1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:06,720 This video is brought to you by Cooler Master featuring the Siden 240mm 2 00:00:04,640 --> 00:00:09,440 all-in-one CPU water cooling system. Check it out at 3 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:16,720 www.coolermaster-usa.com. Welcome to my unboxing and first look at the ASUS Z87 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:21,680 Deluxe. This is from their channel series of boards where you find models 5 00:00:19,119 --> 00:00:24,560 like Pro and Evo and Deluxe and all those kinds of things traditionally. And 6 00:00:23,359 --> 00:00:28,720 they have done a lot of things differently with this generation of 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:32,960 product on the LG 1150 platform. So, these support the latest fourth 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:37,360 generation Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, code named Haswell. You've 9 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:41,040 got full support for NVIDIA SLI, AMD Crossfire, as well as DTS audio. So, 10 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:44,399 that's a license that they definitely did have to pay for. I'm also going to 11 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:49,280 talk a fair bit about the four-way optimizations enabled by their dual 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:52,160 intelligent processors generation 4 technology. On the rest of the outside 13 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:59,920 of the box, you know what? We're not going to worry too much about that. Let's get this thing opened up. So, the 14 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:05,280 first thing we see once we get her open is the motherboard itself. And ASUS has 15 00:01:02,079 --> 00:01:06,880 gone with a serious departure from their 16 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:12,720 traditional color scheme on these boards, which has been black and blue 17 00:01:09,119 --> 00:01:15,520 for quite some time. Now, we have a 18 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:21,920 black and yellow and gold color scheme that looks quite striking. So, without 19 00:01:18,799 --> 00:01:24,400 further ado, let's put that away. Next, 20 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:27,640 we're going to get into more ado, which is all this other stuff in here. So, 21 00:01:26,159 --> 00:01:32,159 we've got an IO shield, Q connectors for easily 22 00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:38,640 connecting your front panel connectors, a soft flexible SLI 23 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,759 bridge. This is interesting. So, you 24 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:47,040 guys are you guys are going to like this. This is a wireless AC dualband 25 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:53,200 antenna. And I've actually seen a live demo of this running at in excess of 850 26 00:01:50,159 --> 00:01:56,320 megabit per second, which is very, very 27 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:58,240 cool. six SATA 3 6 Gbit per second 28 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:04,799 cables uh including three right angle and three straight cables as well as a 29 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:05,920 user guide with D driver disc which you 30 00:02:04,799 --> 00:02:11,120 probably won't need because you're going to download the latest from the ASUS website. Round out the accessory 31 00:02:09,119 --> 00:02:14,640 package. So not as rich as what you might find on something like an ROG 32 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:18,280 board, but I think that really is expected given that this is a lower tier 33 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:22,720 of product. So I want to clarify something 34 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:27,680 right from the start. This is a channel board. that this is not necessarily a 35 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:31,280 gaming oriented board, but that I mean it's going to be an ROG board for that, 36 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:34,480 but you're still going to find great performance in gaming, great performance 37 00:02:32,879 --> 00:02:37,920 and overclocking and all that stuff, but it means that the features, particularly 38 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:42,640 what ASUS is talking about with these boards, are more focused on other things 39 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:46,560 and that starts right with the power. So, you've got your eight pin CPU power 40 00:02:44,959 --> 00:02:51,360 connector up here at the top left in its ideal location. And you've got a nice 41 00:02:49,519 --> 00:02:56,879 beefy heat sink arrangement with a heat pipe on the chipset as well as the power 42 00:02:54,480 --> 00:03:00,720 delivery system, which is quite beefy as well. Next up, you're going to find this 43 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:04,480 little guy right here. This is an EPU chip, and this is where their dual 44 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:08,560 intelligent processors for really come into play. So, it allows you to do a 45 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:12,000 number of really cool things through the software. You can control things like 46 00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:16,720 fan speed. You can control how much power your system is consuming. You can 47 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:21,280 even set a TDP target. So, you can set a power consumption target for your CPU. 48 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:24,480 Set it and forget it, and the EPU will automatically go, "Okay, yep, we'll make 49 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:27,920 sure that CPU never goes over that power consumption." So, you can make your 50 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:32,720 system more efficient. You can do a number of other cool things with this, 51 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:34,239 including turning off or on certain USB 52 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:37,760 ports when the system's powered off. Remember, guys, onoff charging has been 53 00:03:36,159 --> 00:03:41,120 a feature on motherboards for a couple generations now. But what if you didn't 54 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:45,200 want all the ports powered on