Asus Z87 Pro and Asus Z87 Plus
- Details
- Category: Motherboards
- Published: Sunday, 02 June 2013 19:10
When trying to think of a name for our look at Asus’s new Z87 mainstream motherboard options I went through countless bad jokes and Bond Goldmember comments. I came to the conclusion that much like Asus I would let the boards speak for themselves. Today we are going to take a look at the Asus Z87 Pro and Z87 Plus, both what they call Channel boards. In other words this is Asus’s standard lineup. In the past I have been extremely impressed with what Asus had to offer in their standard lineup; hopefully they can keep that up. Let’s see what they have to offer.
Our first look at a non-Intel Z87 motherboard today is the Z87-G45 Gaming from the folks over at MSI. With a gaming focus I am really excited to see what the board is all about. At a quick glance at both the packaging and the board itself it’s clear that MSI is going with the dragon theme that we saw on a few of their notebooks this year at CES. I’m curious if the MSI Z87-G45 Gaming will be on fire, or just fizzle out. Let’s take a closer look and find out!
One of the most exciting parts of the year as enthusiasts is a new platform launch from Intel. For months now people have been talking about Intel’s Haswell processors and rumors and benchmarks have been flying all over the internet for weeks now. That must mean it’s finally time for us to dig into the latest Intel CPU and Chipset and see what it’s all about and put to rest all of the speculation. Today we are going to take a look at the new Intel i7-4770 and DZ87KLT-75K motherboard. Let’s find out how the 4770 compares to the 3770 as well as the Sandy Bridge E CPU’s as well.
Yesterday we introduced the GTX 770 and went into detail on what it was all about. We then put both our reference card and the EVGA GTX 770 ACX to the test. I’m sure you guys could guess what I did next right? If I didn’t hook the cards up together in SLI I would have turn in my enthusiast card. I have compiled our results and put them together in this post for everyone to check out. Enjoy!
This morning we introduced you to Nvidia’s latest video card, the GTX 770. Not to spoil to much from the review, (because you really should take a look at it) but not only was I impressed with its performance, I was blown away at the overclock I was able to get on it while running the stock cooler. The fine folks over at EVGA are introducing a few variations on the GTX 770 as well, one of them being their new Active Cooling Xtreme or ACX for short model. We just happened to get our hands on it and I’m going to put it through its paces. We know what the GTX 770 with a reference cooler, but what is it capable of with a little more cooling.
Last week we took a look at the Nvidia GTX 780, their first card in the 700 series of cards. Surprisingly I am sitting here a week later already telling you about their next card: the GTX 770. Is the combination of the GTX 780 and GTX 770 a one-two punch or a hit and a miss? Well in order to find out we had to put it through our benchmark suite to see what it was capable of. I enjoyed the GTX 780; I hope they are able to keep it up with the GTX 770.
With the first-person shooter genre all but locked down by staples like the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises sometimes it is refreshing to get the chance to see something new. The release of 4A Games’ Metro 2033 in 2010 was one such breath of fresh air so much so that a sequel was in the works almost immediately. Mired in delays that had very little to do with the game itself, however, it isn’t until now that we have gotten the chance to play it. It is finally time to see if Metro: Last Light stands up to the amazing visuals and story-driven single player that the original did so well.
It almost feels like we have been seeing the 600 series of cards from Nvidia for a few years now. At a year and two months we are a little past due to see a new generation of cards and today we can finally take the wraps off of NVidia’s latest card, the GTX 780. Rumors have been going around for a while on this launch so let’s just jump right into it and see what it’s all about and then how it performs. One thing is for sure, this will be the start of a lot of exciting cards, and 2013 is going to be a good year!
I’m going to come clean to you guys/girls. I have had tablets for the past 2-3 years and for the first few years, I really never put them to use. I found them to be cumbersome, slow, and there just wasn’t enough reason to use them. Frankly I could do it all on my phone just as well, with a smaller screen of course. About a year ago I had a Transformer Prime come in. With Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad core CPU I was intrigued and the optional keyboard was icing on the cake. I decided to REALLY give it a try and see what I thought. A year later I want to talk a little about my experience.
