BIOS Features
ASUS designed the Z97-Deluxe's BIOS using the latest revision of their UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) implementation, a customized version of the AMI baseline UEFI style BIOS. The UEFI BIOS offers full keyboard and mouse support while using the BIOS pages. ASUS changed the way mouse right-click functions in the new BIOS implementation with right-click having no impact on the screen. By default, the user sees the EZ mode screen when entering the BIOS with the Advanced mode screens accessible via the Exit/Advanced Mode button at the upper right corner of the screen. Advanced mode screens can be set for the default user interface via the BIOS Boot menu as well.
There’s really nothing at all not to like about ASUS’ UEFI BIOS implementation. They have one of the best implementations of UEFI on the market currently. The BIOS is very responsive to both keyboard and mouse input with almost no lag or questionable click-space evident anywhere. The UEFI BIOS designed in an intuitive manner so that both novice and advance BIOS users can quickly find what they are looking for. The EZ Mode screen lays out everything in a highly readable format, while the Advanced Mode tabbed layout displays as you would expect from a traditional BIOS. ASUS also gives you the ability to taken screen captures from within the BIOS by pressing the F12 key with those screen-caps saved in a 1024×768 bitmap format to an attached USB device. From the Tools menu, ASUS houses their collection of of BIOS-related tools and applets, ranging from an in-BIOS updater (EZ Flash2) to their full BIOS profile load and save utility.
BIOS Notable Features
ASUS further revised their UEFI BIOS with the Z97 boards, optimizing several BIOS features as well as exposing several new Haswell-specific features. They revised their EZ Mode page with added utility, integrated a customizable My Favorites tab into the Advance mode menu, Shortcut screen, a graphical fan tuning interface, a graphical EZ Tuning Wizard interface, support for display in 10 different languages, and a Quick Note interface for adding persistent notes for later use.
Advanced Mode My Favorites screen, Shortcut popup
The Shortcut menu shown is available from the Advanced Mode interface only. To access, hit the F3 function key from within the Advanced Mode interface. The Shortcut page displays shortcuts to menus and sub-menus added via the Advanced Mode interface. If you hit the F4 function key with an item selected, you are taken directly to the menu or sub-menu. This functionality allows you to put commonly accessed menus and sub-menus at you fingertips with a single button or mouse click.
My Favorites tab, populated
The My Favorites tab houses user selected settings for access to these from a centralized location. To access, select the My Favorites tab from within the Advanced Mode interface. Note that if a menu or sub-menu is added to this page, all fields on that page will be added. The real strength in this My Favorites tab implementation comes with the ability to mix and match commonly used options in a central location, rather than having to hunt them down through multiple sub-levels of menus.
EZ Mode page
EZ Mode breakdown
Courtesy of ASUS
The EZ Mode page was dramatically re-factored with the Z97 board line with information organized into sections in an easy-to-read manner.
Q-Fan Tuning page
The Q-Fan Tuning page allows for graphical configuration of fan operation based on predefined threshold levels. The interface is similar in nature to the Windows-based Fan Xpert3 fan configuration interface and is a nice touch in-lui of the text-based configuration approach. The Q-Fan Tuning page is accessed by clicking on the Manual Fan Tuning button within the EZ Mode page.
Easy Tuning Wizard
The EZ Tuning Wizard can be accessed by hitting the F11 function key from within the EZ Mode page. This wizard triggers BIOS configured system performance optimization based on user selections made within the wizard interface.
EZ Mode, Main tab, Language selection
The BIOS display language can be updated to one of 10 values through the language field in the top menu bar accessible in both the EZ Mode and Advance Mode interfaces. The screen values are updated immediately upon language selection.
Advanced Mode, Main tab, Quick Note popup
The Quick Note window is accessed by clicking the Quick Note field in the top menu bar or hit the F9 function key. From this window, you can enter notes that remain persistent between BIOS sessions. This functionality is only available from the Advanced Mode interface.
BIOS Walkthrough
Advanced Mode screen, Ai Tweaker tab with XMP mode enabled
Ai Tweaker tab with Manual mode enabled, bus speed settings
Ai Tweaker tab with Manual mode enabled, CPU ratio settings
Ai Tweaker tab with Manual mode enabled, voltage settings
Ai Tweaker tab with Manual mode enabled, voltage settings continued
Ai Tweaker tab with Manual mode enabled, voltage settings continued
Ai Tweaker tab, DRAM Timing Control page
Ai Tweaker tab, DRAM Timing Control page, Secondary and Tertiary timing settings
Ai Tweaker tab, DRAM Timing Control page, Miscellaneous settings
Ai Tweaker tab, DRAM Timing Control page, Miscellaneous settings continued
Ai Tweaker tab, DRAM Timing Control page, Skew Control page
Ai Tweaker tab, DIGI+ Power Control page
Ai Tweaker tab, CPU Power Management page
Ai Tweaker tab, CPU Power Management page continued
Ai Tweaker tab, CPU Power Management page continued
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.