ASUS A88X-PRO (FM2+) Motherboard Review

A Closer Look

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Although I am not the biggest fan of the golden colour scheme ASUS have started using since the start of this year, I think this motherboard looks pretty “swish” by anyone’s standards.

The CPU socket area houses a 6+2 phase VRM and two connected heatsinks joined with a nickel plated copper heat pipe.

The CPU 8 pin EPS connector is nestled behind the main heatsink at the top of the motherboard.

An EPU switch is located where you’d normally expect to find the CPU fan headers. Those have been moved further down the board.

The side of the board has a USB 3.0 header and a BIOS Flashback button if you need to update your BIOS via a USB. Of course the BIOS Flashback essentially means a dual BIOS isn’t needed because you can recover your BIOS with that button.

The A88X chipset has a small gold heatsink for cooling. There are also six SATA III ports. The chipset actually provides 8 but the other two have been re-routed to the rear I/O as eSATA.

At the bottom you can see the DirectKey button, the BIOS chip, four USB 2.0 headers, front panel connectors, a chassis fan header and a TPU LED.

Along the left side there’s front panel audio, another fan header, a COM port and a debug LED.

In terms of PCIe connectivity there are three PCIe 16X slots (16X/8X/4X at Gen 3/3/2 speeds), two PCIe 1X slots (both Gen 2) and two Legacy PCI.

The CMOS battery is tucked in between the heat pipe and PCIe lanes.

The rear I/O offers up:

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
• 1 x DVI
• 1 x D-Sub
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x HDMI
• 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
• 4 x USB 3.0
• 2 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF out
• 5 x Audio jack(s)