| At a first glance the
Z97I-Plus leaves a good impression. You get a reasonable feature
mix and it won't take long until you realize that ASUS created a
product, which should feature a reasonable price tag. There is a decent
power design and the absence of any overclocking features, makes it
clear that this board will end up with a decent price tag. In terms of
storage connectivity there are four SATA connectors, which makes this board perfectly
suitable for compact gaming rigs or powerful HTPC's. There is also
an M.2 slot on the back of the motherboard and furthermore you also get
onboard WiFi. In case of the color scheme we're happy to see that the
new Z97 Classic-Series from ASUS isn't as flashy as the Z87 motherboards
anymore. |
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Design
- Layout
- mini-ITX |
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Basically the
ASUS Z97I-Plus 's Layout has been well thought. There is a compact
power design located at the top end of the board. Furhtermore the straight SATA
6Gbps ports have been placed at well accessible locations. Another
thing we like are the four 4-pin fan header on the left side of the CPU socket.
A really neat little features, that's what the M.2 slot on the backside
of the motherboard is. We think it's a really good idea from ASUS to
place this slot on the backside of the motherboard, since they now have
more space for all the other features on the front. It also makes the
installation of an M.2 drive a bit easier but you have to keep in mind,
that an M.2 drive needs to be installed before mounting to motherboard.
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- Space around the CPU
socket |
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ASUS Maximus VII Ranger Preview 