CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories
CPU Cooler Fit
To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D15 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth CPU air cooler sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.
The cooler easily fits the board, clearing the memory to its front and the VRM heat sinks along the sides and back. Further, you should have no problems with the CPU cooler interfering with devices seated in the primary PCIe x1 or x16 slots.
The close-up views of the cooler better illustrate how much space ASUS has opened up in the CPU socket area. All memory slots remain usable and the cooler and its integrated heat pipes easily clears the board's VRM heat sinks.
The Noctua hold down mechanism is large enough to quickly determine exactly how much space is available around the CPU socket. The Noctua hold down cage fits easily within the CPU socket area with more than sufficient clearance between it and the VRM heat sinks.
The cooler's backplate rests on the socket backplate, minimizing the risk of direct board contact.
Included Accessories
ASUS includes the necessary accessories to get the board up and running with minimal hassle.
As expected from an ASUS prdouct, the Z97-Pro Gamer's manual was thorough and clear, covering in-detail all board functionality and included Windows software. Also included is a driver DVD with all necessary hardware drivers and Window's utilities and an ASUS-branded metallic case badge.
The board's rear panel shield is a steel plate with a plastic, flat-blat colored overlay. The port identifying text and icons colored white and printed sideways, making it very readable under most conditions with it mounted on a vertical case.
ASUS bundled in four black and white 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated port. The cables have integrated port locks and a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors.
For multi-GPU use, ASUS included a two-way NVIDIA SLI connector.
Finally a black and red z97
Finally a black and red z97 board that isn’t stabbing you in the eyes with the amount of red. Simple splashes of color do wonders!
I still don’t get for a
I still don’t get for a ‘gamer’ board why there is all the display options. Also a PS2 port really? If it’s a gamer board, no one should be using on board gfx.
I still use PS/2 for an IBM
I still use PS/2 for an IBM Model M keyboard. It’s not completely unheard of, and they aren’t exactly running out of space anyway.
As for the display options, it can be nice to have a few additional ports in case your video card doesn’t have enough or enough of the right ones. (This works with multiple discrete cards but I’m not sure if this works with integrated GPUs – maybe someone can confirm?) Certainly it’s not the most important feature, but keep in mind that people may have different needs than you.
What is the target market for
What is the target market for a gamer board with PCI and VGA connectivity? I cant understand the PS2, but VGA and PCI? That is getting old even in the server space.
Some gamers still have their
Some gamers still have their favored PCI cards, including sound cards, that they've been using for years. As for the other video ports, its possible to use them for secondary/terciary monitors…
The two PCI slots are
The two PCI slots are positioned in such a way that if you are running SLI/crossfire they are both covered by duel slot cards anyway. And you still have access to 2 PCI-e 1X slots and the bottom slot. So while some people are still holding on to a soundcard or something they still want a PCI slot for, they are not going to make a difference to most people. And if you are using enough add in cards that they are a problem, you should probably be looking at a higher end board anyway.
As for VGA, there is probably some oddball case where someone wants to use an old monitor as an auxiliary display, but other than that I don’t know what self respecting gaming enthusiast is still using a VGA monitor, let alone plugging it into the motherboard. Still, I’d prefer to see some more HDMI/displayports and some more USB replace that DVI/VGA block.
With all the new technologies
With all the new technologies coming out I am putting on hold building a new gaming machine for 6 months.
m.2, u.2, and NVMe or not.
DDR3 or DDR4
Skylake?
Another round of GPU updates (or rebrands in AMD case)
USB3 or 3.1 type C
Gsync/Freesync
4K or not.
Windows 10
The only thing I can be certain of is my old mechanical hard drives can be ditched – perfect for a NAS (particularly in 6+TB per disk), no longer needed for desktop machine [do we really need all those SATA sockets?]
I am a firm believer in “you can never have too much memory” but I do not wish to break bank to afford it.
Monitors for gaming – bigger is better but hate proprietary standards, and refresh rate fixed at max 60 MHz sucks.
Never been a big fan of multi-GPU set ups though
And I watercool the CPU and GPU
I just bought me a new case
I just bought me a new case for my skylake build I am on z77 and will me moving to skylake. I just upgraded to a 970 from a 570 that was a huge perfomance improvement.