ForewordIn connection with the transition to a new operating system Microsoft Windows 8.1 and a slight change in the configuration of the test bench, we have already started the second series of reviews of motherboards based on the Intel Z87 logic and designed for LGA1150 processors. List of tested models has already exceeded a dozen and we can say that we managed to get acquainted with the bulk of the most interesting boards. Of course, it is unrealistic to test absolutely all boards, if only because the manufacturers are systematically expanding the range and regularly announce new models. In addition, a number of boards that are quite attractive from different points of view have not yet fallen into the sphere of our interests. For example, from ASUSTeK motherboards designed for gamers and overclockers, which belong to the ROG (The Republic of Gamers) series, we tested only one model, but there are five varieties of such LGA1150 motherboards, and a series of high-reliability motherboards with an extended warranty period "TUF" (The Ultimate Force) generally remained outside of our attention.
In fact, it was the traditionally armored model Asus Sabertooth Z87 that we were going to study in the next review, but then we thought about it and changed our plans. The fact is that first of all we usually test full-size ATX form-factor boards or even large-sized E-ATX models, meanwhile, microATX format boards are gradually becoming more and more attractive. Their width is the same as that of ATX boards (although it may be less), and the length is shorter and equal to the width, they are usually square with sides of 244 mm. The difference in length is reflected in the number of expansion card slots, which can only be four, and not seven, as on ATX boards. It may seem that microATX boards differ from full-sized boards only in a shorter length and because of this, a smaller number of connectors, but this is not entirely true. Modern computers rarely include more than two expansion cards, four slots would be sufficient in most cases. Not because of this enthusiasts dislike microATX models, but because they are inconvenient for assembly and modification.
The optimal places for placing elements on boards have long been known. Most manufacturers follow the principles worked out over the years, and ATX boards with an unsuccessful design have almost ceased to be encountered. The main rule when creating an ATX board is to place all the necessary features in the most convenient way. For a microATX board, this rule sounds similar, but the essence is fundamentally different - you need to somehow place the necessary elements in a limited area. As a result, you have to suffer with microATX boards, where the video card slot is so close to the processor socket that it is impossible to install a large cooling system. Where it is difficult to change or add memory modules, because the latches cannot be opened, because they rest against the video card. Where a large expansion card covers the SATA ports, the power connector sticks out from somewhere in the middle of the board, and you can’t even remember about the optimal location and a sufficient number of other elements, such as fan connectors. The reduced size of the board does not greatly affect the size of the system unit, so the enthusiast, without losing anything, switched to ATX boards and for a long time forgot about slightly more compact and inexpensive, but very inconvenient microATX models.
However, all this was in the past, but now the situation is changing. Modern chipsets include all the necessary basic features and support current interfaces, so there is no need to use a large number of additional controllers to create a board. Even if additional chips are required, production rates have decreased and network controller or audio codec chips have become much more compact than before. Large IDE, FDD and LPT connectors have disappeared from the boards, modern SATA and USB occupy a smaller area, which also saves space. It is quite possible that we have been held captive by outdated delusions for too long. By choosing ATX motherboards, we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to purchase a microATX model of equal capabilities, only a little cheaper. In this regard, we decided to make a short digression and, as part of the second series of reviews, examine several microATX boards different manufacturers. Keeping in mind the need to look at the TUF series board, we thought that the Asus Gryphon Z87 motherboard would be a good starter model.
Packaging and equipment
Box design with motherboard The Asus Gryphon Z87 is somewhat different from the usual ASUSTeK models, but the principles remain the same. On the front side we see the name of the board and logos, among which stands out an emblem reminiscent of a five-year warranty period. On the reverse side you can find an image of the board and its rear connector panel, short list specifications and information about some features.The list of included accessories is unusually long for such a small board. It includes:
four Serial ATA cables with metal latches, half with straight, half with L-shaped connectors, all cables are specially designed for connecting SATA 6 Gb / s devices (they differ in white inserts on the connectors);
flexible bridge for connecting two video cards in SLI mode;
rear panel cover (I/O Shield);
a set of adapters "Asus Q-Connector", which includes modules to simplify the connection of buttons and indicators on the front panel of the system unit, as well as a USB 2.0 connector;
user's manual;
a poster with brief assembly instructions;
certificate of reliability indicating the methods of testing components;
notice of a five-year warranty period;
DVD with software and drivers;
"Powered by ASUS" sticker and "TUF INSIDE" decal for the system unit.
Design and features
Description basic capabilities The motherboards we test often look similar, almost exactly the same, which is no surprise since they are all based on the Intel Z87 chipset. And now we can say that the Asus Gryphon Z87 board supports all modern models of LGA1150 processors. In this she is helped by a digital nutrition system that works according to the 8 +2 formula, created on the basis of high-quality elements. However, already at this moment you can find differences, because the element base, undergoing intensive testing, is approximately the same as in products intended for the needs of the army or for creating servers, allows ASUSTeK to provide a five-year warranty period for TUF series boards. Four DDR3 memory slots can accommodate maximum volume 32 GB, like on other models, but 1866 MHz is indicated as the maximum, and not the usual 2933 or even 3000+ MHz. However, do not be afraid of this limitation. Board BIOS allows you to set any available coefficients for setting the memory frequency, so that our modules worked on the board at a frequency of 2133 MHz no worse and no slower than on other models.
Six SATA 6 Gb / s ports are enough for a small board, it successfully dispenses with additional storage controllers, like many other models of this form factor, but the set of connectors for expansion cards is again non-standard. Since the Intel Z87 logic set allows the division of processor lines PCI Express, it would be quite expected to see two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, although many models manage with just one. However, the Asus Gryphon Z87 board has three PCI Express x16 slots at once, and support for AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX or NVIDIA Quad-GPU SLI video card collaboration technologies is implemented. The first two slots belong to the third generation of this interface and can share PCI-E 3.0 processor lanes (1x16 or 2x8). The third is based on the second generation chipset lines and provides x4 maximum speed. In addition, the board is equipped with one PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot, but there was no place for the usual PCI slot.
Rejection of outdated interfaces is a conscious decision typical for many motherboards from ASUSTeK. In Asus Gryphon Z87 you will not find a serial COM port, you will not find PS / 2 connectors for a keyboard or mouse on the rear panel, and there is even no analog D-Sub video output. In general, the back panel of connectors does not inspire, there is too much left unused free space, however, the basic set of required interfaces is present:
four USB port 2.0, and four more can be connected to two internal connectors on the board;
DVI-D and HDMI video connectors;
four USB 3.0 ports (blue connectors) appeared thanks to the capabilities of the Intel Z87 logic set, and two additional USB 3.0 ports can be output using one internal connector;
connector local network (network adapter built on the gigabit controller Intel WGI217V);
optical S / PDIF, as well as six analog audio connectors, which are provided by the eight-channel Realtek ALC892 codec.
By the way, we completely forgot about one characteristic feature of motherboards that belong to the TUF line. The Asus Gryphon Z87 model belongs to this series only by logos and characteristic camouflage coloring, but where is the famous armor? It is, but now it is not installed initially, it can be purchased separately if desired. The Gryphon Armor Kit includes panels for both sides of the motherboard, a screwdriver and necessary hardware, dust caps, and a small 35mm fan. So our claims are not entirely fair, the free space above the DVI-D video output is left on purpose, even in the cover of the rear panel connectors there are holes for air exchange in this place, since this optional fan is planned to be placed behind.
We have often seen plugs that protect infrequently used connectors from clogging with dust. Modern motherboards are almost always equipped with video outputs on the rear panel, but many of them are focused on the use of discrete graphics cards. Therefore, some manufacturers began to install protective caps and plugs for video outputs, and some models are supplied with several inserts to protect USB connectors. In addition to the listed plugs, the set of boards of the TUF series includes Dust Defenders brackets for unoccupied slots of expansion cards and memory modules, but plugs for audio connectors were encountered for the first time. Very cute.
