ASUS Z97-DELUXE Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z97 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 Z97-DELUXE offers those six ports, plus two additional SATA-600 ports controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip (no RAID support) and one SATA Express port, controlled by an ASMedia ASM106SE chip.

One of the SATA Express connectors (controlled by the chipset) can be used as two individual SATA ports, but the SATA Express connector controlled by the ASM106SE chip cannot.

The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards will not block them.

Figure 5: the two SATA Express connectors, the four SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset (gray) and the two SATA-600 ports controlled by the ASM1061 chip (black).

The Intel Z97 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS Z97-DELUXE offers eight USB 2.0 ports, four at the rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard. There are 10 USB 3.0 ports (six at the rear panel and four available through two headers), six of them controlled by the chipset, two controlled by an ASMedia ASM1074 chip, and two controlled by an ASMedia ASM1042 chip.

The portrayed motherboard does not support FireWire or Thunderbolt ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1 audio format, i.e., eight channels. 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 by capturing and editing analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) The codec chip is shielded against electromagnetic interference.

The analog audio outputs are independent even if you use a 7.1 analog speaker set.

The portrayed motherboard has two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one controlled by an Intel i218V chip, and one controlled by an Intel i211AT chip.

The Z97-DELUXE also comes with an IEEE 802.11ac AzureWave AW-CE123H dual-band interface, located on an ASUS Wi-Fi GO! module, which also provides a Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

In Figure 6, you can see the motherboard rear panel with optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, Mini DisplayPort output, connectors for the Wi-Fi antennas, four USB 2.0 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 6: motherboard rear panel