ASUS announced a new TUF (The Ultimate Force) series motherboard, the Vanguard B85. Coming in Micro-ATX format, Vanguard features Intel B85 chipset.
Vanguard B85 motherboard has 4+1 CPU power design composed of alloy chokes, 10K Ti capacitors and high quality MOSFETs. Since B85 chipset does not officially support overclocking, heatsinked 4+1 VRM design is more than enough for any Intel Haswell CPU. Processor is fed through 8-pin EPS power connector connector. Aside from 4-pin CPU fan connector, Vanguard has four more 4-pin fan connectors with support for ASUS TUF Thermal Radar Core, which is a fan control utility, by the looks of it.
Board has four DIMM slots, which support up to 64GB 1333/1600 MHz DDR3 memory. Storage connectivity includes four SATA3 6Gbps and two SATA2 3Gbps ports. Internal USB 3.0 header is present. Expansion slots include one PCI-E 3.0 x16 (x16 electrical), one PCI-E 2.0 x16 (x4 electrical) one PCI-E 2.0 x1 and one conventional PCI. AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU configuration is supported. Networking is provided by Intel I217V Ethernet adapter. Board uses Realtek ALC887 8 channel HD audio codec.
Rear panel connectivity includes PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port, two USB 2.0, four USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet port, 8 channel audio connectors, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA (D-Sub) ports. Up to three displays can be connected simultaneously. Digital video connectors support 4K resolutions. Intel InTru 3D, Quick Sync Video, Clear Video HD Technology, Insider technologies are supported as well. Rear I/O panel has ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection to prevent electrical damage to components.
ASUS TUF Vanguard B85 micro-ATX motherboard is backed by 5 year warranty and is priced from 80 EUR/115 USD.
