ASUS Show First FM2+ ROG and H97-PRO Gamer Motherboards At Computex 2014

Computex: AMD’s decline in the enthusiast market segment is becoming more evident: we haven’t had a new flagship CPU since the FX-8350 in late 2012, we did of course have the FX-9590 in mid-2013 but this was identical to the Piledriver architecture of the FX-8350 except with a large speed bump. Worse still there has been no incentive to push AMD’s AM3+ platform that is the home for the FX-8350 and FX-9590 CPUs because it has been out since 2011 without any major updates: in that time we’ve had the 6, 7, 8 and 9 series of motherboards from Intel’s equivalent platform. As a result the FM2+ platform has been the go-to platform for new AMD motherboards and that’s exactly what ASUS demonstrated at Computex 2014. ASUS made a landmark step in announcing their first ever Republic of Gamers series motherboard for the FM2+ socket. The ASUS Crossblade Ranger features all the usual goodies of the ROG series including high-spec audio, high-quality power componentry, improved Intel networking, the new Keybot feature and much more. Aiming for the FM2+ market this motherboard should have very competitive pricing and will make a great partner to an unlocked AMD FM2+ APU or CPU depending on what type of graphics configuration you prefer.

ASUS also unveiled a new H97 chipset based motherboard. This motherboard should offer a more affordable entry into the Intel 9 series for Gamers by offering a cheaper overall cost due to the cost savings of going down to the H97 chipset from the Z97 flagship. The motherboard is Channel Series branded, meaning it is not an ROG Series product, but it still contains some of the features we’d expect of ROG boards such as improved audio and networking. We’ve even got SATA Express and M.2 support provided which is great for an affordable motherboard.

Images courtesy of eTeknix at Computex 2014