The Taiwanese tech giant ASUS has unveiled a large number of LGA1150 motherboards for the upcoming Intel Haswell processors, expected in just a few weeks. The massive announcement includes the high-end Republic of Gamers (ROG) line, motherboards that belong to the ASUS “The Ultimate Force” (TUF) line and classic LGA1150 motherboards. All new ASUS LGA1150 products are based on the Intel Z87 chipset.
As expected the ROG line leads the pack offering the best there is for the LGA1150 platform. It consists of three models – the ASUS Maximus VI Hero, Maximus VI Gene and the Maximus VI Extreme. The Maximus VI Hero is the standard ATX offering from the ROG line, the Maximus VI Gene is a microATX offering, while the Maximus VI Extreme is the best ASUS can offer for the LGA1150 infrastructure.
The Maximus VI Hero comes with a 12-phase CPU power supply system, the usual ROG-exclusive functions, three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC, x8/x8/NC, x8/x4/x4), eight SATA 3.0 ports, SupremeFX onboard audio with ground-layer isolation, four USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and HDMI.
The Maximus VI Gene is a microATX board with the same power supply system as in the Maximus VI Hero but this one comes with two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC or x8/x8), an open-ended PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot, the same connectivity as in the Maximus VI Hero plus a mPCIe combo card with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and six USB 3.0 ports.
The ASUS Maximus VI Extreme is the best ASUS can offer. It includes the same CPU power supply system found in other Maximus VI motherboards, the ability to do 3-way and 4-way multi-GPU setups thanks to the integrated four PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (x16/x16/NC/NC, x8/x8/x8/x8). The mainboard also has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (electrical x4) and an open-ended PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot. Two Gigabit Ethernet ports, ten SATA 3.0 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports provide connectivity. Strangely enough the Maximus VI Extreme does not come with SupremeFX audio, instead it relies on an integrated Realtek audio.
In addition to the ROG line ASUS also unveiled its TUF line, which consists of two models – the Z87-Sabertooth and the Z87-Gryphon. The Sabertooth is a full ATX motherboard with an 8-phase CPU power supply system, eight SATA 3.0 ports, three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, 8-channeled HD audio, Gigabit Ethernet, eight USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort and then some USB 2.0 ports.
The Z87-Gryphon is a microATX board with an 8-phase CPU power supply system, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC or x8/x8), a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (electrical x4), six SATA 3.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, an 8-channeled audio solution, Gigabit Ethernet, DVI and HDMI.
The classis ASUS LGA1150 line of motherboards consists of five models – the entry level Z87-C and Z87-A, the mid-range Z87-PLUS and Z87-PRO and the high-end Z87-DELUXE. The unusual thing is that all of them now come with black PCBs with golden colored heatsinks instead of the usual black PCBs with blue heatsinks seen until now.
The Z87-C is a basic LGA1150 board with a 4-phase CPU power supply system, four DDR3 memory slots for up to 64 GB of DDR3 memory, a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot (x4 electrical), two PCI-E x1 slots, DVI, HDMI and D-Sub. Storage includes eight SATA 3.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports and a single Gigabit Ethernet connection. There’s also an 8-channeled HD audio solution.
The ASUS Z87-A is a little better than the Z87-C. It features a stronger 8-phase CPU power system, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, one PCI-E 2.0 slot (x4 electrical), ten SATA 3.0 ports, 8-channeled audio, Gigabit Ethernet and support for SLI and CrossFireX.
The Z87-PLUS is very similar to the Z87-A except that it offers better overclocking options and a total of twelve SATA ports.
The Z87-PRO offers a 12-phase CPU power supply system, three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4), four PCI-E x1 slots, eight internal and two external SATA ports, six USB 3.0 ports, 8-channeled HD audio, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11n, DVI, D-Sub, HDMI and DisplayPort.
The Z87-DELUXE is the ultimate in the classic line. It comes with 16-phase CPU power supply, the same slots as in the Z87-PRO, ten SATA 3.0 ports, eight USB 3.0 ports, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, dual Gigabit Ethernet, overclocking features and HDMI and DisplayPort outputs.
The pricing on all models is unknown.
Source: ASUS