The Asus Z87-A Mainstream Motherboard

[MacClipper]

In this context, mainstream equates affordable/budget/"limb preserving" kind of pricing...

I was belatedly invited to take a hands on look at the lower end offering from Asus Z87 series of motherboards viz. the Z87-A model.


Official Page
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87A/

Features At A Glance

As can be seen from the pictures above, the aesthetics are definitely targeted more at certain members of the BRIC countries than the rest of the world.
BRIC Definition | Investopedia



Packaging

Bundle

A simple down to earth no frills functional package.


to be contd...

 

[MacClipper]

The Z87-A Mobo

Heatsinks
Or how to keep cool when the going gets hot... kindly note Indian man totally not included in package, not the guy nor his bling heatsinks.

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[MacClipper]

Notables

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[MacClipper]

UEFI Screen Samples

Test Setup

★ Asus Z87-A | 4670K@4.5GHz | 8-16GB Kingston/Corsair RAM | NiCu HK 3.0-GTX360 | Corsair LS 240 | Sapphire Toxic 270X | Corsair RM1000 ★

Ambient non-a/c temps


But before we get to any overclocking results, this silent movie seems more important and may respark interest among users who have stayed away from Asus due to its past records of long POST and boot up times.


Asus Z87-A Cold Boot Timing

Note the red flash of the mouse LED signifies mains power being applied and the whole process takes just ~40s to reach the Windows desktop on my tired worn out dirty test OS. There is also a quick single POST process, no power cycling involved despite both the CPU and RAM being overclocked, fantastic!



DPC Latency

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[MacClipper]

As this is a budget model, I started the testing pairing with appropriately similar budget KVR DDR3-1333 RAM, 2 x 4 GB overclocked to DDR3-1866 1.50V. The pairing ran great without any issues!


KVR DDR3-1333@1866


LinX AVX1 Quick Screen

AIDA64 Bench

HyperPi 32M

Cinebench 15

WinRAR

7Zip

HWBot Prime

FHD x264 Bench

*hwinfo64 v4.24 seems to have minor issues with erratic reading of the bus speed on this model resulting in erroneous max clock speeds being reported on both factory stock BIOS as well as the latest 1602

Updated AMDA00 driver 14.47.2.348
Microsoft Update Catalog



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[MacClipper]

One of my favourite real world stress testing which heavily loads the whole rig except for the GPU.

Ripbot264

Passed!

 

[MacClipper]

After testing budget RAM and overclocking with great success, time to head in the other direction and cater for those who buy boutique RAM off the shelf cos the numbers DDR3-2666 simply look too enticing...



Corsair DDR3-2666@XMP - 2 x 8 GB sticks
Note that the XMP RAM timings can be read from the AIDA64 screenshot


LinX AVX1 Quick Screen

AIDA64 Bench

HyperPi 32M

Cinebench 15

WinRAR

7Zip

HWBot Prime

FHD x264 Bench

Great, the Z87-A has no problems running at DDR3-2666 either but do note the diminishing returns of running RAM high and loose.

 

[MacClipper]

Seeking the middle ground between budget KVR and boutique XMP, we come to the sweetspot of Corsair Vengeance Pro 2 x 8 GB RAM running at DDR3-2400 CL10 1.55V


Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3-2400


LinX AVX1 Quick Screen

AIDA64 Bench

HyperPi 32M

Cinebench 15

WinRAR

7Zip

HWBot Prime

FHD x264 Bench

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[MacClipper]

Real World Stress Testing


Ripbot264

xvid4PSP

All passed with flying colours, the Z87-A scores very well with DDR3-2400 at low voltages having the best synthetic scores almost all round too. Just great for 24/7 usage!


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[MacClipper]

space reserved...

 

[MacClipper]

Impressions
It seems all too easy to be swayed by the "lower end" status accorded to this model in the wide Asus range based on its SRP... however in reality, it is a very polished motherboard by most standards viz. it o'c great for both CPU and RAM plus it is very stable without any quirks too. For most end users and gamers, this model can push clocks more than fast enough for the latest games like Battlefield 4 or COD Ghosts.

• UEFI - extremely impressive features eg. favourites, change logging, basically a toned down version of the ROG standard
• Single cold POST even when o'ced both CPU and RAM - fantastic!
• Very good overclocking capability & compatibility for both CPU & different RAM kits, even budget KVR sticks
• PCI slots work with debug cards

All in, a this is actually a very nice motherboard for its market niche. Talk about judging a book by its cover, it is unfortunately too easy to overlook this model with its simplistic name and debatable looks.



Budget Features
• Realtek LAN
• No onboard buttons
• No LED debug display
• Smallish PCB of 30.5 cm x 22.35 cm (vs usual ATX 30.5 x 24.4)



Nice Asus Features
which I like...

ASUS 5X Protection

USB 3.0 Boost
with UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) Support, 170% faster

DirectKey
Convenient hardware feature - dedicated button for direct BIOS access

Superb Asus Z87 Model Comparison Tool
helps to differentiate between the crazy myriad of Asus Z87 models
ASUS Z87 Specs Comparison Chart



Web Reviews

Overclockers.com
ASUS Z87-A Motherboard Review | Overclockers

an excellent entry-level motherboard...

Bjorn3D
ASUS Z87-A Motherboard Review | Bjorn3D.com

This board will exceed expectations as the performance at default is great, as is the potential for easy overclocking and power savings for an ultimate budget platform.

TweakDK (German)
Google Translate
Award - Score 90

HardOCP
HARDOCP - Overclocking & Conclusion - ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Motherboard Review

The ASUS Z87-A motherboard showed to be an incredibly stable piece of overclocking equipment...

Hope you have enjoyed the sharing.

 

[ASUS@SG]

Heatsinks
Or how to keep cool when the going gets hot... kindly note Indian man totally not included in package, not the guy nor his bling heatsinks.

...

Dear all,

Please take note.. this guy do not include in the package.

 

[MacClipper]

Updated post #4 with UEFI sample screenshots

 

[MacClipper]

COD Ghosts SP HW Monitoring

3DMark13
CPU only Physics Score 9230

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[ASUS@SG]

Stock cooler?

 

[MacClipper]

The Z87-A just got its new playmate of the month today...

 

[MacClipper]

• PCI slots work with debug cards
...

FYI , not all mobos with PCI slots play nicely with such debug cards


Clearly demonstrated in this photo, working all good!

 

[MacClipper]

PCI-e Idle and Load Operations
Proper functioning of low power PCI-e x1 1.1 and load x16 3.0 by both Z87-A mobo and R9 290 card, nice!


Idle

Load

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[MacClipper]

After 1 week of intensive hands on bashing on my test rig, overall impression of the Z87-A mobo is... a very good and stable model with great cost performance.

Highly recommended!

 

[MacClipper]

Asus Z87-A USB 3.0 Benches
using the Corsair Flash Voyager GS 128GB USB flash drive
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/h...voyager-gs-128gb-usb-flash-drive-4465170.html


Info

ATTO Bench

HDTune Pro Read Bench

CrystalDiskMark Bench

Wow, sequential R277 W177 - impressive? For me, it definitely is.