ASUS SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 Review

👤by David Mitchelson Comments 📅18-09-15
Conclusion

It’s been a while since we last had any hands-on experience with the TUF Series – in fact, our last review for this series featured a motherboard using the Intel P67 chipset. So has much changed in the last four years? Indeed, it has.

The SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 is unlike anything currently available. Not only is this motherboard unique in its physical appearance but ASUS has carefully designed this board to carry with it feature after feature. Many of the characteristics point towards functionality, durability and control.

In a practical sense the Thermal Armor acts as a protective vest to prevent any accidental knocks or bangs and as well as assisting with better temperatures, having components such as the PCI Express slots depressed below the point of contact give the added bonus of holding heavy graphics cards in place for better stability. An area which we especially like are the QLED indicators near the SATA ports; LEDs correspond to power, boot, VGA, DRAM and CPU – giving you a visual representation of activity.

Turning to the performance, SABERTOOTH is no stranger to consistent and strong results. We found this motherboard to react very well to the selection of benchmarks from our suite and achieving a decent overclock was easy thanks to the easy to use BIOS and responsive hardware. Our milestone has been 4.7GHz with the Intel Core i7-6700K and SABERTOOTH attained this figure without any problems at all.


ASUS has certainly refined their TUF series by way of the SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1. Proof to this statement lies in the plethora of included hardware and software related features; this motherboard comes with a huge selection of bundled accessories including cooling fans, dust defenders and an M.2 adapter to name just a few.

Priced at £200 GBP / $250 the SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 is placed in the mid-high end sector but we can whole heartedly vouch for its value for money but if you aren’t convinced, 5 years of warranty should seal the deal.

SABERTOOTH Z170 is the Mad Max of motherboards. Those who demand durability and extensive control over their hardware should look no further. This motherboard is highly functional and doesn’t shy away from being distinct in its appearance.

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Pros
+ Appealing to the eye
+ Rock solid durability
+ Extra cooling supplied
+ Workstation grade components
+ Extensive accessories bundle
+ Packed with useful features
+ Excellent performance
+ Five year warranty

Cons
- May not appeal to all tastes


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