Asus Z170 motherboards (update: round up)

[NumLock21]

The workstation I am on right now is 1155.

 

Consumer socket workstations are far more common in an industrial environment than enthusiast socket workstations.

Depends on which environment. A simple office then probably a consumer workstation. But with large companies, they won't be using workstation boards based on the consumer socket. They'll be using enthusiast workstation socket, where is support dual and up to 8 physical cpus. And unlike the computers you, I and the rest of us here have, which is in a metal box. Theirs are installed into rack mount cases, which is then stacked up one another. A single rackmount closet can hold up to multiple systems.

[Real_PhillBert]

Depends on which environment. A simple office then probably a consumer workstation. But with large companies, they won't be using workstation boards based on the consumer socket. They'll be using enthusiast workstation socket, where is support dual and up to 8 physical cpus. And unlike the computers you, I and the rest of us here have, which is in a metal box. Theirs are installed into rack mount cases, which is then stacked up one another. A single rackmount closet can hold up to multiple systems.

 

Lol I am an engineer, and pretty much everyone uses consumer socket workstations. Then for computation heavy tasks, like CFD or FEA we offload that job to a server. In my companies case we have one server with a pair of Teslas. 

 

It is much cheaper for a company to buy many mid grade workstations and a very powerful server based machine or two, than it is to buy all of engineering high end enthusiast socket workstations. Yes, large companies use workstation boards on the consumer socket, small companies use workstation boards on the enthusiast socket because they don't want to invest in a powerful computational machine. 

[Sakkura]

Lol I am an engineer, and pretty much everyone uses consumer socket workstations. Then for computation heavy tasks, like CFD or FEA we offload that job to a server. In my companies case we have one server with a pair of Teslas. 

 

It is much cheaper for a company to buy many mid grade workstations and a very powerful server based machine or two, than it is to buy all of engineering high end enthusiast socket workstations. Yes, large companies use workstation boards on the consumer socket, small companies use workstation boards on the enthusiast socket because they don't want to invest in a powerful computational machine. 

 

But your mid-grade workstation doesn't have 4 Teslas, does it? That's what these WS boards are for - extra PCIe connectivity for multiple cards.

[Real_PhillBert]

But your mid-grade workstation doesn't have 4 Teslas, does it? That's what these WS boards are for - extra PCIe connectivity for multiple cards.

 

No, but that is not necessarily the only use for the WS boards either. 

 

The WS boards are far more often used with a single Quadro than a stack of Teslas. Workstations still use WS level boards for the same reason companies use Quadros; reliability (Quadros also are used for program validation, and drivers but those are not really applicable to a mobo). Downtime on a workstation is hugely expensive, so companies will pay a bit more up front to avoid this downtime. 

[StareX]

I gotta know on the Zeus board?

http://i59.tinypic.com/6nq9z6.jpg

 

Where the HELL is the PCI Express ?!!?!?!?!?!

[Sakkura]

No, but that is not necessarily the only use for the WS boards either. 

 

The WS boards are far more often used with a single Quadro than a stack of Teslas. Workstations still use WS level boards for the same reason companies use Quadros; reliability (Quadros also are used for program validation, and drivers but those are not really applicable to a mobo). Downtime on a workstation is hugely expensive, so companies will pay a bit more up front to avoid this downtime. 

 

Well that's just dumb then, there is absolutely no reason that board would be any more reliable than their other boards. But sure, it's probably been nice for Asus to milk ignorance like that.

[Sakkura]

I gotta know on the Zeus board?

http://i59.tinypic.com/6nq9z6.jpg

 

Where the HELL is the PCI Express ?!!?!?!?!?!

 

It's a 2012-era concept board. X79 and all.

 

It has two GPUs soldered on the motherboard, under that huge heatsink. Those packages near the bottom of the board (left side of the photo) are GDDR5 memory.

 

Edit: Derp.

