic sets was announced, the solutions of which are designed to fully support all the functions embedded in the new processors.
At the moment we only have information about the Intel Z97 Express and Intel H97 Express chipsets. The first is the flagship solution with the maximum set of available options. The second one does not support overclocking processors with an unlocked multiplier and the distribution of sixteen PCI Express 3.0 lanes in x8 + x8 and x8 + x4 + x4 schemes, but it offers the implementation of the Intel Small Business Advantage technology package.
However, we will postpone our acquaintance with Intel H97 Express for the time being, but let's talk about the flagship - fortunately, we have a motherboard for testing. ASUSZ97- A - first swallow based on Intel Z97 Express.
In fact, the Intel Z97 Express chipset is just a slightly updated version of the Intel Z87 Express, the block diagram of which is shown in the image above. The architecture of the chipset has remained unchanged: all the same 16 PCI Express 3.0 processor lines with the possibility of their distribution in x16 / x8 + x8 / x8 + x4 + x4 schemes, 8 PCI Express 2.0 chipset lanes, 14 USB 2.0 ports, 6 USB 3.0 ports and 6 SATA 6 Gb / s interfaces.
In fact, there are literally a few key differences from Intel Z87 Express, namely the implemented support for the SATA Express interface, PCI Express and M.2 PCIe drives (NGFF SSD). Note that the bandwidth of these interfaces significantly exceeds the capabilities of the current generation of SATA 6 Gb / s, and it can reach 10 Gb / s. Also, drives with an M.2 PCIe interface (NGFF SSD) can act as the main boot device, which will significantly increase the system startup speed.
Additionally, support for Intel Device Protection Technology with Boost Guard is highlighted, which is designed to protect the PC boot sector and to block malware.
The main change in the new platform concerns the power subsystem requirements for working with Intel Broadwell processors, so the future CPU family will not be backward compatible with motherboards based on Intel 8 series chipsets.
For greater clarity, we present a comparative table of supported processors by the past and current generation of chipsets:
|
Intel Haswell Refresh |
Intel Devil`s Canyon |
|||
|
Intel Z87 Express |
Limited support * |
|||
* unconfirmed information
And since there are no more differences between the chipsets, we suggest you go directly to the acquaintance with ASUS Z97-A.
Since the Intel Z97 Express system logic set does not support the PCI bus, the functioning of the two corresponding slots is implemented using the PCIE-PCI bridge based on the ASMedia ASM 1083 controller.
Multi I / O capabilities are assigned to the NUVOTON NCT6791D chip, which controls the operation of system fans, COM and PS / 2 ports, and also provides monitoring.
The sound subsystem of this motherboard is based on the 8-channel HDA codec Realtek ALC892, which supports 2/4 / 5.1 / 7.1 audio systems and has a number of proprietary features (the Crystal Sound 2 concept), which we mentioned at the beginning of the review.
The interface panel of the ASUS Z97-A model includes the following ports:
- 1 x HDMI;
- 1 x DisplayPort;
- 1 x DVI-D;
- 1 x D-Sub;
- 1 x PS / 2 for connecting a mouse or keyboard;
- 1 x LAN (RJ45);
- 4 x USB 3.0;
- 2 x USB 2.0;
- 1 x optical S / PDIF out;
- 5 x audio ports.
Such a layout of the interface panel can be safely called excellent, since it includes all the most popular video outputs, a large number of USB ports, convenient connection of multi-channel acoustics, the ability to use peripherals with a PS / 2 interface, as well as an optical audio output. It is also possible to bring the COM port to the rear panel of the PC using the internal connector.
UEFI BIOS
ASUS Z97-A motherboard uses a state-of-the-art UEFI GUI preloader that can be configured with a mouse. It offers two main use cases.
The "Monitor" section provides access to monitoring the temperature of the processor and chipset, as well as the rotational speed of the installed fans. Additionally, in this section, you can monitor the voltage on the processor core and on the + 12V, + 5V and + 3.3V power lines.
The ability to monitor the supply voltage of memory modules is implemented in the right column, which is also visible in other sections.
Separately, it is worth noting the ability to take screenshots in the BIOS and support for the Russian language.
Overclocking capabilities
As a result of manual overclocking of the Intel Core i7-4770K processor, by increasing the multiplier and voltage to 1.210 V, its stable operating frequency was 4600 MHz, which is a good result for a high-quality motherboard.
