ASUS TUF Series Mainboard，SABERTOOTH 55i

[SubZero.it]

But rollercoasters, aka heatpipes do their job a lot better than plain aluminium coolers do. Also, copper bases dissipate heat better than these dinky heatsinks will.

If the ceramix does work better, you can always buy some and apply it yourself on a better heatpipe cooler.

Having said that, heatpipe coolers are for people who want to overclock. If you dont want to, then why is this ceramix on a mid range board going to be of any importance?

just for selling their boards...thing that motherboard makers do often by screaming at their new technology

[Leeghoofd]

Originally Posted by bhavv
But rollercoasters, aka heatpipes do their job a lot better than plain aluminium coolers do. Also, copper bases dissipate heat better than these dinky heatsinks will.

If the ceramix does work better, you can always buy some and apply it yourself on a better heatpipe cooler.

Having said that, heatpipe coolers are for people who want to overclock. If you dont want to, then why is this ceramix on a mid range board going to be of any importance?

Have you tested this board or this technology ? Nope, so don't take conclusions so soon... and it's not paste mate, it's a plating that should allow better heat dissapation, also did it say somewhere, that they are not using eg copper base on the P55 chipset heatsink ? Await a good review and then draw conclusions based on facts, not on speculations.

For my own personal taste : I prefer seperate heatsinks anytime over them silly heatpipes... If it generates heat, there's no need to heat up other components too, due to the interconnection by the heatpipe... give me a decent heatsink with a fan !! Far more efficient for my needs...

[G80]

The TUF series is not focused toward the bencher or the overclocker. It is a board that has been designed and validated (the validation process is different for this board than our standard series i.e P6T or P5Q ). This board design is for a segment interested in having a high quality component board that is designed for durability and reliability with additional cooling

Glad Asus explained the premise of this board. Because i dident know wth this board was created for, and im still not sure. Nothing in the name/graphs suggest that this board is more durable then another one. Except TUF < tough?...right. Why not promote this validation process instead?. Atleast Gigabyte dident confuse anyone with their 2 oz boards.

[saaya]

hey illuminatiASUS, cool to have an asus rep here!!!

i still dont get it though, so what makes this board more durable?

cooling:
the heatsinks are clearly focussed on design and looking special and not for perfect cooling efficiency... plus they are passive, if you want to make sure the board stays really cool why not add a slilent high mtbf fan or two... heatsink coating can maybe get you 5C lower temps, adding a silent fan gets you 10C+
there is a fan bracket on the board to mount a 40mm fan for the memory... but do you actually bundle a fan? whats its mtbf rating?
if your not bundling a fan this feature might backfire on you as most 40mm fans have a pretty bad mtbf and are likely to cause more annoyance to customers than fun in the long term.

validation:
so what special validation does this board go through?
thanks for the insight on what testing all asus boards go through, but you havent mentioned anything about the special validation of this series or additional implemented failsafe mechanisms.

components:
the only thing i can find on google about tuf capacitors is sites posting and quoting asus PR material which doesnt contain any technical information about those special capacitors... they look like just plain solid capacitors, the same that are used on other asus boards.


now i get why the military look, this series is aiming at durability and reliability... thats still confusing though cause i thought thats what the workstation series was aiming for as well...
you did a great job in actually pointing out what this board and series is supposed to be, the marketing slides clearly fail as nobody even got a hint of what the board and series is supposed to be about until you came up and took the time to clarify it here... thanks again for doing so btw

i have a feeling that this board is supposed to LOOK more durable and reliable and thats all the effort that was put into this... i hope im wrong though and you can post some actual specs about the improved reliability of the used components and validation

[Leeghoofd]

Maybe the rep wanted to mention this :

"This board design is for a segment interested in having a high quality component board that is designed for durability and reliability withOUT additional cooling"

[saaya]

Maybe the rep wanted to mention this :

that doesnt make any sense though... all components mtbf is rated at a certain temperature and most critical components have a mtbf rating at a high and at a low temperature. we all know that the cooler you keep your system the lower the chance is that it will fail after some time... theres a direct relation between temperature and reliability, so why would you NOT add extra cooling on a product that is supposed to be more durable?

thats the very first thing that makes sense, reduce the products operating temperature, that will immediatly and directly increase its mtbf...

and thats what asus did with the tuf series, they did add a ceramic coating to the heatsinks to improve cooling...
im just saying instead of having a bracket people probably plug in cheap low mtbf fans, bundling a high mtbf low silent fan would work much better...

[Leeghoofd]

Without additional cooling I meant it is not required when using eg a WC setup that you need to put an extra fan over the PWM's, as the Ceramix stuff cools already better than a tradiotnal heatsink...

It's all about the gimmicks Saaya, you know that... anything to boost sales... but I'm intrigued by this ceramique stuff...

[illuminatiASUS]

Wow talk about a live debate. Interesting reading. As i previously stated one very key feature of this board is the additional validation which is performed outside of ASUS to qualify the quality and durability of the board. I will follow up tomorrow with some additional information that will hopefully allow you guys to see ASUS does not take its innovation and design process lightly. Although some users may feel sometimes overwhelmed by marketing hype the truth is that there are real engineers behind the scenes designing and validating ideas for real world implementation and we are proud of our consistent innovation in the motherboard segment ( by the way we implemented 2oz copper before GB did on our P5E64 WS EVO board ). Yes there will be times that things are not perfect or could be better but we are trying to design the best boards while still keeping pricing and segmentation in mind which is key. Realistically it would be easy for us to go extreme and make crazy super specific boards but that is not realistic or practical. Additionally you can "quote on quote" change a part with a better solution ( than what was provided onboard ) but we are trying to provide a solution that not only works well but is superior to the standard implementation. Some in this community might not understand that because you inherently break away with the norm of what is implementation or is stock regardless of its quality or design implementation. With that said I will update this thread tomorrow with additional features stack and some interesting information to show you why we call this board TUF. Please enjoy the rest of your day.

