Asus Demonstrates White TUF Motherboard Prototypes

Editor's Note: While Computex took place last week and all of the news announcements are behind us, we're still sorting through hundreds of in-person meetings and demonstrations, picking out just a few more of the most interesting items we saw up close.

Asus had a whole pile of new products on display at Computex 2014. Of all the prototypes we saw, two stood out.

The first prototype was a white TUF motherboard called the "Sabranco." Many folks praise the TUF series of boards for their extreme durability and stability, but aren't too fond of the color scheme. While the new color scheme isn't exactly the safest bet, it does have a certain appeal to it, and with the right accompanying components it can make for quite an attractive system. Not only is the thermal armor white, but the PCB of the board is also white. What do you think about this look? Should Asus go through with it and bring it to production?

The second prototype we found was not related to white motherboards at all. It was a storage adapter that takes a PCIe x4 interface and wires it to an M.2 slot. Other similar adapters have been spotted, but those typically support only two PCIe lanes, so this one will be able to boast much higher transfer speeds.

Pricing is unknown, and the Asus rep told us that the company wasn't sure whether it would ship the adapter with or without an SSD mounted. Asus is leaning towards simply selling the adapter, though, since it doesn't do much on the storage front. We'd be surprised if the adapter were to cost more than about $40 when it hits the market. We might even see it included with the upcoming X99 motherboards, as those don't actually have M.2 slots since Intel didn't embed it into the design specifications.

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Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • Duelix
    Interesting color scheme. Would have liked to seen another color on there, but oh well. Glad to see that these have M2.0
    Reply
  • deftonian
    That's a good looking setup, love the white cammo case to accent the MoBo... would love to have this set up in my office at home.
    Reply
  • Orlean
    I know Sapphire has done this in the past, but I really like this color sceme.
    Reply
  • lp231
    Asus will be making more white boards.
    https://twitter.com/ASUS_ROG/status/474204630855856128/photo/1
    Reply
  • BranFlake5
    This+HOF 780 Ti on a White PCB=Win
    Reply
  • icraft
    Heck yes. That+white cathodes+white coolant+HOF cards+an NZXT HALE PSU? Awesome.
    Reply
  • Optimus_Toaster
    More component colour options -> more better. Thumbs up Asus for trying new colours.
    Reply
  • SessouXFX
    Why don't they just make the MoBo colors customizable per customer? That way everyone would be happy with what they ordered.

    I'm sorry, just texting out loud. Seems like a better idea anyways...
    Reply
  • cryptz
    Why don't they just make the MoBo colors customizable per customer? That way everyone would be happy with what they ordered.

    I'm sorry, just texting out loud. Seems like a better idea anyways...

    normally a different color scheme would require a different manufacturing process and would really affect cost. Though in this case i think most of that is just covers that they could probably sell after the fact as a kit in any color you want..
    Reply
  • Murissokah
    Love the TUF series. Currently have a sabertooth and will be looking at it again when it's time to replace it.
    Reply