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  • kamochi - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Is the video out of sync for anyone else?
  • slayernine - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    It gets out of sync past halfway through the video.
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Yes, it is. Let me see if I can get that fixed.
  • Ryan Smith - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Alright, that should fix it. Sorry about that, guys.
  • Meekers - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Could we get a break from the barrage of Haswell related reviews for some Richland benchmarks?
  • richardginn - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Meekers IS RIGHT!!!!!
  • Space69Monkey - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Richland is just a Trinity refresh with a Gesture software package. CPU and GPU are both the same, just run a little faster in frequency. This is why it's not really news.
  • Meekers - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Supposed to be much lower power and much better use of boost states to stay at higher frequencies longer. Would love to see benchmarks against a i3-3225 in a few games and general use applications. Do not need a whole review, just enough to see if Richland accomplished what AMD claimed and is worth the price premium they are looking for.
  • richardginn - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    BS Space69Monkey!!! This is a news worthy item since it is a whole new batch of CPU'S from AMD. Release the benchmarks since the chips are already for sale at Newegg.com.

    Even Haswell was a refresh of Intel's last offering.
  • Flunk - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Haswell is not a refresh, it's an updated architecture. The GPU is very different and the CPU is also improved.
  • richardginn - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    The only GPU that is different is the IRIS pro stuff. Not that HD4600 crap that can't even compete with the AMD Trinity offering.
  • Space69Monkey - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Not really. Until there is proof that Richland is anything more than thunder to spoil the Haswell launch, to me its just a good marketing ploy. The hardware support for gestures is its biggest news story so it could grab more of the mobile laptop market. If they missed the Kaveri launch i could see being upset...but Haswell is a much bigger fish to fry.
  • Hector2 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Yeah, right. This "refresh" just added another year to the distance between Intel & AMD
  • K_Space - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    +1
    I was very much expecting a desktop Richland review for the HTPC space given: 1) the recent Haswell for HTPC piece and how expensive Haswell is 2) Richland desktop has launched, I'd have imagined it'd be a worthy piece of news.
    Instead I see Haswell for 1440p?!!! seriously?!
  • kallogan - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    yay a goldy shiny mozarboard.
  • kmi187 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Could not agree more, it's almost like it's the only thing that matters.

    Aside from Richland I would also like to see a proper Asus Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 review.
  • Sabresiberian - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Yeah, I don't see why we can't continue with Haswell until we get through all of the related new hardware for it. Anandtech will get to Richland and report the facts about it in due time.

    I'd rather see them do a thorough job on one platform, then switch to the other and do a thorough job with it, than try to swap back and forth in their testing labs just to make AMD users happy (or if they had done Richland first, Intel users).
  • Sabresiberian - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/7028/amd-richland-de...
  • b3nzint - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    awful color scheme. ecs? when do i get all black or all white?
  • mwildtech - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    +1 Black and White please!!!
  • lalutte - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    +2
    Black and white would look so good or at least go plain metal on some pieces. Gold is hideous.
  • Omega215D - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    I wonder if the SOYO Dragon color scheme will ever make a comeback. I never really cared for it much but at least it was unique.
  • Montago - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Agree - Gold is hideous...

    I loved the Blue colors from my previous 3 Asus mobos (one of them BlackPearl though)

    but, who cares, my box don't have a window and ill probably get a ROG next time
  • Sm0kes - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Is it safe to say Thunderbolt is officially dead?

    With every manufactures lineup release, it's clear that implementation is non-existent.
  • eanazag - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    It is not dead. There was a Gigabyte board in the video that had two ports. The problem is weak Windows support for it. I think we should expect to see it in Windows 8.1/ or .2 tablet configurations for docking in the future. USB 3 is okay, but gaming just doesn't happen on it. Only good for 2D.
  • critical_ - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Anandtech needs to do a dedicated post on the Thunderbolt issue.

