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ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Dual motherboard Review

2013-06-19T08:46:40+00:00

I managed to get a chance to test the latest Z87 from ASUS which is the Z87 Deluxe/Dual ,it comes with the a new features like DIP4 and NFC Unit with it, a new Gold Color Design and a 16 DIGI+ VRM for Overclocking and performance wise, lets check out the review.

Features:

• Dual Intelligent Processors 4 with 4-Way Optimization
• 4-Way Optimization - One Click and Done! Top-up Performance, Efficiency, Digital Power, and System Cooling
• NFC EXPRESS- One-tap Get Your PC Going!
• Dual Thunderbolt onboard - Blistering-fast Data Transfers and Daisy Chain Expansion
• Wi-Fi GO! - Connect Your Life – The Perfect Fusion of Desktop, Smartphones and Pads
Specifications:

The specification of the products can be found = http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Z87DELUXEDUAL/#specifications

The Box and the Packaging:
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3032/if9f.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3933/i4ev.jpg

The box Design changed to Gold Style where the Motherboard Features shows on the fronts of it and the Specifications on the back side of it.
Inside the box i found the following:
• ASUS Q-Shield
• User’s manual
• 6 x SATA 6Gb/s cable’s
• 1 x NFC EXPRESS box with 2 extra USB 3.0 ports
• NFC EXPRESS tag
• ASUS NFC EXPRESS utility
• 1 x ASUS 2T2R dual band Wi-Fi moving antennas (Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac compliant)
• 1 x SLI bridge
• 1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)

The Motherboard:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2240/5ooy.jpg

ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Dual is a full ATX motherboard on a Gold/Black color Theme, the Solid Capacitor on Board are actually 5K which 2.5x long lifespan with excellent durability, they are good for overall Performance use and overclocking stability

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/4402/2d24.jpg

The new Intel 1150 CPU Socket Section on ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Dual motherboard can support Haswell CPU’s Like Core i7 4770K and they are controlled by intelligent Processors 4 which is the new ASUS DIGI+ VRM - 16 Phase digital power design to provide overclocking and efficiency options to it.
ASUS got DIGI+ EPU and DIGI+ VRM Chipset near the CPU Socket, the chipset function is to regulates the required voltages on board when the system in on idle or load, this way the motherboard saves power in order to reach up to 80% power efficiency to save money .
In addition to the special Chipset on the motherboard is the ASUS’s TPU Chipset, Turbo Processor Unit which allows the motherboard to be overclocked as high as possible by optimizing the System on board options to be faster up to 37% in order to reach to stability the required stable voltages.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8066/p6na.jpg
there are 4x DDR3 DIMMs on Board that can holds up to 32GB total RAM with DDR3 3000MHz Speeds that is powered by ASUS Industry leading Digital 2 Phase DRAM Power Design

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/7952/6bid.jpg

the motherboard have 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports in Yellow color which is controlled by Intel Z87 and 4xSATA ports 6Gb/s ports in Dark Brown color which is controlled by ASMedia ASM1061 Controller , all on board SATA are 6Gb/s Speeds.
You can see the TPU and EPU Switch’s , the TPU is Turbo Processor unit where is enable automatic overclock , while the EPU “Efficiency Processor Unit” switch will allow to the motherboard to use low voltage when its idle in order to save energy.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1875/0doo.jpg

there are 3x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots which can run as single x16 or dual x8 or x8/x4/x4 in case of Crossfire or SLI use and 4x PCIe 2.0 x1 Slots which running on X4 mode .
the motherboard comes with 2x Post Display just after the last PCI-e Slot so you can see a four digit code to know what’s the current status of the motherboard, and in addition you can use the Power and Reset button next to it in case you have a bench setup that you are going to use.

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/1964/kps.jpg
the Rear I/O Panel got 2 x Thunderbolt port(s), 1 x HDMI,2 x LAN (RJ45) port(s),6 x USB 3.0 (blue),4 x USB 2.0 ,1 x Optical S/PDIF out,6 x Audio jack(s),1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)and 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi GO! Module (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.0/3.0+HS)
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/5223/8j6t.jpg
The NFC Express that comes with the ASUS Z87 Deluxe/Dual motherboard is very useful, users now can login to windows using the NFC Tag that comes with it or any Programmable NFC tag to do the same or to assign it to launch a specific application

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Review

2013-05-23T06:17:03+00:00

Features:

