Conclusion
Clean aesthetics, enriched audio and networking, a mature BIOS and all the capabilities of the Z97 Express chipset make this board an excellent choice for a gaming system.
The concept of a gaming motherboard is a slippery thing to grasp. The phrase has been frequently juggled around in marketing-speak to such an extent that it almost means nothing: any motherboard can be used for gaming and, therefore, with enough marketing any motherboard can be branded gaming.
With that in mind it's fair to say that the ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer makes a solid basis for a gaming system. It doesn't promise to revolutionise your gaming experience, the end result will only be as good as the hardware you put in. However, the high-quality audio and use of Intel's Gigabit network controller do help to enrich the overall appeal.
The SupremeFX audio implementation is a joy for headset users while Intel's network controller helps minimise CPU usage allowing your games to use the maximum amount of CPU horsepower. The ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer may not be as feature-rich as ROG-branded equivalents, but you save a lot of money for the loss of only a few niche features.
At £105 or so, the Z97 Pro Gamer is about £30 cheaper than the lowest-cost Z97 ROG board - the Maximus VII Ranger. That's not to say the Maximus VII Ranger doesn't have its own merits, it does, but the Z97 Pro Gamer distills the slippery concept of a gaming motherboard down to a more accessible price point. Whether the Z97 Pro Gamer is best suited for Pentium Anniversary Edition users is debatable, and we feel the board is equally as viable for use with something as high performance as a Core i7-4790K.
Clean aesthetics, enriched audio and networking, a mature BIOS and all the capabilities of the Z97 Express chipset make this board an excellent choice for a gaming system. There's plenty of choice out there, but we think the ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer does enough to warrant strong consideration for your next build.
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The Good
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The Bad
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High quality audio |
Only 6 rear-panel USB ports
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HEXUS.awards
ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer
HEXUS.where2buy
The ASUS Z97 Pro Gamer is available to buy from Scan.co.uk.
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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
