Features and Motherboard Layout
Features
Courtesy of ASUS
- LGA1150 socket for the 4th Generation and the New 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7, Core™ i5, Core™ i3, Pentium® and Celeron® Processors
- Intel® Z97 Express Chipset
- PCI Express® 3.0
- Intel® Desktop Responsiveness Technologies
- Quad-GPU SLI and 3-Way CrossFireX™ Support
- SATA Express support
- Dual-Channel DDR3 3300 (O.C) / 1600 / 1333 MHz Support
- M.2 Support
- Complete USB 3.0 Integration
- Extra SATA 6 Gb/s support
- DTS Connect
- DTS Ultra PC II
- ErP Ready
Motherboard Layout
The ASUS Z97-Deluxe features a matte black PCB with all ports and slots on the board colored to blend. The VRM and chipset heat sinks are gold chromed to give a nice contrast the black background. Even with the amount of integrated features ASUS packed into this board, all component are well spaced with no real tight areas.
The back of the board is mostly free of components with no components or chips directly behind the CPU socket or in the surrounding area.
ASUS integrated the following ports into the Z97-Deluxe's rear panel: 4 USB 2.0 ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports controlled by the Intel Z87 chipset (located below the GigE NIC ports), 2 USB 3.0 ports controlled by the ASMedia controller (located to the right of the USB 2.0 ports), dual Intel GigE NIC ports, an HDMI video port, a DisplayPort video port, a mini DisplayPort video port, Broadcom-based 802.11ac dual-port Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ports, an optical audio port, and 6 analogue audio ports. The lower USB 3.0 port located under the outer NIC port can be used in conjunction with the USB BIOS Flashback and USB Charger+ functions.
The USB BIOS Flashback button can be used to re-flash the BIOS without having to boot the system into the UEFI BIOS interface or DOS. Simply plug in a USB drive containing the proper BIOS file in the root of the drive into the bottom USB 2.0 port(to the lower right of the button) and press the button for 3 seconds until the integrated LED begins to flash. As the BIOS is updated, the LED flashing frequency increases. Once the LED goes out, the flash operation is completed and the board can be booted. Note that if the BIOS Flashback LED flashes for 5 seconds and then glows solid, it means that something went wrong with the flashback operation. Check the USB drive for the the BIOS file in the root and make sure that the BIOS file is named correctly. BIOS Flashback looks for a specific filename and file format when attempting to replace the on-board BIOS. According to the user manual, the BIOS file in the root of the flash drive must be named Z97D.CAP for the BIOS Flashback applet to successfully re-flash the board's BIOS.
.
The Z97-Deluxe motherboard has a total of seven PCI-Express device ports – three PCI-Express x16 slots and four PCI-Express x1 slots. For the PCI-Express x16 slots, the board supports full x16 bandwidth with a single card, x8 bandwidth with cards in the primary and secondary slots with two cards populated, and x8 in the primary and x4 in the secondary and tertiary slots with three cards populated. Notice that ASUS designed the board's PCI-Express section layout with a PCI-Express x1 slot to the right of the primary x16 slot so that an x1 slot remains available in all cases. Additionally, there is sufficient space between the primary PCI-Express x16 slot and the secondary PCI-Express x1 slot to accommodate a tri-slot cooler.
To the upper right of the primary PCI-Express x1 slot are two 4-pin system fan headers.
ASUS placed the board's audio components on a physically separate PCB to minimize noise and crosstalk from other integrated components. While the PCB separator line is not illuminated with the board powered, you can easily see the separator. The front panel audio header and S/PDIF output header are located just below the audio subsystem's capacitor bank.
The Thunderbolt header, BIOS Flashback button, CMOS Clear button, and Q-Code diagnostic display are located in the upper left corner of the board, along the outside of PCI Express x16 slot 3. The CMOS battery is located just below PCI-Express x1 slot 4 in between the secondary and tertiary PCI-Express x16 slots. The Q-Code diagnostic display is a 2-digit hex display used for troubleshooting motherboard boot related issues. A table of codes is located in the motherboard manual to interpret the diagnostic read-out. The Thunderbolt header is used to connect to the optional ThunderboltEX II PCIe board using the included board adapter and USB extension cables. The BIOS Flashback button can be used in conjunction with the proper USB 3.0 port in the rear panel to flash the BIOS without having to boot the system into the UEFI BIOS interface or DOS mode.
