GTX 960 is Now Available!!!!!!!

If you are keen to get your hands on the brand new GTX 960 the go right ahead it is avalible now and I must say it is a pretty sweet card to be running. Coming in at around $289-$349au it is not too shabby, but hopefully as time goes on we will see it dramatically drop.




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MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Motherboard Now Available

MSI announces its latest motherboard, the Z97S SLI Krait Edition. Inspired by and developed in cooperation with the world's elite case modders, the new Z97S SLI Krait Edition is equipped with an arsenal of new features, improvements like NVIDIA SLI certified for enthusiasts looking to pair up multiple graphics cards.

n-board M.2 and SATA Express provides the latest storage technology with transfer speeds up to 10 Gb/s, with flexible solutions for using preferred devices. Military Class 4 provide all the stability you need through carefully selected and thoroughly tested components and materials. The Z97S SLI Krait Edition motherboard caters to those looking for a feature rich motherboard with a unique look & feel.

Perfect for case modding

Looking for that creative, one-off build? The new black & white design instantly adds a touch of class to a sophisticated build. The new MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition has been purposely designed together with the most elite case modders to meet the demands of community who craved a pure black and white motherboard.

Optimized for multiple graphics cards
MSI motherboards feature one or more PCI Express 3.0 slots, perfectly aligned and with enough space for an optimal airflow when using multiple graphics cards. This enables continued maximum graphics performance while you are enjoying the best graphics jumping off from your monitor when running NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFire gamers setup.

Push your SSD to the limit with M.2 and SATA-Express
Enjoy a blazing fast system boot up and insanely fast loading of your operating system, applications and games with MSI Z97 motherboards, offering the next generation of high speed storage support through M.2 and SATA Express. M.2 and SATA Express transfer data through a PCI-Express 2.0 x2 interface with speeds up to 10 Gb/s, making it 67% faster than SATA 3.0 solutions.

Stable and highly efficient with Military Class 4
Striving to provide consumers with the highest quality and most stable products, MSI utilizes its new Military Class 4 components for the all new MSI Z97 series. These key components have all been certified to seven MIL-810G tests to ensure stable operation under the harshest conditions.

The most advanced BIOS including OC Genie 4
In addition, MSI motherboards are also equipped with many exclusive new technologies, including the one-second overclocking OC Genie 4, the world's first graphical controlled interface Click BIOS 4 and the Command Center software that combines features such as monitoring, tuning and controlling of your hardware. The unprecedented level of flexibility and control offered in MSI's unique hard- and software design puts you in the driving seat of your motherboards configuration.

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MSI GTX 970 4GB GPU Australia Pricing

The MSI GTX 970 pricing has been revealed in Australia and it looks like we are going to be spending $519. For this we are getting the Twin Frozr V which looks amazing, I am really happy with the design, although black and red is getting played out. What we need is a black and white version. 

More information will be out soon, below is the specs. 

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MSI Teases GeForce GTX 970 Gaming - TwinFrozr V

MSI has placed a rednder photo on Facebook what clearly seems to be the new GeForce GTX 970 Gaming edition. All new is the TwinFrozr V cooler. The TwinFrozr V cooler is a more mature looking 2-tone red black cooler with two big low RPM 100 mm fans.

While no details are shared officially the MSI GeForce GTX 970 could have a factory-overclock. The GPU will be an 28 nm GM204 Maxwell generation chip, the GeForce GTX 970 is likely to have 1664 Shader processor cores, 138 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a 256-bit wide memory interface and 4 GB of memory.

That's a good looking cooler though !

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MSI show off upcoming Z97 black and white motherboard

The cat is out of the bag, MSI is coming out with a black and white themed Z97 motherboard dubbed the ‘Z97 SLI Krait Edition’. This new motherboard was born out of sheer consumer demand.

Color themed PC builds have become pretty common in recent years, something that MSI knows very well as the company has released an entire line of red and black themed “gaming” products.

This is a motherboard I would love to use as I am working on a black and white themed build at the moment, lets hope we see some more like this.

