Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1: Packaging and Bundle3. Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1: Board Layout and Features4. Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1: BIOS & Software5. Testing Methodology6. Tests: System-related7. Tests: Processor-related8. Tests: Gaming-related9. Tests: Motherboard-related10. Overclocking: Frequencies11. Overclocking: Performance12. Technical: Power Consumption13. Closing Thoughts14. View All Pages

Intel's Z97 chipset has launched and TUF series motherboards are part of the Asus welcoming party. Sporting the new Intel chipset and old TUF features that have made previous generation Sabertooth boards lucrative components, we put Asus' Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 in the firing line of our critical analysis.

Do Thermal Armor and military-standard component testing have a place in the consumer market?

Since its inception many generations ago (P55, if I remember correctly), Asus has been onto a winner with The Ultimate Force (TUF) series motherboards. A distinctive design straying away from the typical gaming and overclocking products made TUF components desirable parts to users wishing for a unique motherboard.

Longevity is the key philosophy behind the design of TUF series motherboards. Asus tackles the issue of durability in two distinct manners: reliability-certified electronic components and an all-out war on thermal degradation.

The former employs electronic components tested to a number of military-standard certifications by Integrated Service Technology (IST). The latter sees a plastic heat transfer-management cover, known as Thermal Armor, and an upgraded suite of temperature sensors combating heat-induced component degradation.

I see the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard as a ‘hybrid' of sorts – an approaching-workstation level motherboard that also offers potent gaming and general usage features. The target market? Users, perhaps such as myself, who desire stable operation for their demanding, home-accessed academia/employment workloads, but also value gaming features when they are called upon.

Feature-wise, Asus outfits the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 with an array of consumer-orientated components. Dual LAN chips, add-on USB 3.0 and SATA host controllers, support for SLI and CrossFire, Realtek ALC1150-based audio, and a 10Gbps SATA Express connection are some of the board's user-orientated design points.

Backed by a 5-year warranty (in the EU and North America) and retailing at £184.99, can Asus' Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 contend with the heat of battle in our strenuous analysis?

The Z97 Chipset

To consumer audiences, the most important new feature that Z97 brings with it is native support for PCIe 2.0 x2 M.2 storage devices with speeds of up to 1GBps. Other features include enhanced security and updated storage support (based around PCIe SSDs).

Features:

• Thermal Armour.
• TUF Fortifier.
• Thermal Radar 2.
• Dust Defenders.
• 10Gbps SATA Express.
• Intel LAN.
• Realtek ALC1150.

The Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 ships in packaging based around an industrialised theme.

Asus highlights the motherboard's 5-year warranty on the box's front side and references specifications and features on the rear.

The core accessory bundle comprises four SATA cables, the IO shield, an SLI bridge, and Asus' convenient Q-connectors.

With thermal performance and durability being key points behind the design of TUF motherboards, Asus supplies the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 with dust defenders and thermal probes.

Dust defenders are simplistic plastic covers that fit into unused slots to prevent dust built-up. I must admit that significant levels of dust build-up in expansion slots or around headers is not something that I have experienced personally. But I can see the validity of dust defenders to certain users, such as those who live near a road or in a smoking household.

Three thermal probes can be connected to onboard headers to record the temperature of a user-defined location. Inside our NZXT Phantom 630 test chassis, the cable was long to stretch the probe from its header located along the board's bottom edge up to the memory slots and VRM area.

Two fans are included as part of the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard's cooling system. The 35mm unit is powered by a standard 3-pin connection and can be mounted in the ‘northbridge' area to provide airflow below the Thermal Armour.

A mounting position for the 40mm fan is located close to the rear IO ports where it can provide cooling air to the VRM components.

Asus supplies documentation such as manuals and warranty notices with the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. A drivers CD is also provided, as is a large TUF INSIDE stick bearing the series' logo.

Colour-wise, the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 retains the unique blend of camo-style shades that have given the series its distinct appearance. The concoction of shades form a truly ‘hate-it-or-love-it’ colour scheme. One thing is for certain – matching component colours with a TUF series motherboard is not the most straightforward of tasks; any colours other than jet-black are likely to clash.

