ASUS 5X Protection |
In this case the
ASUS marketing department has been thinking about a new name for a set
of features. "5X Protection" is the word they associate with the
following things. First of all there is a six phase Digi+ power design,
which is built around an ASP1103 chip. Second, you get ASUS DRAM OCP,
which provides short circuit protection. Other than that there is the so
called ESD guard that features additional protection regarding
electrostatic discharge. Last but not least we find capacitors, which
have been rated for 5000 hours. Overall this sounds like a reasonable
featureset for a high-end Mini-ITX motherboard. |
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ASUS Fan Xpert 3 |
ASUS Fan
Xpert 3 provides customizable settings for fans that have been attached
directly to the onboard fan headers. With the Fan Auto Tuning feature,
ASUS Fan Xpert 3 automatically detects and tweaks all fan speeds and in
the end reduces unwanted noise. |
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M.2 Support |
The
new Z97 ITX motherboard from ASUS features an M.2 slot moved to the back
part of the board this board can be euqipped with SSDs in M.2 format. M.2 is wired directly to the Z97 PCH via two PCI Express lanes,
therefore offering x2 bandwidth. In other words up to 10 Gbps can be pushed over the bus through this slot, almost doubling performance of SATA-III. |
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Crystal Sound 2 |
Also
the classic series from ASUS are getting beefed-up audio meanwhile. In
this case there is an EMI shield in place for the audio chip and the
circutry is isolated from the rest of the motherboard. Other than that
ASUS is using high quality capacitors, which should be offering warm
sound. |
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| EPU |
EPU
automatically detects the current system load and moderates power usage.
It offers a system-wide energy optimization and is able to reduce fan
noise. |
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ASUS Z97I-Plus Review 