ASUS H87M-PRO


INTRODUCTION
Firstly, I would like to thank ASUS Malaysia for giving me a chance to do a walkthrough with this ASUS mainstream motherboard ASUS H87M-PRO. This motherboard is a microATX form factor and it fits most of the chassis in the market.

Since the newer version of LGA 775 motherboard, ASUS using black and blue as the main theme color for mainstream motherboard. ASUS impressed everyone of us with a new black and gold color theme for their LGA 1150 mainstream lines.



Official Link : ASUS H87M-PRO

UNBOXING :
Even the box also comes with golden yellowish theme now.


Detail of the features and specification which will be explain in later part.


The motherboard shows up!


Start from top left. NOT a 4 pin EPS connector but 8 pin!


VRM Power Phase below the 8 pin EPS. No more old ugly heatsink!




This post has been edited by unequalteck: Sep 23 2013, 10:47 PM

The main brain of motherboard. Socket 1150


Black and Yellow RAM slot


24 pin ATX and USB 3.0 side by side


Golden south bridge heatsink




PCI-e and PCI expansion slot


SATA 3 6.0Gbps port. No longer facing upward, easier cable management!


Interesting is ASUS made the CPU FAN connector different color with others.

Rear I/O panel


Dark brownish color PCB as usual

Accessories :


1x User Guide


1x Rear I/O plate


1x Driver CD


1x Q-connectors & 3x SATA 6Gbps cables

Specifications :







GUIDE TO UPDATE BIOS :
This motherboard comes with the earliest bios version, so before start to introduce the motherboard bios. Here is a guide to shows you how to update ASUS H87M-PRO bios.

1. Go ASUS website to download the latest BIOS.


2. Plug in a thumbdrive and MAKE SURE it is FAT32 format. NTFS won't be detected in bios.


3. Copy paste the file to thumbdrive and rename it to H87MPRO.CAP


This post has been edited by unequalteck: Sep 23 2013, 10:52 PM

4. Reboot your system and press F2 to enter BIOS.


5. Go into Advanced Mode and find ASUS EZ FLASH 2 UTILITY at the last tab.


6. Just proceed and wait for it to update. After that the system will reboot again.


7. And new BIOS done!

Introduction to ASUS UEFI BIOS UTILITY

EZ Mode
So this is the new BIOS interface after the update. In the EZ mode, there are plenty of option to customize. You can check your SATA devices, change memory profile to normal/XMP and change the profile of the cooling fan.


Advanced Mode
Now you can add all your favorite setting to the "My Favorite" tab!


AI Tweaker. Mainly for overclocking purpose.


Most of the motherboard configuration parameters


Monitor tab. Monitor temperature, fan speed, voltage.


Boot tab. To set all the thing you want and don't want it to boot up.


And the last tab is where you can update your bios or switching your OC profile.


Found out there's an extra feature that not available on LGA 1155 board.
After you save setting and going to reboot, it will shows what changes you have made.


This post has been edited by unequalteck: Sep 23 2013, 10:53 PM

New tab - My Favorites
Now you can save your favorite setting into the favorite tab!




Now you can rename your SATA drive name in the bios!

AI Suite III
This is the ASUS motherboard software that acts as a intuitive central hub that provide access to the vast majority of ASUS monitoring and control utilities on motherboard. AI SUITE III only works with LGA 1150 motherboard (some claims that it can be installed at LGA 1155 motherboard but not very stable).

Comparing with AI SUITE 2, it has a few extra new features other than slightly different user interface. The monitoring becomes easier and there's a main menu for the ease of finding. Following a quick journey go through the new interface of AI SUITE III.

Main menu.
With CPU frequency, voltage, temperature and fan monitoring.


DIGI + VRM


EPU


TurboV EVO


Fan Xpert 2


The New features!
USB Charger+
This allowed fast-charging on most of your devices. No more running out of battery!


USB 3.0 Boost
Sadly I can't test this feature because i don't have any USB 3.0 device with me now. But it can speed up USB 3.0 transfer rate by 170%.


This post has been edited by unequalteck: Sep 23 2013, 10:56 PM

Conclusion
There is no benchmarking covered in this review although this motherboard support overclocking with k-series processor after bios update. It is because this setup for review is on stock and benchmarking score much depending on the IGP for graphic and type of CPU used. However, this motherboard is suitable for enthusiast who building mATX rig without bleeding the wallet go for high end motherboard.

The new UEFI interface and the friendly-user AI Suite 3 is the biggest highlight on the latest ASUS motherboard platform. Nevertheless, the golden-yellowish black theme looks very classy inside a black casing. LGA 1150 eliminated the SATA 3.0Gbps and replaced all the SATA ports with SATA 6.0Gbps so no more running out of SATA ports worry!

Last but not least, ASUS provides the 5x PROTECTION to keep your system working well with longer durability and more reliability. It also comes with 3 years warranty IF you purchase from local authorised dealer all over Malaysia.

p/s : sorry for the photoshooting, borrowed DSLR from my friend but put it in auto mode, no talent on this.

Nice review bro..great mobo but i cant afford it..

Nice review
Aha i really love the top photo one! Good idea tho wahah xD