We just have to look at the board layout to evaluate the convenience of its design and pay attention to Additional features. For example, for small microATX boards, only three fan headers are usually considered sufficient, but the Asus Gryphon Z87 model has an unprecedented number of fan headers. There are seven connectors in total, two of them are processor, and the only three-pin is for a small additional fan. Of the buttons, the first one should be mentioned "USB BIOS Flashback", which will help you update the firmware without a complete system assembly, it is enough to supply power to the board. In addition to it, there is a “MemOK!” Button, which makes it possible to successfully start even if there are problems with RAM, and a “DirectKey” button, which allows you to enter the BIOS without additional actions.
It is worth noting the Q-Design technology complex, which simplifies the assembly and operation of a system based on ASUSTeK motherboards. The Asus Gryphon Z87 board is equipped with almost all the features included in this complex, with the exception of the POST code indicator, however, the Q-LEDs (CPU, DRAM, VGA, boot device LED), with their help, the diagnosis is less accurate, but it is much easier and faster. "Q-Slot" are convenient wide latches on the slots for video cards, and "Q-DIMM" are one-sided latches for slots for memory modules, they are most appropriate on a small board, as they allow you to replace or add modules without having to remove the installed video card . Q-Shield” is a plug for the rear panel (I/O Shield), but instead of the extruded tabs that tend to get inside the connectors during installation, there is a soft electrically conductive gasket on its reverse side. "Q-Connector" is a set of adapters that includes modules to simplify the connection of buttons and indicators on the front panel of the system unit and one internal USB 2.0 connector.
All major specifications We compiled the Asus Gryphon Z87 motherboard into a single table, and by clicking on it, you can open a summary comparison table with the specifications of all previously tested LGA1150-board models:
ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional;
ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ;
ASRock Z87 Extreme6/ac ;
Asus Maximus VI Hero ;
Asus Z87-Deluxe;
Asus Z87-K
Asus Z87 Pro ;
Gigabyte G1 Sniper 5 ;
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H;
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC;
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD4H;
Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H;
Intel DZ87KLT-75K;
MSI Z87-G43 ;
MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING ;
MSI Z87 MPOWER.
BIOS Features
In previous reviews, we have repeatedly considered the BIOS capabilities of LGA1150 boards from ASUSTeK in sufficient detail. This time we have a small board, but its BIOS is almost exactly the same, only its color scheme is different, so we will just skim through the sections and refresh the main features in memory. As before, by default, when entering the BIOS, we are greeted by a simplified “EZ Mode”. It allows you to find out the basic characteristics of the system, select an economical or productive mode of operation, and set the polling order. boot devices by simply dragging them with the mouse. In addition to the ability to set the correct time and date, as well as select the mode of operation of the fans, you can apply the X.M.P. profiles. for memory modules and see information about connected drives. The "F7" key is used to switch from "EZ Mode" to "Advanced Mode", or you can use the "F3" key, which allows you to quickly move to one of the most commonly used BIOS sections.
You can switch from “EZ Mode” to “Advanced Mode” every time you enter the BIOS, you can use the F3 key, which, by the way, works in all other sections of the BIOS, but it will be much more convenient if you make “Advanced Mode” start in settings. In this case, the familiar “Main” section will appear first before our eyes. It provides basic information about the system, allows you to set the current date and time, it is possible to change the BIOS interface language, including Russian. In the "Security" subsection, you can set user and administrator access passwords. However, the "Main" section is no longer the first in the list, before it appeared new section"My Favorites". It is designed to collect in one place all the parameters you use most often. Initially, the section is empty and contains only reference information on how to add or remove options using the mouse or keyboard. It must be said that there are a number of prohibitions for selecting parameters, and they apply not only to entire sections or subsections, but even to individual parameters that contain submenus. The list of options displayed by pressing the F3 key has been removed from such annoying restrictions, which can now also be edited, deleting unnecessary items and adding necessary items. So maximum flexibility can only be obtained from sharing section "My Favorites" and a menu with the most common links, which is not at all as convenient as it could be in the absence of restrictions. In addition, the "My Favorites" section turned out to be on the sidelines, it cannot be selected as a start one, just like any other section, so this is also a drawback.
The bulk of the options necessary for overclocking are concentrated in the "Ai Tweaker" section. It used to be rather big, but it has become even larger, since the number of information parameters at the beginning has increased, multipliers have been added to change the cache memory frequency in the middle, and voltage control parameters have been added closer to the end of the section. Moreover, initially you see a far from complete list of parameters, since all of them are set automatically by the board, but as soon as you proceed to manual configuration, a lot of previously hidden options immediately appear.
For example, if you just change the value of the “Ai Overclock Tuner” parameter to “X.M.P.” to automatically change the parameters of the memory subsystem, or to “Manual”, then options will immediately appear for changing the base frequency and for controlling processor multipliers. Voltages can be set both above and below the nominal value, the current values are indicated next to the parameters that change them, which is very convenient. When changing the voltage on the processor, you can now choose between three different options. It can be rigidly fixed at a certain value, you can only add or remove the required value in the "Offset" mode, or you can use the adaptive (interpolation) option. We already talked about the differences between the three ways to change the voltage on the processor in the review of the Asus Z87-K board.
Some of the parameters are traditionally placed in subsections so as not to clutter up the main one too much. Changes to memory timings are made on a separate page, their number is very large, but it is quite convenient to use the capabilities of this subsection. Using the scrollbar, it's easy to see all the timings set by the board for two memory channels. You can change only a few of them, for example, only the main ones, leaving the default values \u200b\u200bfor the rest.
It is impossible not to notice the large number of options related mainly to power and energy consumption, which have appeared thanks to the DIGI + digital power system. Directly in the BIOS, you can control proprietary energy-saving technologies that allow you to change the number of active phases of the processor's power supply depending on the level of its load. The “CPU Load-Line Calibration” technology for counteracting the voltage drop on the processor under load can not only be turned on or off, but also the degree of counteraction can be dosed.
ASUSTeK boards have the advantage of numerous options in the "CPU Power Management" subsection. In addition to the usual parameters available for boards from other manufacturers that allow you to increase the allowable limits for processor consumption, a number of additional options will give the opportunity to speed up the reaction time and reduce power consumption at rest.
This completes the capabilities of the "Ai Tweaker" section, meanwhile, we have not yet found a whole group of very important options that control processor power-saving technologies. This is a characteristic shortcoming not only of ASUSTeK boards, but also of most boards from other manufacturers. The root of the problem lies in the AMI BIOS, which is the basis of the UEFI BIOS of modern boards and in its irrational basic layout.
The possibilities of the subsections of the “Advanced” section are generally well known to us and understandable by their names. They allow you to configure the operation of a set of logic and additional controllers, various interfaces, enable specific technologies such as Intel Rapid Start and Intel Smart Connect.
In the "CPU Configuration" subsection, we learn basic information about the processor and manage some processor technologies, for example, virtualization technology. However, we still don't see any options related to processor power savings. Intel technologies, since they are placed on a separate page "CPU Power Management Configuration". In fact, initially only the first three parameters are visible on the screen, since the "CPU C States" option is set to "Auto", and all subsequent parameters are hidden. We specifically changed the value of the "CPU C States" option to "Enabled" in order to demonstrate a large number of previously hidden parameters available for change. They have a very significant impact on system power consumption at rest, so it's best to set them manually rather than leave them up to the board.
The "Monitor" section reports the current temperatures, voltages and fan speeds. For all fans, you can select preset modes for adjusting the number of revolutions from standard set: "Standard", "Silent" or "Turbo", leave the rotation at full speed, or select the appropriate parameters in manual mode.
A characteristic shortcoming of many modern motherboards was the lost ability to control the rotation speed of three-pin CPU fans, but now this feature has finally returned to ASUSTeK motherboards.
