The Z87-Deluxe Dual is ASUS' flagship model regarding the standard desktop models which support Intels latest Haswell CPUs. Therefore it's able to score with a long featurelist as well as high quality components. Furthermore ASUS was brave enough to ditch their lovely black/blue color scheme for black/gold/yellow.
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The Z87-Deluxe Dual belongs to the high end motherboards regarding ASUS classic lineup. Therefore we're really curious what they've done from the layout and design perspective.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
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| CPU | Intel Socket 1150 3th Generation |
| Chipset | Intel Z87 |
| Memory | Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3, 2800 (OC) / 2600 (OC) / 2400 (OC) / 2200 OC / 2133 (OC) / 1866 (OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered |
| Multi-GPU |
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| Slots |
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| Sound | Realtek ALC1150 8-Channel HD Audio Codec
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| Storage | Intel Z87 chipset
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| Network |
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| Internal Connectors |
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| Extrenal Connectors |
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| Forfactor | ATX (30.5cm x 24.4cm) |
| BIOS | Bios (64 Mb flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS) |
- User's manual
- ASUS Q-Shield
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
- 1 x SLI bridge(s)
- 1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
- 1 x 2T2R Dual-Band WiFi moving Antennas (WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
Regarding the delivery you'll find everything you need. Under certain circumstances you might wish there was an additional SLI or CrossFire bridge in the delivery.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
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Features
EPU |
EPU automatically detects the current system load and moderates power usage. It offers a system-wide energy optimization and is able to reduce fan noise. |
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TPU |
TPU offers precise voltage control and advanced monitoring mechanisms throught the Auto Tuning and TurboV functions in ASUS AI Suite 3 utility. |
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Digital Power Design |
ASUS implements digital power designs since quite some time. Using the the right software, in this case ASUS AI Suite 3 it is not only possible to adjust voltages whilst being in Windows one can now also control impedances. Furthermore a digital power design causes less electromagnetic emmission therefore there will be less inteference with other onboard components, which could cause instability under certain circumstances. |
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Wi-Fi GO! |
ASUS equips this board with a WiFi adaptor. In this case it's a modern dual-band adaptor which supports WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac. |
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ASUS Fan Xpert 2 |
ASUS Fan Xpert 2 provides customizable settings for fans that have been attached directly to the onboard fan headers. With the Fan Auto Tuning feature, ASUS Fan Xpert 2 automatically detects and tweaks all fan speeds and in the end reduces unwanted noise. |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Layout
With the release of Intels Z87 chipset ASUS' design team
chose to bring quite some change to the design of the classic series
motherboards. ASUS was brave enough to ditch their black/blue color scheme.
Nowadays their cash-cow-series feature a black/gold/yellow color scheme. It is
out personal opinion, that black/gold/yellow might not attract an audience as
wide as black/blue was able. Black/Gold/Yellow is a very aggressive combination
and we strongly believe that black/blue is a much better choice. We sincerely
hope that ASUS will soon release their classic series motherboards with
black/blue color scheme next to the black/gold/yellow line-up, since those were
some of the most beautiful motherboards, that were ever avialable. We also
believe that the black/gold/yellow was a poor descision and it will affect the
sales numbers of ASUS' classic series motherboards and ASUS might even lose
marketshare, since they wont be able to catch all the customers with the
Sabertooth and ROG boards.
Regarding the layout ASUS has been able to squeeze an astonishing number of
features onto a standard ATX motherboard. Obviously ASUS is compliant with
Intels guidelines regarding clearance around the CPU socket. There even is some
margin between the CPU socket and the DIMM slots.
ASUS equipped the Z87-Deluxe Dual with an 18+2 phase VRM design whereas the CPU can rely on 16 phases, the integrated graphics unit gets two phases and the memory gets its own two phases. Furthermore ASUS put a digital power design on the board, which comes meanwhile in the fourth generation. With their digital power design they promise that it emits less electromagnetic radiation than its analogue counterpart. Therefore ASUS claims that the system stability can be enhanced even further, especially during extreme overclocking.
Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Z87-Deluxe Dual. Officially supported are DDR3 - 2800 (OC) / 2600 (OC) / 2400 (OC) / 2200 OC / 2133 (OC) / 1866 (OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 with up to 32 GByte capacity. The DIMM-slots aren't too close to the CPU socket which means that you can install even todays largets cooler. Obviously you have to double check compatibility when you use DIMMs with very large heatspreaders.
The power design is being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution, whereas two heatsinks are being connected. The PCH is equipped with a passive cooling block. The aluminium blocks around the CPU socket are quite big but still there is plenty of space between the CPU socket and the heatsinks to install big aircoolers easily.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
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[pagebreak]
Totally ASUS provided the Z87-Deluxe Dual with ten angled SATA ports which should be enough for any office PC, gaming system or workstation. Thanks to the Z87 chipset there are now six 6Gbps ports natively wired to the PCH. Additionally there are four more 6Gbps SATA ports, which are connected to an ASMedia ASM1061 chips. You'll also find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons. ASUS even thought of a debug display which is very useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system.
Totally you'll find six fan header on the Z87-Deluxe Dual which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped midrange or high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU socket as well as at the bottom edge of the mainboard.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASUS provided the Z87-Deluxe Dual with four USB 2.0 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt ports, two gigabit ethernet ports, a coaxial optical out as well as an analogue audio panel. Furthermore there is also an HDMI output as well as two connectors for the antennas regarding WiFi. The reason for why ASUS added "Dual" in the name of this board comes from the two Thunderbolt ports. In case of the Deluxe board you only get one Thunderbolt port.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
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[pagebreak]
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| As expected the ASUS Z87-Deluxe Dual is a high-quality product that comes with an extensive number of features. Regarding the new color scheme (black/gold/yellow) we would wish that ASUS throws it over board as soon as possible and goes back to black/blue. We mentioned the reasons for this on page 4. Compared to the regular Deluxe board the Deluxe Dual offers two Thunderbolt ports. In this case it is possible to connect for example a thunderbolt display as well as a thunderbolt mass storage device directly to the board. | - Features - Dual Thunderbolt | - Design | |
| Layout | + | - | |
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Generally the ASUS Z87-Deluxe Dual's Layout is very well thought. Once more very practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. Also the debug display is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Furthermore the placement of the PCI-Express x16 slots is also well thought an therefore nothing needs to be criticized at this point. There are for example to slots between the first and the second PCI-Express x16 slot. Should you decide to build an SLI/CrossFire setup, then the first card will still be able to get plenty of fresh air. Another thing that is good with this board is the fact, that there as plenty of space between the CPU socket and the heatsinks on the power design as well as between the CPU socket and the DIMM slots. |
- Angled SATA connectors
- Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Space around CPU socket |
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| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 4 - Layout |
| Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery | Page 5 - Connectors and I/O |
| Page 3 - Features | Page 6 - Conclusion |
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch Luca Rocchi l.rocchi@ocaholic.ch