while the system isn't turned on? What if you had 55 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:48,720 things like LED lighting as an underglow effect under your case and you wanted it 56 00:03:46,959 --> 00:03:52,480 to turn off when your system's not on? Well, now you can actually selectively 57 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:56,720 do that, which is really, really cool. The EPU also allows you to control or 58 00:03:54,640 --> 00:04:00,560 well, the EPU combined with the TPU also allows you to control performance 59 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:04,640 profiles with the TPU giving you two different tiers of of overclocked 60 00:04:02,879 --> 00:04:09,280 performance. one of which is more like a more aggressive turbo boost and the 61 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:13,519 second of which enables XMPP and starts overclocking all of the cores 62 00:04:11,319 --> 00:04:17,680 concurrently. All of this is enabled by ASUS's fully digital power delivery 63 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:22,960 system as well as some of the other cool things they're doing like building in 64 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:24,639 only four pin fan connectors which is 65 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:28,960 really neat because it allows you to take full control of these fans which 66 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:33,360 can also be configured as part of that whole system control. So you can control 67 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:37,360 performance, power consumption, as well as cooling. And not only that, but it 68 00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:40,639 has a special away mode that's going to be able to reduce your CPU power 69 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:44,880 consumption and detect when you're not at the computer so that it doesn't take 70 00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:48,160 as much power. But what it does do is allows you to still do passive things 71 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:51,600 like download or access files remotely and all that kind of cool stuff. So, 72 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,639 speaking of four pin fan connectors, there's a special CPU fan connector 73 00:04:53,199 --> 00:04:58,160 that's built into their new generation of boards that automatically detects 74 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:02,800 whether you have a three pin or a four pin fan connected so that it can use 75 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:07,680 either analog or PWM control for your CPU fan. You've got full support for 76 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:11,919 four DIMs of DDR3 running in dual channel and higher memory speeds are 77 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:16,960 supported. The board supports natively up to DDR3 78 00:05:14,039 --> 00:05:20,960 2800 megahertz, which is incredibly cool. the 24 pin connectors in its ideal 79 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:25,120 location along the right hand edge of the board. And I like to see this more 80 00:05:23,199 --> 00:05:28,720 four pins over on the right hand edge of the board. So many boards hide all of 81 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,280 their fan connectors like back here. And I'm sitting here going, "Well, who has 82 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:35,600 all of their fans on the back of their case?" Nobody. There's usually like one 83 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:39,039 there. Uh whereas you often will have a couple fans on the front of the case and 84 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:42,960 these can reach them easily. Your front USB3 connectors in its ideal location 85 00:05:41,039 --> 00:05:48,400 along the right hand edge. And you've got 10 SATA 36 Gbit per second 86 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:53,840 connectors, six of which are powered by the Intel chipset. You've got hardware 87 00:05:51,039 --> 00:05:57,600 buttons built in for your TPU and EPU modes. So that's for your energy 88 00:05:55,520 --> 00:06:03,600 efficient processor, the EPU, and your TPU, which has one and two. So it's 89 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:08,240 actually got three positions. So TPU off, TPU 1, TPU 2. So those are those 90 00:06:05,919 --> 00:06:13,280 multiple profiles I talked about before. You've got your USB 2 front panel 91 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:15,120 connectors, two LED post readouts, so 92 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:17,680 the potential here is endless. There's all kinds of four-letter words I 93 00:06:16,479 --> 00:06:21,840 wouldn't mind putting on my motherboard if given the opportunity, as well as a 94 00:06:19,919 --> 00:06:25,919 clear SIMOS button, allowing you to well clear the SIMOS. You've got built-in 95 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:30,800 power and reset boards which uh belong on a high-end board but are not 96 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:32,800 necessarily, you know, colored cool like 97 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:36,080 on the ROG board and located in a more prominent location because fewer people 98 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:41,440 are going to be using this in an outofcase sort of environment. Seven 99 00:06:38,639 --> 00:06:46,560 expansion slots total with four PCIe 1X slots and three PCIe 16X slots. However, 100 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:51,840 it should be noted that two of them are going to run in either 16x or 8x8x and 101 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:57,280 one of them runs in 4X. So, this board supports two-way SLI or up to three-way 102 00:06:54,720 --> 00:07:03,280 Crossfire with a potentially a performance hit because that four third 103 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:04,880 card is only going to run at PCIe 4X. 104 00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:09,680 Now, this brings me to one of the things that I think is coolest about this 105 00:07:06,479 --> 00:07:13,919 board. So, this Wi-Fi go right here, it 106 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:15,440 has built-in wireless AC, and I just 107 00:07:13,919 --> 00:07:18,639 think that is really, really cool, especially with some of the software 108 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:24,240 things that ASUS has done. So, they allow you to use your computer as a 109 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:28,319 Wi-Fi hotspot. They allow you to easily take remote control of your computer. 