Next is the "Boot" section, where we select the parameters that will be applied when the system starts. Here, by the way, you need to change the starting mode "EZ Mode" to "Advanced Mode". At the same time, you can disable the “Fast Boot” option for the duration of the setup so as not to encounter problems when entering the BIOS due to the fact that the board starts up very quickly and you simply do not have time to press the key in time. The next "Tools" section contains a couple of extremely important and regularly used subsections and one almost useless one. The built-in utility for updating firmware "Asus EZ Flash 2" is one of the most convenient and functional programs of its kind. One of the advantages is support for reading from partitions formatted in the NTFS system. So far, only boards from ASUSTeK and Intel have such a feature. Unfortunately, the ability to save current version The firmware before the update was generally eliminated. The Asus Overclocking Profile subsection allows you to save and quickly load eight complete BIOS settings profiles. Each profile can be given a short name to remind you of its content. Profiles can be exchanged by storing them on external media. The downside is that the error has not yet been fixed, according to which the disabling of the output of the start image is not remembered in the profiles.
In addition, in the "Tools" section there is a subsection "Asus SPD Information", in which you can get acquainted with the information wired into the SPD of memory modules, including XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) profiles. However, the place for this subsection was chosen unsuccessfully, because memory delays change in a completely different subsection, it is very far from here and it is inconvenient to use the information provided.
In the center of the right side of the screen, above the constantly reminded list of "hot keys", two buttons are visible - "Quick Note" and "Last Modified".
The first allows you to write down and leave yourself some important reminder, and the second displays a list of the latest changes made, it is saved even when you reboot or turn off the system. You can always look at and remember what changes were made to the BIOS settings last time, and now you don’t even have to enter the BIOS for this, since the “Save to USB” button allows you to save the list of changes to external media.
Extremely handy is the "Last Modified" BIOS Setting Change popup, which automatically shows you a list of changes each time you save your settings. Looking at the list, you can easily check the correctness of the set values before applying the changes, make sure that there are no erroneous or forgotten options. In addition, with the help of this window it is easy to find out the differences between the current settings and the values recorded in the BIOS profiles. Having loaded the profile, you will instantly see absolutely all its differences from the previously set parameters in the “BIOS Setting Change” window that appears.
Summing up, we can say that the capabilities of the Asus EFI BIOS were very good before, and therefore there was no need for deep processing, only a certain correction was required to eliminate the shortcomings. It was carried out and in the new BIOS modification you can find many changes for the better. Some are not too significant, such as a slight increase in functionality to that almost completely useless "EZ Mode". Others are more important, including the new "My Favorites" section, the ability to leave notes and edit the list of most frequently used BIOS sections, which can be displayed at any time by pressing the "F3" key. The "Last Modified" list of recent changes made comes in handy, and the "BIOS Setting Change" pop-up window with a list of the current changes that will be applied has proved extremely useful. We are glad that the ability to regulate three-pin CPU fans has returned, although in this case, instead of the proverb “Better late than never”, it is more correct to use another one - “A good spoon for dinner”.
At the same time, a bug has not yet been fixed, due to which the disabling of the display of the start image is not remembered in profiles. The parameters of the "CPU Power Management Configuration" page, which play a very important role in the system's energy saving, have not yet been included in the "Ai Tweaker" section, they are too inconvenient to reach. Widespread use of the "My Favorites" section is hampered by serious restrictions on adding parameters and the impossibility of choosing it as a starting one, as well as any other section. The "EPU Power Saving Mode" parameter, which includes proprietary energy-saving technologies, has lost its customization flexibility. Previously, you could choose the most appropriate level of savings yourself, but now you can only turn it on or off.
Test system configuration
All experiments were carried out on a test system including the following set of components:
Motherboard - Asus Gryphon Z87 rev. 1.03 (LGA1150, Intel Z87, BIOS version 1603);
Processor - Intel Core i5-4670K (3.6-3.8 GHz, 4 cores, Haswell, 22 nm, 84 W, LGA1150);
Memory — 4 x 8GB DDR3 SDRAM G.SKILL TridentX F3-2133C9Q-32GTX, (2133MHz, 9-11-11-31-2N, 1.6V supply voltage);
Video card - Gigabyte GV-R797OC-3GD ( AMD Radeon HD 7970, Tahiti, 28 nm, 1000/5500 MHz, 384-bit GDDR5 3072 MB);
Disk subsystem - Crucial m4 SSD (CT256M4SSD2, 256 GB, SATA 6 Gb/s);
Cooling system - Scythe Mugen 3 Revision B (SCMG-3100);
Thermal Grease - ARCTIC MX-2 ;
Power supply - Enhance EPS-1280GA, 800 W;
The hull is an open test bed based on the Antec Skeleton hull.
The operating system was Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64 bit (Microsoft Windows, Version 6.3, Build 9600), Chipset Driver Kit Intel Chipset Device Software 9.4.0.1027, video card driver - AMD Catalyst 13.9.
Nuances of work in nominal mode
Initially, we had some concerns about assembling a test system based on the Asus Gryphon Z87 microATX board. The Scythe Mugen 3 cooling system we use is not a giant, but still quite large, it is a tower cooler for a 120mm fan. I did not want to change it in order to preserve the possibility of comparison with the previously tested full-size ATX boards. Fortunately, the assembly did not cause any problems at all, the system successfully turned on and started working. Using the built-in utility, the BIOS firmware was updated to the latest version at the time of checking the version, but then I had to face a series of errors and shortcomings, traditional for ASUSTeK motherboards.At startup, ASUSTeK boards show a boot picture, which suggests that you can enter the BIOS by pressing the "Del" or "F2" keys. However, these are standard features that do not require reminders, and the rest of the keys, individual for different manufacturers, are traditionally forgotten. For example, Asus boards use the "F8" key to display a menu that allows you to select a startup device for out-of-order boot. There is information about this in the manual, but a hint would be most appropriate and would be very useful at the start of the board, but for some reason it is still not there.
The output of the boot image can be permanently disabled using the appropriate setting in the BIOS or temporarily, only for the current start using the “Tab” key, but we will not wait for the prompts to appear, but we will see another characteristic drawback. As the board goes through the startup procedure, the board will display a lot of useful information about the model name, BIOS version, processor name, memory size and frequency, number and type of USB devices, as well as a list of connected drives. However, it is impossible to find out the real frequency of the processor, the board reports only the nominal one. In fact, its frequency will be higher not only during overclocking, but even during normal operation, since under load it will be increased by Intel Turbo Boost technology. This shortcoming is all the more annoying, since we know that ASUSTeK motherboards, which belong to the ROG series, can correctly determine not only the nominal, but also the real frequency of the processor.
We know the advantages of ASUSTeK motherboards, there are a lot of them, they belong to the most different areas, most of them are serious and significant. Familiar and shortcomings, some can be corrected, the rest you just have to put up with and try not to notice. Among the shortcomings there are no critical ones, which in principle would not allow using the boards for their intended purpose, but the number of minuses is also very large, and this significantly poisons the pleasure of working with the boards. To make it clearer, let's try to list the steps that must be taken to ensure the effective operation of the board in the nominal mode.
After entering the BIOS, we load the default settings, set the correct time and date, and determine the start order of the drives. You may need to customize the operation of expansion card slots, enable specific technologies, or otherwise change settings. it standard procedures, from which the use of any board begins, so we will not take them into account, but when we enter the BIOS of the ASUSTeK board, we find ourselves in the “EZ Mode”, so first we need to switch to the “Advanced Mode” mode - this is one, but at the same time immediately make it start in the "Boot" section - these are two. In the same place, you should disable the "Fast Boot" option so as not to run into problems when you enter the BIOS later - these are three.
It's great that the boards automatically adjust the fan speed depending on the temperature. However, in the BIOS snapshots, you could see that the number of revolutions of the processor fan is highlighted in red. This means that the board itself reduced the rotation speed, but was immediately afraid that it had become too small, and therefore, every time the system was started, the start would be suspended. A warning message will appear on the screen indicating that the RPM is too low and the system will wait for your decision. Previously, you had to simply ignore this parameter, but now you can reduce the minimum allowable fan speed in the "Monitor" section - these are four.
