ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 mainboard review with Intel Core i7-4770K and ASUS GTX 650Ti Boost
bt 21 Jul 2013
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Ever wonder why your motherboard couldn’t last more than 2 to 3 years while others can ? Well, the reasons are plenty but  you can’t run away from component level issues.

Some board uses cheap components that doesn’t last. As for DIY users will want to try to overclock their boards by using excessive voltages, that will shorten the life of a motherboard and introduce instability to the overall system.

While components is one issue, the other is heat and dust. The traditional motherboards are highly exposed to heat and dust when enclosed within a casing. The dust that gathered increases possible static on the pins and create issues to the exposed areas.

With the ASUS TUF series motherboard the SABERTOOTH Z87, all this can be prevented. With the TUF Fortifier, it adds a strong backplate to prevent bending damage and helps to cool the underlying VRM and key components underneath the PCB.

top view

ASUS SABERTOOTH also has the Thermal Armour with Flow Valve which covers the whole board to redirect the hot air away from the components.

flow valve

To add on to that, Thermal Radar 2 are onboard sensors which will detect real time temperatures for areas around the key components and you can control the fan speeds accordingly.

back

As we have mentioned earlier, components which are unused are usually covered with dust you can see. These are usually found on PCIe slots, DRAM and SATA ports or USB ports. With Dust Defender, you can cover them to prevent dust from entering these exposed areas.

accessories

Last but not least are the components used. TUF Black Metallic capacitors, chokes, and MOSFETs are screened by seven rigorous military-grade tests to ensure superior lifespan even under the most demanding conditions.

The Ti-Cap are Japan-made 10k Black Metallic Caps Unique Black Metallic capacitors with military-standard certification offer +20% high and low temperature tolerance and 5X longer lifetime usage. The TUF alloy chokes are made of high-grade anti-oxidization materials for extra-unbeatable durability. TUF MOSFETs also pass military-grade tests with lower RDS(on), certified for tough duty.

Being a Intel Z87 chipset based motherboard, the ASUS Z87 SABERTOOTH is not only about components used, it also features like DirectKey which when pressed brings you to the BIOS even if you are inside Windows. There is also USB 3.0 BOOST (UASP support) which delivers 170% faster transfer speeds than traditional USB 3.0.

With it’s multi port display, it can support multi monitors of up to 3 FUll HD displays. It also suports 4K Ultra HD at 4096×2160.

It also supports Intel Collage Display at 7680×1200 or 3840 x 2400 using 4 monitors.

By Harry