Connectors and I/O
Totally
ASUS equipped the Z97-A with four angled SATA ports, which can be
found below the 24-pin ATX power connector. Apart from that there is also a SATA
Express connector as well as an M.2 slot. Therefore it should be no problem
whatsoever to equip office PCs as well as multimedia PCs with plenty of drives. We
also like that there are different types of storage connectors, which is definitely
up-to-date with todays standards. What you won't find with this board are practical onboard
power- and reset-buttons as well as a debug display.
Totally you'll find
six fan header on the Z97-A which is more than enough, to provide a well
equipped office or multimedia PC with fresh air. ASUS decided to use 4-pin PWM headers in all
six cases.
Therefore it is possible to adjust rotation speeds in the BIOS or in Windows.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASUS
equipped the Z97-A with four USB 3.0/2.0 ports,
two USB 2.0/1.1 ports, one gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI connector, a
DisplayPort output, a VGA out, a DVI out as well as an optical out and an
analogue audio panel.