    I picked up a new Intel (Haswell) Core i7-4770K. I am looking for a Thunderbolt equipped motherboard to finish the build. My basic preferences are Intel NIC (dual NIC is prefered. No Realtek, Killer, etc. NICs.), FireWire, and at least one Thunderbolt port (dual is preferred). This is what I have found so far:

    Intel DZ87KLT-75K
    Pros: Dual Intel NICs, FireWire, (single) Thunderbolt, and Intel reliability. Many of the first Haswell "overclocking" reviews were conducted using this board. I can get the same discount on this board as I did on the CPU.
    Cons: I need to get confirmation regarding whether the on-board Lucid (VirtuMVP?) solution allows a discrete graphics card (dGPU) to utilize the Thunderbolt port (Intel integrated graphics through Thunderbolt as an only option is a non-starter). This item is the part of the last Intel motherboard series before their board division is absorbed elsewhere. Popularity of this motherboard is still too early to gauge but I prefer widely bought items because of the community's ability to address issues and provide unsupported enhancements.

    Asus Z87-Deluxe/Dual
    Pros: Dual Thunderbolt. It’s the top-of-the-line Asus mainstream motherboard so chances are that a community of owners will form on one of the forums.
    Cons: No FireWire support. Dual NIC but one is Realtek (the other is Intel). I don’t need or want WiFi, Bluetooth, or NFC but I’m certain they can be disabled in the BIOS even though I’m still paying for them. There is no mention of Lucid VirtuMVP support in the specifications so I, again, wonder if the integrated Thunderbolt ports will display dGPU output instead of iGPU-only.

    Asus Z87-Expert
    Pros: (Single) Thunderbolt. Asus brand.
    Cons: No FireWire support. Single NIC. I don’t need or want WiFi, Bluetooth, or NFC. There is no mention of Lucid VirtuMVP support.

    Asus ROG motherboards
    Pros: ASUS brand.
    Cons: No FireWire support. All are single NIC. All of these have a TB_HEADER port if/when Asus releases their ThunderboltEX add-on card, we’ll get Thunderbolt support. People have been waiting for almost a year for this add-on card to be released for Asus Z77 and H77 boards. Rumor has it that there were problems with validation. Whether those problems are technical or political (aka profit-related) is up to anyone’s interpretation.

    Gigabyte Z87X-UD7 TH & Z87X-UD5 TH
    Pros: Both the Z87X-UD7 TH and Z87X-UD5 TH have dual Thunderbolt.
    Cons: No FireWire support. Both have a single Intel NIC. The wireless features are unneeded. dGPU Thunderbolt support hasn’t been clarified. The biggest issue is that neither is available at the moment.

    ASRock Z87 Extreme9/ac
    Pros: Dual Thunderbolt. Dual Intel NIC.
    Cons: No FireWire support. I need a rock-solid performer and ASRock, like any other brand, has its detractors. The problem is those detractors are mostly in my circle of tech friends so I’m hesitant to give it a try. The wireless options are useless to me. I can’t find it for immediate purchase anywhere.

    Supermicro C7Z87-OCE
    Pros: Supermicro reliability. Dual Intel NIC (with support for teaming!). Single Thunderbolt. FireWire. Supermicro support has confirmed this board supports CPU and memory overclocking. It also works with Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility). It feels like they used Intel's reference design above. Supermicro also has a Xeon E3-1200v3 series board that looks just like this with Thunderbolt support.
    Cons: Lucid VirtuMVP support isn't mentioned. Availability is an issue.

    EVGA
    I received an email yesterdat that EVGA has no plans on releasing a Thunderbolt-equipped Z87 motherboard but they could offer one in the future.

    As this point, no motherboard on this list is perfect.

    Quite frankly, I'm not sure why. Blaming poor Windows support is fine but it has to start somewhere. Could this be a perfect example of both the chicken and the egg problem in tech AND the fact that Apple's Thunderbolt push has failed to inspire the tech world to produce products? Either way, I'm stuck. At this point I'm leaning towards the Intel motherboard but if I give up Thunderbolt then there are a lot more options that I can buy today.
  • mwildtech - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    I really like Asus boards, but this 80's gold stuff is killing me.....
  • cyberguyz - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Anand,

    Your mic seems a little bit directional. JJ is nice and loud, but half the time you are sounding like you are speaking from the back of the room.
  • Affectionate-Bed-980 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    i kinda wish this was text for me to read, especially when at work.
  • adityanag - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    If you turned the mic 90 degrees ( so the knobs faced you) the sound would be much better.. that mic sounds like it has a 120 degree field, and you (Anand) are sitting outside that.

