ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z87 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip has six SATA-600 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5). The ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 has two additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip (no RAID support), and two eSATA-600 ports, controlled by a second ASM1061 chip, located at the rear panel of the motherboard. The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards will not block them.

Figure 7: The six SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (brown) and by the ASM 1061 chip (beige)

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard, and six USB 3.0 ports, four available on the motherboard’s rear panel and two available through a header.

The ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 does not support FireWire ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1+2 audio format, i.e., eight channels plus two independent channels for audio streaming. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Realtek ALC1150 codec, which is an excellent audio codec, providing 115 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 104 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. These specifications are good even for the user who wants to work professionally capturing and editing analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.)

The analog audio outputs are independent and the motherboard also comes with an on-board optical SPDIF output. It also has a two-pin header labeled “SPDIF_OUT”, where you can install an adapter to have a coaxial SPDIF output or to connect a cable to older video cards that required a physical connection to have audio on their HDMI outputs.

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel I217-V chip.

There is a “BIOS Flashback” button in the motherboard’s rear panel that allows you to upgrade the motherboard BIOS by installing a USB memory on a USB 2.0 port containing the new BIOS file, without the need to turn the computer on and load the operating system or the motherboard’s setup program.

In Figure 8, you can see the motherboard’s rear panel with four USB 2.0 ports, the BIOS flashback button, four USB 3.0 ports, two eSATA-600 ports, optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 8: Motherboard rear panel