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MSI’s Flagship X99S XPOWER AC Motherboard Unveiled – Features a Beastly E-ATX Design With LN2 OC Support

It is no doubt that MSI has come a long way in the development of high-end motherboards for the desktop PC market. Their recent creations such as the XPOWER and MPOWER series are considered as some of the best products based on the Z87 and Z97 chipset which competitors couldn’t rival in terms of design and features. Today, we will be looking at MSI’s latest and upcoming creation which has got to be their most high-end and uber leet design they have ever made, meet the MSI X99S XPOWER AC Motherboard.

MSI’s Flagship X99S XPOWER AC Motherboard Unveiled

The MSI X99S XPOWER AC is featured in MSI’s flagship XPOWER Overclocking product brand which is aimed at overclockers and enthusiasts who demand nothing less than the best. The picture says it all with the motherboard enveloped in a layer of ice which shows off that it is focused towards LN2 overclockers. The motherboard has a beefy design and comes in the E-ATX form factor, something which the past XPOWER series motherboards have followed and its great to see MSI keeping the traditional alive and updated. The MSI X99S XPOWER AC features the traditional yellow and black color scheme of the XPOWER motherboards.

The board packs the LGA 2011-3 socket that is powered by dual 8-Pin connectors. Considering the X79 Big Band XPOWER II came with a 22 Phase PWM given the space restriction on these boards, the X99S XPOWER AC can feature a 24 or 12 Phase DIGITALL Power VRM, providing unparalleled amount of overclocking performance and stability to the motherboard featuring an 8-Layer PCB design, Military Class IV components with solid state capacitors, Hi-C Caps, Super Ferrite Choke while the DARK Cap on the other hand features a core design made of aluminum with a lower ESR and a life space of 10 years. MSI’s boards also use the Super Ferrite Chokes which run 35 degrees cooler, have 30% higher current capacity with 20% improvement in power efficiency and offering stability. The CPU socket is surrounded by four DDR4 DIMM slots (four on each side) which will be able to support overclocked memory beyond 3000 MHz. The first generation of DDR4 memory will feature traditional speeds of 2400 – 3000 MHz at 1.2V but as the memory design matures, we will be looking at faster DIMMs with speeds beyond 4 GHz frequency.

Expansion slots include five PCI-e 3.0 x 16 slots with ample spacing in between them to support 4-Way SLI and CrossFire graphics cards. There’s also a single PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots and a mSATA Connector to support the latest NGFF solid state drives. A 4-Pin PEG connector is place at the bottom of the board to supply additional power to the PCI-Express lanes when using multiple cards. Right next to the DDR4 DIMMs, we can spot several overclock swtiches which include OC Genie, Power On/Off, Voltage Adjustments, BCLK Increase/Lower buttons and V-Check panel to measure voltages during overclocking sessions. A diagnostic LED is fitted on the top right corner. Storage includes 10 SATA 6GBps connectors include two SATA Express ports while there’s also a right angled USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports  and an additional USB 3.0 port near the bottom side of the motherboard.

The cooling design is off the charts with four sets of heatsinks which feature heatpipe interconnected through each set transferring heat for better load dissipation. The middle heatsink has the XPOWER logo while the PCH heatsink is large enough for the X99 chipset so its may be housing other components beneath it. We can’t be so sure as to what these components might be. The strikes of yellow color on the motherboard along with the XPOWER lit up since they feature a small LED beneath them to give a nice effect. We have already seen this on the Z87 XPOWER and MSI is following the same with the X99S XPOWER AC motherboard. The board features the Audio Boost 2.0 technology featuring an ALC 1150 codec which is isolated on a separate PCB. We can’t tell what I/O ports the X99S XPOWER AC include but it does come with the same armor protection that was featured on the X99S Gaming 9 AC motherboard which we saw a few days ago.

Nevertheless, the MSI X99S XPOWER AC is truly a high-performance motherboard built for Intel’s high-end desktop platform codenamed Haswell-E which arrives on 29th August 2014. The price of the motherboard would be higher than the other boards since it falls in the enthusiast tier but boy i’ll be glad to get my hands on this board.

