Asus Z97I-Plus

I have this board and gonna share some info for you guys out there.
I'm using a 4790k with 16gb corsair 2400mhz and a evga gtx 750 ti. my cooler is a noctua nh-c12p and i'm using a 128gb plextor m6e m.2 as my operating system boot drive and can confirm that trim is enabled. running windows 7 with the latest bios firmware. The only thing i couldn't do was install asus suite 3. very happy with my current system.
 
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grazina said:
The only thing i couldn't do was install asus suite 3.
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I've been able to install AiSuite III three times so far.. 1st time went smoothly, but the 2nd time was a massive mess and wouldn't install correctly. Ran the AiSuite III cleaner (a 2nd time), rebooted, and then everything finally installed correctly the 3rd time.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?34503-AI-Suite-III-Cleaner

Also, after running the cleaner, be sure to right-click on the main setup installer and choose "run as administrator".

It's really personal preference, but I'd strongly recommend using AiSuite only for the FanXpert portion of the software.. and don't run whatever fan auto-tuning and benchmark they have (as this will limit your control below 60% duty.. giving you only 60% to 100% control and then 0% with fan stop). And don't touch ANY of the other power-saving, digi-power, and related crap (anything to do w/CPU or RAM), and adjust those only in the BIOS if needed. Everytime I adjusted anything other than fan profiles, it only seemed to make things worse (always accidentally end up hitting some vaguely labeled auto-overclock button that would give me blue screens until I put the BIOS back to defaults).

Just my opinion though.. your mileage may vary.
 
AFD said:
I've been able to install AiSuite III three times so far.. 1st time went smoothly, but the 2nd time was a massive mess and wouldn't install correctly. Ran the AiSuite III cleaner (a 2nd time), rebooted, and then everything finally installed correctly the 3rd time.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?34503-AI-Suite-III-Cleaner

Also, after running the cleaner, be sure to right-click on the main setup installer and choose "run as administrator".

It's really personal preference, but I'd strongly recommend using AiSuite only for the FanXpert portion of the software.. and don't run whatever fan auto-tuning and benchmark they have (as this will limit your control below 60% duty.. giving you only 60% to 100% control and then 0% with fan stop). And don't touch ANY of the other power-saving, digi-power, and related crap (anything to do w/CPU or RAM), and adjust those only in the BIOS if needed. Everytime I adjusted anything other than fan profiles, it only seemed to make things worse (always accidentally end up hitting some vaguely labeled auto-overclock button that would give me blue screens until I put the BIOS back to defaults).

Just my opinion though.. your mileage may vary.
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I don't plan on doing any overclocking and my temps while gaming are more than acceptable. I originally had the g3258 ordered, but it was taking to long to become available and I just tought I'm only going to be here once so I went with the 4790k to avoid having to do any overclocking. I assume the Asus suite 3 is more oriented for the gamer wanting to fiddle with settings.
 
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Thought I'd revive this thread to chime in with my Z97I experience.

In a single word: Fantastic!

I've been running my new build (in sig) for about six weeks and couldn't be more pleased. I'm not an overclocker. I want to spend time using my PC, not tweaking it. I just want a stable system that runs everything I throw at it. I had no trouble installing Win 7 Ultimate, AiSuite III (I only use the USB charger and 3.0 boost features), or any software (games/work). So far, this Z97I has performed like a champ.

I've been building PCs since 2007 and have used most of the major brands of mainboards: Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock, EVGA. Asus boards are the only ones that have never failed on me. Of course, having stated that, I fully expect my system to crash when I fire it up, tomorrow morning. :p
 
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Thanks Tyler-Durden, I am expecting my Z97I plus to arrive next week and from your review it sounds like the right choice for me. :D
 
I have this board (bought rather than the H97 as I wanted WiFi - I'm not an OC'er) and it's nice - it just works.

One thing that doesn't work is the supplied FanXpert 3 software: it's reading the value labelled "CPU" in HWiNFO off the Nuvoton chip (NCT6791D) when it needs to be reading "CPU (PECI)". The latter gives the core temperature, the former some external temperature. Under Prime95, "CPU" still reads 45C while "CPU (PECI)" reads a much more reasonable 69C.
 
Harnser said:
One thing that doesn't work is the supplied FanXpert 3 software: it's reading the value labelled "CPU" in HWiNFO off the Nuvoton chip (NCT6791D) when it needs to be reading "CPU (PECI)". The latter gives the core temperature, the former some external temperature. Under Prime95, "CPU" still reads 45C while "CPU (PECI)" reads a much more reasonable 69C.
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I've noticed that when AiSuite and FanXpert are showing an oddly low CPU temp at load, they actually seem to be controlling the fans at whatever the true internal temperature is.

For example, if you have fan-stop set to 60C and it's reading only 45C, the fans will still kick on and follow the defined curve.. it's only the reading that seems screwed-up.
 
