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Asus Displays its Z87-Deluxe/SATA Express Motherboard

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Asus is displaying its Z87-Deluxe/SATA Express motherboard at CES 2014.

Along with other products that Asus is demonstrating at CES 2014, the Z87-Deluxe/SATA Express motherboard is set to be the first to feature the SATA-Express standard. It is particularly impressive considering that it seems that the SATA-Express won't even be standard on the next-generation Z97-Express chipset.

The SATA-Express connector aboard the motherboard will allow for transfer rates of up to 1000 MB/s. The SATA-Express connector is different from the older SATA connector, though.

Up until now, there haven't been any SATA-Express drives on the market, so for testing it is likely Asus' 'Runway' creation.

We have yet to hear when the Z87-Deluxe/SATA Express will come to the market.

Check out all of our CES 2014 coverage!

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jimmysmitty
    I tested a Revo Xrive X2 and overall you can't tell the difference between it and a SATA3 drive in terms of using the OS. And some things wont be able to utilize speed that fast.That said, I am excited as always for technology to push forward.Were you able to find out what company is providing the SATAe chip?I have found that Intels SATA is normally the most reliable, ASMedia, pretty much Asus, being decent and Marvell normally has more issues than anything.
    Reply
  • Simon Anderson
    Will external SATA express be called eSATAe? :P
    Reply
  • rishiswaz
    12385584 said:
    I tested a Revo Xrive X2 and overall you can't tell the difference between it and a SATA3 drive in terms of using the OS. And some things wont be able to utilize speed that fast.That said, I am excited as always for technology to push forward.Were you able to find out what company is providing the SATAe chip?I have found that Intels SATA is normally the most reliable, ASMedia, pretty much Asus, being decent and Marvell normally has more issues than anything.

    Did you test it as a non-Boot drive? I would assume PCIe based storage would be useful for cache and scratch disks.

    Reply
  • TEAMSWITCHER
    SATA Express connectors are UGLY!
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    12390641 said:
    12385584 said:
    I tested a Revo Xrive X2 and overall you can't tell the difference between it and a SATA3 drive in terms of using the OS. And some things wont be able to utilize speed that fast.That said, I am excited as always for technology to push forward.Were you able to find out what company is providing the SATAe chip?I have found that Intels SATA is normally the most reliable, ASMedia, pretty much Asus, being decent and Marvell normally has more issues than anything.

    Did you test it as a non-Boot drive? I would assume PCIe based storage would be useful for cache and scratch disks.

    This was as a OS vs OS drive. Transfer wise, yes it was faster but using it as a OS drive did not feel much faster or smoother and that is because the IOPS on SSDs is already insanely high.

    It is much akin to current memory speeds and how for most applications quad channel is overkill as is anything above DDR3 1600MHz right now because 20GB/s is already more than enough for current applications. But in applications that can utilize that bandwidth, it excels much like transfer of files will excel on SATAe and quad channel RAM.

    I am all for new technology though. I know there will be a point where it will be beneficial. Its much like 4GB of RAM. On XP, it was pointless to have much more than 1GB, 2GB was even considered overkill. But in 7 4GB is what you want minimum and 8GB is the current sweet spot.
    Reply
  • rishiswaz
    SATA III in my opinion will still be around for a long time after SATA express takes off, might even stick around longer than SATA II. Same thing with DDR3 for consumer markets. Aside from niche markets (Super-enthusiasts, Servers, Workstations, people with more money than sense) there is no need for faster interfaces. Server market is going to be big but outside that, for the next 2-4 years unless SSDs drop down significantly in price/GB I can't see SATA express going mainstream. There is no need, it would be more expensive for OEMs and the performance benefit people would see would be marginal if any for day to day tasks.
    Reply
  • tntom
    Asus has some pictures that clarify the connectors. http://rog.asus.com/294202013/labels/featured/next-gen-asus-z87-deluxe-sata-express/Not sure how one SATA express connector ( 2xSATA + 1xPower) is any smaller/elegant than just using a ribbon cable straight from the PCIe straight to a SSD drive. Though I suppose this allows backwards compatibility.
    Reply