Last week at CES, Asus garnered plenty of attention for its new additions to its ROG line, as well as a robust selection of new displays. However, that’s not all that the Taiwanese hardware firm has scheduled to release in the coming months, as some new motherboards are also scheduled to hit retailers in the early part of 2016.
The TUF Sabertooth Z170 S boasts an attractive arctic camouflage colour scheme, as noted in a report from Tom’s Hardware — but the component is much more than a handsome piece of tech. It’s well stocked with storage options, offering access to two SATA express ports, one M.2 slot and six standard SATA ports.
The motherboard features an Intel LGA 1151 socket, which will be compatible with most of the company’s array of sixth-generation processors. Hardwired connections include a bevy of USB ports, one DisplayPort, and one HDMI. No official price or release date has been confirmed for the Sabertooth.
Asus also revealed the Maximus VIII Formula, a part of the company’s gaming-focused ROG brand. The component uses the same Intel LGA 1151 socket as the Sabertooth, but pairs it with a host of features that tailor the hardware toward the latest video game releases, including support for tools like Mem Tweakit and Keybot II.
Video game enthusiasts might be tempted by the Maximus’ attention-grabbing Aura LED illumination, or its impressive suite of cooling options, which are supported by a CrossChill EK cooling block designed by EK Water Blocks.
All these features are delivered alongside some very strong fundamentals; a bevy of SATA ports alongside M.2 and U.2 options, plenty of PCI-e expansion slots at 3.0/2.0 and 2.0, and GPU support for Nvidia Quad-GPU SLI, Nvidia 2-Way SLI, and AMD 3-Way CrossFireX. The Maximus VIII Formula is available as of today, and is priced at $399.
Asus is also set to offer a motherboard that caters to AMD chipsets in the form of its new 970, which the manufacturer is pitching as the first of its kind to offer official support for Nvidia SLI. With four DIMMs supporting up to 32GB DDR3 non-ECC memory, six PCI slots, and Aura illumination, this is an intriguing budget option.
In terms of storage, there’s one M.2 socket and six SATA ports. Meanwhile, one USB 3.0 port, three USB 2.0 ports, a COM header, and a TPM header offer plenty of connectivity options. The 970 is being priced at $120, and will start shipping on January 19.
Finally, there’s the B150I, a mini-ITX motherboard that seems to be the furthest from release of the four motherboards. Official specifications weren’t revealed, but we do know that it will support Intel’s sixth-generation Core, Celeron, and Pentium processors.
The B150I also offers built-in Wi-Fi, four SATA 6GB/s ports, and storage options for up to 32GB of DDR4 memory. An M.2 slot gives users four PCI-e 3.0 lanes to outfit with SATA, PCI-e, or NVMe drives without sacrificing the component’s small form factor. Pricing and a release date were not shared by Asus at this time.
