ASUS Announces Z170 Series Motherboards

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (6th August, 2015) — ASUS today announced a complete lineup of Z170 motherboards designed to maximize the potential of 6th-generation Intel® Core™ processors. The high-end ROG and mid-range Pro Gaming motherboards, feature-rich ASUS Signature, and TUF Series motherboards feature exclusive technologies that ensure better performance stability, ease-of-use, and comprehensive upgrade options. These motherboards are also compatible with the first 100W USB 3.1 power delivery (UPD) front panel.

ROG prides itself in combining exceptional performance with stunning design. The ROG Maximus VIII Series dominated the 2D, Legacy, and Unigine Heaven benchmarks – setting eight world records and achieving 12 first global places.

The Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 brings a completely new design language to TUF motherboards, with its futuristic battle-inspired sleek and stealthy Thermal Armor finished in black and metal gray color — a powerful statement of style and strength. TUF ICe, Thermal Radar 2, and TUF Detective 2 deliver complete and customizable system cooling and monitoring that can be controlled via Thermal Radar software or mobile devices. The military-grade components used in TUF motherboards undergo the industry’s most-punishing tests to ensure reliable 24/7 durability.

“With over 500 million motherboards sold, ASUS is the No.1 motherboard maker and as always keen to offer breakthrough, easy-to-use, stable and trusted motherboards to the market. We are proud to introduce our complete Z170 Series motherboard lineup for extreme performance and the best user experience,” said Jackie Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Sales, ASUS Open Platform Business Group.

Innovative overclocking-friendly technologies

ASUS Pro Clock technology has a dedicated base-clock (BCLK) generator designed for 6th-generation Intel® processors for overclocked base clock frequencies of up to 400MHz and beyond. It works in tandem with the ASUS TurboV Processing Unit (TPU) to enhance voltage and base-clock overclocking control, and boosts performance up to 5.2GHz or more.

Second-generation ASUS T-Topology takes DDR4 memory overclocking to new heights. A customized trace layout reduces crosstalk and coupling noise to ensure time-aligned signal transfer for improved memory stability and compatibility. There is also enhanced DDR3/3L support on select motherboards for additional flexibility and compatibility.

5-Way Optimization, another ASUS-exclusive technology, dynamically optimizes essential aspects of the system based on real-time use, ensuring superb processor performance, everyday energy savings, ultra-stable digital power, cool and quiet fans and networking and audio settings that are tailored for preferred apps — perfect for gaming, entertainment, productivity or just about anything else. This latest iteration now includes a dedicated water-pump header so users can tweak pump speeds via the UEFI BIOS or Windows.

Record-breaking ROG performance

The ROG Maximus VIII Series has set eight world records (WR) and achieved 12 global first places (GFP) in benchmarks. It achieved the best CPU frequency for an i5-6600K processor, with a frequency of 6.808GHz; and the highest reference clock (BCLK) with a frequency of 552.27MHz. Other records are highlighted in the table below. 

Category	Benchmark	New score	WR/GFP*
2D benchmarks	Cinebench R11.5 - 4x	15.83	GFP
	Cinebench R15 - 4x	1410	GFP
	GPU Pi for CPU 1B - 4x	4mn 01sec 055ms	GFP
	Geekbench3 - single core	6946	WR
	Geekbench3 - x4	27271	GFP
	HWBOT Prime - 4x	7675.29	GFP
	PiFast	9 sec 470ms	WR
	wPrime 32M - 4x	3sec 152ms	GFP
	wPrime 1024M - 4x	1mn 38sec 967ms	GFP
	XTU - 4x	1712	GFP
Category	Benchmark	New score	WR / GFP
Legacy benchmarks	Aquamark
	1x GPU	596039	WR
	3DMark2001 SE
	1x GPU	194767	WR
	3DMark03
	1x GPU	294423	GFP
	2x GPU	307658	WR
	3DMark05
	1x GPU	78917	WR
	3Dmark06
	1x GPU	61613	WR
Category	Benchmark	New score	WR / GFP
3D Benchmark	Unigine Heaven - Xtreme preset
	1x GPU	7619.962	GFP
	2x GPU	9511.916	WR

Unparalleled connectivity: first 100W UPD front panel & onboard U.2 connector for Z170 platform

The new Z170 Series motherboards feature onboard USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and Type-C ports to provide users with data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbit/s. On top of that, ASUS also offers the first 100W UPD front panel with two USB 3.1 Type-C ports. The upcoming Maximus VIII Extreme will be the first Z170 motherboard to feature an onboard U.2 connector along with Thunderbolt 3 support. Future models, such as the Z170-Premium and Z170-Pro motherboards, will feature Thunderbolt 3 and Intel USB 3.1 support respectively. The entire Z170 motherboard range supports the latest PCI Express® and M.2 NVM Express SSDs to deliver 32Gbit/s data transfer speeds. 

All motherboards feature either 5X Protection II or Gamer’s Guardian, ensuring the finest components, exceptional circuit design, and exacting standards. The motherboards also feature LANGuard, overvoltage protection, precise digital power, overcurrent protection and a stainless-steel back I/O to ensure product quality, durability, and all-round protection.

Further details of the full range of Z170 Series motherboards can be found in the individual press releases distributed with this release. 

AVAILABILITY & PRICING

ASUS Z170 Series motherboards will be available in Malaysia in Mid of August 2015.