Asus Z87-Pro review

The Asus Z87-Pro’s UEFI BIOS provides many options for clock and voltage adjustments as well as fan monitoring, boot options and other settings. Initially, the Z87-Pro’s BIOS displays its EZ Mode screen, which displays key information graphically. You can see the processor’s temperature at a glance, as well as the type, capacity and frequency of installed RAM. You can even choose the performance mode of your PC by clicking an icon, so you can have your system benefit from optimal, balanced or energy efficient performance. The “optimal” option increased our test system’s performance by six points in our benchmark tests, raising its overall score to 119. It took no more than a click of the mouse to enjoy this performance boost, so there’s no reason not to choose this option if you want to get the best performance out of your system.

A very convenient feature of the BIOS’s EZ Mode is the ability to determine the boot priority of your devices by dragging and dropping icons. There are times when casual PC users need to change the boot order of their system and this is a very non-threatening and understandable way of doing it.

If you wish to do anything other than change boot order, however, you must switch to Advanced Mode, which is a more traditional BIOS interface. Here, you can set the processor multiplier for an unlocked processor and even apply a different multiplier to each individual core, among other options.

We like the Z87-Pro’s BIOS screens and especially like its physical DirectKey button, which boots the system into the BIOS when pressed. It’s a god-send for BIOS tinkerers. Curiously, though, the Z87-Pro’s BIOS lists the maximum supported memory frequency supported as 3,200MHz, whereas the manual lists 3,000MHz and the website 2,800MHz. Asus says that the board officially supports a maximum memory frequency of 3,000MHz but certain processor and memory combinations may allow a maximum memory frequency of 3,200MHz.

The Asus Z87-Pro is a great board for general users and overclockers alike thanks to its extra USB3 and SATA ports and features such as the board-mounted power and the DirectKey button. Its Wi-Fi GO! and Bluetooth adaptors also add extra value, especially for those users wanting to make use of new technologies such as 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The Best Buy-winning Gigabyte Z87-D3HP is a great alternative if you don’t want the extra features of the Z87-Pro, but the Z87-Pro is a fantastic motherboard with lots of modern expansion slots and connectivity.