There is no need to correct anything in the “Ai Tweaker” section, but in its “DIGI + Power Control” subsection, you need to enable the optimal mode for the “CPU Power Phase Control” and “DRAM Power Phase Control” parameters - this was the fifth stage. When the processor load is high, ASUSTeK motherboards now disable "Intel Turbo Boost" technology and reset the processor frequency to the nominal. If the load is typical and not too high, then the drops are short-term, we will see later that they do not affect the system performance at all. However, under high load, the frequency will always remain underestimated and the speed drop will be significant, and in order to fix this, in the "CPU Power Management" subsection, you must manually increase the allowable consumption limits. At the same time, you need to read the context hints for the rest of the parameters of the subsection, they refer to the power converter integrated into Haswell processors, and some of them also allow you to reduce power consumption at rest. It was the sixth point.
In the BIOS of motherboards from ASUSTeK, it takes so long to get to the parameters that play a very important role that control Intel's energy-saving technologies, that it seems as if they are hidden on purpose for some reason. To find them, you need to go to the "Advanced" section, then go to the "CPU Configuration" subsection, and then go to a separate page "CPU Power Management Configuration". Initially, only the first three options are visible on the screen, because the "CPU C States" option is set to "Auto", and all subsequent options are hidden. If you change the value of this parameter to "Enabled", then you can find a considerable number of previously hidden options. Now most of them are already working, and for the correct operation of energy-saving technologies, it remains to enable the “Package C State Support” parameter. Seven. At the end of this whole epic, in the “APM” subsection of the “Advanced” section, you need to enable the “ErP Ready” option to save power when turned off.
In total, we need to go through eight main stages, many of which include several separate actions at once, and all this only in order to ensure a normal, optimal and economical mode of operation of the system. To be honest, I would really like all the necessary parameter values to be set automatically by the board when you select the “Load Optimized Defaults” option, without requiring long, boring and tedious manual adjustments.
Processor overclocking features
First, let's take a look at what automatic ways to improve performance offer us the Asus Gryphon Z87 motherboard. As with other motherboards from ASUSTeK, it is easy to use the Asus MultiCore Enhancement function, which at any load level will allow you to increase the processor multiplier to the maximum value provided by Intel Turbo Boost technology only for single-threaded workloads. Initially, the parameter is set to "Auto", but it does not function, and to enable it, it is necessary to set the "Ai Overclock Tuner" option to "Manual" or "X.M.P.". To achieve more significant results, it is suggested to use the "OC Tuner" parameter. When “Ratio Only” is selected, overclocking is carried out by increasing the processor multiplier, and when “BCLK First” is selected, in addition to changing the multiplier, the base frequency is increased. However, any automatic overclocking methods are not ideal on any motherboard, so we generally do not recommend using them. With painstaking selection of the most optimal values of the parameters that affect overclocking, we always get a much better result. Either the final values will be higher, or comparable, but with lower power consumption and heat dissipation.The most rational way is to overclock the processor without increasing the voltage on it, but on the Asus board you cannot simply increase the processor multiplier and do nothing else. In this case, the voltage on the processor cores will be automatically increased by the board, and the voltage converter integrated into the processor will immediately detect an increase and independently begin to raise the voltage even more under load. All this, most likely, will lead to overheating and certainly to a useless waste of energy, and we will not succeed in any energy-efficient overclocking. To avoid automatic increase in voltage by the board when overclocking the processor, it is necessary to set the "CPU Core Voltage" parameter to manual mode, but do not touch anything else. In this case, the voltage is not increased by the board, and therefore is not overestimated by the converter integrated into Haswell processors. Just in case, you can also disable the CPU Load-Line Calibration technology and the Internal PLL Overvoltage parameter to counteract the voltage drop on the processor under load. They may be needed only with very high overclocking, and with normal overclocking they are not needed.
Only overclocking without increasing the voltage can be energy efficient. It will noticeably increase performance, speed up calculations, and at the same time, the total energy costs, despite the increase in energy consumption per unit of time, will even decrease, since due to the acceleration of calculations, the amount of electrical energy required to carry out the same amount of calculations will decrease. Only such overclocking will have a minimal impact on environmental pollution, will not have a negative impact on the environment, which was convincingly proven a long time ago in the article “ Power consumption of overclocked processors". However, during the tests of motherboards, we face a different task. It is necessary to ensure the maximum possible and the most diverse load, check the boards when working in the most different modes, which is why we do not use the optimal overclocking method, but the one that allows you to achieve the highest results. For motherboard tests, the higher the frequency and voltage, the better, because the greater the load on the board. Only when working in extreme, close to limiting conditions, it is easier and faster to identify problems, detect errors and shortcomings.
Previously, we always increased the voltage in the “Offset” mode, plus an adaptive or interpolation mode similar in principle of operation became available for LGA1150 processors, but both options turned out to be unacceptable for Haswell processors. As you already know, when adding any, even the smallest value to the standard voltage, the stabilizer integrated into these processors immediately notices changes and, when the load appears, it starts to more tension increase. All this naturally leads to an increase in heat dissipation, temperature, and as a result, this method of overclocking is inapplicable due to overheating. To avoid this negative effect, Haswell processors have to be overclocked at constant, constant and fixed voltage. For this reason, when testing motherboards, we overclock the processor to 4.5 GHz while fixing the voltage on the cores at 1.150 V while using the parameters for the memory modules recorded in the “X.M.P.” profile.
Of course, when overclocking with voltage fixing on processor cores, energy-saving technologies partially stop working, the processor multiplier drops at rest, but the voltage no longer decreases and remains excessively high. We have to reassure ourselves that this is not for long, only when necessary and only for the duration of the tests, and, in addition, it usually has little effect on the power consumption of the system at rest.
By the way, we previously published an article " Haswell LGA1150 Processors - right job in normal mode and overclocking methods". This material is intended to explain to new users of the LGA1150 platform the basic principles for selecting the optimal parameters for operating in the nominal mode and for overclocking Haswell processors on motherboards from various manufacturers. There you will find illustrated recommendations on enabling Intel's energy-saving technologies and increasing the acceptable consumption limits of processors, how to overclock them with an increase in core voltage and without it.
Performance Comparison
We traditionally compare motherboards in terms of speed in two modes: when the system is operating under nominal conditions, as well as when overclocking the processor and memory. The first option is interesting from the point of view that it allows you to find out how well motherboards work with default parameters. It is known that a significant part of users are not involved in fine tuning systems, they only set the default values \u200b\u200bof parameters in the BIOS that are not optimal, but do not change anything else. So we carried out the test, usually almost without interfering with the default settings set by the boards. Unfortunately, for most LGA1150 boards, this testing option turned out to be unbearable, since for many models one or another correction of values was required. As a result, we were forced to publish a long list of changes we made to the settings of certain models, and the very meaning of testing in this mode was lost. Instead of seeing what performance the boards would provide with the default settings, we showed almost the same results with our correction.In a new series of reviews of LGA1150 boards, we decided to return the information content to tests with standard settings. We do not change anything else and do not correct anything. What parameter values the board sets with the default settings, it is tested with those, even if they differ significantly from the nominal ones. At the same time, you need to understand that it is very bad when some model is slower than all the others, but it is also no good if the board is faster than all rivals. In this case, this does not mean that it is better than others, but only that the board does not comply with the normal operating mode. Only average results close to the majority are acceptable and desirable, since it is well known that related models, when operating under equal conditions, show almost the same level of speed. In this regard, we even considered abandoning the designation best results on the diagrams, but then they left the traditional sorting in descending order of performance, and the indicators of the Asus Gryphon Z87 model are highlighted in color for clarity.
In the Cinebench 15 photorealistic 3D rendering speed test, we run CPU tests five times and average the results.
The Fritz Chess Benchmark utility has been used in tests for a very long time and has proven itself well. It produces highly repeatable results, performance scales well depending on the number of threads used.
The x264 FHD Benchmark v1.0.1 (64bit) test allows you to evaluate the performance of the system in terms of video encoding speed compared to the results available in the database. The original version of the program with the r2106 encoder allows you to use AVX processor instructions for encoding, but we replaced the executable libraries with the r2334 version in order to be able to use the new AVX2 instructions that appeared in Haswell processors. The average results of five passes are shown in the diagram.