MSI X99S XPOWER AC and X99S Gaming 9 AC Comparison:

Source: http://wccftech.com/msis-flagship-x99s-xpower-ac-motherboard-unveiled-features-beastly-eatx-design-ln2-oc-support/#ixzz3A2WMgXNb
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MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC High-Performance Motherboard Unveiled

In addition to their X99S Black Motherboard, MSI has also unveiled their upcoming X99S Gaming 9 AC which is a high-performance motherboard built for gamers. Featuring the same DNA as MSI’s Gaming series products, the MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC is jam packed with tons of features, including a protective armor plating which goes well with the HEDT nature of this product.
MSI wowed hardware enthusiasts last week showing off what is supposed to be the first, full-black PCB board codenamed, MSI X99S Black. Today, MSI is showing off another X99 chipset based motherboard featured in their Gaming brand codenamed, MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC. This confirms that MSI will have various tier X99 boards at launch including their renowned and enthusiast tiered OC series which will probably include the X99S XPOWER. We would love to see that board in action but for now, let’s feast our eyes upon the beastly X99S Gaming 9 AC which has a extremely powerful design and feature set of its own.
Starting with the design scheme, the MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC sticks with the red and black color scheme which MSI has implemented in their Gaming series brand along with several other manufacturers who are using the same scheme. The motherboard has three sets of heatsinks, two along side the VRM, PWM and one on the PCH. The LGA 2011-3 socket is compatible with Intel’s upcoming Haswell-E processors which will be available in retail by this month’s end if reports are true or we will see them in the first week of September. The board features an 8 Phase PWM supply fitted with MSI’s Military Class IV components and powered by a 8+4 Pin power configuration. The LGA 2011-3 socket is coupled by eight DDR4 DIMM slots, four on each sides which can support overclocked DDR4 memory sticks on-the-go.
Since MSI has featured their Military Class IV components, they also use the OC Engine, Power On/Off and Reset switches which come in handy when overclocking this beast of a board. The X99 Express Chipset is seated beneath a large Gaming G-Series heatsink. The heatsink itself resembles a shield with a second shield engraved as a logo in the middle. The heatsink expands out on the top left corner in what’s being touted as some kind of engine which seems to be a source of unknown power (Dragoon Power?), we don’t know if this is related to a performance feature or an add in slot but remains to be seen. Expansion slots include five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots which storage includes 10 SATA 6 GB/s and two SATA Express ports. A small diagnostic LED is located at the bottom right hand corner of the board.
Since this is a gaming tier board, MSI will not compromise on additional features and include their Audio Boost ALC 1150 powered chipset and Killer E2200 LAN chip for better audio and networking while a large thermal armor will run across the I/O and audio isolated PCB section for better thermals. In addition to the PCI-E ports, MSI has also added an mSATA SSD slot at the top of the bottom most PCI-e slot for NGFF SSDs. MSI also teased the I/O of the board a while ago featuring a full matte black cover with red I/O ports that include the PS/2 port, 8 Super Speed USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, LAN port, 802.11 B/G/N/ AC antenna connectors and a 7.1 Channel audio jack. A USB 3.0 header is also located near the SATA ports for front USB panel. The pricing on the MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC motherboard is not known but we can see this retail at a price above $399 US or vastly greater than its Z97 counterpart. Expect more details on MSI’s next generation X99 chipset motherboards later on.
MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC High-Performance Motherboard Unveiled

Source: http://wccftech.com/msi-x99s-gaming-9-ac-highperformance-motherboard-unveiled-hedt-gaming-haswelle-processors/#ixzz39eySTCGG


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MSI X99S SLI Plus Motherboard

MSI has been slowly foraging into the black aesthetics but this is the first time they have featured a single color All-Black motherboard. The color is reminiscent of Black Gold and is a more deeper black than anything else I have seen, including ASUS’s X79 Black and EVGA X79 Dark. This aesthetic is very unique because cool black shade extends not only over the PCB but over all the components as well. Something that hasn’t really been spotted before.