    I'm sure people who know everything about that mic will now tell me how wrong I am :)
  • madwolfa - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    ASUS went gypsy-style. What's wrong with red or black?
  • hpascoa - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    As someone who is considering building a new system this Summer using a Haswell processor and an Asus ROG board, I have a couple of questions:

    1) Back in April it was widely reported that there is a bug on the 8-series chipsets that causes USB 3.0 devices to fail when the system wakes up from some of the sleep modes. Intel released information that a new stepping of the chipset would be necessary to fix the problem. Since then I haven't heard any more news about it. Did Intel release the new stepping in time for launch, or is the first batch of motherboards shipping with this bug? And if so, when are they supposed to start shipping with the new chipset revision?

    2) Having checked out a few online retailers such as NewEgg, Amazon, etc. today, it seems the Asus mainstream and TUF series are already available for purchase at this time, however the ROG series are not available yet. When is availability of these boards expected in the retail channels, specificaly the Maximus VI Formula?
  • DanNeely - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    The first fixed chip sets will go to oems in July. After that it's a question of how long it takes them to flush the retail channel of older boards.

    http://www.legitreviews.com/news/15374/
  • JDG1980 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Expecting early adopters to live with this bug is really not acceptable. For people who regularly use hibernate mode instead of shutting down, this is a real show-stopper. They should have delayed the launch until the updated chipsets were ready, and eaten the loss of recalling the defective parts.
  • critical_ - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Supposedly, Intel's flagship Haswell motherboard already comes with the revised chipset.
  • IntelUser2000 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Gigabyte reported to 4Gamer.net that the issue doesn't appear with all USB devices and depends on the controller of the device. Also, its fixable by a Microsoft hotfix.

    The 1-chip Haswell platform with the U and Y series don't exhibit the issue at all, as Intel addressed it well before launch.
  • JonnyDough - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    I actually like the gold. Red clashes with blue cases and blue lights. Gold and black can go with just about anything. If it were up to me, I'd utilize some more gray, or even try WHITE PCB with black slots. Why? Because it looks great under a UV light, or with color cathodes/LEDs.
  • rituraj - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Finally someone who likes gold. But I wish there were other gold themed components like RAM heat spreaders, coolers etc. to go with it, because a slight imbalance in the color theme will ruin the whole thing.
    Perhaps a Golden Cooler Master Cosmos III, or am I asking too much??
  • LancerVI - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    I've always been an Asus man. Always. However, I'm shallow. I don't use the RoG boards because I'm not into red. Their blue deluxe boards were always perfect for me. Again, I'm shallow, their must also be form with my function.

    As much as I like wearing gold, these boards are garish. I went Gigabyte, let alone any other manufacturer besides Asus, for the first time....well, ever. I'll be first to admit it was all over the color.

    You see. I'm shallow.
  • LancerVI - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    *there not their

    NEED EDIT
  • superflex - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    You were right the first time. It should be "Their"
    No edit button for you!
  • LancerVI - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    No. I needed edit.

    "Again, I'm shallow, their must also be form with my function."

    See?
  • JonnyDough - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    My comments:

    I love ITX. Can't wait to rock LAN parties with such a tiny box. What I want to see on ITX boards:

    High quality audio. Single gigabit NIC is fine. 4 USB ports is fine too, I still have no use for USB3.0. Overclocking is pointless to me considering the power in today's CPUs, but it's a fine feature for those who want it. It was fun and made sense on Athlon, but today it doesn't really get me much more performance.

    Longevity is great, considering that I won't be upgrading nearly as often (I made the jump from Opteron 185 OC'd - equal to a low end Core 2 Duo up to a Core i5 IVB and never really missed much). I'd love to start seeing seven year warranties. For a high quality ITX board with a great warranty I would spend $200. For a typical ATX board I won't spend more than around $100.

    It's good to see things like PS/2 ports finally being dropped off motherboards more and more. Those are so archaic they have cavemen laughing. I posted this in the Gigabyte preview: "Orange and neon green are fine, but obviously won't meet everyone's tastes. What we need are options. Make PCI-E and memory headers customizable/swappable. It's one more thing to sell us, and it gives us options. Try adding a bit of LED accent lighting to the board, just to give it a cool factor. Let users push a button to switch between colors. :)"
  • sna1970 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    use usb sound cards for itx ... or just use the optical sound and get a receiver ... The sound quality will be determined by the Reciever you choose when you use optical out , not the card. all optical out give the same signal regardless of which sound card is being used. the sound card/onboard sound changes the digital to analoge, but if you dont change to analoge from the sound card , and use the optical/digital out , the qualit of the reciever you buy is the important.

    so there is no need actually to ask for good onboard sound ...
  • Calinou__ - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    dat audiophile.