Using the automatic overclocking capabilities using the ASUS Dual Intelligent Processors 5 utility in the "Ratio only" mode (overclocking by increasing only the multiplier) allowed the processor frequency to be increased to 4300 MHz at a voltage of 1.224 V.
You can also use this function through the BIOS or using the TPU switch in mode "1".
BCLK First
After activating the automatic CPU overclocking function in the "BCLK First" mode (overclocking via the BCLK bus), its frequency was fixed at around 4251 MHz at a voltage of 1,200 V. This function can also be used through the BIOS or using the TPU switch in "2" mode.
Manually increasing the system bus frequency allowed us to reach the level of 188.03 MHz, which is an excellent indicator.
Testing
To test the capabilities of the ASUS Z97-A motherboard, the following equipment was used:
|
CPU |
Intel Core i7-4770K (LGA1150, 3.5 GHz, L3 8MB) |
|
|
Scythe Kama Angle Rev.B |
||
|
RAM |
2 x 4 GB DDR3-2400 TwinMOS TwiSTER 9DHCGN4B-HAWP |
|
|
Video card |
AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB GDDR5 |
|
|
Video capture device |
AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable |
|
|
HDD |
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB SATA-300 NCQ |
|
|
Optical drive |
ASUS DRW-1814BLT SATA |
|
|
Power Supply |
Seasonic X-560 Gold (SS-560KM Active PFC) |
|
|
CODEGEN M603 MidiTower (2x 120 mm blowing / blowing fans) |
||
Test results
ASUS Z97-A demonstrates excellent performance indicators that are on a par with competing counterparts. This allows us to speak about the high quality of its performance, selection of a good element base and successful optimization of BIOS settings.
Testing the audio path based on the Realtek ALC892 codec
RightMark Audio Analyzer Test Report
16-bit, 44.1 kHz
|
Noise level, dB (A) |
||
|
Dynamic range, dB (A) |
||
|
Harmonic distortion,% |
Very well |
|
|
Very well |
||
|
Intermodulation at 10 kHz,% |
||
|
Overall score |
Very well |
Operating mode 24-bit, 192 kHz
|
Frequency response (in the range 40 Hz - 15 kHz), dB |
||
|
Noise level, dB (A) |
Very well |
|
|
Dynamic range, dB (A) |
Very well |
|
|
Harmonic distortion,% |
Very well |
|
|
Harmonic distortion + noise, dB (A) |
||
|
Intermodulation distortion + noise,% |
Very well |
|
|
Interpenetration of channels, dB |
Very well |
|
|
Intermodulation at 10 kHz,% |
Very well |
|
|
Overall score |
Very well |
The Crystal Sound 2 design with the pre-installed Realtek ALC892 codec delivers excellent sound reproduction that is more than enough for your everyday use.
conclusions
The motherboard is a high-quality solution made in the ATX format, which is distinguished by a very competent layout, the highest quality workmanship, a well-thought-out cooling system and very good equipment.
Describing the key advantages of this model, it should be noted the rich possibilities for organizing the disk subsystem, namely: the implementation of support for SATA 6 Gb / s, SATA Express and M.2 (NGFF) interfaces at the Intel Z97 Express chipset level. Additionally, we note the pleasant design, good layout of the interface panel, the ability to install two video cards with a three-slot cooling system, support for a large number of proprietary technologies, an enhanced digital power subsystem, as well as a high-quality sound subsystem.
Separately, we highlight the "5-Way Optimization" function in the AI \u200b\u200bSuite III software, with which you have the ability to customize the system operation solely for your needs, in terms of parameters such as performance, temperature and power consumption.
As for the features of ASUS Z97-A, before buying, you should take into account the impossibility of simultaneous use of the M.2 (NGFF) connector and two PCI Express 2.0 x1 expansion slots. Otherwise, the novelty is completely devoid of any drawbacks.
As a result, ASUS Z97-A will be an excellent choice for building a high-end work or gaming system with one or two video cards.
Advantages:
- reliable 8-phase DIGI + VRM digital power subsystem;
- improved element base for more reliable and stable operation of the motherboard;
- support for a large number of USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb / s ports;
- the presence of SATA Express and M.2 (NGFF) connectors;
- good package; SeaSonic and TwinMOS Technologies for the equipment provided for the test stand.
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