An Overview of the ROG Series Z97 Motherboards
ASUS MAXIMUS VII RANGER
The pride and joy of the new ROG series is the ASUS Ranger. This motherboard offers up some stunning visuals and a surprising number of features given its competitive pricing. It includes all the features of the Best Gaming Interface, Networking and Audio that we have already examined.
ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO
The Hero SKU offers up more connectivity and a beefier VRM compared to the Ranger SKU. Note how none of the ROG series boards have SATA Express because ASUS have decided that M.2 is a better option.
ASUS MAXIMUS VII GENE
The final ROG board ready for launch is the Gene. Due to the micro-ATX size there simply isn’t space for the advanced audio implementation we see on the ATX boards so a sound card is provided to make better use of space. Again we see impressive styling and a very dense cluster of features and connectivity including M.2.
I see most of the vendors are adopting the black/khaki colour scheme because they say the Chinese are fond of it and they are their biggest market.
They’ve done a few tweaks and upgrades to the Z97 boards but I think if you’re a satisfied Z87 user there’s absolutely no compelling reason to switch, no doubt some will disagree.
This new gen Z97 motherboards look more like a refresh from the previous Z87 and not something really new
Yes I agree, aside from SATA Express, M.2 and some general feature/design tweaks this is the same platform. However, the difference from Z77 to Z87 was similar, the only difference was a new socket and slightly modified chipset.
Yeah, there won’t be a truly “new” platform until Skylake arrives w/ DDR4 that will cost you as much as a weakling PS4 w/ games & accessories.
It won’t be that expensive, let’s not take it out of context. Sure there will be a larger premium at the high end for new adoption but it will still be available with entry level motherboards, CPUs and DDR4 RAM kits.