This review is from: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, Intel Z77 Express, ATX, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, Quad GPU AMD CrossfireX, Supports HDMI 1.4a) (Accessory)
I’ve never seen a motherboard with mini fans and these fans are actually keeping my system cooled down, my graphic card is sitting below one of them and it is just under 40 degrees. Amazing. The only downside is it barely fits the NZXT phantom 410 case, but don’t let this discourage you because it will fit but you need to push it in. I recommend this board if you are a first time builder, the board is easy to learn. I advise you to get a case with more space in the middle where you have room to plug you USB 3.0, I’ve struggled with my case but all is well. Loving the motherboard!
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This review is from: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, Intel Z77 Express, ATX, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, Quad GPU AMD CrossfireX, Supports HDMI 1.4a) (Accessory)
I bought the Asus Sabertooth motherboard to go with the intel core i5 3570k, 8GB of Corsair 2200mhz DDR3 memory, Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB and the Coolermaster Hyper Evo cpu cooler, all fitted inside a Coolermaster HAF XM case, powered by a Corsair 850W HX modular PSU. For added va-va-voom I also ordered some red bitfenix ATX connectors and GPU power leads, which contrast well with the black ‘snaggletooth’ design of the motherboard.
My kids and I worked on the install together – I wanted them to see how a modern PC actually fits together from individual components, they had great fun! The two fans that come with the motherboard, and provide extra cooling to the thermal armour are a snug fit – there is no cut-out for the power leads in the mounting slots, so to hide them, you need to jiggle them in a little – but they work fine, giving up to two minutes of additional cooling to the motherboard after the PC has shut down, depending upon your settings.
There is a sticker / paper cover (for some bizarre reason) over the network socket on the rear i/o plate when it comes out of the box – I didn’t realise, and had to take the entire motherboard out again just to get this off – Asus, take note – this is really annoying and unnecessary! The CPU slotted in with no issues, and the RAM as well – note the RAM sockets only have a moving clip at one end. The large CM Hyper Evo cooler fitted onto the motherboard perfectly, and the HAF XM has a great cut-out which is the perfect size to see the retaining clip of this cooler to check all is well. It does clear the RAM, although I have used slots 1 and 3 for this as advised by the manual, and slot 4 looks very tight – I did try the RAM (which has a large red heatsink on top) in slot 4, and it does fit – but it’s very tight / almost touching the fins of the cooler. I could upgrade to 16GB by adding two more sticks of RAM with little effort, even if I erred on the side of caution and bought ones with smaller heatsinks.
The thermal armour covers which go onto un-used PCI-E slots and RAM sockets work well, and add to the overall effect. The internal USB headers have covers as well – a nice touch.
The motherboard comes with stand-offs, and black tray screws which is nice. There are detailed instructions and the manual is excellent. The Asus EFI BIOS is effective, fast and comprehensive, although on first boot it reported a CPU fan error – it wasn’t an error, the 120mm fan spins slowly and the CPU achieves 30 degrees Celsius at idle, so the fan is around 400-500 RPM when first booted. The Asus motherboard management program for windows allows you to adjust the fans manually, but I haven’t bothered – they are whisper quiet anyway, and the temps are excellent in the HAF XM case. You can tell the bios to ignore the slow fan, or reduce the warning levels.
All of the motherboard settings, fans, voltages are adjustable, although I haven’t needed to over clock – my system will play Borderlands 2 at 1920 x 1080 with everything on graphically at 90-120 FPS, so I haven’t needed to over clock as yet – but the options are there perhaps in a year or so when modern games are pushing this tech again.
I have no qualms about recommending this motherboard – it looks great, works brilliantly, as has an outstanding BIOS. Great service from Amazon as well, arrived within 48 hours, exactly when scheduled. This is a king of Z77 motherboards, and if you want great performance with a reasonable degree of future-proofing, you should seriously consider this motherboard.
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This review is from: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 Motherboard (Socket 1155, 32GB DDR3 Support, Intel Z77 Express, ATX, PCI-E 3.0, USB 3.0, Quad GPU AMD CrossfireX, Supports HDMI 1.4a) (Accessory)
This thing looks like it came from the future. It has every option you can imagine and more…
installation of the 2 40mm fans and the board itself into the mobo was easy and fast. i think, this might be my favorite board ive ever owned/installed. Love it, just waiting to get my hands on a i7 3770k and see how far i can OC it with this board, with all the options/settings in the bios, it shouldnt be hard.
The BIOS setting is great to play around with. I’m pretty much a novice myself when it comes to overclocking but it seems that with this board lays it out for you real simple.