• Dual Intelligent Processors 3 with New DIGI+ Power Control - Full Hardware Control. Total Performance Tuning.
• Remote GO! - One-stop PC Remote Control and Home Entertainment
• USB 3.0 Boost - Faster USB 3.0 Transmission with UASP
• Network iControl - Real-time Network Bandwidth Control
• DirectKey - A Dedicated Button to Access the BIOS Directly
• USB BIOS Flashback - Easy, Worry-free USB BIOS Flashback with Hardware-based Design
• UEFI BIOS - Flexible & Easy BIOS Interface
• Windows 8 Ready – Assured Compatibility

Specifications:

The specification of the products can be found @ ]http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A99FX_PRO_R20/#specifications]HERE[/url]

The Box:
http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/6986/201305073296.jpg
The box Design is an ASUS Standard Design which shows the Motherboard Features on the fronts and the Specifications on the back side of it.
The Packaging:

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/3774/201305073297.jpg

Inside the box I have found the following:

• User’s manual
• I/O Shield
• 4 x SATA 6 GB/s cable(s)
• 1 x SLI bridge(s)
• 1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
The Motherboard:

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/8263/201305073301.jpg

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 is a full ATX motherboard on a Blue/Black Theme, the Solid Capacitor on Board are actually 5K, they are good for overall Performance use, overclocking stability and longer life operation for the motherboard , AM3+ CPU Socket Section on the M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherboard can support AMD AM3+ CPU up to 8 core and 140w, and they are controlled by intelligent Processors III which is Industry leading Digital 6 + 2 Phase CPU Power Design to provide overclocking and efficiency options to it.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/4950/201305073303.jpg
there are 4x DDR3 DIMMs on Board that can holds up to 32GB total RAM with DDR3 2133MHz Speeds that is powered by ASUS Industry leading Digital 2 Phase DRAM Power Design

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/6015/201305073304.jpg

the motherboard have 5 x SATA 6Gb/s ports in gray color which is controlled by AMD SB950 and 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports in navy blue color which is controlled by ASMedia ASM1042 Controller , all on board SATA are 6Gb/s Speeds.

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9943/201305073305.jpg

there are 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots which can run as single x16 or dual x8 in case of Crossfire or SLI use, 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots which running on X4 mode , 1x Standard PCI Slot and 1x PCIe x1 slot

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6329/201305073306.jpg
the Rear I/O Panel have 1 x PS/2 keyboard (purple),1 x PS/2 mouse (green),1 x eSATA,1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s),2 x USB 3.0 ,8 x USB 2.0 (one port can be switched to USB BIOS Flashback),1 x Optical S/PDIF out,6 x Audio jack(s)

Test Benchmark setup:

The following below is testing setup:
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9388/testnyj.jpg

Benchmarks:

I also tried to overclock the CPU and we found we hit the wall at 4.4 GHz Speed and the results were the following.
http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/7839/benup.jpg

Conclusions:

ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 Motherboard is a fair Deal for an AMD AM+ socket End-users, where the 6+2 DIGI+ VRM Feature helps to make the motherboard perform much better in overclocking and Stability. Features of the M5A99FX PRO R2.0 are good to have, like the Remote GO! Which links the Motherboard to your Tablet (for Example) and use it to remote desktop, File transfer and DLNA Hub, AI Suite II, Network iControl and AI Charger+. Overclocking wise, I have spent some time in overclocking the CPU and cooling it the Motherboard parts in a proper way to be able to achieve the highest stable overclocking for this budget type Motherboard and I would say seeing it running at 4.4GHz @ 1.46v VCore is a not bad.

Roccat Products

2013-05-21T07:11:14+00:00

Hi, anyone knows where Roccat products are sold?
Compume used to sell Roccat but now virgin bought CompuMe and they are not yet selling any Roccat product yet.
i am looking for a roccat mouse since razer sucks. bought 2 mice and it just broke down as early as 2 month.

ASUS Presents New Gold Color Theme for Upcoming Z87 Motherboards

2013-05-16T12:05:57+00:00

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6263/prasusz87deluxemotherbo.jpg

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/8858/prasusz87newcolorcpusoc.jpg

ASUS today announced a new look for its range of motherboards based on the Intel® Z87 chipset. Replacing the previous blue-accented color scheme, a unique gold application on custom-designed heatsinks serves to emphasize the ASUS philosophy of always providing the most innovative motherboards in every generation.

