ASUS Z87-DELUXE 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 Z87-DELUXE comes with four additional SATA-600 ports, controlled by two ASMedia ASM1061 chips. The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards won’t block them.

Figure 4: The six SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (yellow) and the four SATA-600 ports controlled by the ASMedia chips (black)

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS Z87-DELUXE offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard. There are eight USB 3.0 ports, all of them controlled by the chipset. Four of them (two on the motherboard rear panel and two available through a header) are connected directly to the chipset, while the other four are connected to a single USB 3.0 port from the chipset by way of an ASMedia ASM1074 hub chip.

The ASUS Z87-DELUXE doesn’t 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 new Realtek ALC1150 codec, which is the best audio codec available today, providing an impressive 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. This means you are able to capture and edit analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) with this motherboard without adding any background noise.

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 for 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 two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one controlled by an Intel I217-V chip and the other controlled by a Realtek RTL8111GR chip.

The main highlight of the ASUS Z87-DELUXE is the presence of a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module. This module supports the forthcoming IEEE802.11ac standard and, of course, the existing IEEE802.11n/g/b/a standards. It is very important to understand that the IEEE802.11ac standard is scheduled to be released only next year, but there are a few routers supporting it already on the market. The maximum transfer rate of this standard will depend on the antenna configuration and on the channel bandwidth. The portrayed motherboard uses two antennas, making its bandwidth 867 Mbps or 1.69 Gbps, depending if you use 80 MHz or 160 MHz channels, respectively. ASUS doesn’t say whether its product supports 160 MHz channels or not.

The motherboard supports Bluetooth 4.0 and it is also compatible with Bluetooth 3.0.

In Figure 5, you can see the motherboard rear panel with six USB 3.0 ports, Mini DisplayPort output, optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, “BIOS Flashback” button, the integrated Wi-Fi module, four USB 2.0 ports, the two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 5: Motherboard rear panel