ASUS Vanguard B85 Micro-ATX Motherboard

The Vanguard B85 Micro-ATX Motherboard from ASUS ties all your PC components together in building a mini tower or desktop PC. This 9.6 x 9.6 inch motherboard supports 4th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3, Pentium, and Celeron processors in the LGA1150 socket. These CPUs combine dual or quad-core processing power with integrated Intel graphics that offers 4K video via HDMI or DisplayPort. For additional graphics power, this motherboard supports CrossFireX technology by offering two PCI Express x16 slots. ASUS also provides stability and reliability for your PC by including Thermal Radar Core, 10K Ti-capacitors, ESD guards, and more. Other features offered are Q-slots and Q-DIMM, which allows easier installation of PCI Express cards and RAM chips.

This motherboard allows you to add up to 32GB of RAM across 4 memory slots for running multiple applications at the same time. For connecting to optical and storage drives, four SATA III connectors and two SATA II are available. Four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports are located on the back I/O for connecting to other peripherals. These USB 3.0 ports also support USB Attached SCSI Protocol in Windows 8 and 8.1 that boost transmission speeds up to 170%. It also comes with PCI Express and PCI slots for adding additional hardware such as FireWire, parallel, and serial ports. For audio and networking needs, the motherboard is built with the Realtek Audio ALC887 and the Intel I217V Gigabit LAN controller. Included with the Vanguard B85 motherboard are a support disk, SATA cables, Q-connector and a Q-shield.

Key Features

Thermal Radar Core

Customised Fan Tuning

• Customisable controls allow you to adjust fan speeds, allowing the temperature to be tuned with just a single click. With live update, meanwhile, you can ensure that Thermal Radar Core is never out of date - just click the button to cheque for updates.

Thermal Assessment

• Thermal Assessment allows you to judge when the CPU zone needs more cooling, making system fan control more precise - because it is based on real temperature information. Sensors record the CPU's temperature over time, so you can customise fan settings based on your computing habits.

Fan Control

• Gives customised settings for each fan, which can be easily changed. You can supervise fan speeds to balance cooling and noise emissions, and fans can be manually managed, individually controlled, and even named. All these promote better cooling, noise reduction, and power saving.

Thermal Tuning

• Thermal Radar Core allows optimised settings for each fan with a click! Changing fan settings is easy via Thermal Radar Core's simple interface. You can supervise fan speeds to balance cooling and noise emissions, and fans can be managed automatically, promoting better cooling, noise reduction and power saving.

Protection and Testing

ESD Guards

• ASUS ESD Guards offer an active protective circuit design that ensures electrostatic discharges are properly grounded, providing greater component longevity.

Server-Grade Test

• All TUF Series motherboards pass a rigorous testing programme during development, undergoing extreme temperature and humidity trials. These tests result in completely reliable motherboards that are ready for intense daily computing and heavy duty usage with the utmost stability.

TUF Components

10K Ti-Caps Black Metallic Caps

• Unique Black Metallic Japan-made capacitors with military-standard certification offer +20% high and low temperature tolerance and 5X longer lifetime usage.

Chokes and MOSFETs

• Chokes made of high-grade anti-oxidisation materials for extra-unbeatable durability. TUF MOSFETs also pass military-grade tests with lower RDS(on), certified for tough duty.

UEFI BIOS

BIOS

• UEFI BIOS from ASUS provides a mouse-controlled graphical BIOS. It features more intuitive functions to quickly take you to your favourite BIOS pages and frequently accessed settings through custom shortcuts. You can even write quick notes in-BIOS for future reference, view an activity log of setting changes and modifications, and rename SATA ports.

EZ Mode

• Fast Clock Adjustment: Change the time and date in EZ Mode using the mouse.
• EZ XMP Settings: Quickly apply XMP settings in UEFI BIOS EZ Mode, achieving better DRAM performance.
• EZ Fan Setting: Detailed fan controls are offered in EZ Mode, so you can switch fan profiles for quick cooling and noise-level supervision.
• SATA Information: Each SATA port has details displayed, so you can easily recognise devices.