Performance measurement in Adobe Photoshop We run CC using our own test, which is a creatively redesigned Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test that includes typical processing of four 24-megapixel images taken with a digital camera.
The performance of processors under cryptographic load is measured by the built-in test of the popular TrueCrypt utility, which uses AES-Twofish-Serpent "triple" encryption with a buffer size of 500 MB. It should be noted that this program not only is it able to efficiently load any number of cores with work, but it also supports a specialized AES instruction set.
The PC game Metro: Last Light is very beautiful, but it depends heavily on the performance of the video card. We had to use the Medium Quality setting to keep it playable at 1920x1080 screen resolution. The diagram shows the results of passing the built-in test five times.
Racing F1 2013 is much less demanding on the graphics subsystem of the computer. At a resolution of 1920x1080, we set all settings to the maximum, choosing the "Ultra High Quality" mode, and additionally turned on all the available image enhancement features. The test built into the game is carried out five times, and the results are averaged.
In most tests, the Asus Maximus VI Hero motherboard is noticeably ahead of its rivals - this clearly indicates that the nominal operating mode of the system is not observed by the board. From the review of this model we know that it arbitrarily overclocks the processor by 200 MHz during multi-threaded workloads. It is extremely important to note that when you enable the parameters that change the regular rules for the operation of Intel Turbo Boost technology in the BIOS of other models, you can get exactly the same results, and the capabilities of the K OC option on Gigabyte boards allow you to achieve even more high performance in separate tests. It is very easy to start the same mode of operation on other boards, if necessary, but there were serious difficulties with disabling it on the models of the ROG series, and therefore this behavior of the board has to be considered as a particularly unpleasant drawback. As for the Asus Gryphon Z87 model, it is obvious that short-term drops in the processor frequency to the nominal did not affect its performance in the slightest. Under typical loads, the board demonstrates normal speed, which differs little from other related models that ensure the nominal mode of the system.
Now let's see what results the systems will demonstrate with an increase in the frequencies of the processor and memory. The same performance was achieved on all the boards - the processor was overclocked to 4.5 GHz while fixing the voltage on the cores at 1.150 V, and the memory frequency was raised to 2133 MHz at 9-11-11-31-2N timings according to the X.M.P. ".
When overclocking the processor and increasing the frequency of the memory, the performance of the motherboards turned out to be almost the same, which was to be expected. It's a pity that we didn't see a similar situation when comparing boards with standard settings. Depending on the test application, the boards are periodically swapped, but the difference in speed is small. In this case, the performance of the Asus Gryphon Z87 board does not differ from the others, since during overclocking we manually raised the allowable limits for processor consumption and its multiplier does not drop under load.
Energy consumption measurements
Measurement of system power consumption during nominal operation and during overclocking is carried out using the Extech Power Analyzer 380803. The device turns on before the computer's power supply, that is, it measures the consumption of the entire system "from the outlet", with the exception of the monitor, but including losses in the power supply itself. When measuring consumption at rest, the system is idle, we wait for the complete cessation of post-launch activity and the absence of calls to the drive. The results in the charts are sorted as consumption increases, and the indicators of the Asus Gryphon Z87 model are highlighted in color for clarity. However, this could not have been done, since the board always occupies a leading position, being at the top of the list, but, oddly enough, we will not always be pleased with this result.
Under no load, Asus' Gryphon Z87's small microATX board managed to outperform even Micro-Star's traditionally economical motherboard, but the other two models are disappointing. Judging by the previous test results of full-size LGA1150 boards, the average consumption level for them is 45 W, but a couple of motherboards from ASUSTeK and Gigabyte with default settings spend much more than this value.
I must say that for all their shortcomings, Haswell processors have an undeniable advantage in the form of lower power consumption at rest compared to LGA1155 processors. Unfortunately, boards running at nominal settings do not give us the opportunity to see this, and therefore we added another additional diagram with a mode that we called "Eco". This is the same regular mode of operation that the motherboards provide with default settings, we only manually changed the values of all parameters related to Intel processor energy-saving technologies in the BIOS from "Auto" to "Enabled".
The difference turned out to be significant, the results improved, the consumption of most systems significantly decreased, and the Asus microATX board is still in the lead, only now it has changed its closest rival. The Asus Maximus VI Hero model has all energy-saving technologies working properly, it lags behind quite a bit, but the consumption of the Micro-Star board has not changed at all. In fact, according to the readings of the device, the decrease in consumption was noticeable, but it turned out to be very insignificant and did not even reach 1 W. Thanks to review of this model we know what explains this strange result. MSI Board Z87-GD65 GAMING doesn't allow to turn on power-saving technologies completely, which is why it is inferior to both ASUSTeK models, but still outperforms the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC board, whose reaction to turning on power-saving modes turned out to be rather weak.
Just in case, we recall that in test systems we install a discrete graphics card AMD Radeon HD 7970, but if we refuse it and switch to using the integrated into processors graphics core, then the total consumption of conventional systems can drop even below 30 watts. The economy of Haswell processors at rest is very impressive and looks tempting, but it is a pity that with default settings motherboards do not allow us to enjoy this advantage, manual correction of BIOS parameters is necessary.
To estimate typical power consumption, we took measurements during system performance tests using the Fritz software. It must be said that it almost does not matter which utility to use as a load. Almost any regular program, capable of fully loading all four processor cores, will show very close or even exactly the same results.
The motherboard from ASUSTeK turned out to be the only lagging behind, and again, we understand the reasons. The Asus Maximus VI Hero board does not comply with the nominal mode of the processor, it overestimates its frequency, and therefore loses comparison with boards that provide standard settings.
To create the maximum load on the Haswell processor, we returned to the LinX utility, which is a graphical shell for the Intel Linpack test, and the program modification we use uses AVX instructions for calculations. This program provides a much higher load than typical, but when using it, we do not additionally heat the processor with a stream of hot air or an open flame. If one program can load more work and warm up the processor than usual, then it is quite possible that another can. That is why we check the stability of the overclocked system, and also create a load on the processor during power consumption measurements using the LinX utility.
Boards Gigabyte companies and Micro-Star show a normal level of power consumption just above 130 W, the Asus Maximus VI Hero board continues to pay for the abnormal operation of the processor and, as expected, turns out to be the most wasteful, but the efficiency of the Asus Gryphon Z87 model is no longer encouraging. The difference compared to other boards is too big, it can no longer be explained by the compactness of the microATX model, as in the previous diagram. Unlike ROG series boards, regular ASUSTeK boards and TUF series boards slow down the processor frequency under high load, and therefore fail to provide the expected level of performance. As a result, none of ASUSTeK's LGA1150 motherboards can provide the system's normal operation with default settings. And this allows itself, I would like to recall, the leading manufacturer of motherboards. Extremely sad.
It should be added that for a total assessment of the level of energy consumed by the system, it is necessary to load the video card with work, and the final result will depend on its power. In power consumption tests, we use only the processor load, but if we measure the power consumption during the operation of a discrete AMD video cards Radeon HD 7970 in games, then the total power consumption of a typical system will significantly exceed 200 watts, approaching 250 watts at nominal operation and exceeding this value when overclocked.
Now let's evaluate the power consumption when overclocking systems and no load.
Even when overclocking, we always make the most of all processor energy-saving technologies, and therefore the arrangement remains the same as it was with the Eco settings when operating in the nominal mode. The power consumption of Asus and MSI boards has hardly increased, both ASUSTeK models are ahead of the Micro-Star board due to its inability to enable the deepest power saving modes, but our previous reviews have shown that many Gigabyte boards middle and senior class, there are obvious problems with voltage converters and with the operation of energy-saving technologies. The Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC model became the first LGA1150 board whose power consumption during overclocking turned out to be higher than it was in the nominal mode.
