ASUS GRYPHON Z87 Motherboard

Conclusions

The ASUS GRYPHON Z87 is a motherboard targeted to the enthusiast user who wants to build a gaming PC inside a small form factor case, using one of the new “Haswell” CPUs (fourth-generation Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processors).

The main highlight of this motherboard is its thermal management, with a thermal armor that prevents air that was heated by the motherboard from going inside the computer case, where it would heat other components. This thermal armor comes with a fan that removes this hot air from the motherboard. The motherboard also comes with three thermal sensors, allowing you to monitor the temperature of three points inside your computer.

Other highlights of this motherboard include the presence of six USB 3.0 ports, six SATA-600 ports, two PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, a good voltage regulator circuit with high-end capacitors, and more. The audio codec used is more than adequate for the average user.

There is, however, one drawback with this motherboard, but it shouldn’t affect most users. It is regarding the PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, which works at x4 speed and you can’t use it with SLI and CrossFireX configurations. Plus it is blocked when you install a dual-slot video card in the second PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot, rendering it pretty much useless.