To the lower left of the CMOS battery are the BIOS Flashback button, CMOS Clear button, Q-Code display, Reset button, power button, and trusted platform module header.
The USB 2.0 headers, front panel headers, CPU Overvoltage header, temperature diode headers, DirectKey header (DRCT), TPU switch, and EPU switch are located in the lower left corner of board. The DirectKey header can be connected to a case button. After triggering DirectKey, the board boots directly in to the UEFI BIOS on next reboot. The TPU switch enables BIOS assisted overclocking with two modes available. In mode 1, only the CPU ratio is changed. In mode 2, both the CPU ratio and the base clock value are changed. The EPU switch enables BIOS controlled power consumption optimization.
The onboard M.2 port is located just above the SATA port block, to the left of the Z97 chipset heatsink. The slot supports both 6 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s style M.2 devices. The M.2 port shares PCIe lanes and bandwidth with the ASMedia SATA Express port. By default, the M.2 port has priority access to the shared bandwidth over the SATA Express port.
The Intel Z97 Express chipset is covered by a large round low profile heat sink just below the PCI-Express x16 slots. The heat sink is gold chrome in color with a white ASUS logo at its center.
ASUS includes a total of six on-board SATA 6 Gb/s ports and two SATA Express 10 Gb/s ports located just under the chipset cooler. The four gray colored SATA ports on the left are tied to the Intel Z97 chipset controller. The two black colored ports in the right of the port block are tied to the ASMedia controller. The lower SATA Express port is tied to the Intel Z97 controller with the upper port tied to the ASMedia controller. Note that ASMedia SATA Express port is disabled when an M.2 SSD drive is placed in the NGFF slot just above the port block.
The on-board DDR3 memory slots are located just below the CPU socket in the lower right quadrant of the board. Dual Channel memory mode is enabled by seating memory modules like colored slots with the gray colored slots acting as the primary slot set. The board supports up to 32GB of memory running at a maximum speed of 3300MHz. Note that memory speeds above 1600MHz are considered overclocked speeds and are outside of the official Intel stock memory speed specifications. Just under the memory slots are the ASMedia controlled USB 3.0 headers, a 4-pin fan header, and the 24-pin ATX power connector. ASUS also includes 2 dedicated power phases for use by the memory.
To the lower right of the DIMMM slots are the EZ XMP switch and the MEMOK! button. Two 4-pin CPU fan headers are located to the upper right of the DIMM slots. The EZ XMP switch allows you to activate the memory XMP speed and setting specifications when enabled, overriding any current active BIOS settings. The MemOK! button can be used to reset memory-related BIOS settings to defaults, useful when the system doesn't boot because of memory options set over-aggressively.
The CPU socket is clear of obstructions with the power circuitry and VRM heat sink surrounding the upper three sides of the socket. The board contains a total of 16 digital power phases to ensure board stability under all operating conditions.
The 8-pin ATX12V power connector is located to the upper right of the CPU socket, sandwiched in between the upper and right VRM heat sinks.
can never equality spread out
can never equality spread out pcie
Short of using actual gold on
Short of using actual gold on those gaudy heatsinks, there’s nothing that could justify the sort of premium these flagship boards command.
Just for reference, at $400 MSRP, this layer-cake of traces with a bunch of connectors is more expensive than the most expensive CPU using its socket. And it performs as well as any $60 1150 board.
Bonkers.
Couldn’t have said it better
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
What’s sillier is that fancy named boards are going to be priced even higher than than. Bonkers indeed.
The price for the Deluxe (
The price for the Deluxe ( withoucthe Two Port Thunderbolt add in card, Wireless Charging box and NFC box is 289 )
Additionally if you check out the upcoming live stream I think you will see there is even more to the board to fully justify its value. Even more importantly you will see how the consistency of advance features and functions are present on more price aggressive boards like the PRO and -A.
I hope you tune in to get a better understand of the features and functionality.
Bad timing on the live
Bad timing on the live stream, unfortunately.