MSI X99S SLI Plus Motherboard Unveiled – Features X99 Chipset with All-Black Aesthetic

The box that the motherboard ships in also follows the calm black gradient and professional look that the X99S chooses to go for. The exact specifications of the motherboard are not known but since this is a very high end motherboard you can expect all the features of a X99 Flagship motherboard. Now MSI has thankfully provided us with a high quality image of the motherboard so we can deduce some of the features ourselves. Specifications of the motherboard (by eye):

• 8 Memory Slots with Quad Channel DDR4 Support
• M.2 Sata Express Slot
• 8 Phase PWM Design
• 40 PCIE Lanes (capable of Quad SLI/Crossfire)
• 10 SATA Ports 6GB/s
• 14 USB Ports
• LGA 2011-3 Socket with x99 Chipset “Wellsburg”
• Will Support Haswell-E i7-5960X, i7-5930K and i7-5820K

To sum it up, The MSI X99S SLI Plus motherboard comes with an 8 Phase PWM supply fitted with MSI’s Military Class IV components which include military grade capacitors and MOSFETs. The LGA 2011-3 CPU socket is surrounded by eight DDR4 DIMM slots which will be able to support overclocked memory up to 3000 MHz+. The motherboard has a beastly design that is incorporated in a ATX form factor. Both black colored heatsinks cover the VRM and X99 PCH featuring a distinct design scheme. Storage includes 10 SATA 6 GB/s ports and a single SATA Express port at the bottom left corner of the board. There’s a USB 3.0 right-angled header right next to the storage outputs. Power is provided through a single 8-Pin connector and the regular 24-Pin ATX power connector.

Expansion slots include four PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots and two PCI-e 3.0 x1 slots for quad-way SLI and CrossFireX multi-GPU support. Since this is a targeted motherboard for SLI, it will be optimized for dual-GPU operation. Bottom of the slots, we can spot a OC Genie, Power On/Off and Reset switches. The I/O panel is bundled with many ports which include USB, PS/2, Gigabit LAN. MSI has used an 8 Layer PCB which provides stability and more bruteness to the design itself. The packaging is also great and simplistic and we can’t wait to test this out ourselves once Haswell-E hits the road.

Now this motherboard is not only good looking but full of features as well. The CPUs that are going to sit in that socket have a TDP of 140W and thanks to the IVR (Integrated Voltage Regulator) you can expect a rock solid supply to the die for overclocking. AVX 2.0 Instruction set is supported. The motherboard features the OC Genie technology. I cant make out the Audio Codec because the picture isnt that high res but boy does the mobo look good. The one thing I really like is that unlike previous ventures into All Black motherboards where many of the components and capacitors remained of different colors, you have a very strict and religiously followed black scheme here. This new devotion to the Black Gold aesthetic makes the old attempts look almost untidy in comparison. Needless to say, if you are going for a super high end build, you are going to want to keep an eye out for this motherboard. MSI is launching X99S SLI Plus motherboard on the 29th of August and rumor has it, along with 7 other X99 Motherboards.

Source: http://wccftech.com/msi-unleashes-x99s-sli-plus-motherboard-features-beautiful-black-gold-aesthetics/#ixzz39CAzJCFUIf you want to contact RDT please feel free to call between the hours of 9am-8pm AEST. deon@robertsondt.com Ph: 0426279566 or visit https://www.facebook.com/rdtaus

RDT's FURY 804 Build

RDT's FURY 804 build is a gaming build aimed at those who want the best out of there system, this build is made to look good while doing it. Using the Fractal design Node 804 as the chase giving you a small yet powerful system. You will not find these components cheaper anywhere in Australia.

• Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon 4.0GHz
• Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB Kit (2x8G) 1866MHz
• Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5
• MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3GB
• Samsung EVO 250GB SSD
• Seagate 1TB HDD 7,200RPM
• Seasonic 650w GOLD PSU
• Fractal Design Node 804

PRICE: $1,799 au

(No OS Installed, can be added on for extra $69au)

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The GTX Titan Z is Released!!!!

GeForce GTX TITAN and GeForce GTX TITAN Black stormed the industry by offering supercomputer class performance to enthusiast gamers, for the most demanding titles. On the desktop, they delivered unmatched gaming performance on 3840x2160 “4K” screens, whilst remaining cool and quiet with industry-leading power efficiency.

For researchers, scientists and other CUDA developers, meanwhile, GTX TITAN GPUs delivered unparalleled double-precision computational performance that can be found beneath your feet in a traditional PC chassis.