AFD said:
I've noticed that when AiSuite and FanXpert are showing an oddly low CPU temp at load, they actually seem to be controlling the fans at whatever the true internal temperature is.

For example, if you have fan-stop set to 60C and it's reading only 45C, the fans will still kick on and follow the defined curve.. it's only the reading that seems screwed-up.
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Fanxpert takes its reading from a thermistor under the Cpu, instead of the core temps. This follows recommendation in the Intel specification.
 
^ Right "CPU" is always the sensor on the mobo, not core temp. AMD mobos are the same way.
 
WiSK said:
Fanxpert takes its reading from a thermistor under the Cpu, instead of the core temps. This follows recommendation in the Intel specification.
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It might not be using core temps to adjust the fans, but it's definitely not reading whichever temp is being displayed by both AiSuite and FanXpert as CPU (I'm guessing that particular read-out is from the IHS).

Whichever monitor it's using to control the fans seems to have temps that are closer to the core temp (or multicore average) than the much lower temp that is actually being shown. For example, when my 4-core average is above 70C, all the fans will jump to 100% even when the displayed CPU temp is still below 50C.
 
I don't want to dispute your experience, but the last three boards I own are Asus and on those it's the definitely thermistor reading that the Nuvoton controller uses. Some months ago I was reading some of the documentation for the Nuvoton chip on my Z77, and I'm pretty sure there was no option to change the source of the temperature reading.

However, I don't have a Z87 or newer board yet, so it's possible they changed something.
 
WiSK said:
However, I don't have a Z87 or newer board yet, so it's possible they changed something.
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Very possible they're different somehow, cause SpeedFan will read your Z77, but will not read my Z87.

Beats me, though. All I know is that the numerical temp reading in AiSuite does not correlate to the behavior of the fans with my board (which is actually good, because if it read the constantly low CPU temp, then the fans wouldn't be all that effective when the CPU is under load).

A few guys over at the ASUS/ROG forum said that AiSuite and FanXpert use a temperature calculated from multiple sensors that is never the same as that of one single sensor - while others there are stating that it's reading the Tcase.

Dunno :)
 
I'm getting a short beep during startup POST, I guess it's just a "system OK" indication. Is there a way of turning it off, or will I just have to unplug the speaker? Or does the beep mean something is wrong? :confused:
 
Hi guys.

I really love this board.

Just received my Samsung XP941 512Gb SSD and it ran like a charm. With latest BIOS and default settings, it directly installed Windows 8.1 and booted on it without any trick.
 
I just finished my Ncase build with this board as well. Everything is working great. I Only have one issue. It seems that the onboard video is having HDCP handshake issues with my receiver. I've got a Sony STR DN1040.

When I turn the pc on first and then the receiver second, I get a flashing screen and then snow and it goes back and forth. If I have the receiver on first then the pc, it's fine. If I switch the receiver input to any other device and back to the pc input, again snow and flashing. Only way to fix it is to power cycle the pc.

This never happened with my Alienware laptop. Is anyone else having any issues like this? Or suggestions I could try?

I'm using onboard video temporary while I find a vid card. I'm using HDMI.

EDIT: Nevermind, for some reason, my Z97i-Plus does not like the HDMI cord I was using. Odd. I just switched it up with my cable TV HDMI and it's working fine now.
 
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anyone running Crucial 256GB M550 on this mobo?

How's the temperature of M.2 ssd?
 
I just installed this board and I'm getting a weird hissing/squeeling noise from my PSU whenever there is disk activity on my Plextor M6e. Noise seems to go away when I remove my GPU... (MSI GTX 760 Gaming ITX).

Pretty annoyed because I'm after a quiet build. Anyone else experience this? :confused:

Here's everything I've got:

Case: NCASE M1 V2 Silver NO ODD slot
PSU: Corsair AX760
Mainboard: ASUS Z97I-Plus
CPU: i5 4570
COOLER: Noctua NH-L9i
GPU: MSI GTX 760 Gaming ITX
RAM: 8GB Crucial Ballistix Sport Very Low Profile
SSD: Plextor M6e 256GB
 
It is called 'coil whine' and it is said to be an issue that comes from random combinations of hardware. It might go away after a few days and it might not. Replacing the motherboard, GPU or PSU would also possibly resolve it, most likely the PSU will yield the biggest chance.
 
Thanks for the info. I guess I'll give it a couple of days and see what happens. Fingers crossed that it goes away. :)
 
Does using an M.2 SSD have any effect on GPU performance? I've read something about the M.2 slot sharing the PCIe lane, but am a bit confused about what that actually means.

I'm currently using a HDD, but was thinking of switching to an M.2 SSD (and skipping the whole SATA 2.5" SSD market which, afaik, is slower than M.2).
 
