Asus Sabertooth Z87 LGA 1150 Motherboard

The Sabertooth was one of my most important purchases for my new rig. I do overclocking as well as professional gaming and needed a motherboard that was better than my 1st gen i7 Asus board. This board was such an upgrade compared to my old Asus motherboard that held my 1st gen i7. This board is also built for the overclocking enthusiast! The ability for bios switching and recovery has saved me time and headaches while allowing me to overclock, customize, and run heat diagnostics within my computer. The board's plastic 'armor' is actually very important to me. I dropped BOTH 780GTX cards I purchased into the motherboard accidentally (i'm clumsy). Luckily, the cards fell on the armor and did not leave any damage, mark, or anything whatsoever!Airflow:The mobo comes with 2 optional mini fans that are able to be placed on the board. After running some thermal diagnostics, I have found that these little fans actually help get the air moving through the armor of the case very well. I have a High Air Flow case and cooling is a necessity. This board stays very cool under heated conditions (BF4 AND a 3D molecular modeling simulation in the background). I water cool my CPU but the CPU area does get a great flow of air around it thanks to these optional fans that came with the mobo.Spacing:The motherboard holds my PCI cards and my 2 SLI 780GTX cards comfortably and securely. The board sits beautifully within my case and provides a great dark-themed 'armor look to the background of my components.Bios:Very easy to use and extremely reliable (with the latest updates of course).Overclocking:This mainly depends on your CPU but the board and bios really gives you the flexibility to overclock your i7 to the max. The mobo offers bios switches in case something goes wrong. I used this as a bios recovery when I accidentally had a power outage during a bios update.Looks:I personally love the dark armor look of my mother board. I have a cable organized case that is built to showcase. The color scheme looks great with my internal lights and with my components accenting each portion. FYI, the armor can be taken off the motherboard easily! The mobo also includes plastic covers for parts of the motherboard you aren't using (RAM slots, PCI slots, etc).Overall this board is a great option for those who want to get the most of their gaming rig and i7. There are many other options but this one has provided me with the best overclocking options, the best price, and the best cooling. Great motherboard, sturdy performance, and the armor really protects the chip board!

It is used don't come with the Tuff 5 year warranty as written under about this item.Can buy it for 149 used in good condition other places.Sellers name is also deception associating him self with ASUS. Just using the name.Works fine but had to fix bios it was bugged. Warning. ASUS will not give you tech support on any of their products when no longer under warranty. So be prepared to do this all alone with no help.

Giving this MB a 2 star for now... may change it higher later, but we'll see.Here's why the low rating. I have purchased other MBs (and other products) over the years from ASUS and this is the first one I can say did not work as advertised right out of the box. First of all I noticed the main PCI slot had a broken tab on it (I should have boxed it up right then), but figured what's a piece of plastic. Then I noticed it was missing one of the SATA cables, it was supposed to have 4 (I believe), there was only 3. Hmmmm.After putting everything together (fans, CPU, memory, etc.) the board posted good. Opened the bios, and all checked good. Had a new HD I wanted to use so I started loading Windows 7 (64bit)onto it. Halfway thru the installation Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD). Shut it down; retried it and at the 3/4 portion of the install ... BSOD. Here's a long story short 'cause I troubleshot this thing for many hours with no success... I have multiple HDs, so I tried them all to make sure it was not the new drive I had brought. Same exact error at different points during the Win 7 Install. Even ran memtest86 at one point to make sure the RAM wasn't bad. Finally I had to borrowed a friends computer and I downloaded ASUS most recent BIOS for this board and updated it. Same errors... no change. (Why this didn't come with the latest BIOS is beyond me. Anyways)Called ASUS tech support just to get confirmation of what I thought was bad. (WOW... 3 times waiting on hold for over 10mins each time and then I get the "please leave a message and one of our reps will get back to you". "Oh wait you can't because all mail boxes are full," goodbye. REALLY ASUS!!! Really?) Anyways, I finally got thru the forth time after waiting OVER another 10 MINs for a tech. He confirmed my thoughts that I had a bad motherboard (probably the SATA controller).Now I'm waiting for Amazon to ship me a new board. (BTW... Amazons return/exchange process is A1 so far.) So besides all the above here my main reason for giving such a low rating. The inconvenience and hassle this has caused and the time wasted troubleshooting a BRAND NEW PRODUCT. Nothing should be so much hassle. I understand that sometimes things go bad on items, Especially when it comes to Electronics (I have over 30 yrs experience in the field), but the QA process is supposed to catch most stuff. I'm actually starting to believe some of the BAD REVIEWS Others have recently written about ASUS MBs. I have come to expect the BEST from ASUS in the past, but this experience so far has left a really bad taste in my mouth.I'll update this review after I get my new board, and we'll see. If the new board works like this one did, I'll take my business to another MFR.UPDATE 14 Jan 14 - This ding is on Amazaon. Above I said they have been A1 on this issue... Well I'm changing that. Come to find out it's going to take over 2+ wks for Amazon get a replacement MB to me even though there are 13 instock shown on amazon at this time. WHAT? Their reason is because they have to get the new MB from their suppier (not out of their wharehouse) and it's no longer 2 day shipping because of that also. I don't care about their suppier issues. I brought a MB with 2 day shipping... not 2 + Weeks shipping. What if I was running a business and could not run my business without a computer. (Which I'm without right now) I'd have to shut down for 2+ weeks till Amazon fixes their supply issues. I'd have to lay off my workers and possibly loose my customers.... Ridiculous!!!! Amazon should be getting this replacement board to me ASAP to close out this issue. More to come on this review I'm sure. Shame on you Amazon!!!!!!UPDATE 16 Jan 2014 - Decided to cancel the replacement MB and cancel this order completely. Just not worth my time and hassle. 2+ weeks is too long to wait for a replacement MB. Unacceptable! Taking my business to NEWEGG or TigerDirect. Oh ya down grading this review to a 1. NOTHING/NO PRODUCT should be this much hassle.