I have already talked about the rather impressive Z87-Deluxe motherboard from ASUS as it boasts quite a few cool features, not least of which being the fact that this is the very first Thunderbolt motherboard to hit the market. Anywhere.
When you consider how many firsts ASUS has achieved over the past few years alone, this new milestone is hardly surprising. The company prides itself on making sure that customers can get their happy paws on new technologies and innovations quickly and within reliable and quality standards.
The thing is, being first is not enough. It doesn’t mean that what is delivered to market is of a good enough standard to be bought. Fortunately, ASUS are known for their motherboards. Their reputation within this space is superb. The company understands the value of reliability, speed, performance, power and customer support. This understanding sees legions of loyal customers lining up to nab their components without so much as a questioning look at their wallets.
Today, the release of the Z87-Deluxe motherboard with its bi-directional 20Gbps port is something of a showstopper. ASUS has merged two 10Gbps Thunderbolt ports and created this rather tasty port instead, of which there are two built into the Z87-Deluxe motherboard. Oh yes, this so called Thunderbolt 2 standard is now the (ahem) standard on this new motherboard and you get two of these ports alongside HDMI, eight USB 3.0 ports and eight USB 2.0 ports. More ports than you can park an armada of devices at, really.
Additional features worth mentioning on this motherboard include the four RAM slots, three PCIe 3.0 slots and ten SATA III ports. You get support for Intel’s Haswell chips included in the build and this will be all about the Windows PC too. No, it won’t just be the competition that gets to enjoy the speed and performance offered by Thunderbolt 2, the PC user has been kept in the loop with the upcoming release of this Z87-Deluxe motherboard.
While I am not sure as to when this will arrive in stores, the fact that this board has been designed (spot the gorgeous new gold colouring) and announced and specced to perfection means that soon it will be on hand for everyone to enjoy. Get your wallets ready, folks, this one is a keeper.
Tamsin