ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
The board is great except for a couple minor things that would make it an exceptional one. The board features are all awesome and work great, no complaints on performance at all. I think ASUS could have done a better design job on a couple things: 1st the onboard USB 3.0 plug, it would have been a huge upgrade to include an adapter for this or at least (this is a big one) had it facing the top of the board so it is easier to install while it is mounted in the case. I had a very hard time trying to find an adapter then getting the one I did find installed, it ended up bending the pins on the board. 2nd: the SATA cable again would benefit from having at least one set of them facing the top of the board. I thought my case was pretty roomy (Antec 902) but trying to get the cables plugged in with everything facing the right side of the case made it difficult.
ASUS motherboards are always the first ones I check out when building a system, I always recommend them to people.
I was hesitant at first, since this board is so expensive, but for what you get, it's quite incredible. I've only ever bought budget boards (to merely get the job done), but it's super convenient having the amazing 5 year warranty, onboard cooling, like 12 points of on-board temperature measurement reading (which is insanely helpful for diagnosing and perfecting an air cooling system, so to verify that you're entire computer is perfectly cooled). Future proofed. Built tough, and looks awesome too. Super happy with it. Worth the extra 50-100 bucks imo. I've had it for 5 months now.
I will buy these Mobo's as long as i live. My mom was helping me put on the CPU brackets and i walked away to grab a screw, her hand slipped and she slammed the board down on the counter as hard as it could have been slammed. I thought for sure it was over, i build the machine anyways and it works like a charm.
Overall amazing Mobo, Fast, Awesome looking and Durable!
This is my 5th ASUS board. While I considered other brands, I decided to spend a few extra bucks for the peace of mind of knowing this thing was going to work without hassle. Once again, ASUS didn't let me down. Put in my i7-3770k and everything started up with no problems. UEFI BIOS was pretty cool - nice to be able to use a mouse! The starting BIOS menu had everything needed to get things up and running quickly, with all the fun stuff just a click away in the "Advanced" menu. This was a nice improvement on previous BIOSes - having all the critical items in one place and not have having to dig through all the detailed settings from the start. Haven't really played around with (but am looking forward to) overclocking yet, nor have I played around with the hybrid GPU, thermal radar, and various other software utilites yet, so I can't really comment on that aspect of the board.
Positives:
- UEFI BIOS - easy to get started. Worked out of the box with no update needed.
- Thermal armor looks pretty sweet. Yeah looks aren't really a factor in most mobo purchasing decisions, but hey - its a bonus.
- My kids love being able to charge their devices even while the machine is powered down - nice touch.
- Q-connector much easier than plugging in every little connector one at a time.
- All the standard Intel chipset goodness is there - 6Gb/s SATA, plenty of USB 3.0/2.0 connections, Intel LAN controller, etc.
A few notes for those considering getting this board:
(hard to call these negatives, as they probably won't be a factor for many)
- For those with big CPU heatsinks (Scythe Mugen 2 is what I'm using), you may not be able to use memory sticks with big heat sinks. I used Corsair "Low Profile" memory and it fit just fine, but memory with fins/etc sticking out would have had me choosing between a new heatsink, new memory, or limiting myself to 2 slots.
- For those who want a perfectly silent system, you might consider removing the thermal armor and the fans needed to keep the air moving underneath. This is the closest thing I have to a complaint, definitely not enough to take a full star off, but the fans for the "thermal armor" are now the only audible part of my system. Its not loud (my laptop is a lot louder), but barely audible. It may be possible to tune the fan speed down a bit, but like i said, I haven't played around with that quite yet.
EDIT: I have now adjusted fans via the supplied software - noise is now a non-issue.
Hi,
so this is an awesome Mainboard and I have nothing to add to the many overclockers and benchmarkers out there that used this board for latest experiments and reaching high scores in the shortest times with the least overclock knowledge needed. It is very self regulating and working fine to prevents itself from damage ;) The BIOS is awesome and usable with mouse and the intel iGPU can be combined with the nvidia GPU, which is normally not possible. (Intel supports their intel graphics, and nvidia their nvidia - unlike AMD and ATI)
However - dangerous part comes here:
When switching to this mainboard from cheap ASROCK before, I didnt save my windows or made backups to use it later on. After booting I got bluescreens on WinXP SP3 and Win7 ultimate. While trying to boot in repair mode on win7 and hitting on "command mode" a noisy shortcut rang my ears and the PC went off. For my luck nothing happend, but I guess the use of old windows and therefor wrong drivers is not always a safe thing to use. Normally it should not boot those and ask for new drivers. That is how I knew it all those years. I guess the many security features of my power supply or the mainboard saved me from killing the mainboard with this shortcut.
This is the first mainboard for me that forced me to install a whole new windows - so be prepared to have your files "import ready". It is not all compatible by changing boards which can even damage your hardware.
Summary: The most impressive mainboard I ever had - too bad there is no support to old connectors as RS232, IDE, PCI
The onboard sound is delicious clear and I replaced an older 24 bit creative audigy zs platinum with it.
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