ASUS Z97-A (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review

Introduction, Specifications and Packaging

After a lot of messy NDA politics between Intel and the main motherboard vendors the launch day of Intel’s Z97 Express chipset is finally upon us. In respect of our relationship with Intel we have been holding off with publishing our reviews until now and today we have a couple of reviews for you. The first is the entry level ASUS Z97 motherboard, the dash A model. This motherboard will be hitting the market at a fairly affordable £115 or $150 price point making it an attractive price point for entering onto Intel’s new enthusiast Z97 platform. Despite the ASUS Z97-A being fairly affordable it still gets most of the features we will see on higher end motherboards such as M.2, SATA Express, Intel Gigabit LAN and all the new ASUS Z97 (Channel) software features we looked at a while back including the new AI Suite III package with the ASUS Turbo App. Let’s start by taking a closer look at the specifications of the ASUS Z97-A:

Packaging and Accessories

A new motherboard chipset brings a new channel style to the ASUS packaging. We can see yet another major colour scheme and style change a shift from the gold/yellow of the last generation to a more subtle silver/gold. We have also risen up from the 4 Way optimisation on the Z87 series to 5 way optimisation provided by the new Turbo App built into AI Suite III.

The back details some of the new ASUS Z97 Channel features which we covered in a lot more detail here, you can also find them explained further on the ASUS Z97-A product page.

Included is a user guide, feature booklet and driver/utility DVD with Intel case badge.

Accessories include three SATA III cables, of which one is right angled, a plain metal rear I/O, ASUS Q connectors for your front panel connectors and a SLI bridge.