During overclocking and when the load appears, the power consumption of any overclocked systems, not only Gigabyte, is already incomparably higher than in the nominal mode. It affects both the increase in frequency and the increase in voltage. At high loads, the power consumption of ASUSTeK and Micro-Star boards converges, thanks to their small dimensions and the absence of numerous additional controllers, the small Asus microATX board is still in the lead, and the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC model remains the most gluttonous.
Afterword
The Asus Gryphon Z87 motherboard is the first microATX LGA1150 form factor we've tested, and in many ways it doesn't look like a typical motherboard of its size. There are not so many models of this format with three PCI Express x16 slots, it is unlikely that we will meet another one that has seven fan connectors, all of which are adjustable. And certainly there is no other model on which a protective coating could be optionally installed. Nice solution, by the way. Those who need it will purchase an additional "Gryphon Armor Kit", and the rest will be able to save. Contrary to our fears, the small motherboard did not cause any difficulties in assembling the system. Its design is well thought out, the possibilities for most users are quite sufficient, the overclocking ability and performance in typical tasks do not differ from full-size models, and the level of power consumption turned out to be the lowest and comparable only to the most economical ATX motherboards.Unfortunately, despite its non-standard behavior, the Asus Gryphon Z87 board does not differ in any way from the usual ASUSTeK models. This is a typical Asus LGA1150 board with full set shortcomings, starting with minor flaws at startup and ending with reduced performance at high loads. There is not the slightest desire to recommend it for purchase, like any other LGA1150 board from this company. It remains only to lament, because none of the Asus motherboards tested by us on the Intel Z87 logic could provide the nominal operating mode of the system with default settings. Models of the ROG series overclock the processor, and the rest reduce it at high loads - just an outrageous situation that is unforgivable even for a beginner, and in this case we are talking about a leading motherboard manufacturer. In addition, we know many other disadvantages of ASUSTeK motherboards, but it is not only difficult, but not always necessary to ignore these models. They also have a lot of advantages, and boards from other manufacturers have their own characteristic problems. In particular, despite the shortcomings, you should definitely pay attention to the Asus Gryphon Z87 model. Many of the shortcomings we noticed can be eliminated, the rest will have to be put up with, and it is a little reassuring that there are no critical ones among them that would basically prevent the use of the board. But this model, like other boards of the TUF series, will please the owner with a five-year warranty period, which is a very weighty argument in its favor.
When buying a set of new components, a situation may arise that the processor is so new that the motherboard still “knows” it. Previously, updating the BIOS would require an old processor or would have to waste time going to a service center. But now with the advent ASUS technology USB BIOS Flashback problem will be solved even easier.
USB BIOS Flashback is the easiest way to update BIOS on ASUS motherboards. Now all you need to update is a USB drive with a BIOS file written to it and a power supply. No processor, no RAM and other components are now needed.
1. System requirements:
power unit; USB drive FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS (for Intel X79 only FAT16 and FAT32); ASUS motherboard based on the Intel X79, Z77, H77, Q77, B75 chipset (The list of ASUS motherboards supporting USB BIOS Flashback technology is presented in the table p.3).
2. Download and extract the BIOS ROM file from ASUS official website (www.asus.ru)
3. Rename the BIOS file as written in the table, and then save it to the USB drive in the root directory.
| Model name | NameBIOS |
| P9X79 Deluxe | P9X79D.ROM |
| P9X79Pro | P9X79PRO.ROM |
| P9X79 | P9X79.ROM |
| Sabertooth X79 | SABERX79.ROM |
| Rampage IV Extreme | R4E.ROM |
| Rampage IV Formula | R4F.ROM |
| Rampage IV Gene | R4G.ROM |
| P8Z77-V Deluxe | Z77VD.CAP |
| P8Z77-V Pro | Z77VP.CAP |
| P8Z77-V | Z77VB.CAP |
| P8Z77-VLE | P8Z77VLE.CAP |
| P8Z77-V LX | P8Z77VLX.CAP |
| P8Z77-V LK | P8Z77VLK.CAP |
| P8Z77-M Pro | P8Z77MP.CAP |
| P8Z77-M | P8Z77M.CAP |
| Sabertooth Z77 | Z77ST.CAP |
| Maximus V Gene | M5G.CAP |
| P8H77-V | P8H77V.CAP |
| P8H77-VLE | P8H77VLE.CAP |
| P8H77-M Pro | P8H77MP.CAP |
| P8H77-M | P8H77M.CAP |
| P8H77-MLE | P8H77MLE.CAP |
| P8B75-V | P8B75V.CAP |
| P8B75-M | P8B75.CAP |
| P8B75-MLE | P8B75LE.CAP |
| P8Q77-M | P8Q77.CAP |
| P8H77-I | P8H77I.CAP |
4. Connect the 24-pin motherboard power connectors and 8-pin processors.
5. Connect the USB drive to the USB BIOS Flashback/ROG Connect connector (for boards based on Intel X79, this is a white USB 2.0 connector, for boards based on other chipsets, this is a USB 2.0 connector, marked with color and the inscription USB BIOS Flasback/ROG Connect on the panel Q-Shield) and hold for 3 seconds until the light indication starts.
6. Wait for the USB BIOS Flashback/ROG Connect button to light up to indicate that the update was successful.
1. Do not remove the USB drive, power off the motherboard, or press the CLR_CMOS reset button while updating the BIOS.
2. If the USB BIOS Flashback/ROG Connect button blinks for five seconds, the USB BIOS Flashback is not working properly. This may be caused by incorrect installation of the device, a mistake in the file name, or an incompatible file format. Reboot the system and check that the file name and format are correct.
3. If you encounter any boot problems after updating the BIOS, please contact your local ASUS Support Center for assistance. further assistance.
ASUS motherboards are the world's best-selling and award-winning motherboards.
Every day more and more solutions based on the new Intel Z87 Express chipset appear on the market. Moreover, some manufacturers not only took the path of updating last year's motherboard models, but also presented completely new solutions. For example, which became the first motherboard belonging to the TUF line, made in a compact microATX format. There is no point in arguing for a long time about the expediency of such a step, since the benefit from buying ASUS GRYPHON Z87, based on its performance characteristics, is obvious. New model combines the advantages of the older ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 with the dimensions of the microATX format, which will allow you to assemble on its basis not only a compact, but also a productive system with increased reliability, which ASUS fans were previously deprived of. Speaking of "increased reliability", in this case, we are talking not only about the advantages declared by the manufacturer in the form of protection against electrostatic damage, high-quality element base and a number of proprietary features, for example, Thermal Radar 2, but also about an extended five-year warranty, which is already is an indirect confirmation of the company's confidence in the reliability of its offspring.
ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard specifications:
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Manufacturer |
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GRYPHON Z87 (rev 1.0) |
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Intel Z87 Express |
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Processor socket |
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Supported processors |
Intel Core i7/ Core i5 / Core i3 / Pentium / Celeron fourth generation |
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Used memory |
1866(OC)/1600/1333/1066/800MHz |
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Memory support |
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of memory |
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Expansion slots |
2 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 (CPU) |
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1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 |
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Disk subsystem |
The Intel Z87 Express chipset supports: 6 x SATA 6 Gb/s ports supporting 6 SATA 6 Gb/s devices Support RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 |
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1 x Intel WGI217V (10/100/1000Mbps) |
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Sound subsystem |
Realtek ALC892 codec 8 channel audio |
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24-pin ATX power connector 8-pin ATX12V power connector |
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Fans |
2 x CPU fan headers (4-pin) 1 x Gryphon Armor Kit housing fan connector (3-pin) 4 x system fan connectors (4-pin) |
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Cooling |
Aluminum heatsinks on MOSFETs Chipset aluminum heatsink |
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External I/O ports |
1 x Optical S/PDIF out 6 x Audio ports |
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Internal I/O ports |
1 x USB 3.0 with support for connecting two USB 3.0 (19-pin) 2 x USB 2.0, each supporting two USB 2.0 connections 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports 1 x front panel audio output connector 1 x front panel connector block 1 x CMOS reset jumper 1 x BIOS flashback |
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64MB AMI UEFI BIOS |
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Equipment |
user's manual; warranty brochure; disk with drivers and utilities; quality certificate 1 x set of ASUS Q-Connectors; 4 x SATA cables; 1 x 2-way SLI bridge; 1 x interface panel blank. |
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Form Factor dimensions, mm |
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Products webpage |
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Packaging and equipment
The packaging of the ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard is entirely consistent with the high-level solution. For example, the design is predominantly black, and various types of printing are almost completely absent, with the exception of the logo of the TUF (The Ultimate Force) series. We also note the presence of a logo indicating an extended five-year warranty, which is typical of all motherboards in this series.