There are:

M.2 x1 PCI-E
M.2 x2 PCI-E
M.2 x4 PCI-E
M.2 Sata

Most of the M.2 Sata are 1:1 copy of 2,5" SSDs with Sata Interface. There are only two PCI-E m.2 SSD: Samsung XP941(x4) and Plextor M6e (x2). The problem is not the amount of pci-e lanes. At the moment they are developing a new interface and new drivers. So a Samsung XP941 512 Gbyte is the fastest m.2 SSD, but expensive and still not a final mainstream product.

The Asus Z97I-Plus supports x2 (10 Gbit) at ~770 Read/Write. A Samsung XP941 512 will never run at full speed.

On the other hand the Samsung 840pro / 850 pro would be faster at the moment except for the max. transferrates.
 
Thanks, cleared things up a bit. Would the Samsung 840pro/850 be faster than the Plextor M6e? And which new interface are they developing?

It's a bit annoying we're in the middle of this whole battle of interfaces...sounds like we'll have to upgrade our MB to get x4 PCI-E by the time things settle. :/
 
I'm getting Crucial M550 M.2 - anyone has this already?
I hope its compatible...
 
Phuncz said:
Although offtopic, I used a NH-L12 on the Z87E-ITX in the Ncase M1 case, which is somewhat specific about compatible heatsink. It will depend on your case a lot. The Z97E-ITX/ac has the same socket placement as the Z87E-ITX.
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Has anyone actually tried this cooler on this board yet? I am fairly sure the C12 fits, but since the L12 is cheaper I want to go with this. It will be going in an M1. It does look like it could work with the heatpipes facing backwards towards the I/O plate, but it is so hard to see from pictures.
 
phinix said:
I'm getting Crucial M550 M.2 - anyone has this already?
I hope its compatible...
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I can confirm that this works. Showed up in bios right away and is currently running Windows 10 flawslessly. No issues with hibernation or booting. There is a tiny screw with a bolt on it on the motherboard that you have to remove and fasten the SSD with.
 
Locrin said:
I can confirm that this works. Showed up in bios right away and is currently running Windows 10 flawslessly. No issues with hibernation or booting. There is a tiny screw with a bolt on it on the motherboard that you have to remove and fasten the SSD with.
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cool. thanks for confirming it.
 
Hey Everyone !

Can anyone confirm temperatures you are getting after long temp system load(gaming, benchmarking etc) ?
I had a HWmonitor installed, and after abt 1-2 hours of Gaming session - I saw MB temp as 102 Deg. Celsius....
Also got a feeling that VRM heatsink is kinda lousy attached to the MB - it is tall, but attached only by two spring screws which do not provide good pressure.

Thanks
 
Sader said:
Hey Everyone !

Can anyone confirm temperatures you are getting after long temp system load(gaming, benchmarking etc) ?
I had a HWmonitor installed, and after abt 1-2 hours of Gaming session - I saw MB temp as 102 Deg. Celsius....
Also got a feeling that VRM heatsink is kinda lousy attached to the MB - it is tall, but attached only by two spring screws which do not provide good pressure.

Thanks
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Wow. Thanks for the heads up. I'll defiantly have a look at this next time I am gaming. Have you consulted the manual to find the working temperature tolerances on the chipset?
Seems a bit exessive. How are you cooling your CPU?
 
HWmontior might be wrong.

There shouldnt be a problem abount VRM cooling. The chips on my rev. 1.03 boards a slightly better than the boards from the launch-reviews. The pressure is low but this is very normal.

At the moment i am trying to get the board rockstable with the new bios from last week.
 
I haven't checked temps on mine, but I can definitely confirm that the MB temp isn't over 100C after heavy gaming. I expect HWmonitor is reporting wrong info.

Next time I get a chance to sit down and play I'll double-check.

Haven't updated to the newest BIOS yet, but I've been running this board for 5-6 months now without issue. Well, except for the PCIe slot's clip breaking off, which was unexpected.

Actually just put an i7-4790k in it last night, with a Xigmatek Janus HSF. It seems very happy so far.
 
Flowmotion said:
HWmontior might be wrong.
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I think it's wrong.

HWMonitor has always shown my ASUS Z87i-Deluxe temp as an insanely high number. Right now it's showing 99C, at idle. Plus, I think ASUS is supposed to have a "high mobo temp warning" that shows up, either in BIOS or AiSuite, which I've never seen.
 
Flowmotion said:
Have you tried to remove the protective foil from the northbrigte heatsink? ;)
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Are you supposed to?

I didn't see anything on mine that looked like it was intended to be removed.. just an anodized heat sink with what appears to be a vinyl or silk-screened logo (LINK).
 
Flowmotion said:
The Asus Z97I-Plus got one. Strange ...
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I think I can see it in this picture (LINK). Looks like a removable clear film used to prevent fingerprints and scratches until it's installed.

Don't think the ASUS sticker/badge itself is intended to be removed, though.
 
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