Today, we unleash the fastest and most advanced graphics card we’ve ever made: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z. A technical masterpiece, designed from top to bottom for record breaking performance, the innovatively-designed GTX TITAN Z has 12 GB of 7 Gbps video memory, 5,760 CUDA Cores, and twoGK110 GTX TITAN Black GPUs to power 3840x2160, max setting gaming experiences in the latest and greatest games.

With its efficient power usage and other advanced attributes, the GeForce GTX TITAN Z is the perfect card for Small Form Factor gaming systems equipped with a single high-performance PCI Express slot, giving you record breaking performance in an appealing, attractive chassis.

Putting this power in perspective, a single GeForce GTX TITAN Z system powered by three GTX TITAN Z graphics cards can run the same workloads as Google Brain, Google’s massive $5M neural network.

For videographers, GeForce GTX TITAN Z can accelerate real-time color correction in Davinci Resolve by 12x compared to systems running on the CPU alone, and at twice the speed as the highest-end Mac Pro.

Innovative Design, From Silicon To Shroud

To push the limits of GPU technology to new heights, GTX TITAN Z’s record breaking silicon is encased in an all-new, custom-made cooler that sits at the cutting edge of design. For starters, the exterior is comprised entirely of aluminum, providing utmost strength, durability, and heat dissipation.

The all-important centrally-mounted axial fan is 40% thicker than GTX TITAN Black’s, and was specially optimized with custom fin pitch and air entry angles to minimize noise and maximize cooling efficiency. At full speed, airflow peaks at 33 cubic feet per minute.

Beneath the fan, on an aluminum heat-dissipation plate placed above the VRAM, we’ve introduced ducted channels that improve airflow, minimizing turbulence, and improving acoustic qualities.

Flanking the fan are dual vapor chambers attached to 500 square inch extended fin stacks, featuring 60% more surface area than GTX TITAN Black, to draw heat away from components and towards the aluminum exterior.

Beneath sits the GTX TITAN Z’s dual GK110 GTX TITAN Black GPUs, and our revolutionary 12-phase dynamic power balancing technology that ensures peak performance at all times.

In the past, exactly half of the power was routed to each GPU. However, depending on variations in cooling, workload and manufacturing process, one GPU may have required more power than the other. Now, we dynamically route power to each GPU, ensuring each is fully optimized.

Lining the exterior of the GeForce GTX TITAN Z PCB are 12 Gigabytes (GB) of record-breaking 7 Gigabits Per Second (Gbps) GDDR5 Video RAM, ensuring ultra-high resolutions gaming systems and large CUDA workloads have enough memory.

The bracket is customized, too, with a unique, efficient design that maximizes the amount of air expelled.

Finally, a black, custom NVIDIA aluminum backplate transfers heat away from the rear of the card.

This unprecedented combination of premium-grade materials, leading power efficiency, and advanced design enables GTX TITAN Z to operate solely on air cooling, with the same acoustic qualities as the critically acclaimed GeForce GTX TITAN Black.

Conclusion

GeForce GTX TITAN Z is our fastest graphics card, and our most advanced, featuring new innovations that will influence future GPU generations. For 3840x2160 and 11520x2160 “4K” gamers there is no better air-cooled card.

For enthusiast small form factor systems, like GeForce GTX Battleboxes, the GTX TITAN Z is the only game in town, delivering unbeatable gaming performance for chassis that lack the required room for standard SLI configurations. If you’re looking for your own performance powerhouse, like a Battlebox, hold fast: we’re working with our partners to refresh the Battlebox program with custom-made chassis are perfect for GTX TITAN Z. For further details stay locked to GeForce.com in the coming weeks.

For researchers scientists and CUDA developers, GeForce GTX TITAN Z delivers unprecedented computational power in an ATX-compatible form factor, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional supercomputer.

Z97 is Showing up

Despite being nowhere near the official release date, it would seem that retailers have jumped the gun. We reported earlier that a retailer in China has started to list Intel’s next generation of chipset-based motherboards, but now this has spread to EMEA, APAC and North America.  The lists include detailed un-doctored images of each motherboard, with pricing.  Each retailer seems to be doing it differently, for example Newegg state that they have models ‘in stock’, whereas Aria.co.uk are listing their models for pre-order.

