ASUS Sabertooth Z77 Ivy Bridge Gaming Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
1,846 words · ~9 min read
0:07
welcome to my unboxing of the ASUS Sabertooth z77 motherboard this
0:13
is what I would consider to be a true
0:16
successor to the Sabertooth p67 because
0:20
it brings back the thermal armor so the exclusive
0:25
thermal AR armor covers the entire board with dual turbo fans Direct in cool air
0:30
to critical parts and dissipating heat faster for better stability tough series
0:35
motherboards better be stable and they better have high quality components
0:40
because they come with a 5year warranty these are the only ASUS motherboards
0:44
that do come with a 5-year warranty and they have a number of features to back
0:48
it up so first of all we've got thermal armor we'll show you that in a moment
0:52
thermal radar this is really cool if you check out on my ncixcom channel I've got
0:57
a video where I talk about the ASUS specific features are their z77 boards
1:01
where I show you thermal radar it's really really cool dust Defender repel
1:06
the dust expand the lifespan I'll show you those in just a minute you can cover
1:09
your slots when you are not using them tough components certified by military
1:14
standard so there you go you're going to to give a 5-year warranty on something
1:17
you better make sure you're using proper components that are going to last a long
1:20
time new Digi plus power control so this is eighth generation digital power
1:24
control from ASUS meaning you are controlling the RAM the CPU and the
1:28
integrated GPU USB F BIOS flashback allows you to easily recover your BIOS
1:33
in the event of a failure even without a CPU and RAM installed Network eye
1:37
control allows you to prioritize various applications through AI Suite in order
1:42
to make sure that your you know uTorrent that's running in the background is not
1:45
affecting your pings in your game server
1:48
ufi BIOS we take that for granted these days usb3 boost is also available
1:53
whether it's just the regular boost mode or uasp with compatible devices on the
1:57
as as media controller USB charger Plus allows you to charge up to three times
2:01
faster ESD guards in theory protect the
2:04
board from electrostatic discharge AI site 2 is their software that allows you
2:08
to control all this stuff and finally complete USB
2:12
3 whatever they mean by complete USB 3 I'm not quite sure I think they mean
2:17
they have a front panel header and rear panel ports they also have uh both Intel
2:24
and third party chipsets supported on this particular board because the z77
2:29
chips set does include Intel usb3 ports however the Intel usb3 ports don't
2:34
support uasp at this time so you're going to want to use the as media
2:37
controller if you want to get the best performance possible so this platform is
2:41
using the z77 chipset which means you got support for 22 or 32 nanom CPUs that
2:46
is second generation or third generation IV Bridge Intel core I3 i5 and i7
2:51
processors we've also got support for Intel smart response technology which
2:55
means that you can use an SSD to cach your boot Drive NVIDIA SLI and AMD
3:00
Crossfire X technology are supported virtue MVP gives you the ability to plug
3:06
in a dedicated graphics card still make
3:09
use of quick sync technology which is the integrated gpus uh quick video
3:15
encoding as well as use the integrated
3:19
GPU as a way to augment the performance of your dedicated GPU as a way to reduce
3:25
the tearing that is caused by frame rates that are above the refresh rate of
3:30
your monitor and finally with the newer
3:33
virtue you don't have to worry about whether you plug into the dedicated graphics card or the integrated graphics
3:38
card you can switch to IM mode or D mode whichever you prefer okay now let's do
3:43
accessories really quick here I've actually opened some of these already guys because I did already use this
3:47
motherboard to film my other video and slick in His Infinite Wisdom opened up
3:52
the board before we prepped the other video and before we had a chance to
3:55
unbox it so uh he's feeling the shame right now all
4:01
right so we've got some pieces here that we took off the board in order to
4:04
install these fans so there's a fan right here on the chipset blowing air
4:08
down in order to direct air exactly
4:12
where it needs to go so through the chipset fins across any of the other
4:16
chips that are installed on the board itself and you know eventually sort of
4:21
out the gaps around it there's also a fan here so this I would probably
4:25
suggest using it as an exhaust instead of as an intake but I guess the the
4:28
choice is yours slick installed this one and then next we've got our dust covers
4:34
so this one this one these basically allow you to keep dust from accumulating
4:38
in slots that you're not using ASUS has included a full complement of them for
4:44
the PCI Express slots as well as look at
4:47
these These are cool so we've got other placeholders for the RAM slots that