[saaya]

Without additional cooling I meant it is not required when using eg a WC setup that you need to put an extra fan over the PWM's, as the Ceramix stuff cools already better than a tradiotnal heatsink...

a fan would still cool much better

It's all about the gimmicks Saaya, you know that...

well it shouldnt be...

thx for looking into the details illuminatiasus

[illuminatiASUS]

Sorry for the delay in getting this information out. It has been very busy as I am sure you guys can imagine. As i was previously stating one of the very big factors in regards to the TUF series is the validation of the quality and durability of the board. Now the key reason why this is important is it is an independent review and standard with its own tolerances. I have noted these below. Additionally the CeraM!X coating technology is ultimately about providing additional surface area to provide improved heat dissipation. I am not going to go into all the details or features as will let the media do its job in this regard. My main point was to be able to show this is not just marketing hype and although the Xtreme segment may not see the need or demand for a product that is intended for a ultra durable / reliability / cool, high performance and high quality design (at stock settings or light OC) the same could be said when people say what is the point of designing motherboards that for nothing more than benching and hardcore overclcoking. The knife cuts both ways. We are trying to provide solutions that actually have thoughtful designs behind them and provide them to the marketplace. We have always done this and continue to do so and without it many of the benefits the Xtreme Community benefits from would not be present.

for passing the rigid reliability tests of the following components:
Capacitors
Thermal Shock Test (MIL-STD-202G TEST METHOD 107G)
Moisture Resistance Test (MIL-STD-202G TEST METHOD 106G)
Salt Spray Test (MIL-STD-883G method 1009.8)
Solderability Test (MIL-STD-202G 208H Test Method)
Solder Bath Test (MIL-STD-202G-210F Test Method)
Vibration Test (MIL-STD-202G Method 201A)
Mechanical Shock Test (MIL-STD-202G Method 213B Condition D)
MOSFETs
Thermal Shock Test (MIL-STD-883G 1011.9)
Vibration Test (MIL-STD-883 Method 2007.2 Condition A)
Mechanical Shock Test (MIL-STD-883G2002.4)
Visit the ASUS website at www.asus.com for the test report.
Testing laboratory, Integrated Service Technology,
is accredited by:
IEC/IECQ 17025 certificate of independent test laboratory approval
Certificate No. : T1091
ISO 17025 accredited in respect of laboratory is approved by TAF
Certificate No. : L0835-080922
ISO 9001 certificate is approved by TUV CERT certification body of TUV NORD Cert GmbH

[Leeghoofd]

So this is the Hummer under the motherboards ? Build to last...

[saaya]

ohhh hohohohohoho, so the components are tuv tested and people at asus dont know how to pronounce the u with two dots, so they basically spell it tuf, and thats where the name for this board comes from?

i dont think this series makes much sense, i think it will only make people question how reliable and durable NON tuf boards are... if anything people will say "please add those features to my ROG or deluxe or pro mainboard"

will the "premium" series of mainboards continue?
isnt that the same as what tuf is? very robust long life components?

i think the segments are rather confusing for end users... picture them in a shop and the shop owner asks them what board they want.
do they want the board to last long, overclock well, have a lot of additional io ports and raid etc... im pretty sure most customers will say yes to all 3 points, and then be confused that there isnt one board that has all of this, instead they somehow have to decide what to focus on more... i dont think thats a good idea... but good luck, at least asus is always trying something new and different

[Raja@ASUS]

Some of the tech is destined for other product classes if it proves to be beneficial to a justfiable degree. I think the problem here is that these pics were leaked before they were supposed to be. Obviously the casues people to raise questions that were going to be answered on the original schedule.

[Chri$ch]

Source is Computerbase

more pics @ source

[SubZero.it]

to leeghoofd:I wasn't saying that is something for sure...but that is common
Seems sexier the board in real pics

[Leeghoofd]

I know mate, my response was not to you, but to mister I know it all, tested it, disliked it and I know how to do it better... (corrected my post with the quote)

[Wolf132]

I dont see why this board wouldn't be a good overclocker with all high grade components. Although they could completely fail on the bios options.

[Zorlac]

Build a TUF X58 and I will be your friend!


((I personally like this TUF board *shrug*))

[PrometheusCon]

Build a TUF X58 and I will be your friend!


((I personally like this TUF board *shrug*))

+1

[illidan]

com port

[DragoonXX]

really bad spot for the com port though (yes...I do use a com port still....datalogging for my UPS)

[Monstru]

I see lot of bad opinios here, and at first I tend to agree. Buuuut, then I look at this little puppy right here, and I see PS2 ports, and IDE connector, and good old school jumper CLR CMOS. And some clean and solid VRM area, and I really can't wait to put this under LN2. I think this is a board for extreme overclocking, without useless bling. And this, I like

[proxis]

nooooooo, that piece of scrap can actually make it into retail

[sholvaco]

^
Someone pointing a gun at your head, forcing you to buy one?


Ruh roh... first the slot colors, then the animu roboto and now this? Seems like an unending string of possible copyright infringement litigations with these guys. Tsk, tsk ASUS, when will you ever learn?
v

[D-Cyph3r V2]

I dont know if it's already been brought up (yeah yeah, I should read the whole thread but theres generally too much garbage in the news section for that), but surely UFC has "TUF" trademarked already? :P