Five Z97 Express Motherboards, $160 To $220, Reviewed

[akula2]

Crashman et al (reviewers),

It would help some folks like me if you guys add two more rows to review table:

1) Visualization for Directed I/O or VT-d support
2) RAMDisk support

I'd never consider any board for WS-grade business R&D or pro builds which doesn't meet (1)
I'd never consider any board for high-end home builds which doesn't meet (2)

 

[Crashman]

Crashman et al (reviewers),

It would help some folks like me if you guys add two more rows to review table:

1) Visualization for Directed I/O or VT-d support
2) RAMDisk support

I'd never consider any board for WS-grade business R&D or pro builds which doesn't meet (1)
I'd never consider any board for high-end home builds which doesn't meet (2)

I haven't seen a board that didn't offer feature 1 (most have it disabled by default, however). If I see it missing, I'll mention that.
Feature 2 is software...sure some companies give you free software for your board but our drive image has a third-party solution that works on everything we test.

 

[cypeq]

ASUS ROG is a hard-overclocking board nothing else nothing more, PRO version is cheaper and has more features.

 

[cypeq]

ASUS ROG is a hard-overclocking board nothing else nothing more, PRO version is cheaper and has more features.

 

[Gazabi]

Whats the purpose of the small heatsink under the socket on the MSI board. Aren't they for PLX chips and aren't those chips used for boards with 4+ full size pci slots?

 

[Crashman]

Whats the purpose of the small heatsink under the socket on the MSI board. Aren't they for PLX chips and aren't those chips used for boards with 4+ full size pci slots?

I believe that sink is placed there to replicate the look of a board with more features.

BTW, PLX also makes all those little 2-lane switches beneath the lower sink, that allows the slots to switch from x16/x0/x0 to x8/x8/x0 and x8/x4/x4. And, as marketing would have it, the so-called 48-lane version that's NOT on this board has only 32 lanes of output.

 

[TorqMace]

You should do a mATX shootout for the small form-factor builders like myself...