A Look at ASUS’ Upcoming Z97 Motherboard Lineup

The launch of Intel’s Z97 chipset is right around the corner, and with Intel’s Haswell refresh, “Devil’s Canyon”, not due out for another month or so, the star of the show is the myriad of motherboards from all the usual vendors. Once again, ASUS’ collection of boards is quite large, so let’s dive right in, and tackle new features as well.

It’s a great time to be a PC enthusiast. No, it’s not because we’re soon going to be able to admire the gorgeous weather outside while we’re gaming-it-up on the inside. Instead, it’s that we’re about to be inundated with motherboards equipped with Intel’s latest chipset: Z97.

Despite the fact that most information surrounding Z97 is technically under embargo until Sunday, the collective Web has decided that adhering to it is valueless. After one site “broke” embargo (I use that term lightly, since Intel’s embargoes are verbal agreements, and don’t require a signature), another one did, and then another. As it is now, Intel concedes, and we’re now allowed to talk about Z97 without fear of being sliced in half with a wafer Frisbee.

But… I’m not going to, at least not here. I’m going to instead begin our Z97 coverage with a look at what’s coming from ASUS, as I did last May. Because the number of features that come with each generation of motherboards is enormous, I’m only going to tackle the features here that I consider most notable – hoping that I don’t overlook something. I’ll tackle other unique features in more detail when I post a review of a board belonging to a series that has them.

Read the rest of our article.