I still remember how glad I was when GPUs started coming out with two DVI outs, and I gladly payed for a Ti 4600 over the ‘good enough’ 4200 just for that, so I’m sure you’ll find some people who’re just waiting for this very board and its specific mix of features, whatever the price may be.
I on the other hand am just having a great time playing around with, and torturing an i7 4771 on the cheapest B85 board I could find (which will eventually go into a Haswell Pentium build), and the only reason this wouldn’t go into my personal system is the lack of front USB 3.0 connector.
What would you rather have for the same money – i7 + entry level board, or high-end board (be that $300 or $400) and whatever Pentium you could find for what little cash remains? 😉
Gentlemen in the forum, I’m
Gentlemen in the forum, I’m gonna build a new computer and I was looking at this motherboard.
Please shoot me your specific suggestions for a motherboard and entire system. I’m willing to spend around $1700 or so.
I would like to build a good gaming system.
Thanks for your help.
You can email me your suggestions at jonesytv@gmail.com
Thank you.
Mark
This board has lots of
This board has lots of features but why does a $400 board not have at least 4 PCI-E x16 slots capable of running full x16, x16, x16, x16 or at least x8 across. Freak, $400 mobo but I can’t run decet 3 way or 4 way GPUs?
And speaking honestly, the look is pretty ugly compared to previous offerings for Haswell mobo’s. Both Asus and Gigabyte produced much better looking mobo’s last gen. If this board was $250 or so, I’d understand the compromise/non-flagship look but for $400? Give me a break.
It is a limitation of the
It is a limitation of the number of PCI-E lanes supported by Haswell LGA 1150 processors. The mobo makers could use a PLX chip to support four x16 slots but they would still be effectively limited electrically.
As of what we’ve heard about
As of what we've heard about the ASUS offerings, only the Z97-WS board will have an in-built PLX chip for PCIe x16 slots at launch. There may be other board offerings in the future though.
Also, part of the price premium comes with the bundled in ThunderboltEX 2 PCIe card, WIFi, and the NFC modules included. Without those, the board MSRP drops to $289…
Yup, it absolutely does drop
Yup, it absolutely does drop to $289…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132127
There is a Deluxe version with and without those pricey accessories.
Indeed,…..
However, Newegg
Indeed,…..
However, Newegg also has the Asus ThunderboltEX II expansion card (single Thunderbolt port not dual version) for $57.80 (open box) and $68 (new) respectively.
They also have the previous gen Asus NFC Express / USB module for $23.99 (after rebate / $43.99 before) and $35.19 respectively (open box).
Not sure how the last gen NFC Express / USB module differs from the new version but I think the newer version added wireless charging of devices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995015R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995027R
So anyway, my point is that you could just spend the ~$289.99 on the Asus Z97 Deluxe (non NFC / WLC / Thunderbolt II version) and just add these two features at a lower cost either at the time of purchase of the motherboard or at a later date.
Honestly I am more interested in Haswell-E though and I fully expect those motherboards will be in the $400 range,…..to start.
Indeed,…..
However, Newegg
Indeed,…..
However, Newegg also has the Asus ThunderboltEX II expansion card (single Thunderbolt port not dual version) for $57.80 (open box) and $68 (new) respectively.
They also have the previous gen Asus NFC Express / USB module for $23.99 (after rebate / $43.99 before) and $35.19 respectively (open box).
Not sure how the last gen NFC Express / USB module differs from the new version but I think the newer version added wireless charging of devices:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995015R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813995027R
So anyway, my point is that you could just spend the ~$289.99 on the Asus Z97 Deluxe (non NFC / WLC / Thunderbolt II version) and just add these two features at a lower cost either at the time of purchase of the motherboard or at a later date.
Honestly I am more interested in Haswell-E though and I fully expect those motherboards will be in the $400 range,…..to start.
That’s exactly why I’m
That’s exactly why I’m jumping to the Z97 chipset right now. The Haswell-E stuff will be very pricey along with DDR4. I’m coming from an old 1366 system, so jumping to the z97 from 1366 will a fantastic upgrade for me. Then, I can wait for Haswell-E prices to drop and stabilize.