As has become one of the distinct staple points of Asus TUF series motherboards, Thermal Armor continues to show its face with the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. Thermal Armour is a hotly debated topic; many users suggest that it can offer better cooling performance, while others deem it a waste of time.

There is a key point that acts as validation as to Asus' continuous implementation of the thermal cover on its TUF series motherboards; lower component temperatures help to increase part longevity, be it via blocking thermal radiation from external sources or preventing dust build-up to allow optimal convection cooling.

Taking performance points out of the equation, Thermal Armour manages to create a unique appearance. An additional benefit of Thermal Armour on the TUF series boards is that the potentially-hated colour scheme can be largely hidden in favour of a black cover.

The TUF Fortifier rear plate helps to increase the motherboard’s flexural strength, allowing heavy CPU heatsinks to be mounted with fewer worries. Rear cooling of the MOSFETs is also conducted by the metal TUF Fortifier plate, with assistance from a thermal pad.

It's worth noting that the TUF Fortifier plate increases the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard's thickness by a few millimetres. This will not cause issues for users mounting the board inside a chassis, on stand-offs, but it may prevent cables from being routed behind the motherboard for aesthetic purposes.

Four brown and beige DIMM slots provide support for up 32GB of DDR3 memory. Asus quotes maximum memory speed support for 1866MHz sticks, although further investigation shows the UEFI providing dividers up to 3400MHz. Each memory slot uses Asus' convenient single-latch mechanism.

Asus' handy MemOK button is present on the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1, allowing users to boot the system when their memory speed is causing issues. One 4-pin fan header is found next to the MemOK button, in a convenient location.

Called TUF Engine, the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 uses digital power controllers (Digi+ VRM) and military-certified electronic components. An eight phase power delivery system feeds the LGA 1150 CPU socket. Titanium solid-state 10K capacitors and 40A chokes are used.

Being a TUF motherboard, the electronic components used have been subjected to military-standard testing to validate their stability and reliability. For example, the capacitors are subjected to a barrage of tests, including; a thermal shock test, a moisture resistance test, a vibration test, a mechanical shock test, and more. The MOSFETs and chokes are also put through a number of tests to certify their stability.

At 35-40mm in height, Thermal Armour's VRM covering has the potential to cause interference with large CPU coolers. We managed to mount a be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 and Noctua NH-D15 without interference.

Three desktop fan headers and an 8-pin power connector are located along the motherboard's upper edge. Two 4-pin fan headers operate from the CPU PWM channel, while an additional powered 3-pin header offers convenience for connecting an AIO cooler's pump unit, as we did with our Corsair H100i. A laptop-style header is allocated for Thermal Armour's cooling fan.

A positive side effect of the VRM heatsink's sizeable height is that cables connected to the upper-edge ports are masked and therefore do not create an untidy appearance.

Asus does away with legacy PCI support and utilises an array of PCIe connectors for its Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard. The beige and brown PCIe x16-length slots operate via an LGA 1150 CPU’s sixteen PCIe 3.0 lanes. 2-way CrossFire and SLI is supported via the upper two slots at x8/x8 bandwidth.

Up to four PCIe 2.0 lanes from the Z97 chipset feed the black PCIe x16-length slot which, technically, allows the Sabertooth to support 3-card CrossFire albeit with crippled bandwidth. A positive of using chipset-fed lanes is that a high-bandwidth PCIe interface SSD can be operated from the slot without stealing the CPU's lanes and disabling SLI (which requires full x8/x8 bandwidth).

The slot operates in x1 mode by default because the lowest PCIe x1 connection and two rear panel USB 3.0 ports must be disabled to enable x4 bandwidth.

Slot layout for the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 is what we consider to be perfect for a Z97 motherboard. Two triple-slot cards can be installed simultaneously, or a pair of dual-slot boards can be given a cooling space between them.

The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 relies upon an ASMedia ASM1184e one-lane to four-lane PCIe 2.0 switch to provide enough bandwidth for all of its onboard devices and expansion slots to function simultaneously.

Along the motherboard’s bottom edge sit two add-on SATA 6Gbps connectors (bringing the board’s total to eight) provided by an ASMedia ASM1061 chipset. One of the Sabertooth's two internal USB 3.0 headers lies in the middle of the board's bottom-edge.