4:52
we're not using so you don't look they can go either way they've got slots so you don't have to worry about which way
4:56
you install them see I can go in that way I can go in that way
5:00
there you go so your board will look like really sweet even if you have
5:05
absolutely nothing installed on it so if you're into Aesthetics which I happen to
5:09
be that is cool all right IO Shield including a cutout for the fan at the
5:14
back so that you're going to get adequate ventilation we've also got uh
5:18
four SATA cables two of them are SATA 3 two of them are SATA 2 but it doesn't
5:22
actually matter they're both single to right angle or all four of them are single to right angle SLI connector
5:28
right there two connectors for your front USB as well as your front panel
5:33
headers for your power and whatnot uh you've got a driver and utilities DVD
5:40
you don't use that download the latest from the ASUS website you've also got a
5:43
certificate of reliability it's
5:47
gold and tough series 5year warranty notice that's the one I'm concerned
5:51
about not this one so much because that means ASUS is going to stand behind it
5:55
you've also got a sticker that you can put on your case tough inside
6:00
oh sorry can you see that there we go cool moving on let's have a look at the
6:06
layout of the board which is quite tricky because it's completely covered with the thermal armor which you can
6:10
take off should you see fit so we've got our CPU socket right here LGA 1155
6:15
supporting the latest Intel processors we've also got our eight pin power connector and its ideal location at the
6:20
top left of the board we've got our 24 pin power connector and its ideal
6:23
location along the right hand Edge there's the memo button that means even if you're using a high performance dims
6:27
you can use that button to ensure that it will post no matter what we've got a
6:31
front USB 3.0 header very good orientation of this love it good job
6:36
ASUS thumbs up because this will run more easily to your front panel and uh
6:41
will require less you know kinking of the cable and you don't want something
6:44
coming out like this if you're buying this board you probably care about the look of your build this will help next
6:49
we've got four SATA 2 3 GB per second ports two SATA 36 GB per second ports
6:55
and two more SATA 36 GB per second ports running off of a third party chipset so
7:01
those guys are just a
7:05
sec here's our front panel headers for your power and reset and all that good
7:10
stuff three USB 2 front panel connectors
7:14
moving on we've got a power LED we've got clear simos uh jumper prefer to see
7:19
a switch especially on a gaming oriented board but it is what it is we've got our
7:25
Thunderbolt header yes so you can install uh an optional ASUS accessory
7:30
into this slot and then plug that into the Thunderbolt header and you will add
7:34
Thunderbolt support to your board debug Port as well as front panel audio are
7:39
both right here and moving along we've got the PCI Express slot layout so we've
7:43
got 1 2 3 PCIe 1X slots 3 PCIe 16x slots
7:47
although it's going to run at 16x or 8X 8X and I really wouldn't recommend
7:51
running a graphics card in here this is more intended for accessories you know
7:55
land card raid card Thunderbolt card whatever else the case may be
8:00
moving along to the back we've got our usual assortment of ports so four USB
8:04
2.0 ports the BIOS flashback button so handy so useful two EA ports four USB
8:10
3.0 ports two of those running off of a thirdparty chipset and two of them
8:14
running off of an Intel chipset DisplayPort and HDMI video out optical audio
8:18
out as well as 7.1 audio now I want to show you guys where all of the fan
8:22
headers are because you can use the AI Suite software in order to configure
8:26
custom fan curves 1 2 3 4
8:30
five and six ASUS has done a fantastic job of putting all the relevant ports
8:34
around the very outside of the edge of this board in order to keep a clean
8:38
aesthetic that is not easy so they have
8:41
done a tremendous amount of work in order to make things convenient for you
8:44
so I hope you guys appreciate it here's another cool thing check this out
8:48
ventilation holes in the board I call them bullet holes but I don't think
8:52
that's actually A's intention but check this out so we got like like random
8:57
ventilation holes like in in the board I think these ones are for the socket
9:01
itself but yeah there's like some ventilation holes and whatnot pretty
9:06
cool right perforated PCB that's like
9:09
the latest technology I'm not even
9:15
joking thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the
9:18
Sabertooth z77 Slick's laughing he's making me lose
9:23
it don't forget to subscribe to lus techtips for more unboxings reviews and
9:26
other computer videos miss something PCI
9:29
3.0 is supported on this motherboard as long as you are using a CPU that has a
9:33
built-in PCI Express 3.0 controller