On the reverse side there is an image of the motherboard itself, its interface panel, as well as the main specifications. The top section describes the key benefits of ASUS GRYPHON Z87:
Thermal Radar 2- due to a large number of temperature sensors, as well as the presence of connectors on the PCB for connecting multimeter probes, the user receives the most complete and truthful information about the current state of the system.
TUF Components- the element base of the motherboard meets the highest quality standards. So, ASUS GRYPHON Z87 uses special titanium solid capacitors, field-effect transistors that have passed independent quality control and tested for compliance with military standards, as well as chokes with increased reliability in order to avoid the possible occurrence of “whistle” during operation of the motherboard.
Server Grade Reliability Test- The motherboard has passed a special test series of tests and fully complies with the reliability standards put forward for server motherboards. This means that ASUS GRYPHON Z87 demonstrates very high stability even under long-term load and is able to withstand the test high temperature and high humidity.
USB BIOS Flashback- the user has the opportunity to update the BIOS firmware version without any problems using a flash drive and the corresponding button on the textolite, which not only greatly simplifies the update process, but also guarantees its safety.
In the box with ASUS GRYPHON Z87, in addition to the usual software disk, user manual and interface panel blank, the following is supplied:
four SATA cables;
quality certificate;
a set of ASUS Q-Connectors, which greatly facilitate the process of connecting the front panel of a PC case;
2 way SLI bridge.
The delivery set of ASUS GRYPHON Z87 is very worthy and, in principle, it will be quite enough for trouble-free assembly and further operation of the PC.
Design and features of the board
Unlike its older sister, the ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard does not hide its modest equipment under a plastic “armor” and looks quite familiar. As you can see, it is made in accordance with the standards of the TUF series on black textolite. At the same time, the main connectors and the cooling system are painted brown, which generally gives it an external resemblance to military equipment.
As for the actual layout of the ASUS GRYPHON Z87, despite the modest dimensions of the microATX textolite (244 x 244 mm), ASUS engineers managed to place all the elements in their optimal places. As a result, we had no complaints, and, accordingly, no difficulties in assembling a PC and its operation.
As for the casing, it can be purchased separately. Set Gryphon Armor Kit comes packaged in a decent standalone motherboard package and costs a hefty $50, in our opinion. On the other hand, buying this kit gives you the following benefits:
Thermal Armor- active cooling system, which, with the help of special protection installed over the entire surface of the textolite, generates air flows aimed at cooling key nodes fees.
TUF Fortifier- a special stiffening plate is installed on the back side of the motherboard, which prevents damage to the textolite during the installation and use of overall expansion cards and cooling systems.
Dust Defender- The Gryphon Armor Kit comes with a set of caps for all ports and expansion slots to prevent dust ingress.
Eventually full set The Gryphon Armor Kit includes two protective shrouds, a fan to cool the power elements of the board, a set of caps to protect the expansion slots and ports from dust, and three temperature sensors to connect to the corresponding ports on the board. motherboard.
The main elements of the Gryphon Armor Kit are, of course, the two protective covers. By analogy with the ASUS GRYPHON Z87, one made of plastic covers the motherboard from the front, while the second, this time metal, protects the back side of the textolite from bending and breaking. The whole structure is assembled into a single whole with the help of seven screws.
Separately, we note that a dielectric film is applied on the reverse side of the metal casing, which protects the textolite from electrostatic damage.
Returning directly to the review of the motherboard, we note that the reverse side of the textolite does not carry practically any significant elements, with the exception of the base plate of the processor socket and several elements of the power stabilization module for additional nodes.
The following connectors are located at the bottom of the board: a front panel audio header, S/PDIF out, a system fan connector, a CMOS reset jumper, a TPM port, and two USB 2.0 headers. In total, the board supports eight USB 2.0 ports, four internal and four external (on the interface panel). All eight interfaces are implemented by the chipset. Also, the ASUS GRYPHON Z87 model, using the TB_HEADER connector, can be equipped with an expansion board with Thunderbolt ports, which is a nice feature, although not very popular.
Closer to the right corner of the textolite there is a front panel connection block, another connector for connecting a system fan, a button for quickly updating the BIOS firmware, connectors for connecting temperature sensors, and a DirectKey button, with which you can quickly access BIOS settings motherboard. Thanks to the DRCT connector, the user has the opportunity to connect a separate button for accessing the BIOS and place it, for example, on the front panel of the case.
Another interesting ASUS feature GRYPHON Z87 is the ability to replace the chip with BIOS firmware without the help of a service center, for this you just need to remove the chip from the socket and replace it with a new one.
In the right corner of the board, parallel to the PCB surface, there are six SATA 6 Gb / s ports. Their work is provided by the Intel Z87 Express chipset. There is support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 arrays. Next to the SATA ports there is a remote panel connection block with USB 3.0 ports. In total, ASUS GRYPHON Z87 supports six USB 3.0 ports: two internal and four on the interface panel. All ports are implemented by the Intel Z87 Express chipset.
The ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard is equipped with four DIMM slots for installing DDR3 RAM modules, which are equipped with latches on one side only for greater convenience. RAM can work in dual channel mode. To implement it, modules must be installed either in the first and third, or in the second and fourth slots. Modules operating at frequencies from 1066 to 1600 MHz in the nominal mode, and from 1866 MHz and higher in overclocking are supported. The maximum amount of memory can reach 32 GB, which should be enough for almost any task. We also note the presence of the MemOK! button, which allows you to automatic mode coordinate the parameters of memory modules to resolve possible conflict situations.
The cooling system of the board under consideration consists of three aluminum radiators: one removes heat from the Intel Z87 Express chipset, while the other two cover the MOSFET chips and, at the same time, to improve heat transfer efficiency, they are interconnected by a heat pipe. All three radiators are attached with screws. During board testing, the temperature of the heatsinks did not exceed 36.4°C, which is a good result.
The location of the processor socket is typical for motherboards based on Intel Z77 Express and Intel Z87 Express chipsets. The processor is powered by an 8-phase scheme for computing cores and additional nodes.
The converter itself is based on an ASP1251 PWM controller with a built-in Digi+ power management system. As we said at the beginning of our material, ASUS puts special emphasis on the highest quality of the element base of the ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard. Judge for yourself, titanium solid capacitors, field-effect transistors that have passed a number of independent company tests, as well as improved high-reliability chokes. All this, as well as the presence of an extended five-year warranty, gives us hope for a long and trouble-free operation of ASUS GRYPHON Z87. In passing, we note that the main 24-pin and additional 8-pin connectors are designed to power the new product.
Since the ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard belongs to the compact microATX format, there are four corresponding slots to expand its functionality. As you can see, there are three slots for installing PCI-Express x16 graphics adapters. Two of them are connected to the processor and share 16 lanes of the PCI Express 3.0 standard. The third slot, in turn, is connected to the chipset and, accordingly, uses four lanes of the PCI Express 2.0 standard. When installing several video cards, the lines will be distributed according to the following schemes: x16, x8 + x8, x8 + x8 + x4, and last option possible only if three video cards from AMD are installed, since NVIDIA does not support 3-Way SLI mode for slots with throughput x4.
Also, expanding the functionality of the motherboard is possible due to one PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slot, which is connected to the chipset.
If you decide to take advantage of the graphics core integrated into the CPU, then you have two HDMI and DVI-D video outputs at your disposal, the operation of which and switching between them is carried out by the ASMedia ASM 1442K chip.