Front panel connections are the usual affair; the audio header sits to the left while the front panel chassis connections lie to the right. Three 4-pin fan headers are positioned on the board's bottom edge. Three thermal sensor headers also lie on the bottom edge, making hiding their cables a simple task.

The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) may be welcomed by productivity users who put emphasis upon the security of their system.

Storage interfaces on the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 include six chipset-fed SATA 6Gbps ports, with an additional two (on the board’s bottom edge, as shown above) being provided by an ASMedia controller.

A single 10Gbps SATA Express connection is formed by combining two SATA 6Gbps connectors and an additional data-carrying port. The SATA Express connector uses Asus' SRIS implementation that we discussed HERE.

The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 does not feature an M.2 connector which is disappointing for users waiting to see which path the storage industry takes before purchasing their new SSD. Lack of PCIe lanes is not the reason for M.2's omission; Gigabyte's Z97X-UD5H-BK re-directs lanes from its SATA Express port to the M.2 connector.

Asus mounts the other of the two front panel USB 3.0 headers adjacent to the SATA ports in a right-angled orientation. This is a smart move by Asus that very few boards have done in the past. Hiding the fat front panel USB 3.0 connector is a much easier task when the header is angled by ninety degrees.

Two LAN ports, one provided by an Intel I218-V controller and the other fed by Realtek’s 8111GR chipset, allow users to choose their preference or use both at once. Two of the USB 3.0 connections are provided by a one-lane ASMedia ASM1042AE host controller, while the remaining pair link to the Z97 chipset.

Rear audio connections are powered by a Realtek ALC1150-based solution. Asus’ convenient BIOS flashback button is situated next to ASM1442K-assisted DisplayPort and HDMI connectors. A segment of the rear IO is left empty to provide mounting space for the 40 mm fan to cool the VRM area.

Asus equips the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard with a total of eight fan headers, six of which are 4-pin. The 3-pin header located mid-board is designed for use with the 35 mm fan that can be mounted in Thermal Armor.

Distribution of the fan headers is excellent; an additional 3-pin connector in the CPU area can be used to power an AIO cooler's pump or a rear chassis fan. The 4-pin header located above the 24-pin connector is ideal for roof or front intake fans.

Key to the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1's design are its thermal sensors. Asus deploys additional (compared to ‘standard' consumer alternatives) thermal sensors on its TUF series motherboard to permit for a greater level of monitoring. The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 utilises a total of 12 temperature sensors, 3 of which are provided by user-operable thermistor cables. We outline sensor positioning in the software portion of this review.

Names are embossed into the Thermal Armor and printed onto the IO shield cover for additional bragging rights.

Thermal Armor Features

Preparing the 40 mm VRM fan for installation is as easy as removing its cover and connecting it via two screws. Asus' installation guide outlines the process well, including the relevant installation direction. A dust filter can be mounted to the IO shield to prevent additional dirt entering the VRM heatsink.

I would recommend installing the 40 mm fan before mounting the motherboard into a chassis – the procedure is fiddly and will become frustrating in a confined space.

The 40 mm fan fits tightly below the VRM section of Thermal Armor. Its direction of flow is intended to bring cool air from outside of the chassis and blow it over the power delivery components, transferring their heat away via convection.

As we were quick to identify, dust build-up will rapidly become an issue with a 40 mm bringing air in at a typical speed of 3800rpm. Asus combats the issue of heatsink fouling with a feature call Dust De-Fan. Akin to graphics cards that use a high-speed burst of air to expel dust from their coolers, Dust De-Fan has the potential to minimise the negative effects of dirt build-up.

Dust De-Fan works by reversing the fan's direction of rotation for a user-definable time period (0, 15, 30, or 45 seconds), on start-up. This 6000rpm burst helps to lift dust from the MOSFET heatsink and force it through a vent. After the set period of time, the 40 mm blower reverses its direction, acting as an intake fan to cool the VRM.

A user can set distinct intervals for Dust De-Fan to kick in during Windows usage. The time intervals are: 1, 2, and 4 hours. Alternatively, users can prevent Dust De-Fan from running during system usage.