110 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:33,199 And they allow you to use the software as a DNA server. And it enables easy 111 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:37,919 file transfer. So, this is all cool stuff that is important to your your 112 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:43,280 mainstream or your channel customer. Also, on the back of the board, we find 113 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,639 that someone uh put these stickers on 114 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:50,560 the wrong spots. These stickers are supposed to be up here. Give me a moment. and we're ready to have a look 115 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:54,960 at the rear IO. So, we've got a multitude of display outputs, including 116 00:07:53,120 --> 00:08:00,160 mini DisplayPort, full-size DisplayPort, and HDMI. So, we've moved away 117 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:03,599 completely from DVI and VGA. And remember, guys, what's cool about 118 00:08:01,599 --> 00:08:07,039 Haswell chips is they do support multi-dis outputs, meaning that from a 119 00:08:05,599 --> 00:08:10,000 productivity standpoint, so sure, you're not going to be gaming on a surround 120 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:15,039 setup, but from a productivity standpoint, that's really, really cool. 121 00:08:11,919 --> 00:08:17,039 We've got six USB 3.0 0 ports with full 122 00:08:15,039 --> 00:08:22,000 support on the as media controller for UASP which does improve USB3 performance 123 00:08:19,919 --> 00:08:27,039 with supported devices. We've got an optical audio out, a USB BIOS flashback 124 00:08:25,039 --> 00:08:30,639 button, and I have used this and it does work. If you brick your board, you can 125 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:36,320 use this to reset it as long as you follow the instructions uh that you find 126 00:08:32,919 --> 00:08:37,919 online. We've got four USB 2.0 ports. 127 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:44,080 And I think the point of this was to say, "Hey, plug your keyboard and mouse in here." because some USB 3 ports still 128 00:08:42,399 --> 00:08:47,279 have some compatibility weirdness with some keyboards and mice. There's nothing 129 00:08:45,680 --> 00:08:52,959 ASUS can do about it. It's not really their fault. I think it's going to be a long time before we see any motherboards 130 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:57,120 with no USB 2 or at least it'll be a long time before we should. We've got an 131 00:08:54,720 --> 00:09:01,600 Intel gigabit network controller as well as a different one. Use this one because 132 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:04,399 it supports ASUS's eye control software which allows you to set network 133 00:09:02,880 --> 00:09:09,760 prioritization and cool stuff like that within AI suite. And last but not least, 134 00:09:06,399 --> 00:09:11,440 we've got 7.1 audio out. Now, a lot of 135 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:15,440 the improvements that ASUS has made go beyond the hardware, such as in the UEFI 136 00:09:13,519 --> 00:09:18,480 BIOS. And I call it the UFI BIOS, even though I know that's not correct. It's 137 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:23,600 called the UEFI. So, they've got a bunch of really cool stuff, including ways 138 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:25,680 that you can uh segment away sort of 139 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:30,320 your most frequently used settings. They've got the simple mode much 140 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:34,080 expanded, so it includes some of the more frequently used things where people 141 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:37,120 were just not even bothering to use it because it didn't allow you to do the 142 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:40,959 things you needed to do. They've got full control of every fan in the system 143 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:45,440 now, which is very, very cool. And they actually ran a demo for us showing how 144 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:50,720 quickly the system can actually set itself up to do things like figure out 145 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:54,959 the RPMs of all your fans, u figure out the cooling that it all needs, and it'll 146 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:58,560 just selfoptimize itself, which is very, very neat. You can also make notes 147 00:09:56,880 --> 00:10:03,120 within the BIOS, which is cool. Now, I've always liked features like BIOS 148 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:06,399 profiles because they allow you to kind of, you know, say, "Oh, well, this is my 149 00:10:04,800 --> 00:10:10,000 aggressive overclock. this is my safe one that I know works if that one bugs 150 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:15,440 out or whatever else. But you could never really label them. All I could do was put like 4 GHz stable and that was 151 00:10:13,760 --> 00:10:19,519 all I could really do. Now you can make notes within the BIOS and it even keeps 152 00:10:17,839 --> 00:10:22,720 a log of the last thing you changed. So when you're tweaking and overclocking, 153 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:28,480 you can be like, "Oh, well it was working before and now it's not. What did I actually change?" And you can go 154 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:32,079 back and fix it quite easily. The main information is pinned to the bottom. And 155 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:35,680 from the demos that I've seen, I haven't actually fired one of these up for 156 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:39,440 myself yet. It looks much more efficient to navigate, which is really saying 157 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:43,040 something because it was already quite strong. Thank you for checking out my 158 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:46,480 unboxing and first look at the Z87 Deluxe from ASUS. Don't forget to 159 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:50,079 subscribe for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.