    Fun fact: dedicated sound cards are useless since 2006 or so.
  • crimson117 - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    JJ - can you please produce a hierarchy / venn diagram of the various ASUS Z87 boards on the market?

    I always want to buy / recommend ASUS motherboards, as I believe you put a lot of thought into them, but then I end up going with other vendors after getting lost in your confusing product lineup :-/
  • Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Here's a table showing the mainstream product stack features in a single table:

    http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/246/z87features...

    -Raja
  • dgingeri - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Thoroughly disappointing. I looked these boards over on NewEgg, and the I/O area just looks mostly empty, with so few USB ports, while there are tons of headers at the bottom of the board. The slot layouts don't make much sense, either. I'm really disappointed with these new boards, even if I was interested in getting one of those boring Haswell chips. I'm disappointed in the processor. I'm disappointed in the chipset features. I'm disappointed with the performance. This is going to be another decade, or maybe even more, where we will get no technological advancement, like the early P4 days. Intel sucks.
  • ghitz - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    haha nice rant for the day with some truth.
  • Rovek - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Asus Deluxe is ugly...great features but i can`t look at it
  • Panzerknacker - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Also out of sync for me, and I recommend the use of some softer materials in the recording room since the sound becomes ugly like this.

    Also waiting for Richland benchmarks, Haswell kinda seems more like a notebook thing, those desktop Haswell chips show only power consumption improvements and barely any performance gains, not interesting for me.
  • b3nzint - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    i heard haswell is even hotter than ivb. can u make a review on that issue pls.
  • Rajinder Gill - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Haswell has the iVR (on-die voltage regulation), so it's Ivy temps plus say 10 Celsius. The heat of the power circuitry has to go somewhere :)
  • macmuchmore - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    I am still waiting for the ThunderboltEX card for my P8Z77-v Deluxe - Totally feel like I was baited and switched because of this. I would never have bought this motherboard if they had not said it would be available. Total BS. LOVE ASUS, but the way they have handled the ThunderboltEX is AWFUL!!!
  • macmuchmore - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link

    Oh - and I have tried to contact ASUS many times over the past year and half the time they do not even know what the ThunderboltEX card is... just awful!
  • sna1970 - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    lol you are an idiot if you think they will connect you to their tech team .. you were just talking with an operator ....

    They do know , but the people who know , wont waste their time checking 1 billion emails per day.

    be real ok ?
  • imaheadcase - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    I've never heard it called A-sus, most people I know pronounce it "Uh, sus".
  • Dahak - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    I would not call this a lineup, it does not really talk about the differences between the boards. other than ROG,TUF, and mainstream.

    I would call this more a Z87 Motherboard lineup feature look.

    I hope there will be a more traditional lineup review looking at or comparing the boards
  • mharding - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Will there be a transcription so that I can read it quickly instead of watching it slowly?
  • Rikkely - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    http://www.youtube.com/html5

    Join that trial and you can play the video at 1.5x or 2x speed.
    Access those settings via the cogwheel, same menu as quality settings.

    yw.
  • daos - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    OMG his voice drives me crazy. Its so monotone and he is extremely difficult to listen to. He needs to simplify his vocabulary a bit. He can easily say a lot of the same things using much simpler wording. /endofrant

    otherwise, excellent review anand
  • HisDivineOrder - Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - link

    Gold < Blue.

    Gold < Red.

    Gold < Gray.

    Gold looks so tacky it's not even funny. Let's hope Asus gets their sense back and returns to the trustworthy, awesome blue. Next thing you know they'll go insane like Razer and make everything glow green.
  • Ramon Zarat - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link

    This site need to implement self regulating spam flagging... I can't stand those parasites.
  • rjd99 - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link

    I would love to see the evaluation of differences in Asus Z87-Deluxe/Dual and the Asus Z87-Deluxe
  • Rajinder Gill - Monday, June 10, 2013 - link

    The Dual has Thunderbolt and comes bundled with the NFC box. :)
  • C433 - Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - link

    Is there also a m-ITX roundup planned? I would love to see this.

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