I ain’t buying, unless it
I ain’t buying, unless it comes with a Bass-O-Matic an’ a big ice chest full-o big mouth!
So Z97 is compatible with
So Z97 is compatible with Haswell afterall? There was some talk about electrical incompatibility with 4th gen but it seems I can put my i5-4670K on that board afterall?
Yes, Z97 is compatible with
Yes, Z97 is compatible with existing Haswell parts…
Thank you! I’ve seen the
Thank you! I’ve seen the unveiled Z97 motherboards to have the mentions of supporting 4th generation CPU’s but I wasn’t sure at all a couple of days ago when they started appearing.
Why you not checked the
Why you not checked the boards pcb layer? It shows on the back of the board arround the corner
Please tell JJ, Michael
Please tell JJ, Michael Bivins says hello!
Want. Built Z87-Pro system 9
Want. Built Z87-Pro system 9 months ago, so no can get, but can’t blame a guy for coveting. Can’t help noticing also that to make this board sing, you need to start from scratch with 4-Channel DRAM, PCI-E 10GBps-worthy SSD, and all the other pricey stuff. Can’t see doing that anytime soon. Didn’r expect Asus to come up with anything this year that might make we wistful, but they did!
I bought the new
I bought the new ThunderboltEX II and the Asus Z-97 PRO (wifi-ac) motherboard. The ASUS site showed it was compatible with the new Z-97 series but never mentioned the 9-pin to 5 pin adapter was required. I contact Asus Customer Service and on how to obtain the 9-pin to 5-pin TB Header cable/adaptor. I was told to contact the retailer (Newegg) to go about getting the cable. It’s been 2 weeks now and still info no news on how to buy the adaptor. Anyone have this experience or knows where to buy this adaptor
The email I received from Tech Support: The part NO. of the cable is 14003-00380000. Please contact your retailer to order. To me it is just a ruse to get rid of me asking now for a week on how the get the cable. The newer ThunderboltEX II have the adaptor cable with their orders and the Asus Z-97 Deluxe has it bundles with it components the dual Thunderbolt EX II Dual card.
Doesn’t this motherboard come
Doesn’t this motherboard come with the Thunderbolt card and cables all in one package? I have the sabertooth z97 mark2 and it is missing the 5-pin to 9-pin cable adapter, “adaptor” needed.
That sucks…I have to
That sucks…I have to opposite problem…I have the cable but need the 5-pin to 9-pin adapter. you have the right number for the cable…do you have the part number for the 5-pin to 9-pin? Gave me the same run around to contact the vendor Amazon or Asus estore which knows nothing either.
Thanks
Well the only part number I
Well the only part number I have is 14003-00380000 for the 9pin-5pin TB_header converter for connecting the TB_header cable to the TB-header port on the MB.
I hope you have better luck in getting the cable. I asked ASUS but they don’t seem to give a shit once they have your money. I asked if I can return the whole card and components to get a new one and as usual they are closed mouth and never replied so I am sitting here with a $70.00 expansion card I can’t use or even return for a new one.
Got the following email from
Got the following email from Asus Technical Support:
My name is Carter and it is my pleasure to help you with your problem.
Unfortunately I am afraid to say that generally we don’t directly provide this adapter.
The part number of this adapter is the P/N : 14003-00380000, you would need to contact your retailer to see if you could order it.
If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Hell. Newegg doesn’t carry the part and told me to contact ASUS. ? I have been trying almost 2 months get this problem resolved. I only need the TB_header converter
So I just picked up the Z97
So I just picked up the Z97 PRO b/c I needed Thunderbolt as well. First board was DOA so I had to get another and swap it out.. Ok I’m good there.
Thunderbolt card was hard as heck to find but I tracked one down and now lack the 5 pin to 9 pin adapter that you folks are talking about.
Wow.
As a quick follow-up, the
As a quick follow-up, the ASUS e-Store sent me to ASUS tech support to get the adapter.
The ASUS tech support guy told me like 5 times to “simply look in the box for the adapter”, which pissed me off.
Once we cleared that hurdle, the ASUS guy said:
“Call your retailer”
“Call Newegg”
“Try calling Amazon sir”
I hung up at that point.