As Intel moves more and more core components to their CPU we are seeing an interesting shift in motherboard design. The manufacturers are all realizing that the performance difference between them are narrowing. The days of seeing a massive difference in benchmark scores are almost gone. However, instead of just pushing out a bunch of cookie cutter boards some motherboard makers are looking for new ways to differentiate their boards. Asus is one of these makers and we will be taking a look at a board that has more than a few departures from the normal motherboard design philosophy. This is the Asus Z97-A. So without too much more delay, let’s dive in and see what Asus has given us.
The Box and Goodies -A Box by any other name would be… well, a box. However, as we have noted more than once what the manufacturer puts on their product packaging can be very important in terms of what they want you to focus on. The Z97-A is not a top-end product (It is more mainstream), but it has some of the same tech that Asus puts in their top end products.
The front of the box is clean with an image of the new heatsink Asus is using for the Z97 MCP. Instead of the Asus name they have put their latest feature “5-Way Optimization” in its place. So what is 5-way optimization? Glad you asked, we will talk about that a little later on under features.
The back of the box (as is very common now) goes into much more detail including a picture of the board. Asus is pushing the 5-way optimization for their channel boards along with their Cloud solutions. One of the big items that is being pushed on the Z97-A is One-Click Optimization which we will cover in more detail in part two of our review.
Inside the box you get the usual components. SATA cables, SLI Bridge, Manuals, Driver DVD… you know the drill by now.
