ASUS Z270 TUF Preview
Up Close
The TUF Armor is the main emphasis on the packaging, as it should be given its prominence in separating the TUF from the other ASUS Z270 motherboards. Similarly to the Prime the AURA technology is also in pride of place. Nearly every manufacturer includes some form of RGB lighting on their motherboard so, given that ASUS pioneered it, it makes sense for them to remind everyone who invented it.
The TUF – The Ultimate Force – Z270 sticks with the original Sabertooth colouring of sand coloured plastics on an otherwise muted board. Eagle eyed readers will have also seen that, similar to the Sabranco, the Z270 comes with a Digipat camouflage. Not so garish that it spoils the overall affect if you wish to ignore it, and yet notable enough that if you wanted to go all out on a military themed system it would be the cornerstone. A delicate balance nicely achieved. With any covering it is easy to fear the cooling, but the TUF Armor is well ventilated and even supports a dedicated 40mm fan if you are particularly paranoid. There are plenty of fan headers to ensure that your system remains cool and enabling you to place your cables in the cleanest positions. Casting our eyes to the bottom of the TUF and you can see that the second PCIe slot and the M.2 connector both have covers keeping things dust free and the aesthetics clean.
Even around the back the TUF does its best to hide all the soldering, with the TUF Fortifier keeping the PCB braced under even the most demanding scenarios. We also like the cheeky tag line.
