Just a week ago, PC.com had been invited to a secretive location to see and learn first-hand of ASUS’ new motherboards, which is made for current and upcoming Intel 4th Generation CPU as well as the highly anticipated Intel Broadwell CPU. The entire ecosystem had been revamped with this release and includes new models as well.
New features can be found all across the ASUS range. This, according to Darwin Wu, OPBG Asean Regional Director, ASUS, reflects the Taiwanese’s company drive for innovation. “It’s in the heart and blood of ASUS as we seek to integrate hardware and user desire into a powerful platform. We do this by empowering our three core ranges – Republic of Gamers (ROG), The Ultimate Force (TUF), and PRO – with solid engineering and advanced systems.”
All three motherboard ranges are now able to take advantage of the new systems Intel has introduced in the refresh Haswell chips and upcoming Broadwell CPUs. This includes the enhanced 5-Way Optimisation suite, which includes control and architecture changes to the TPU, CPU, Fan, and DIGI+ systems and introduces a new TurboApp function. The fan cooling unit has been separated from the CPU/TPU control and now can be monitored/managed via ASUS FanXprt software.
“The new features operate on ASUS three main pillars of usability and design: High Performance, Gaming, Home Cloud. As such, each new Z97 motherboard comes bundled with all these new advanced functions and progressive concepts,” adds Angie Ma, Product Manager, ASUS as she discusses the enhancements that had beein included into the ASUS Channel Motherboards. During her presentation she also shared about the other additions the new ASUS Channel motherboards offer like direct BIOS control with UEFI BIOS, the inclusion of M2 and SATA Express systems, which is backwards compatible, introducing TurboLAN and Crystal Sound 2, and a new NFC-powered charging/transfer system.
Beyond the new key feature used on the Channel units, the TUF and ROG systems also has their own proprietary enhancements. For TUF, the thermal shielding now dissipates heat better, while on internals there is a new dedicated temperature control system, the Dust de-Fan dust remover concept used in the cooling systems, and improved durability, alloy chokes, and Thermal Radar Utility. As for the ROG, besides the redesign, there is the M2 storage interface, KeyBot suite, which assigns macro functions for all keys, LAN Guard surge protection and GameFirst LAN connectivity control, and SupremeFX sound controller.
ASUS’ new Z97 motherboard includes:
Channel: Z97I-PLUS (RM489), Z97-A (RM710), Z97-PRO (RM728), Z97-PRO (Wi-Fi ac – RM899), Z97-WS, Z97-DELUXE (RM1,299), Z97-K (RM588), H97M-E (RM430)
TUF: Sabretooth Z97 Mark 1, Sabretooth Z97 Mark 2, Gryphon Z97, Gryphon Z97 (Armour Edition)
ROG: Maximus VII Gene (RM859), Maximus VII Ranger (RM799), Maximus VII Hero (RM919)
All of them will appear in local ICT stores soon enough. For more information, head on over to https://www.facebook.com/asusmalaysia.
