EVGA Z97 FTW

The key characteristic of the newer Z97 chipset over the the older Z87 is its Chiliad.2 (NGFF, Next Generation Course Gene) and SATA Express support. Of course the Z97 too supports fifth-generation Intel Core processors, simply before they are released M.two and SATA Express are the chief elements distinguishing Z97 motherboards from Z87 boards.

You would look any Z97 motherboard over $150 to include at to the lowest degree ane of these new features but that expectation isn't met with the EVGA Z97 FTW, which is virtually indistinguishable from previous Z87 versions besides improved CPU back up.

Technically, the Z97 FTW does support M.2 devices, though we say technically considering in terms of practicality it doesn't. The Grand.ii primal on this board is designed for USB 2.0, SDIO, UART and PCM devices, i.e. WiFi and sound cards -- non SSDs! Furthermore, the board is limited to supporting shortened M.ii devices which are just 30mm long, none of which are available on the market as far equally we know.

Even if it were 42mm long and was either an M or B key, that would withal only limit users to a select range of depression capacity low performance Chiliad.two devices. Quality M.two SSDs come in at 80mm so you tin forget about pairing them with the Z97 FTW.

Don't care almost M.2 or SATA Express? That's fine, but be aware that at that place are considerably cheaper Z97 motherboards offer everything the Z97 FTW does and more.

Those after a real Z97 motherboard from EVGA should be prepared to spend over $350 on the company's Z97 Classified, and while that motherboard is a multi-GPU marvel, it still fails to provide SATA Limited or proper G.ii support.

The EVGA Z97 FTW is the only Z97 motherboard in this roundup to use the Realtek ALC898 audio codec versus the improve Realtek ALC1150. The sometime implementation is low-end with no headphone amplifier, no shielding, nothing.

The board doesn't support wireless networking and instead users are limited to a single wired Gigabit Ethernet solution. While most of the other boards use Intel's I218V, the Z97 FTW uses the like I217V.

With such a bones sound and network solution, you won't be shocked to notice EVGA did nothing to upgrade the USB iii.0 support from the standard six ports provided by the Z97 chipset.

Overall, the EVGA Z97 FTW is an extremely basic Z97 motherboard that doesn't justify a $200 MSRP. The board can be found on auction for $170, but fifty-fifty at that price it looks foolish sitting side by side to the Asrock Z97 Extreme6.