Armor Installation

In the past the TUF series of boards have come with the Armor already on the board so it was a little interesting to see that you have to pick it up apart from the motherboard. But after thinking about it, I can see how not everyone is interested in all of the armor, the longer warranty and highest quality parts are important features for a lot of people and splitting them up means a lower cost to people who don’t want everything else, or maybe they can’t afford the armor now but can pick it up later when they have more money. Another interesting thing that came to mind was now case modders will be even more willing to paint and modify the armor. I have seen TUF Series boards used in case mods a lot because the armor can be painted to match the case to make things even more eye catching.

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Anyhow, once I had the board and the armor out of the packaging I took a peak at the instructions and was surprised that the installation doesn’t take as long as I expected. The basic idea behind it all is similar to a sandwich where we have top and bottom armor pieces and the motherboard is directly in the middle like a big juicy piece of turkey. So the first step you take is laying the top armor on your table upside down and dropping the motherboard onto the armor (lined up of course). Next you take the bottom armor and line it up by matching the location of the TUF Fortifier logo to the TUF logo on the bottom of the motherboard and place it on the motherboard. From there you use the included screwdriver to install all of the screws that hold everything together. Once you get those screws installed you are actually a good portion of the way done. Now you need to install the rear I/O fan, this attaches to the removable cover and Asus has even included a second cover in all of the parts for this armor kit. Once screwed in you just need to add the sticky piece of foam to the bottom of the fan to keep it from vibrating up against any of the motherboard components.

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From there you just have all of the various plugs to install into ports that you don’t plan on using. For us I was able to plug all but the one PCI Express x16 slot and our two extra RAM slots. I didn’t install the rear I/O plugs because this board is going to be on our test bench getting used for various things for the next year. But if you know you won’t need to use any ports you can plug them up as well. The Dust Defenders are an interesting way to protect your board from dust, debris and dander and static discharge.

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When opening up the armor I was a little overwhelmed at all of the parts but once you figure out that most of those parts are connection and slot protectors (AKA Dust Defenders) it’s not too bad. I had everything setup and installed in less than 20 minutes.

 

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31371 08 Jun 2013 03:18
Before the weekend we have one last Z87 review for you guys. Today I take a look at Asus's new Micro ATX motherboard in their TUF Series of motherboards. Have a great weekend!
Arxon's Avatar
Arxon replied the topic: #31372 08 Jun 2013 03:51
Is the armor metal or plastic. Didn't see it in the review.
Hasbeen's Avatar
Hasbeen replied the topic: #31374 08 Jun 2013 04:53

Arxon wrote: Is the armor metal or plastic. Didn't see it in the review.


I think the back plate is metal and the front armor is some sorta plastic, but that is based on a newegg review video on youtube I watched earlier this week. It would certainly be nice if that front armor was more than just a fancy plastic shell desiged to channel air to specific locals around the board.
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31375 08 Jun 2013 05:17
yeah as he said the backplate is metal and the cover is plastic. I have a feeling the board would be to heavy if they were both metal. Not to mention the top shell would be REALLY hard to make out of metal and it would look very basic.
L0rdG1gabyt3's Avatar
L0rdG1gabyt3 replied the topic: #31376 08 Jun 2013 05:55
The I/O port covers and RAM slot fillers are a wonderful idea to help keep dist and other stuff out. I had to purchase a few dust covers for my computer.
james.yjh replied the topic: #31402 10 Jun 2013 17:10
Can't seem to find any mention of the TPU or "TurboV Processing Unit" on the ASUS product pages. Also, shouldn't the TPU be an option in the AI suite 3?

www.asus.com/sg/Motherboards/SABERTOOTH_Z87/
www.asus.com/sg/Motherboards/GRYPHON_Z87/

Used the comparison function on the site and still couldn't find anything TPU. What did I miss?

I'm a newbie to overclocking so this is a major deal breaker if it's as you said, there being no TPU for the Gryphon.. :(
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #31404 10 Jun 2013 21:33
There isn't a TPU or any automatic overclocking options on the Gryphon. :(

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