It supports IVY Bridge & Sandy Bridge CPUs! Also it seems as though it was designed for the GTX 680 Nvidia GPU.
My Green Corsair Vengeance looks sweeeeet in it too.
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Buy. It. Now.,
I’ve never seen a motherboard with mini fans and these fans are actually keeping my system cooled down, my graphic card is sitting below one of them and it is just under 40 degrees. Amazing. The only downside is it barely fits the NZXT phantom 410 case, but don’t let this discourage you because it will fit but you need to push it in. I recommend this board if you are a first time builder, the board is easy to learn. I advise you to get a case with more space in the middle where you have room to plug you USB 3.0, I’ve struggled with my case but all is well. Loving the motherboard!
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|Sabertooth is the king of Z77 motherboards,
I bought the Asus Sabertooth motherboard to go with the intel core i5 3570k, 8GB of Corsair 2200mhz DDR3 memory, Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB and the Coolermaster Hyper Evo cpu cooler, all fitted inside a Coolermaster HAF XM case, powered by a Corsair 850W HX modular PSU. For added va-va-voom I also ordered some red bitfenix ATX connectors and GPU power leads, which contrast well with the black ‘snaggletooth’ design of the motherboard.
My kids and I worked on the install together – I wanted them to see how a modern PC actually fits together from individual components, they had great fun! The two fans that come with the motherboard, and provide extra cooling to the thermal armour are a snug fit – there is no cut-out for the power leads in the mounting slots, so to hide them, you need to jiggle them in a little – but they work fine, giving up to two minutes of additional cooling to the motherboard after the PC has shut down, depending upon your settings.
There is a sticker / paper cover (for some bizarre reason) over the network socket on the rear i/o plate when it comes out of the box – I didn’t realise, and had to take the entire motherboard out again just to get this off – Asus, take note – this is really annoying and unnecessary! The CPU slotted in with no issues, and the RAM as well – note the RAM sockets only have a moving clip at one end. The large CM Hyper Evo cooler fitted onto the motherboard perfectly, and the HAF XM has a great cut-out which is the perfect size to see the retaining clip of this cooler to check all is well. It does clear the RAM, although I have used slots 1 and 3 for this as advised by the manual, and slot 4 looks very tight – I did try the RAM (which has a large red heatsink on top) in slot 4, and it does fit – but it’s very tight / almost touching the fins of the cooler. I could upgrade to 16GB by adding two more sticks of RAM with little effort, even if I erred on the side of caution and bought ones with smaller heatsinks.
The thermal armour covers which go onto un-used PCI-E slots and RAM sockets work well, and add to the overall effect. The internal USB headers have covers as well – a nice touch.
The motherboard comes with stand-offs, and black tray screws which is nice. There are detailed instructions and the manual is excellent. The Asus EFI BIOS is effective, fast and comprehensive, although on first boot it reported a CPU fan error – it wasn’t an error, the 120mm fan spins slowly and the CPU achieves 30 degrees Celsius at idle, so the fan is around 400-500 RPM when first booted. The Asus motherboard management program for windows allows you to adjust the fans manually, but I haven’t bothered – they are whisper quiet anyway, and the temps are excellent in the HAF XM case. You can tell the bios to ignore the slow fan, or reduce the warning levels.
All of the motherboard settings, fans, voltages are adjustable, although I haven’t needed to over clock – my system will play Borderlands 2 at 1920 x 1080 with everything on graphically at 90-120 FPS, so I haven’t needed to over clock as yet – but the options are there perhaps in a year or so when modern games are pushing this tech again.
I have no qualms about recommending this motherboard – it looks great, works brilliantly, as has an outstanding BIOS. Great service from Amazon as well, arrived within 48 hours, exactly when scheduled. This is a king of Z77 motherboards, and if you want great performance with a reasonable degree of future-proofing, you should seriously consider this motherboard.
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|SABERTOOTH,
This thing looks like it came from the future. It has every option you can imagine and more…
installation of the 2 40mm fans and the board itself into the mobo was easy and fast. i think, this might be my favorite board ive ever owned/installed. Love it, just waiting to get my hands on a i7 3770k and see how far i can OC it with this board, with all the options/settings in the bios, it shouldnt be hard.
The BIOS setting is great to play around with. I’m pretty much a novice myself when it comes to overclocking but it seems that with this board lays it out for you real simple.
It supports IVY Bridge & Sandy Bridge CPUs! Also it seems as though it was designed for the GTX 680 Nvidia GPU.
My Green Corsair Vengeance looks sweeeeet in it too.
Was this review helpful to you?
|