FRONTPAGE ASUS Z87-A Motherboard Review

Overclockers.com · Jul 2, 2013

With the release of the new Haswell line of CPUs, motherboard manufacturers are rolling out motherboards to support the new socket 1150 platform. Overclockers’ very own hokiealumnus recently published a review on ASUS’ top dog for this platform, the Maximus VI Extreme. Today however, we’ll tone it down a bit and review one of ASUS’ Z87 entry-level mainstream motherboards – the Z87-A. If you’re looking to get into the Haswell game at an affordable price, does ASUS have something worth your consideration in the Z87-A? Let’s find out!

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wagex · Jul 2, 2013

the color scheme is definitely for those noctua fans

lol

Bobnova · Jul 2, 2013

What's it say on the largish square chip on the left here?

That's the voltage controller.

hokiealumnus · Jul 2, 2013

My guess:

DIGI+
-----
EPU

Ajay57 · Jul 2, 2013

Thanks for the review Hokie will post this in the thread that was asking for help on these Motherboards. AJ.

hokiealumnus · Jul 2, 2013

This was Lvcoyote's review. :thup:

Bobnova · Jul 2, 2013

I'm curious as he mentioned he couldn't find a Digi+ chip. Makes me wonder if Asus used the IR/CHiL branded part and called it Digi+ anyway instead of slapping their own label on it.

hokiealumnus · Jul 2, 2013

Huh, interesting. It would be surprising if they didn't; the first time I can recall actually. That one I can't answer without guessing.

Bobnova · Jul 2, 2013

Yeah I haven't seen any personally that they called Digi+ that didn't have the branding on the chip as well. There have been a couple I've seen pictures of that didn't look like it did, but I was unable to get confirmation.

Eldonko · Jul 2, 2013

Prob the same chip as on Deluxe, DIGI+, this one:

Lvcoyote · Jul 2, 2013

I was unable to locate any ICs with the Digi+ branding on them. However, given that the VRM is now integrated into the CPU, I'm not convinced it's really That big of a deal. All the typical ASUS DIGI+ adjustments are still in the UEFI, that much I can confirm.

Bobnova · Jul 2, 2013

It's not a big deal from a performance standpoint at all, any modern digital chip (read: CHiL's/IR's stuff you find everywhere, including inside the Digi+ chips), I'm curious from the marketing standpoint mostly.
The controller chip was under one of the MOSFET heatsinks.

Lvcoyote · Jul 2, 2013

Ok, so I pulled the heatsink again and had another look. Sure enough it does indeed have the DIGI+ EPU stamp on it. I think what happened is I replaced the heatsinks before I took the up close pictures of the onboard ICs. I do however believe this to be the first time I've seen the DIGI+ EPU chip under a heatsink, but I've only reviewed about four or five ASUS boards.

Anyway, the review has been updated with the correct picture and the reference to not being able to find the DIGI+ EPU markings was edited.

Thanks for the keen eyes everyone!

Bobnova · Jul 2, 2013

It's definitely the first I've seen under a heatsink, I expect it has more to do with available heatsinks/mounting holes and ideal VRM layout than it does the chip getting hot.
Thanks for checking it for me!

Lvcoyote · Jul 2, 2013

No problem, I'm glad you asked. It got me thinking and motivated to recheck!

Boulard83 · Jul 4, 2013

Thanks for the nice review.

FRONTPAGE ASUS Z87-A Motherboard Review

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