ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark S LGA 1150 Motherboard Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark S LGA 1150 Motherboard Review - The TUF series is one of our favorite product lines at HardOCP. The TUF series Sabertooth motherboards have never disappointed us and we couldn’t help but take ASUS’ Sabertooth Z97 Mark S for a test drive. This one is a bit special in that it is a special edition color, but all else is the same as other retail Sabertooth motherboards.
 
Another excellent review as always. Few questions.

Any pics of the bottom plate? You can kind of see a part of it in the pic of the SATA area, but a full pic would be nice.

Does the bottom plate take the place of the "standard" motherboard case standoffs or are there holes thru the plate for the standard standoffs?
 
not buying anything right now with 1151 skylake coming. Maybe after it surfaces and see benches and comments.
 
That is a beautiful board. I would like to see more boards in white.
 
Big fan of the Sabertooth line. They're about my favorite. Mine has been virtually bulletproof over the years and I have best the crap out of it with 3 different CPU's with insane voltages, countless hours of stress testing and countless crashes and reboots and it still runs flawlessly.
 
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kindasmart said:
Another excellent review as always. Few questions.

Any pics of the bottom plate? You can kind of see a part of it in the pic of the SATA area, but a full pic would be nice.

Does the bottom plate take the place of the "standard" motherboard case standoffs or are there holes thru the plate for the standard standoffs?
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Hah, this board reminds me of the Soyo Dragon Ultra boards back in the day, anyone remember those?

I'd love to have one of those boards again just to hang on the wall or something. :D
 
Blue Falcon said:
Hah, this board reminds me of the Soyo Dragon Ultra boards back in the day, anyone remember those?

I'd love to have one of those boards again just to hang on the wall or something. :D
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Damn it, I was trying to think of that board, could not remember the name for the life of me. Thanks. :D
 
Had the pleasure to study the internals of a PS4 (thermal paste job) and that box makes serious miracles while having an internal PSU, so Thermal Armour is something I need to keep a serious eye on for future PC builds. Very handy review and thank you.
 
The marketing guys must have decided they needed something even more tacky than their gold power ranger-themed boards. The camo thermal armor is silly, but I'm sure the bare white PCB could look really good in the right setup.

Personally, I want more all-black medium/high-end mainboards that look professional and don't cost an arm and a leg like ASUS's black edition boards. Gigabyte pretty much nailed it with their lineup of AM3+ 990FX boards a few years back, the 990FXA-UD3 (v1) was perfect.
 
One day someone will release a green motherboard and people will be like... wow.
 
WtBadAss said:
maybe it just missed it, but is the M.2 socket under the TUF armor?
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There is no M.2 socket. That was a typo in the specifications overview table. If you look at the detailed table and the storage section I specifically state the lack of M.2 support.

Blue Falcon said:
Hah, this board reminds me of the Soyo Dragon Ultra boards back in the day, anyone remember those?

I'd love to have one of those boards again just to hang on the wall or something. :D
Click to expand...

That was my thought as well. I wasn't a fan of anything from Soyo. I was working as a system builder back then and no Soyo motherboard I ever used lasted more than a few months. Those Dragon boards were definitely distinctive though. I loved the look because it was different.

niconx said:
One day someone will release a green motherboard and people will be like... wow.
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I feel like I'm one of the few that misses the old Black / Green GIGABYTE G1 motherboards.
 
Correction: TUF series are known as either Sabertooth or Gryphon. ;)

Thanks for putting in the time for another great review. Had nothing but great experiences with my Z77 Sabertooth before I transitioned to uATX.
 
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