Revealed back at Computex 2014, the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Sabranco turned some heads with its striking all-white design. Asus has since released another white-coloured motherboard, the X99-A, but the Sabranco was the first prospective white addition to the company’s motherboard stack.
The limited-edition motherboard has finally experienced its release, albeit under a different name; the Sabertooth Z97 Mark S. Asus claims the main driving force behind the motherboard coming to market is the overwhelming positive response it has received since revealing the motherboard in Taipei.
In terms of its core feature-set the new motherboard is identical, styling aside, to the Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1. This means there’s still dual LAN, eight SATA ports, a SATA Express port, high-quality Realtek ALC1150-based audio and the distinctive thermal armour. Performance enthusiasts will be pleased to know support for dual graphics card configurations and overclocking, powered by an 8+2 Digi VRM, is also included.
Like its black-and-military-brown counterpart the Z97 Mark S comes with a reinforced PCB on the underside to prevent PCB flex in the long term, which is part of the TUF philosophy. Special markings have also been added to the underside to specify the board’s limited-edition status. Asus claims the special white colour is produced using an “innovative printing technology…[that] retains its strikingly-white hue for its lifetime, without discoloring.”
The company has yet to reveal pricing of the new motherboard – one that is sure to prove popular among enthusiasts and custom system-builders alike. Currently, the standard Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1 has a street price of £175 ($240) so expect the Z97 Mark S to attract an additional premium of 10 to 20 per cent.
