Layout
At a
first glance the ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer is a really good looking and simple
motherboard. The manfucaturer decided to
go for a combination of black and red. In fact the PCB is kept in black
entirely and the coolers received some red spots every here and there. The layout is well thought and there
is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install large coolers
without an issue. The fact that there are SATA connectors which have been angled
by 90 degrees allow an easy installation of oversized graphics cards.
The ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer comes with a digital 8+2 phase power design. The
CPU gets eight phases and the memory can rely on two phases for stable current
delivery. As we already mentioned on the features page, this board comes with a
digital power design, which is standard already with mid-range motherboards
these days. Compared to their Republic of Gamers portfolio ASUS is saving a few
bucks on the power design, but that doesn't mean the PWM is underdesigned.
Totally you'll find four
DIMM-slots on the Z97-Pro Gamer. Officially supported are DDR3 3200(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) /
2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.) /
2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333 MHz. There is
engough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you
won't run into issues with large coolers even if you choose to
install memory with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles
(XMP) in version 1.3.
PCH as well as the current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via passive
heatsinks. Apart from that the blocks are big enough to provide decent cooling
and also the design is once again really good looking.
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