I was initially skeptical about the effectiveness and logic of the Dust De-Fan implementation, seeing it as potential marketing piece rather than a useful feature. After speaking with engineers from Asus' TUF department and asking them numerous questions for an extended period of time, I can see that Dust De-Fan is in fact a feature that the Asus designers deemed relevant to component longevity, rather than good for marketing.

A cover intended to reduce thermal radiation and convective heat transfer works both ways; Thermal Armor not only reduces the quantity of heat interacting with the board from external components, it also prevents motherboard-produced heat from exiting sources such as the MOSFETs and chokes.

Systems with a down-facing CPU cooler will provide the MOSFETs with incidental airflow, whereas an AIO liquid cooler mounted away from the motherboard may justify the use of a fan for providing airflow to the VRM.

As an additional combatant to the issue of cooling the motherboard’s PCB and electronic components situated beneath Thermal Armor, Asus adds flow vents and a top-down fan mount into the plastic cover’s design. While the 40 mm fan that we have already outlined takes care of VRM cooling, an additional 35 mm fan mounted in the ‘northbridge' location helps to force air beneath Thermal Armour, cooling the motherboard PCB.

Dust defenders are easy to install into expansion slots. We noticed that Asus uses defenders for the memory slots that are 30 mm-tall. We don't understand why Asus would use such large defenders when there is the clear potential for CPU cooler interference. Sub-20 mm pieces would have done an equally good job.

With 35- and 40-mm fans mounted to the board, spinning at over 3700rpm each under an idle state in Windows, there is no denying that Thermal Armour becomes a loud solution. At load speeds of over 5100rpm, the noise is borderline irritating. Using the standard fan speed level, the two small fans were clearly perceivable over the rest of our test system's components at idle.

Thermal Armor Removed

Constructed of a sturdy form of plastic, the Thermal Armour cover can be removed for cleaning purposes or for aesthetic reasons. Removal takes around five minutes and is completed by unfastening 15 screws.

A thermal pad added onto the TUF Fortifier plate helps to remove heat from the MOSFET, thanks to the metallic material's strong conduction performance.

Users are free to open or close the two flow vents situated atop both MOSFET heatsinks, dependent upon their CPU cooling configuration. The above photos show the vents open and closed, using our Nikon lens cap for a perception of clearance.

There is an open vent located directly in the airflow path of the 40 mm VRM cooling fan. The open vent helps to create an induced pressure differential, helping the air blown over the MOSFETs and chokes escape from beneath the plastic insulation that is Thermal Armor.

Despite covering the motherboard with Thermal Armor, Asus still makes a quality touch by building the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 around a fully black PCB. Mark 2 of the Sabertooth Z97 ships without Thermal Armor (presumably with a lower price tag) and will look similar to the above pictures.

A Nuvoton NCT6791D chipset, in tandem with a proprietary TUF ICe controller, takes care of monitoring and fan control duties.

A photograph of the board's rear side shows the discrete pathway that signals deriving from the Realtek ALC1150-based solution travel through. Signals are sent along the discrete pathway, with separated left and right tracks, to avoid interference between each audio channel as well as the rest of the board.

Asus uses heavy duty heatsinks to draw thermal energy away from the MOSFETs and Z97 chipset. My ‘touch test' implies that the heatsinks are constructed of a form of anodised metal.

Firstly, we are pleased to report that our Leetgion Hellion mouse worked to its usual standard in the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard’s UEFI BIOS.

The UEFI implementation Asus uses on its TUF motherboards is largely identical to the interface utilised by its Z97 Series parts. The TUF interface features an edited style which is representative of the rest of the board's theme.

The opening page of Asus' TUF UEFI provides an overview of key parameters such as; CPU temperature, system information and readings, XMP profile, fan speeds, and boot priorities. Despite the amount of information on screen, Asus manages to keep the page uncluttered and easy to interpret.

Pressing F11 to access the EZ Tuning Wizard allows users to rapidly adjust their system's frequency based on their components. Sections allow the usage scenario and CPU cooling to be input, before the system automatically adjusts frequencies based on the results.

The Main page of the Asus UEFI displays system information and relevant settings.

Commonly-accessed parameters can be added to the Favourites section, while notes can be written to the profile, perhaps to assist with overclocking efforts.

AI Tweaker follows the standard layout that we have come to expect from recent Asus motherboards, and that's a good thing. Easy access is provided to ratio, frequency, and voltage settings, allowing users to adjust their system parameters with minimal effort.