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6498/prasusz87newcolorcloseu.jpg

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/4890/prasusz87newcolordualin.jpg

“ASUS-branded motherboards keep evolving and always offer the gold standard in quality, performance, and durability. The new gold color scheme symbolizes this and our insistence on delivering the highest degree of innovation and reliability. ASUS motherboards are fully-featured and present an attractive visual style for great system building experiences”, said Jackie Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Sales, ASUS Open Platform Business Group.

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/7333/prasusz87newcolorsystem.jpg

Elegant color choice makes component matching easier
For nearly a quarter of a century, ASUS has been leading in motherboard design and development while maintaining close ties to the global PC DIY community. Accommodating system builder needs, the gold treatment on new motherboards promotes great-looking PC interiors with a two-tone color palette that works well with the primarily black designs of PC cases.

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7333/prasusz87newcolorsystem.jpg

Form and function with more efficient gear-shaped heatsinks
The gold-imbued heatsinks on new ASUS Z87 motherboards use forms inspired by the gears of handcrafted luxury timepieces. Multi-faceted and multi-tiered, the new heatsinks have bigger surface areas for better heat dissipation and improved cooling, and use fine-threaded polished metal that gives the gold theme a deep luster. ASUS Z87 motherboards are as visually pleasing as they are industry-leading in stability, reliability, and exclusive features.

ASUS RT-N14U Review

2013-05-08T07:37:32+00:00

Features:
• Black Diamond design: stylish and reliable 802.11n 300Mbps router
• Express to the cloud: sync, share, and stream everywhere via AiCloud
• Versatile USB: supports all-in-one printer, FTP server, 3G/4G dual WAN
• Exclusive ASUSWRT: with 24/7 non-stop Download Master plus guest access
• Quick internet setup: simply connect to the world in 30 seconds

The Box and the Package:

https://imageshack.us/a/img547/8656/201305023261.jpg
https://imageshack.us/a/img43/3826/201305023263.jpg
Inside the box I found RJ-45 Cable, power Adapter, Quick Start Guide and the router Stand

The Router:

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/4118/201305023264.jpg
The router got its self a Black Diamond design , a Stylish look on the Table or mounted on the wall.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7510/201305023268.jpg
The router have Active LED indicators of USB ,LAN ,WiFi ,WAN and Power

I/O Panel:
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/4612/201305023266.jpg
On the rear side, there are 1 x RJ45 for 10/100 BaseT for WAN, 4 x RJ45 for 10/100 BaseT for LAN , Power button , power DC in , USB 2.0 and WPS Button.
The Rear View:
https://imageshack.us/a/img29/6743/201305023267.jpg
The rear view of the router shows some information about the router and we noticed that there is a Reset button on the bottom left side of it (from the Above Picture View).
Benchmarks

I did the benchmark using Performance Test benchmark 7.0 over the 2.4Ghz Speed
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/8533/test2e.jpg
The above results is having 1 Laptop connected to ASUS RT-N14U Router and one PC connected to the Router thru CAT 6 Cable , here it shows the transfer data rate of 43MB per second
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/8840/test1oh.jpg
The above results is having 1 Laptop connected to ASUS RT-N14U Router and one PC connected to the Router thru Wifi , here it shows the transfer data rate of 2.3MB per second
Conclusions:
I got impressed with ASUS RT-N14U Router on the Features like AICloud where it can access the files from the HDD that is attached to the USB port of it and the Download Master that allowed me to use torrent and Magnet files to be downloaded directly the HDD without the need of having computer running for it.
The design and look of ASUS RT-N14U is Similar to the ASUS RT-N56U Router, the black Diamond color finish makes the routers to have an amazing impression look on the table or mounted on the wall.

Just a small test on the WiFi Range that I conducted on ASUS RT-N14U Router , I managed to get the radius of the WiFi which measured in a flat that contains concrete walls is about 10 Meters and 30 Meter in open space.

Asus Radeon™ HD 7970 Matrix Platinum

2013-04-30T20:13:48+00:00

Hi guys! so its been two months since this card was reviewed here http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/asus-hd-7970-matrix-platinum-review,
but i just really want to know if its really going to hit the shelves around here (UAE) anytime soon? right now im really tempted and ready to get the DirectCU II variant instead..
well if i ever see one, even if its a little bit overpriced then…..
http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/nn395/zaldy_31/shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg

ill get that badboy in a heartbeat!

