Product Showcase

Product Showcase

The Z87 Sabertooth is what I conder to be a mainstream to high-end class product. It is has some nice features yet will rest in an affordable segment, lets have a look as ASUS resurrected the Sabertooth in a familiar form with the TUF thermal armor for better cooling, but also added a couple things. 

The Sabertooth has been updated to support Intel Haswell 1150 socket and has a Z87 chipset. It includes all the features of its smaller brother the all new micro-ATX ASUS Gryphon. Included with the motherboard are the standards like SATA cables, manual, driver CD, IO rear backplate and then some more  gear like, extra fans, SLI connector and a kit with rubber inserts for DRAM slot covers, rear IO dust filter and PCIe slot covers (all to prevent dust). In addition, Sabertooth Z87 is equipped with an outer shell called Thermal Armor, a small fan for cooling the chipset and the afore mentioned plugs for protection against dust.

When we take a closer look at the rear I/O back panel it reveals four USB 2.0 ports with another four USB 3.0 ports. The motherboard features three PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 expansion slots and three PCIe x1 slots. A Realtek ALC1150high definition audio codec is the source for audio and we spot  fast Ethernet (Intel I217-V). There no PS/2 combo port that can be used for either a keyboard or a mouse though. You'll see one optical SPDIF in/out port and six audio jacks. The one HDMI connector and one DisplayPort. Then there's a clear BIOS switch button, and lastly 2 eSATA 6 Gbps ports.

The motherboard is following the previous design schema of the Z77 Sabertooth fairly closely in looks, feel and design.  The Z87 Sabertooth is of course the flagship within the TUF Series. As far as expansion slots go you have three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots and three PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots. Storage includes eighgt SATA 3 ports. Other connectivity includes a total of eight USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, 8-channel audio and of course a Gigabit Ethernet jack.

The board has one 8-pin power feed for the processor located on just behind the rear IO panel. Made in the form factor ATX, board ASUS Sabertooth Z87 has four slots for DDR3 memory which you can occupy with up to 32GB of DDR3 DRAM DIMMs. The four DIMM slots have support for dual-channel 1066/1333/1600*/1866*/2000*/2133*(OC), 2200*/2400*/2600*/2667*/2800* and yes even 3000* with the asterix marking 'when overclocked'.