An onboard jumper, labelled OV_CPU, must be enabled to permit for increased voltage settings when overclocking.

Additional power and voltage control settings can be utilised to maximise overclocking gains or tweak frequency operations.

DRAM Frequency dividers up to 3400MHz are provided by TUF UEFI. Memory timings can be adjusted in their relevant section.

Unlike many of its competitors, Asus does not deploy the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 with pre-set memory frequency profiles built by its in-house overclocker. We would assume that the custom profiles are reserved for the overclocking-geared ROG motherboards.

Operation of the motherboard components, including SATA Express, can be tweaked under the Advanced section.

Being a TUF series motherboard, the Monitoring section of the UEFI is particularly dense, being filled with multitude of voltage, temperature, and speed readings.

Asus gives the TUF board its usual level of flexibility regarding fan speed tweaking. The Q-Fan Tuning utility gives users a graphical display from which they can adjust speed against temperature settings.

70°C is the highest temperature that can have its fan speed level set. Past 70°C, the fan speed tends towards 100%. Equally so, the minimum fan speed level is capped at 20% at a temperature of 20°C.

Timings for Dust De-Fan and fan overtime (the after-shutdown cooling period) can also be set via the Monitoring page.

Boot options are accessed via the relevant UEFI section.

The Asus TUF UEFI features convenient tools to aid with motherboard operation. EZ Flash 2 allows the BIOS to be updated via USB. Up to eight overclocking profiles can be saved to the board's memory, while more can be imported/exported to/from a USB drive. SPD information is convenient for analysing faulty sticks or memory speeds.

Similar in design and features to Asus ‘ tried-and-tested UEFI, the TUF interface is excellent. Navigation of the sections is easy, plenty of information is supplied in convenient locations, and users are provided with a more-than-appropriate number of performance parameters that can be tweaked.

The grey styling is easy on the eye and, despite a significantly lower resolution than Gigabyte's DualBIOS implementation, Asus manages to fit a sizeable amount of information on screen, without any pixelation effects.

We simply cannot see any points which cause complaints and do not have any recommendations; the interface is that good.

Software

Asus includes a strong array of software tools in its AI Suite 3 package. Thermal Radar 2 and USB 3.0 Boost are the particular highlights.

Thermal Radar 2 is a comprehensive piece of software that gives users freedom to tweak fan speed settings and monitor parameters such as; temperatures, voltages, and power settings.

Nine sensors distributed around the board give temperature readouts of individual components, while a further three probes allow users to monitor parts of their choosing.

A separate section of Thermal Radar 2 can be used to fine-tune parameters relating to the CPU and DRAM operations.

USB 3.0 Boost allows users to operate their connected drive in UASP or Turbo mode. Both modes effectively carry out the same operation and provide considerable increases in USB 3.0 transfer rates, as shown later in the review.

Asus includes a page to display information relating to the motherboard, CPU, and memory SPD. Alerts can be set to warn when a user-defined temperature or voltage threshold is reached. EZ Update allows the software and BIOS to be kept up-to-date with minimal effort.

Since the introduction of the LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge processors, Intel has steadily been relocating many of a system's features onto the CPU itself, and away from the motherboard or chipset.

Haswell is just the latest architecture to see many of the critical system operations handled by the processor. As such, benchmarking a motherboard becomes more of a test to certify that the part operates correctly and meets the anticipated performance levels.

We will be outlining the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard's performance with the Core i7 4770K CPU at its stock frequency (3.9GHz due to forced turbo). Overclocked performance will be outlined later in the review.

Performance of the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard will be compared to that of two other Z97 parts. All motherboards are partnered with identical hardware and software, so the results are directly comparable.

A pop-up window in the Sabertooth's UEFI prompts users to apply multi-core turbo (MCT) when XMP is enabled. We agreed to enabling MCT, forcing our 4770K CPU to a constant 3.9GHz. This will be displayed as the ‘stock’ setting in the charts.

CPU-Z reports Asus as using the common core voltage setting of 1.20V for the 3.9GHz 4770K frequency.