[Real_PhillBert]

Well that's just dumb then, there is absolutely no reason that board would be any more reliable than their other boards. But sure, it's probably been nice for Asus to milk ignorance like that.

 

I agree that the differences are very small, but the WS boards do use higher quality components (capacitors mainly) than the majority of the boards on the market. 

[Sakkura]

I agree that the differences are very small, but the WS boards do use higher quality components (capacitors mainly) than the majority of the boards on the market. 

 

True, I can understand shying away from the <$50 bottom of the barrel stuff. But I'm sure there will still be boards with top of the line components.

[StareX]

It's a 2012-era concept board. X79 and all.

 

It has two GPUs soldered on the motherboard, under that huge heatsink. Those packages near the bottom of the board (left side of the photo) are GDDR5 memory.

 

Edit: Derp.

 

I dont get it..... I can have 2 GTX 980s on that little fucker?

[NumLock21]

I dont get it..... I can have 2 GTX 980s on that little fucker?

No discrete GPUs in that, the GPUs are built in. Don't remember what it was, probably the best gpu during that time.

[Sakkura]

I dont get it..... I can have 2 GTX 980s on that little fucker?

 

You can have the GPUs that are already built into the motherboard. You can't buy a separate GPU for that motherboard.

 

This article claims it was a pair of HD 7970s built into the motherboard, but I don't see how the cooling would be sufficient for that. Of course it's just a concept motherboard, so I guess they could get away with it if they wanted to.

[NumLock21]

Updated with Asus ROG boards

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/378703-asus-z170-motherboards-updated-rog-line-up/?p=5117408

[SurvivorNVL]

I'll take that extreme board please.  :>

[gill2k]

I love the color scheme of the new Maximus boards

[Richard Burton]

Hate the PCIe layout. Though, at least they got the top slot right, a full 16x should never be at the top. Other manufacturers need to learn to put the first 16x second from the top as well.

 

But the spacing between the two topmost 16x slots is one too far apart for me. I didn't install a brutal 180mm air penetrator fan in the bottom of my case blowing directly onto the GPU area so I could have a hideous gap in between GPUs.

 

Is it DDR4, DDR3 or both? If it's DDR3 I'll let my brother know, he might be interested.

The spacing IMO is perfect, allows dual GPU's to actually breath plus you can throw a 1x card in the top and a pcie ssd in the bottom, personally i think they nailed the layout

[Ekpyrosis]

I wonder what kind of front USB headers we can expect with Z170 mobos. 3.0? 3.1? Type-C?

[Sakkura]

I wonder what kind of front USB headers we can expect with Z170 mobos. 3.0? 3.1? Type-C?

 

There are no cases with USB3.1 ports on the front panel anyway, and Z170 doesn't feature native USB3.1.

[NateGSR117]

Kinda digging the whole grey and red theme

[Notional]

That gene board looks amazing. mATX is really nice, and more than enough for almost all gamers. It's really interesting to see all these ASUS boards having 110mm M.2 slots. Now we just need some SSD's for it. 1TB nvme M.2 anyone?

 

Too bad there's only 1 M.2 slot though.

[carolkarine]

Because reference or water cooled cards are meant for SLi/ Xfire, anyone using downdraft coolers, and thus 3+ slot cards, are doing it wrong.

By bottom I mean bottom. Of course in addition to front fans.

Reference coolers need to breath too.

[ThreePinkApples]

oh lord, thos ROG boards, so, sooo sexy. Damn. 

[Norman_the_Owl]

Why is it all the heatsinks on the Z170 motherboards look so edgy? None of them have soft edges of curves, it's all super sharp and kinda ugly

[DenzelFenzel]

I really like them Gun Metal Grey heatsink on the ROG boards, its a good move considering the amount of Red and Black Boards, you could easily make a Stealthy rig with subtle red streaks. Though I do wonder if those Heatsinks glow red like on the Z97 ROG boards

[JEW UNIT NY]

No ROG Formula?