Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark S review

Hardware-wise the board follows the lead of the Sabertooth Mark 1; two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots running at x16 with a single graphics card, or x8/x8 when two cards are used. Connectivity extends to a single PCIe 2.0 x4 slot which sits near the bottom of the board and another three PCIe x1 slots.

Six edge-mounted SATA 6Gbps ports are supported by the chipset along with a SATA Express port. A further two SATA 6Gbps ports placed towards the base of the board are looked after by an ASMedia controller.

One thing notable by its absence is the chipset-supported M.2 slot. But pull off the 'thermal armour' and it becomes plain why it doesn't feature – there's simply no room.

Asus' TUF range is all about cooling flexibility and thermal monitoring, and one look at the Thermal Radar 2 section in the Asus software AI Suite shows it isn't mucking around.

It's probably the most comprehensive thermal management package available of any motherboard currently available, with no less than 13 pages of settings that enable you to tinker with just about everything on the board, cooling wise.

A quick word about the dust prevention package Asus has included in the box; that word is comprehensive. If it's a port and it's not being used, there's a rubber bung for it, but keeping with the overall scheme, the covers for the spare PCIe and memory slots are coloured white.

The problem is that the special edition premium adds a special premium amount onto the price tag.

That wouldn't be an issue if there was the sort of feature set you get with the expensive RoG boards, or the same benchmark levels. Unfortunately the whitewash aesthetic is what you're paying for here, not some beefed-up PC performance.

We liked

The general snowbound aesthetic may be an acquired taste, but for our money it looks fantastic. With the right Stormtrooper white chassis, and a large Perspex side panel, this could help make up the Heart of Gold-style PC of your dreams.

We disliked

We understand it's a limited edition board designed for a specific audience, but surely they're going to want all the PCIe-based storage the Republic of Gamers guys get.

And you're not getting the sort of performance numbers that something like the Asus Republic of Gamers Maximus VI Hero can offer.

Neither feature-set nor performance would be so much of an issue if it wasn't so darned expensive…

Verdict

In the end, if you're after a white-washed motherboard to complete your perfect PC modification then you'll be able to overlook its deficiencies. But for the rest of us the Sabertooth Z97 Mark S simply doesn't offer enough to justify its cost.

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