Currently at Newegg, we have the following available:

• USD $260: MSI Z97 MPower Max AC
• USD $250: ASUS Sabertooth Z97
• USD $200: MSI MPower
• USD $190: MSI Z97-Gaming 7
• USD $160: MSI Z97-Gaming 5
• USD $150: GIGABYTE Z97X-UD3H
• USD $150: ASUS Z97-A

Fellow overclocker Coldest from JagatReview posted this image from a CoolPC, a Taiwanese outlet:

• NTD $8990 (~ USD $300): ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark1
• NTD $6990 (~ USD $231): ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
• NTD $5990 (~ USD $198): GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H
• NTD $4990 (~ USD $165): GIGABYTE Z97X-UD3H
• NTD $4790 (~ USD $160): GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z97

And in Europe both Aria and Geizhals list the following from GIGABYTE:

• £350.23: Gigabyte Z97-Gaming G1 Wifi BK
• £265.09: Gigabyte Z97-Gaming G1
• £228.19: Gigabyte Z97-Gaming GT
• £201.25: Gigabyte Z97X-UD7-TH
• £175.42: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK
• £157.99: Gigabyte Z97X-SOC
• £149.28: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H
• £140.05: Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H-BK
• £139.96: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7
• £127.73: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97
• £122.44: Gigabyte Z97N-Gaming 5
• £119.03: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5
• £118.91: Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming 5
• £113.64: Gigabyte Z97X-UD3H
• £110.11: Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3
• £105.92: Gigabyte Z97X-SLI
• £104.81: Gigabyte Z97N-WIFI
• £96.01: Gigabyte Z97-D3H
• £83.68: Gigabyte Z97M-D3H
• £74.87: Gigabyte Z97M-DS3H
• £70.31: Gigabyte Z97P-D3

Interesting enough, these are all GIGABYTE models, and the naming of these coincides with what we believe to be MSI’s product range as well, perhaps confusing the matter.  Notice that ASRock seem missing from these lists.

It would be interesting to see if the retailers will actually ship today if you ordered.  Those specifically with ‘pre-order’ mentioned might wait until the launch date, but some seem to be freely listing ‘in-stock’.  I have a feeling that other retailers in each of these regions might start listing their stock in response.

Source: hwbot.org

Gigabyte Z97 Motherboards

This morning Gigabyte posted up a photo album on Facebook called ‘New Intel Chipset Motherboards’ that got our attention. Gigabyte didn’t disclose what chipset that these boards are using, but after looking at the quick Photoshop editing that took place we can assume that these are Intel Z97 based motherboards as that is widely known as the next Intel chipset and something already announced by Intel. The ‘shadow’ of the box also shows Z97, so it wasn’t like this is a super big secret or anything like that. We won’t be going into anything in great depth in this news post, but will show you the images that were released by Gigabyte with some quick comments.

Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK

As the box clearly shows this is the Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK. We are guessing that this is an Ultra Durable series board that is part of a new Black Edition line? We will have to figure out exactly what a Black Edition board!

Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force

Next up there is the Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force, which is clearly labeled as an overclocking motherboard on the retail box. Gigabyte went with the orange and black color scheme that was also used on the OC Force motherboard that came out with the Intel Z87 motherboard series. SOC has been used on ‘Super OverClocked’ video cards in the past, so it appears that Gigabyte is bringing this terminology to the motherboard line now.

Gigabyte Z97X-UD7 TH

Lastly, there is the Gigabyte Z97X-UD7 TH that is part of the Ultra Durable line and it comes with  support for Thunderbolt according to the retail box. The higher resolution shot of the board shows that Gigabyte went with Thunderbolt 2.

Read more at http://www.legitreviews.com/gigabyte-releases-photos-intel-z97-motherboards_139928#CaYF7U3uk55TLh7L.99

ASUS Z97 Motherboards

Finally we get to see some of the Z97 motherboard line up, there is a ton of news coming up from Gigabyte and ASUS with the leaks of there new boards. 

