http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131821

... it looks really solid.  Apparently, a few DOAs are in the first batch, but I love how the design looks.  One obvious advantage is the reduced risk of ESD.

Anyway, some people are going to ask if the Thermal Armor is really doing anything.  Well, here is the answer...

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=672047

It's not so much the board I want, as the Thermal Armor.  It looks great, and as I said it promotes lower temps and ESD.

What do you guys think?

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Originally posted by Quizzical
The problem with the Asus Sabertooth motherboards is that you have to be careful with airflow.  Most motherboards have heatsinks where needed to ensure that you get adequate cooling from general case airflow.  The Asus Sabertooth requires you to have a fan specifically pointed to get air underneath the thermal armor.  If you don't do that, then the thermal armor basically acts as an insulator.  It is possible to do it, but just sticking one in any old case and hoping for the best is a bad idea.

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HardOCP has incubated the last few Sabertooth motherboards, because it does look like they would cook themselves. Even without any fan at all, and zero case airflow, the motherboards ran fine, hot, but no errors/crashes. That isn't to say that they will run for years that way, or that it's a great idea, but the thermal armor itself isn't a detriment. And with the fan, the motherboard temps were absolutely awesome.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/20/asus_sabertooth_z77_lga_1155_motherboard_review/7

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Thermal Armor has been a concern of many people, in that I have seen people react and say that it acts as a "blanket" making the board components hotter. Well now since ASUS includes the fans needed, that is surely not the case. I personally like the Thermal Armor, certainly you may not. It also now comes with "Dust Denfender" slot inserts that look cool as well. You can check out the whole spec list here at the ASUS site. The Thermal Armor makes for a nice clean look and protects the board from me and my errant screwdrivers and such.

Still the heat issue may worry you, but I can say with confidence that you need not worry. I tried to set the board on fire after a full two days of Torture Testing full CPU, GPU, and RAM loads. After that I incubated the board and set it off on another 48 hours of Torture Testing. I had not one issue, the Sabertooth Z77 ran like a champ even with all the abuse. Surface temps on the Thermal Armor were 150F at the end of incubation. And yes, I ran all the Torture Tests with NO FANS installed in the Thermal Armor. Get some fans in there and you are pretty much bullet proof and you can use the Thermal Radar to keep tabs on the temps without opening the case should you want to do so. ASUS does back this board with a 5 year warranty as well.

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Originally posted by Quizzical
Ah, the Z77 does include the appropriate fans.  The Z68 version notably didn't, and it was a glaring omission.  It's good to see that that is fixed in the new version.

Yeah there are two fans built into the board to circulate air underneath, you have to put them in yourself but they come with the board. More than anything I just hate dust bunnies all up in the slots and fans etc. so anything to combat that is welcome. Only thing missing for me is thunderbolt ;( .....

Originally posted by DaezAster

Originally posted by Quizzical
Ah, the Z77 does include the appropriate fans.  The Z68 version notably didn't, and it was a glaring omission.  It's good to see that that is fixed in the new version.

Yeah there are two fans built into the board to circulate air underneath, you have to put them in yourself but they come with the board. More than anything I just hate dust bunnies all up in the slots and fans etc. so anything to combat that is welcome. Only thing missing for me is thunderbolt ;( .....

What do you need Thunderbolt for that isn't handled at least as well by DisplayPort (for monitors) and USB 3.0 (for everything else)?  It's not like a single port that can fill the functions of either one has any real value in a desktop.  If you need more bandwidth for something than USB 3.0 offers, that's what PCI Express slots are for.

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Originally posted by Quizzical

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Originally posted by DaezAster

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Originally posted by Quizzical Ah, the Z77 does include the appropriate fans.  The Z68 version notably didn't, and it was a glaring omission.  It's good to see that that is fixed in the new version.

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Yeah there are two fans built into the board to circulate air underneath, you have to put them in yourself but they come with the board. More than anything I just hate dust bunnies all up in the slots and fans etc. so anything to combat that is welcome. Only thing missing for me is thunderbolt ;( .....

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What do you need Thunderbolt for that isn't handled at least as well by DisplayPort (for monitors) and USB 3.0 (for everything else)?  It's not like a single port that can fill the functions of either one has any real value in a desktop.  If you need more bandwidth for something than USB 3.0 offers, that's what PCI Express slots are for.

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If you do the latest couple of generations of Mac, especially multimedia editing for fast external drives - all the new Mac high performance/professional grade peripherals are Thunderbolt.

That is a pretty niche market though - and pretty well entrenched in the Mac/Multimedia community where you need the best throughput you can on an external connection.

There should be PCI cards available to add Thunderbolt to a computer available soon (those without specific motherboard support) - Intel has had them in the works for a while now, but none have come to market yet.