Layout

With the release of Intels Z87 chipset ASUS's design team chose to bring quite some 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 color scheme 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 they're using a champagne-ish color.
Regarding the layout ASUS once again put quite a few features onto a standard ATX PCB. 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-A features a fully digital 8+2 phase power design. The CPU gets eight phases and the memory gets a stable current supply from two individual phases. Apart from that there are high-quality, Japanese solid state capacitors, which have been specified 5000 hours.



Totally you'll find two DIMM-slots on the Z97-A. 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-A the PCH is being cooled by a passive cooling block. A closer look at the area where the VRM is, shows there are two additional heatsinks. The design as well as the build quality is on a very good level, which is typical for ASUS' Z97 series motherboards.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 4 - Layout
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 5 - Connectors and I/O
Page 3 - Features	Page 6 - Conclusion