ASUS Maximus VII Hero
ASUS Maximus VII Gene
ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
ASUS Z97 Sabertooth Mark I Upgraded with TUF Fortifier
ASUS Goes 5-WAY Optimization and SATA Express With the Z97 Deluxe Motherboard

Featuring a new improved ROG design scheme, the ROG Maximus VII Hero will be featuring the latest LGA1150 socket powered by the latest DIGI+ VRM design. Power would be provided through an 8-Pin connector while the 24-Pin ATX connector located next to the four DDR3 DIMMs will power the rest of the mainboard. The board is equipped with overclock switches which include the OC key,  On/Off and Clear CMOS switches. Rest of the board includes three PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots (x16/x16/x8 electrical), three PCI-e 3.0 x1 and a M.2 PCIe SSD interface which will support Intel’s NGFF form factor drives.

For storage, ASUS has included 8 SATA 6 GB/s ports and a USB 3.0 header. The VRM and Z97 PCH are cooled by several heatsinks featuring the ROG emblem and theme. The ROG boards use a red and black color theme and the new boards stay loyal to the design. ASUS has also feature new technologies such as Intel Ethernet, LAN Guard, GameFirst III, Supreme FX, Sonic Radar II, KeyBot, TrueVolt USB and Gamer’s Guardian on their ROG Z97 motherboard lineup which will come in handy for connectivity and accessibility.

Next up is the Maximus VII Gene which is the M-ATX board made for overclockers. It maybe small but it retains the overclocking features of the flagship ROG Z97 motherboard, comes with two PCI-e 3.0 x16 and a PCI-e 3.0 x4 slot while storage includes 8 SATA 3 Ports. There are several I/O options an the addition of THX audio within the backpanel ports. The CPU is provided power with a 8-Pin power connector which means that the design of DIGI+ VRM is quite beefy and the cooler includes a heatpipe for superior cooling performance. The board has a M.2 PCI E SSD interface and a add-in board of some sort which is most likely the sound card since we can’t spot the Audio jack on the headers.

The ASUS Maximus VII Ranger is a new addition in terms of naming scheme to the ROG lineup and is a cut down board which features a 8 Phase DIGI+ VRM powered by an 8-Pin connector which provided juice to the LGA1150 socket. Four DDR3 DIMMs will be able to support memory with XMP profiles for OC support. We can spot some OC and LED diagnostics switches near the 24-Pin ATX connector.

Expansion includes three PCI-e 3.0 x16 (x16/x16/x4 electrical), three PCI-e 3.0 x1 and a M.2 PCIe SSD slot. Storage includes six SATA 6 GB/s ports while the board uses a similar heatsink design as the Maximus VII Hero.

The flagship TUF series motherboard which will be introduced in ASUS’s Z97 motherboard lineup is the Z97 Sabertooth Mark I fitted with the latest TUF Fortifier shielding which protects the board from damage and enhances the cooling performance. Much of the details are hidden since we  can’t spot what’s underneath the TUF armor but we can spot an 8-Pin power connector that supplies juice to the LGA 1150 socket which itself is connected with a beefy DIGI+ supply. Four DDR3 DIMM slots seem to feature some thermal guard to enhance cooling for the DIMMs. The Storage options include 8 SATA 6 GB/s ports and a USB 3.0 header.

Expansion slots include three PCI-e 3.0 x16 and three PCI-e 3.0 x1, the mPCIe M.2 slot is hidden beneath the TUF armor and users will have to remove the armor first to equip NGFF form factor SSDs on the board. The board will feature a ton of tech support from ASUS but we don’t really know much at the moment.

The last motherboard of the series is the Z97 Deluxe which is the most feature packed board we have seen yet in ASUS’s Z97 motherboard lineup equipped with a large heatpipe heatsink design and powered through dual 8-Pin connectors. The CPU socket is powered by a 16 Phase DIGI+ VRM which features both TPU and EPU technology support. Storage options include 6 SATA 6 GB/s and a single SATA Express port which will enable faster transfer speeds for next generation SSDs.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/asus-z97-motherboard-unveiled-rog-maximus-vii-hero-rog-maximus-vii-gene-rog-maximus-vii-ranger-z97-sabertooth-mark-z97-deluxe-pictured/#ixzz2ziIc1f34