ASUS HD7790 DirectCU II OC 1GB

2013-04-29T05:22:55+00:00

I managed to get my hands on AMD’s Latest HD7790 GPU thru ASUS Brand, ASUS HD7790 DirectCU II OC 1GB Edition, let’s go for the pictures

Packaging:
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9070/201304233198.jpg
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9492/201304233201.jpg

The things I found inside the box are the following of Driver DVD, , a Manual , DVI to VGA converter and a Crossfire Cable

Top View of the Card

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/3483/201304233202.jpg

A top view of the Graphic Card which shows the DirectCU ( Direct Copper) Heatsink which the Graphic Card gets its self a Cooling Solution design that gives 20% Cooler and 3X Quieter Operation from the stock reference HD7790 Graphic Card.

Back Side View of the Graphic Card
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/311/201304233203.jpg
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4060/201304233207.jpg

The card can do Crossfire up to 2 Cards.

Front View:

http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/3554/201304233204.jpg

The card have 2x DVI Ports, 1x HDMI and 1x Display port.
Rear View:

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6793/201304233205.jpg

It require 1xPCI-e 6PIN in order to run the card.
Test Benchmark setup:

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8433/benql.jpg
Benchmarks:
I managed to test the card thru a lot of Games that I have + the latest 3Dmark Applications
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7050/specik.jpg
My Thoughts:
It comes from the Manufacture with pre-overclocked core clock speed of 1075MHz which is 75 MHz faster than the reference HD7790, it got DirectCU II cooling which give the card better overclocking solution In overclock wise, I tried to overclock the card more than 1125Mhz but it cannot be stable in most of the games and the benchmarks that I have tested.
The good thing about the card is that it have 3 years warranty and the price is kind of acceptable to play nowadays games like Bioshock Infiniti.

Advice on my medium gaming rig

2013-03-30T13:08:42+00:00

Hi need an advice on the below components combo:

Corsair Graphite Series 600T CC600TM Mid-Tower Gaming Case
Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5” Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular ...
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL
ASUS Maximus V Formula/Assassins C3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard with Gaming ...
Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 “Heatpipe Direct Contact” Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel ...
SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5” 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

GPU: i havent made up my mind yet but my candidates are either GTX680 or HD7970.

thanks

HTPC Chasis - Fractal Design NOD 605

2013-03-24T15:53:45+00:00

Hi Everyone, This is my first post here at TBREAK, and its really great that there is a place for enthusiasts to communicate.

I am looking into building a HTPC for myself, i have looked into a couple of possible candidates for casings, the one that caught my eye is the FRACTAL DESIGN NOD 605, now the problem is that i have looked into every corner of Abu Dhabi and Dubai for this case but no luck.

Anybody got any idea where i could possibly find this model? or at least a place where they sell FRACTAL Design?

Cheers!!

ASUS F2A55-M Motherboard Review

2013-03-03T07:23:31+00:00

I Managed to get the chance to to review the F2A55-M Motherboard , its a mATX

Motherboard but it got some nice features and i want to share its results here.

The Box:
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6770/201302271821.jpg

The Packaging:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/2069/201302271823.jpg

inside the box I found the following:

•User’s manual
•I/O Shield
•2 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
•1 x DVD Drivers
•Manuals

The Motherboard:

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/5012/201302271824.jpg

the F2A55-M is a mATX motherboard , it have the Solid Capacitors on Board and

they are 5K Capacitors

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7319/201302271825.jpg

here is the FM2 Socket and on the the right side are the 4x DDR3 DIMMs on Board

that can holds up to 64GB total RAM with DDR3 2400MHz Speeds (OC)

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/492/201302271826.jpg

this section views the AMD A55 FCH (Hudson D2) Chipset which controlls 6x SATA

3GB/s ports

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/9130/201302271827.jpg

there are 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 Slots which can run as single x16 or dual x8 in case

of Crossfire or SLI use, 1x PCIe 2.0 x1 Slot , 1x Standard PCI Slot

http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/2118/201302271828.jpg
the Rear I/O P{anel have 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port ,1 x DVI,1 x D-Sub,1

x HDMI,1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s), 2 x USB 3.0 (blue),4 x USB 2.0 and 1 x Optical

S/PDIF out,6 x Audio jacks

Testing and Benchmark setup:

the setup

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/5295/mbspec.jpg

Benchmarks:

I Also Managed to overclock the CPU to 4.43Ghz Speed and the results were the

following..

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2261/benchoe.jpg

Conclusions:

ASUS F2A55-M Motherboard is a Fair Enough for SOHO or Budget HTPC ,the features on board like the DIGI+ helps to make the motherboard perform much better in overclocking and Stability, also the EPU where it allows the motherboard to Save Power a lot.