Question 1

Does ASUS have all there drivers and software squared away with this board?

Accepted Answer

I've been running the drivers and BIOS from Sept 2013 reliably for 3 months now, with a 4770K over clocked to 4.5GHz, and 32GB of Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP ram overclocked to 2000.   Graphics card is EVGA Titan.  
Once I got my settings tweaked, no crashes, no problems of any kind.

Question 2

how does this hook up to a case that has 2 x usb3.0 and 4 x usb 20.0 headers?  would i just have plugs that aren't active?  or do they make adapters or something

Accepted Answer

Not entirely sure about your question, but it seems to me...the headers would be on the motherboard, not the case. The Z87-WS has available USB 2.0 headers and it has USB 3.0 available as rear ports. If your case has front USB 3.0 ports connected to a cable looking for a USB 3.0 mobo header, here's the adapter you need: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2970X40954 I ran into this problem on another build, not involving the Z87-WS, and this adapter made my front case USB ports functional, but of course only at USB 2.0 transfer speeds. Hope this helps.

Question 3

Does this motherboard support Intel Xeon E3-1220V3 Haswell processor?

Accepted Answer

It supports the E3-1220V3

For future reference ASUS updates the cpu microcode updates on this page: hxxp://wxw.asus.cxm/us/Motherboards/Z87WS/HelpDesk_CPU/

Replace "x" with the usual stuff

Question 4

Does anyone know how to tell if a newly shipped Asus Z87 WS is the new revision C2 which has no issues like the first C1 release?

Accepted Answer

I believe the ASUS motherboard box should indicate what version it is. You might want to call Newegg on this and before they ship to you they could check this for you. Hope this helps, but this is a pretty solid motherboard, I am using it in a corporate environment and with MSATA 480Gbps ADATA I believe is the manu and it is working great with no issues on the second released mobo.

Question 5

does this board support crossfire and 4 video cards ?

Accepted Answer

It does support 4 video cards but make sure you pay attention to the locations of the slots because a high end video card is guaranteed to cover everything from the end of the slot to the edge of the board. My aging 6950 barely sits all the way into the second slot because it presses against the sata ports on the edge of the board. Fortunately the ports are sideways so I can still use them but it's a very tight fit for the video card there.

The top slot is very close to the ram and cpu so I can see that slot being problematic. The 4th slot puts the video card right on top of my PSU since my case has it on the bottom which is common nowadays. I would never put a video card there in a mid-tower case with the psu on the bottom since it can't possibly get enough airflow.

Question 6

You suggested the following case for this motherboard:

Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans, window side panel, top HDD dock

It will fit for sure?

Thanks

Accepted Answer

The motherboard will fit in that case. However the problems will come later. Depending on how large your GPU card is. There is another issue as well. Cooler height restrictions you will not be able to use the tall CPU tower style coolers such as the noctua D-14 U-14 U-12. the preferred air coolers for the i7s for this socket. You can go water but large radiators are not easy to mount in such a case. the tower coolers are going to have the side door fan in the way. If you ask my opinion and your budget grants it go with a full tower case. However if that is a no go. This case is a much better option. Not sure if its on new egg or not but you can google for it and find out. 	Lian Li First Knight Series Lancool PC-K59 Mid Tower rather solid case there around 90 - 105 the motherboard mounting rack can be detached from the case and re attached really easy. and 300 mm wide card area sapce avable so you can even fit the 780 GTX card or AMD Radeon R9 290X both will easily fit the space with room to spare. Hope this helps

Question 7

Apparently are two versions of this board the latter of which fixes a USB3.0 problem. Is this the  Rev 1.04A board?

What is the ASUS part number?

Accepted Answer

I own one of the prev versions of this board that was available right after release. It is m understanding that there was one rev before the product even went on the market. that's chipset haswell rev 6 and southbridge intel lynx point LP rev 4 I have heard rumor that there are a few new rev versions of this board out but not very many there is a new driver pack out for the USB controllers and it solved my USB 3 issues as long as you dont set add on USB power to away mode some devices do not tell the port to turn on the power to the array so the devices do show up as even attached. Do yourself a favour if you order one of these boards get the latest bios  flash and before you even put anything on the board at all use the bios flash with any USB flash stick via the back of the mother board all you need is the PSU connected up and power to the board and push that  button the board when I got it had alot of issues even post untel I flashed it out then there was alot CPU data about speeds the chip was running at (bus and core) being displayed wrong with AI suit this was fixed with with new updates to that software bottom line most issues with this board have been worked out. Hope this helps if you have any more questions feel free to ask ill try my best to answer them.

Question 8

Hi there,

is this the C2 (1.04A) revision with USB3 fix ?

Thanks,
-max

Accepted Answer

131362-00194-SB0390-A01 0904 GE8000
Barcode sticker on MB between CPU_OPT header and EATX12V1 all along top edge.

Retail box barcodes all on same sticker
Serial No.:D7S1YZ002776
Part No.:90SB0390-MAAY0
Z87-WS

I do not use sleep on this WS as it hosts multiple VMs for dev.

Purchased late Sept 2013 newegg

Not sure if this helps. Have a link to a walk thru on looking at MB to get your answer? Or not sure what were looking for?

Question 9

I think I have a straightforward application (media center) but looking for a board with very high reliability/longevity.  Any thoughts as to the fit of this MB for my application?

Accepted Answer

As a media center I'm presuming your application is a HTPC.  While the board itself is designed with workstation class parts and would be high reliability and stability.  Its utility for an HTPC application is poor.  As a standard ATX board it's too big.  And as a workstation class MB it's power draw is too great.  In short, it's way more than you need for a HTPC.  You'd probably be better served with something like the Asus Z87I-Deluxe, which is a mini-ITX board, much more suitable for HTPC applications with the same level of build quality.  Maybe you're okay with a mid-size or greater tower setup, but most media center and HTPC setups go micro-ATX or mini-ITX form factor since the goal is video decode/internet streaming at as low a power draw as possible.  And to fit into a media center console as a horizontal and sleek 'black box' rather than an upright beside the TV kind of setup.

Question 10

Does ASUS have all the drivers and software squared away with this?

Accepted Answer

Thus far I have been able to find all I need, drivers and software, from ASUS's site. Compared to my previous MoBos, this one has been a breeze to update drivers and flash the bios. I have not used all this board's added features, but through setup and overclocking, everything has worked perfectly.

I would be wary though if you intend to use more than 6 SATA ports. The SATA ports by Marvell have had several issues in the past.

Questions & Answers