Note: Shortly before this review went to publication, we worked with engineers for one of the motherboard vendors and discovered that the latest version of CPU-Z currently has issues reading real-time voltages with the Intel processor’s default power saving modes enabled. As such, we would recommend using the motherboard’s specific software. We will update our testing and monitoring procedures accordingly in future reviews.

Although the Z97 chipset does not natively support the SATA Express interface, the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard provides a 10Gbps connection by re-routing PCIe lanes from the chipset. We use an engineering sample of the Asus Hyper Express SSD to test the SATA Express connector's speed.

Z97 Motherboard Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K Retail (3.9GHz forced turbo).
• Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro 2400MHz CL10.
• Graphics Card: Asus R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3GB.
• System Drive: 240GB SanDisk Extreme II SSD.
• CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i.
• Case: NZXT Phantom 630.
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 1000W.
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional with SP1 64-bit.

Compared Z97 Motherboards:

• Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition (BIOS F1).
• MSI Z97 Gaming 5 (BIOS v1.1B1).

Software:

• Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 BIOS v0602 (latest).
• Catalyst 14.4 VGA drivers.
• Intel 10.0 chipset drivers.

Tests:

• 3DMark 1.1.0 – Fire Strike (System)
• SiSoft Sandra 2014 SP2 – Processor arithmetic, memory bandwidth (System)
• Cinebench R15 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU)
• WinRAR 5.01 – Built-in benchmark (CPU)
• HandBrake 0.9.9 – Convert 4.36GB 720P MKV to MP4 (CPU)
• ATTO – SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, SATA Express transfer rates (Motherboard)
• RightMark Audio Analyzer – General audio performance test (Motherboard)
• Bioshock Infinite – 1920 x 1080, ultra quality (Gaming)
• Metro: Last Light – 1920 x 1080, high quality (Gaming)
• Tomb Raider – 1920 x 1080, ultimate quality (Gaming)

3DMark

We used 3DMark‘s ‘Fire Strike’ benchmark which is designed to be used on gaming PCs. We opted for the Normal setting, NOT the Extreme mode.

Sandra Processor Arithmetic

Sandra Memory Bandwidth

Performance of Asus' Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 is where we would expect it to be for system-related benchmarks. Sandra's Processor Arithmetic test and 3DMark sit the Asus board in middle-place in our charts.

Memory bandwidth performance of the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 is a particular strength. We have observed better-than-average memory bandwidth performance from Asus LGA 1150 boards many times in the past. The 2-5% performance boost could be related to Asus' T-topology implementation for the DIMM slots.

Cinebench

We used the ‘CPU’ test built into Cinebench R15.

WinRAR

WinRAR’s built in benchmark and hardware test can help us outline the performance differentials between each motherboard. We record the amount of data processed after a 30-second run.

Handbrake Conversion

We measured the average frame rate achieved for a task of converting a 4.36GB 720P MKV movie to 720P MP4 format.

CPU-related performance numbers set out by the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 do not highlight any worrying issues. The Asus board gains a few points over its competitors in Cinebench, while Handbrake sees it drop three FPS (1.2%) from the pace set by Gigabyte and MSI.

Bioshock Infinite

We used the Bioshock Infinite demanding ‘Ultra’ setting and a 1920 x 1080 resolution to push today’s gaming hardware. Our data was recorded using a section of the game, not the built-in benchmark.

Metro: Last Light

We used a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the Metro: Last Light built-in benchmark set to ‘High’ quality to offer an intense challenge for the gaming hardware while also making playable frame rates a possibility.

Tomb Raider

We used a 1920 x 1080 resolution and the Tomb Raider built-in benchmark set to ‘Ultimate’ quality.

The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 does not limit gaming performance of a system. Asus' reliability-driven board manages to offer the same frame rates as MSI's gaming-orientated Z97 competitor.

SATA

For SATA 6Gb/s testing we use a Kingston HyperX 3K (SandForce SF-2281) SSD.

Z97 SATA performance on the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 is limitless for a modern SATA 6Gbps SSD. The pair of ports provided by ASMedia's ASM1061 chipset are significantly slower than the Z97 connections, although they're also considerably faster than Gigabyte's Marvell choices.

The ASMedia ports will be fine for operating older SSDs that aren't as fast as current devices, or mechanical storage drives when the Z97 connections are used up.

