ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Review
by Ian Cutress on February 3, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Asus
- Z87
- TUF
ASUS TUF Z87 Gryphon Conclusion
When covering the Z87 Gryphon, or any TUF product, it is hard not to keep mentioning the warranty status. This is what the line is based on after all – a higher rated component, or ones in the higher end of the quality/yield spectrum, in order to provide that extra longevity. This is akin to Samsung making SSD NAND and keeping the best for themselves – the TUF range aim to source whatever components they put on the board from the higher echelons of production.
As a result, the special parts and warranty do come in the form of extra cost. You get what you pay for, right? The Gryphon has a rough time competing against other products in the same price segment for feature set. The Gryphon comes with no extra SATA Controllers, no extra USB 3.0 controllers or hubs, no power/reset buttons, no two digit LED, and so on. This all helps in keeping the component count down on a product (there is less to go wrong), but ultimately this also begs the question of whether a user needs more than six USB 3.0 ports, or more than six SATA 6 Gbps ports. Users can use PCIe cards if they needed more, some would suggest.
If we put the extended warranty and component choice out of our minds for a second, then the Gryphon has several features not on the regular channel market segment. First up is the number of temperature sensors on board. I counted 10, which includes three sensor headers for users to connect to other parts around the case (hard drives, PCIe cards). These tie into the fan control software which allows two point gradient configurations of all six 4-pin fan heads on board, and each fan profile can be tied into a weighted average of any of the sensors. For example, the CPU fans can rely on a profile where the temperature is calculated as 55% the CPU temperature, 35% the DRAM temperature and 10% the GPU temperature.
The Gryphon also offers an additional ‘Fan Overtime’ feature which keeps the fans spinning after the system is shut down in order to allow the equilibration of air inside and outside the case. This can be seen as important in humid climates, where hot air inside the case can cause inside condensation as it cools down. We have seen similar aspects on other motherboards, but this is the first time I have seen it on an ASUS product.
The Gryphon Armor Kit is sold separately to the motherboard and allows the board to be encased in a dust blocker that also forces cooling around the components on the motherboard. The rear plate also helps increase the rigidity of the motherboard due to large GPUs or awkward mounting locations.
While the Z87 Gryphon does not have overclocking as its primary focus, we achieved 4.6 GHz with our CPU sample, in line with many other Z87 motherboards we have tested before. Users looking for an automatic overclock will have to probe in the BIOS some to find them, but we get 4.1 GHz to 4.3 GHz within a few button presses easily. Performance is geared more towards longevity as well, so other motherboards might offer better stock performance too.
The Z87 Gryphon aims to sell on its main features: a five year warranty paired with the micro-ATX form factor. For that it does quite well, and ASUS are filling a well requested hole in their line-up. We have the Sabertooth in to review as well, which may satisfy the need for extra functionality, albeit in a larger size.
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Samus - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
5thaccount, did it ever occur to you the reason you saw so many Asus returns is because they are the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world, and chances are if a noobie builder is buying a board, it's going to be...Asus?Eagle007 - Tuesday, February 11, 2014 - link
I am currently in litigation with ASus over a $350 motherboard they said was defective but have not returned to me. They have spent at least $5000 not to fight the suit and not return the board. They tortured me with emails, unanswered, and chat instructions for days before issuing a RMA. Do not buy a product from them with a five year warranty as it guarantees that you will be abused by them for 5 years rather than protected from failures.Hxx - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
lol thats so dumb is ridicoulos. Asus makes excellent board, they have always done at least in the past 10 years since ive been building my own rig. Always use them Id rather get a lower specced Asus board than a higher specced msi or gigabyte. This is not just me speaking from experience, you can read forums upon forums of people expressing similar opinions. You're either trolling or got extremely unlucky. I just sold an x38 asus p5e board for over 100 bucks on ebay if that says anything.probedb - Tuesday, February 4, 2014 - link
Odd. I've had nothing but Asus motherboards since the days of Ahtlon XP processors and none have ever missed a beat.twtech - Friday, February 7, 2014 - link
I had a bad experience with an ASUS motherboard a few builds ago - which was actually something like 6 years now. The board was overvolting the RAM, so initially it would appear stable, and then degrade after a few months and start locking up with increasing frequency. I replaced the power supply, and the RAM twice before I figured out what was actually going on.Searching for information about the issue revealed that it was actually a relatively common problem, and that the voltages displayed in the BIOS couldn't be trusted. A workaround was to manually set the RAM voltage lower, to a number that appeared to be out-of-spec. I wasn't sure how much of an offset needed to be set though, and eventually the board destroyed that set of RAM sticks too. At that point I got rid of the board.
Since then, I have been wary about purchasing another ASUS motherboard. It was probably just that model that was problematic, but having other options, it's still hard to choose to go back to a manufacturer that shipped boards with an issue as significant as that. Especially when they typically want a premium for their boards, too.
Neo123 - Sunday, February 16, 2014 - link
hi i planned to buy PC..which brand motherboard is best..in service and relablityFractinJex - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Both obv. not to bright....I stated until I upgrade in 4-5 years did I state the board would only last that long....noAlso this board as a 5 year warranty unlike 90% of other boards that have 3 year warranty. This is currently one of the best mATX boards available...
djshortsleeve - Wednesday, February 5, 2014 - link
No kidding, I think I have used 10-15 year old MOBOs. Rarely do they ever die.drainplugofideas - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
Oh cool! I made nearly the same build. Cooler master n2000, i5-4670k, gtx 770, corsair MX 650.Sabresiberian - Monday, February 3, 2014 - link
I have one, too, quite happy with it. My only "complaint" is that the armor kit comes separately for a rather expensive price too, so that made what I paid pretty high all total. Still there are other premium small form factor mainboards in that price range (board+armor kit) - and with a 3 year warranty in stead of 5.The lower priced sound solution is a plus for me because I don't use mainboard sound, so the less it adds to the cost of the board the better for me. :)