ASUS Z87-Pro Motherboard Review

CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories

CPU Cooler Fit

To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D14 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.

Oriented with the fans blowing air towards the rear of the case, their is adequate room along the front, back, and left side (paralleling the PCI-Express slots) for the cooler to be mounted without inhibiting the VRM heat sinks, memory, or use of the PCI-Express x1 slot directly to its left.

From looking at the cooler mounting from the right side view, you can see that the cooler gives adequate room for use of memory modules with large heat sinks. However, if you choose to populate all four slots while using such a massive cooler, you will need to use lower profile DIMMs since the upper-most memory slot sits directly underneath one of the aluminum cooling towers.

Included Accessories

ASUS includes only the necessary accessories for getting the board up and running in with the Z87-Pro.

I was impressed with the attention to detail in the bundled user manuals and installation DVDs, high praise since ASUS provides some of the most complete manuals to begin with. The User Guide is laid out in such a manner to guide you through the install process with all information provided, including specific details on port to controller assignments. Normally, this level of detail is left to the user to figure out on their own.

ASUS includes a white rear panel shield with device ports color-coded and clearly identified to their function.

A total of four 6Gb/s rated SATA cables are included with the board. All cables integrate port locks with a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors included.

For use with the on-board front panel and USB headers, ASUS included their Q-Connector header plugs. You simply plug the front panel plugs into the Q-Connector and plug the Q-Connector into the appropriate board header. It makes installation the front panel plugs much easier.

A single NVIDIA SLI cable is included for 2-way multi-GPU use.

ASUS includes their redesigned dual-plug antennae for connecting the board with your 802.11n-based Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth devices. The antennae can be used in a flat or upright orientation with its flat surface optimized for broadcast and reception of 802.11n type signals.