SATA Express

We use an engineering sample of the Asus Hyper Express SSD to test the SATA Express connector's speed.

Using a 2GB transfer length to allow the Asus Hyper Express to flex its muscles, the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 delivers strong throughput numbers over its 10Gbps SATA Express connection with SRIS.

We don't have comparison data collected from the same test platform, although the numbers from our recent SATA Express article can be used as a basic reference. We will build up our database of SATA Express performance as we review more Z97 motherboards.

USB 3.0

We tested USB 3.0 performance using the Kingston HyperX 3K SSD connected to a SATA 6Gb/s to USB 3.0 adapter powered by an ASMedia ASM1053 controller.

USB 3.0 performance is where Asus' board really shines. Being the only vendor in today's chart to offer a UASP-activating software tool for our Windows 7-based test system, the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 tops the USB 3.0 speed chart by a considerable margin.

Another positive is the strong performance of USB 3.0 connections running from the ASMedia ASM1042AE host controller. Even Asus' ‘secondary' USB 3.0 connections are faster than the offerings from MSI and Gigabyte, who both lack a Windows 7 UASP tool.

Audio

We use RightMark Audio Analyzer (RMMA) to analyse the performance of the motherboard’s onboard audio solution. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested.

The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 uses a Realtek ALC1150-based audio system. Signals are sent along the discrete pathway, with separated left and right tracks, to avoid interference between each audio channel as well as the rest of the board.

Strong audio performance is displayed by the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. The magnitude of the noise level rating, at 103.2 db(A), is particularly impressive. Strong crosstalk performance is likely to be a by-product of the separated audio tracks for either channel.

Automatic CPU Overclocking – Ratio First:

We are testing out the conventional automatic overclocking profiles to see how Asus has tuned the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. The EZ Tuning Wizard will be examined in our upcoming review of the Asus Z97-A where it serves more relevance to that board's target audience.

Opting for the ‘Ratio First’ automatic overclocking mode allows the motherboard to adjust CPU ratio settings while keeping the BCLK frequency locked. With our system, this resulted in a dynamic overclock for our 4770K with a slight boost in voltage.

The base multiplier was set at 41x but, dependent upon the number of cores being utilised, a CPU ratio of up to 43x was available. A slight increase in VCore, boosting it up to the 1.21V-mark, was applied during loading to increase stability. Memory parameters remained unchanged with our sticks operating at their standard XMP settings.

Automatic CPU Overclocking – BCLK First:

As the name would suggest, the ‘BCLK First’ overclocking profile adjusts the BCLK frequency to increase the CPU speed. Our system utilised the 1.25x CPU BCLK strap to provide a 125MHz base frequency.

Using a static CPU multiplier of 34x, our 4770K processor was operating at 4.25GHz. Memory frequency was dropped to 2000MHz which was slightly frustrating considering that we are using high-spec 2400MHz sticks. Impressively, CPU VCore was kept at the multi-core turbo level of 1.2V, despite the 350MHz frequency boost.

Manual CPU Overclocking:

To test the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard’s CPU overclocking potential, we first increased the CPU VCore to 1.325V, Cache voltage to 1.275V, and CPU Input Voltage to 1.900V. The CPU Cache ratio was maintained at 39x and LLC was set to ‘Auto’.

Thanks to Asus’ excellent and easy to use UEFI interface, applying a manual overclock was as simple as changing the CPU ratio and adjusting the relevant voltages.

For an all-core overclock, the ‘Sync all cores’ option should be selected. The ‘Per core’ option can be used to adjust the frequency that each core will boost to when a different workload is applied.

The Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 had no problems taking our chip to its limit of stability – 4.5GHz.

We pushed for stability at 4.6GHz, but as has been the case for every other LGA 1150 motherboard that we have tested with our 4770K, a BSOD would quickly ruin our attempts.

We cannot comment on voltage accuracy because, as we have already pointed out, subsequent to testing this motherboard we recognised reading issues using CPU-Z with some boards. Our future reviews will update the recording procedures accordingly to analyse voltage accuracy of the motherboard’s power delivery system.

We will outline the performance increases that can be obtained from using the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard to overclock our system. Our overclocked processor frequency was 4.5GHz and memory speed was 2400MHz.

