Layout

With the release of Intels Z97 chipset ASUS's design team chose to bring a lot of change to the design of their classic series motherboards. ASUS was brave enough to ditch their highly successful black/blue color scheme and replace it with a one kept in black, gold and yellow. Meanwhile the worlds larges motherboard manufacturer again reworked the design of their classic series motherboards in order to make it more calm by removing yellow from the equation. They've also changed the tone of the gold color, which is now more champagne than gold.
Since this is a rather simple board there is plenty of space. Obviously this board is compliant with Intels guidelines regarding clearance around the CPU socket. There even is some margin between the CPU socket and the DIMM slots. Apart from that the build quality of the board is good and in this regard there is nothing to complain.



The ASUS Z97-K features a fully digital 4+1 phase power design. The CPU gets four phases and the memory receives current from one single phase. Apart from that there are Japanese solid state capacitors, which have been specified for 7'000 hours.



Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the Z97-K. Officially supported are DDR3 3200(O.C.) / 3100(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 enough space between the DIMM-slots and the CPU socket which means that you wont encounter compatibility problems with big coolers even when you choose to install RAM with big heatspreaders. Also supported are Xtreme Memory Profiles (XMP) in version 1.3.


On the Z97-K the PCH is being cooled by a passive cooling block. A closer look at the area where the VRM is, shows there is one additional heatsink. The design as well as the build quality is on a good level, which is typical for ASUS' Z97 series motherboards.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 14 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 15 - UC Bench
Page 3 - Features	Page 16 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 4 - Layout	Page 17 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 18 - Cinebench
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 19 - Bioshock: Infinite
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 20 - Metro Last Light
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 21 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 22 - Power Consumption
Page 10 - 3D Mark 11	Page 23 - Performance Rating
Page 11 - 3D Mark Vantage	Page 24 - Price Comparison
Page 12 - PC Mark 7	Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1