Multi I/O capabilities are provided by the NUVOTON NCT6791D chip, which controls the system fans and also provides monitoring.
For support network connections Gigabit LAN controller Intel WGI217V.
The sound subsystem of the motherboard in question is based on the Realtek ALC892 8-channel HDA codec, which supports 2/4/5.1/7.1 audio formats. It provides high-quality lossless audio playback with a sampling rate of 192 kHz and a resolution of 24 bits.
The following ports are displayed on the interface panel of the ASUS GRYPHON Z87:
1x Optical S/PDIF out;
6 x Audio ports.
The configuration of the interface panel as a whole deserves an extremely positive assessment due to the presence of a large number of USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, convenient connection of multi-channel acoustics, as well as the presence of HDMI and DVI-D video outputs. However, as in the case of ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87, potential buyers of ASUS GRYPHON Z87 will have problems connecting analog monitors, since for this they will have to purchase a VGA adapter separately, which is not a significant disadvantage, but such a situation cannot be ruled out.
The ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard is equipped with seven fan headers. Two of them are for CPU cooling, four for connecting system fans, and the last one is for connecting the fan that comes with the Gryphon Armor Kit. All connectors, with the exception of the last one, are 4-pin.
UEFI BIOS
The ASUS GRYPHON Z87 motherboard uses a modern preloader based on the UEFI graphical interface, which can be configured using the mouse. The main screen of the UEFI BIOS displays temperature and voltage monitoring on the power supply and processor lines. Also in this section you can see the BIOS version, processor model and amount of RAM.
All settings related to overclocking of the system are located in the "Ai Tweaker" tab.
The memory frequency multiplier allows you to set the frequency from 800 to 3200 MHz.
Also, if necessary, you can access the memory delay adjustments.
Control settings can be used to increase stability during overclocking. digital system Digi+ power supply.
The settings required for overclocking and optimizing the system are summarized in the table:
|
Parameter |
Menu name |
Range |
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System bus frequency |
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100, 125, 166, 250 |
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RAM frequency |
memory frequency |
3200, 2400, 2133, 1866, 1600, 1333, 1066, 800 |
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RAM timings |
CAS Latency, RAS to CAS, RAS PRE Time, RAS ACT Time, DRAM COMMAND Mode, RAS to RAS Delay, REF Cycle Time, Write Recovery Time, READ to PRE Time, FOUR ACT WIN Time, WRITE to READ Delay, Write Laency |
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CPU Power Thermal Control |
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Min. CPU Cache Ratio Limit |
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Max CPU Cache Ratio Limit |
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Fixed CPU frequency |
CPU Fixed Frequency(KHz) |
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|
Long Duration Package Power Limit |
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Package Power Time Window |
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Short Package Power Limit |
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CPU Integrated VR Current Limit |
0,125 - 1023,875 |
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|
CPU Current Capability |
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DRAM Current Capability |
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Fixed frequency RAM |
DRAM Fixed Frequency (KHz) |
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CPU Core Voltage Override |
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CPU Cache voltage Override |
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Permissible deviation from the set voltage on the system agent |
CPU System Agent Voltage Offset |
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CPU Analog I/O Voltage Offset |
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Power Current Slope |
Auto, Level -4 - Level 4 |
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|
Power Current Offset |
Auto, -100% - 100% |
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CPU Digital I/O Voltage Offset |
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Power Fast Ramp Response |
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Power Saving Level 1 Threshold |
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Power Saving Level 2 Threshold |
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Power Saving Level 3 Threshold |
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CPU input voltage |
CPU Input Voltage |
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|
Voltage on RAM modules |
1,20000 - 1,92000 |
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Chipset voltage |
PCH Core Voltage |
0,70000 - 1,50000 |
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1,20000 - 2,00000 |
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|
0,60000 - 1,00000 |
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DRAM CTRL REF Voltage |
0,39500 - 0,63000 |
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DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHA |
0,39500 - 0,63000 |
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DRAM CTRL REF Voltage on CHB |
0,39500 - 0,63000 |
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Clock Crossing VBoot |
0,10000 - 1,90000 |
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Clock Crossing Reset Voltage |
0,10000 - 1,90000 |
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|
Clock Crossing Voltage |
0,10000 - 1,90000 |
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Hello friends! In today's article, we update the bios of asus motherboard. This is a serious matter and should be treated accordingly. The process of updating the BIOS of any motherboard, although very simple, but any mistake in it will cost you dearly - you will have to bring the motherboard back to life in service center, since you probably do not have a special programmer. At the beginning of the article, in a nutshell, I will remind you what BIOS is.
How to update BIOS on ASUS motherboard
BIOS is the most important element of a computer - a microprogram recorded on a microcircuit, which, in turn, is located on the motherboard.
BIOS - provides basic OS access to the computer's hardware capabilities. In simple terms, BIOS explains to the operating system how to use one or another computer component.
Immediately after turning on the system unit, the BIOSchecks all devices (POST procedure) and if any component is faulty, thena signal is heard through a special speaker, by which a faulty device can be identified. Eif everything is fine, The BIOS will start searching for the OS bootloader code on the connected drives and find it passes the baton to the operating system.
Now for the not so good. The BIOS update process itself takes a couple of minutes, but if at this time, there will be a power outage in your house, and your computer is not connected to an uninterruptible power supply(UPS), then the firmware will be broken and you simply do not turn on the computer. To restore, you will have to look for a special programmer ( BIOS recovery- the topic of a separate article).
I must say that the manufacturers foresaw the seriousness of the issue even at the dawn of the production of motherboards completely excluded the possibility of updating or flashing the BIOS, only recently BIOS began to be completed special program for your update. But still,updating the BIOS of any motherboard usually occurs once in its life, and sometimes not even once.
The most important rule if the work of a computer or laptop youquite satisfied, then you do not need to update anything, but eif you still decideupdate the BIOS, then there must be good reasons for this. Here is some of them.
There are no new features in your BIOS. For example, there is no technology AHCI, and there is only an outdated IDE, but you bought a new interface hard drive SATA III (6 Gb / s) or generally solid state SSD drive. Technology AHCI will allow your drive to use modern features and the operating system on the new hard drive will run faster than in IDE. Having visited the website of the manufacturer of your motherboard, you saw that a new BIOS update was released, you also learned that after the update your motherboard will supportAHCI! In this case, you can update the BIOS without hesitation.
A friend of mine lost sound on his computer, reinstalling windows and the drivers did not help, he decided that the built-in sound card and bought a discrete one, so the system worked for 7 years, then the processor had to be replaced on this computer, this required a BIOS update, after the update the built-in sound card worked.
One more case. The client constantly rebooted the computer and reinstalling the operating system did not help, they replaced everything that was possible in the system unit, they did not change only the motherboard and processor. We finally decided to install a new firmware on the BIOS and it helped!
In the System Information window that opens, we see the BIOS version - 2003
Now we go to the official website of the manufacturer of our motherboard ASUSP8Z77-V PRO and choose "Drivers and Utilities"
Select any operating system and open the "BIOS" item. We see that there is an update 2104 (more a new version than ours).
Click on the "Global" button and download the firmware.
Fresh BIOS firmware (P8Z77-V-PRO-ASUS-2104.CAP) downloaded in the archive. We extract it from the archive and copy it to USB-f Leshka. The firmware weighs 12 MB.
The USB stick must be formatted in file system FAT32 and, apart from updating the BIOS, should not contain anything.
Reboot and enter BIOS.
In the initial BIOS window, we see the old firmware version 2003.
We press "Additionally" and we go to additional settings BIOS.
(Click on the screenshot with the left mouse to enlarge)
Enter the "Service" tab
Select the BIOS firmware utility - ASUS EZ Flash 2 or you may have an ASUS EZ Flash 3 .
In the ASUS EZ Flash 2 window we see our USB flash drive with firmware P8Z77-V-PRO-ASUS-2104.CAP.
We click on the file with the firmware with the left mouse button.
Click "OK"
Update BIOS?