As a performance comparison, we have included the overclocked results from two other Z97 motherboards. The maximum overclocked configuration achieved with each board was a 4500MHz (45 x 100MHz) processor frequency and 2400MHz CL10 memory speed.

Overclocked performance numbers show that the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 will not act as a limitation to a frequency-boosted system.

We measured the power consumption with the system resting at the Windows 7 desktop, representing idle values.

The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is measured while loading only the CPU using Prime95′s in-place large FFTs setting. The rest of the system’s components were operating in their idle states, hence the increased power consumption values (in comparison to the idle figures) are largely related to the load on the CPU and motherboard power delivery components.

Representative of its large number of add-on controllers, idle power consumption of Asus' Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard is higher than the options it is plotted against. Load power consumption is in the same region as the other Z97-based systems.

Analysing the jump from idle power consumption to load would also suggest that Asus is using a comparatively high average CPU voltage during idle conditions. Unfortunately that is not a claim that we can certify due to the aforementioned CPU-Z reading issues – treat it as an interpretation of data to suggest possible occurrences.

The Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 takes points that made previous iterations of TUF motherboards appealing components and continues to offer them with its updated chipset. Features are supplied in bulk, electronic components have undergone military-standard certification, and hardware has been implemented to lessen the effect of thermal degradation.

Performance is where we would expect it to be for a Z97 motherboard. The same can said for chip-limited overclocking results.

Numbers output by the storage interfaces were positive; ASMedia's ASM1061 controller and the SATA Express port deliver strong results, as do the chipset-fed USB 3.0 ports with Asus' UASP-activating software. ASM1042AE-powered USB 3.0 ports aren't as fast as their chipset alternatives, although they still provide rapid transfer rates.

Thermal Armor is a tricky component to analyse. Many users value its aesthetic appeal, while others argue that it looks ugly and doesn't do its marketed job. We can safely say that Thermal Armor did not effect the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1's performance throughout testing, so justification of its purchase could well be made on aesthetic grounds.

Dust defenders seem a bit ‘gimmicky' unless you are a user who lives in a particularly dusty environment or somebody that only cleans their components after very lengthy time periods. TUF Fortifier and Thermal Radar 2 are useful aspects of the Sabertooth board's design.

A downside of the Thermal Armor design is its two fans. Although not critical to stable operation, the 35- and 40-mm fans are audible under idle operation and borderline irritating under high loads. I would be inclined to use just one unit, or none at all.

Layout decisions made by Asus are excellent. Features such as LAN chips from Intel and Realtek, SATA Express, and the ALC1150-based audio can help to boost the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1's appeal to all-round users.

Unfortunately, one of the key features of the Z97 chipset, its M.2 connector, is not present on the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. The inclusion of SATA Express forces users into making a choice on their next SSD purchase, rather than allowing them to opt for the more prevalent interface, which is yet to be concluded.

Asus' UEFI continues to improve over time. The ease-of-use and depth of information provided by TUF UEFI interface is excellent. It is by far one of the best UEFI implementations on the market.

Aesthetics are always a subjective manner with PC components, but that is especially true for TUF boards. While the colour scheme may appeal to some, matching hardware with the brown and beige shades is an undoubtedly tricky task.

Priced at £184.99 and backed by a 5-year warranty, the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 motherboard is an excellent choice for users who desire certified reliability (and the warranty to back it up) but do not want to sacrifice features. Gigabyte's Z97X-UD5H-BK Black Edition motherboard is a competitive option that tackles a similar task from a slightly different perspective, but the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 has plenty of features which make it a compelling product and one that is undeniably deserving of our highest award.

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Pros:

• Unique design with many innovative features.
• Reliability-certified electronic components.
• Plenty of features – Dual LAN, two USB 3.0 headers, ALC1150-based audio, SATA Express.
• TUF Fortifier gives peace of mind with heavy CPU coolers.
• Thermal Radar 2 monitoring software is good.
• Excellent UEFI implementation.

Cons:

• 35 and 40 mm fans are loud at standard speeds.
• No M.2 connector.

KitGuru says: Impressive features, a unique appearance, and five years of warranty, the Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 is an excellent choice for enthusiasts who value reliability.

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