When it comes to ergonomic keyboards there are only a few to pick from and, for the most part, all of those are rubber dome keyboards. Ergonomic mechanical keyboards are really limited to two different models, one being the Truly Ergonomic. Today we are going to take a look to see how it compares to everything I have tested to date. I expect an adjustment period just to its shape alone, but as a writer by trade I am very curious how it will affect me day to day. The gamer in me is just as curious on how it will perform in game as well. Let’s take a closer look.
When it comes to pointers for the computer there are multiple solutions. Most of them come in the traditional flat on a mouse pad form, but occasionally a company comes up with an innovative way to control the pointer on our screen. Genius has developed a “ring mouse” and I have the pleasure of looking at their second version of this particular design in the Ring Mouse 2. I will look at the device’s versatility and functionality in this review and see how it stacks up not only as a pointer, but also as an alternative solution to our browsing needs.
Let’s be honest, Asus has a whole product line full of good motherboards. So much that it really takes a special motherboard to stand out from the crowd. There has been one specific board that has stuck with me for the past year and a half though, back from when I took a visit to the Asus office and they pulled it out to show me. That motherboard would be the Maximus V Formula. I’m sure you are wondering what made it stand out, especially considering all of the motherboards we have in the office, including boards like the Rampage IV. Well I only have a limited amount of space in the opening; you will have to peek inside our review to find out.
Hey guys and girls, if you have been around the site or at some events you may have picked up that I have a thing for small form factor PC builds aka LAN rigs. I’m sure a few of you are laughing thinking about how big of a monster our “Fridge” build is, but that is exactly why it is important to have a rig that you can just grab and go without breaking your back. Last year I put together a rig that we called Lunchbox 2 using a Lian Li PC-TU200. After almost a year I had a few things I was interested in swapping around that I think some of you might be interested in.
One of the biggest down falls to having a smaller form factor case and motherboard has always been lack of room for aftermarket cooling solutions, namely water cooling. Cooler master has released the N series brand of cases, a new line that hopes to tackle the water cooling conundrum that many small form factor users are faced with. The N series is touted as a mainstream computer case aimed at the masses, a simple, cheap solution that will house all of the gaming essentials. And as an enthusiast, it might not be your next rig, but it could very well be a candidate for your next LAN rig or for a budding gamer friend.
As a necessary evil, gadget batteries, require charging from time to time and in this era where gadgets now dominate our everyday life it has become difficult to even find room to even plug them all in. For the most part longer battery life and charging stations have been the answer, but thanks to Newer Technologies there is a much easier solution to this problem and it is as simple as changing the wall outlet you plug everything into already. Follow me as I take a look at the do it yourselfers’ solution to the charging problem, the Power2U AC/USB wall outlet.
When it comes to building your new rig there is one thing that often gets overlooked while being arguably the most important piece to the puzzle. That would be your power supply. After throwing down hundreds or thousands of dollars its really hard to force yourself to do the same with your power supply, especially when there is a cheaper model next to it and they both will power your rig right? Not only is quality important with a power supply, but you also need to keep in mind its fit, efficiency, wattage, and wiring. Today we are going to take a look at Cooler Master's new V1000 power supply to see where it fits in those four aspects.
When it comes to gaming mice, Logitech has been in the market for a very long time. Because of that they have had a long time to tweak and fine tune their design and frankly a lot of people are just used to the shape of their mice. Because of this they are still a major player today, we see a lot of people running everything from their G5, G500, and the MX518 floating around at LANs. What that means is when Logitech introduces a new mouse there are a lot of people whose interest in peaks. Including me, my original G5 still gets put to use at times and when I heard they introduced the G500s I was excited to see what all had changed.
I have reviewed quite a few audio products lately each of them have their perks and quirks, but one thing always missing is a bit of customizability, something to set you apart from other users who buy the same product. Eagle Tech has recently began releasing its like or Arion branded products, and amongst those is a headset named the Urban Zen. The Zen headsets come in four different designs and a few different colors. Finally we have some options to set ourselves apart from everyone else. It is nice that we can change things up, but how will the headphones actually perform when it comes down to crunch time?
In a market that is slowly filling up with mechanical keyboards, there have only been a few companies’ recently who have been making higher end rubber dome keyboards, Logitech being one with their G510. Logitech recently reintroduced their whole gaming lineup with the exception of the G710+ and we jumped all over the chance to take a look at what they are doing with their “bread and butter” keyboard. Its Logitech, we have high expectations, hopefully they will be able to beat them.