My Favourites

• F4 or right click to add settings to My Favourites under Advanced Mode, which cuts time spent on searching and further speeds up system tuning.

Shortcut

• Customise your own shortcut log by pressing F4 or right clicking to create shortcuts to frequently-used settings. Instantly access them by simply hitting the F3 hotkey.

Quick Note

• Create and save notes within the BIOS to help remember important settings and save time on trial and error.

Last Modified

• This function creates a tuning log to track your BIOS setting history, which can be saved onto a USB drive.

SATA Port Renaming

• Rename the SATA ports for easy identification, including by usage scenario. You will spend less time finding the right devices when you want to change its settings.

Windows 8 Features

Probe II Sense

• Displays real-time system information through a live tile on the Windows 8 start screen and allows you to make quick adjustments. Probe II Sense is a free app available from the Windows Store.

Additional Features

USB 3.0 Boost (UASP Support)

• ASUS USB 3.0 Boost technology supports USB Attached SCSI Protocol in Windows 8. With USB 3.0 Boost technology, a USB device's transmission speed is increased up to 170%, adding to already fast USB 3.0 performance. ASUS software automatically accelerates data rates for compatible USB 3.0 peripherals without any user interaction.
• Complete USB 3.0 Solution: Performance boost under Turbo Mode or UASP Mode for most USB devices.
• Simple Plug and Boost: Auto detection design ensures best performance.

DIGI+ VRM

• It intelligently detects the processor's own energy consumption to provide precise power accordingly. The 4+1 digital architecture provides the highest power efficiency and also generates less heat, extending the lifespan of phase components. With DIGI+, users can easily adjust power-phase performance, enabling new PWM (pulse-width modulation) voltage and frequency modulation controls. The digital 4+1 power-phase design also expands the modulation spectrum for improved stability and lower VRM-switching noise by dynamically detecting system load.

AI Suite 3

• ASUS AI Suite 3 offers a clearer and more attractive interface with support for larger monitors. It consolidates all ASUS features into one simple-to-use package, allowing you to supervise overclocking, energy consumption, fan speeds, voltages and more. This all-in-one app offers diverse and easy-to-use functionality, with no need to switch back and forth between different utilities.

ASUS Q-Design

• Q-Shield: The I/O Panel is soft and pliable to protect your hands from cuts.
• Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED): When there's a problem with your PC, an LED lights up next to the component that's faulty.
• Q-Slot: Press the Q-Slot clip lightly, and the graphics card pops out. The large winged clip is easily reachable, so you don't have to struggle with installing or removing the biggest graphics card.
• Q-DIMM: Plugging in memory is easy with one-sided clips that are right at the edge of the board and always accessible. Just push down on the clip and push or pull RAM modules in or out
• Q-Connector: Offers an easier way to connect all your front panel computer case wires to the motherboard by connecting it to the one-piece labelled plug. It then sits on top of the front panel headers.

Multi-GPU/Monitors

4K HDMI Support

• This motherboard offers native 4K support with a GPU that can provide 4K resolutions via an HDMI port.

Intel Collage Display

• Intel Collage Display allows an image to be shown across multiple monitors, with each depicting a portion of a larger image. You can connect multiple displays to a single system and get video on several monitors with higher quality and resolution up to 4K. Connect up to six displays to drive a total resolution as high as 7680 x 1200 for Horizontal Collage Display or 3840 x 2400 for Vertical Collage Display with special dongles, like DisplayPort splitter adapters. Horizontal mode offers an extended desktop experience that's ideal for commercial applications such as finance, while vertical mode offers a simple way to enjoy 4K ultra HD content using standard HD displays.

AMD CrossFireX Support

• Features the Intel B85 platform to optimise PCI Express allocation in multi-GPU CrossFireX, giving you gaming enjoyment.

CPU and Chipset Features

Intel LGA1150 4th Generation Processor Ready

• This motherboard supports Intel 4th generation Core i7/i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron processors in the LGA1150 package, with iGPU, memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support onboard graphics output with dedicated chipsets, 2-channel 4 DIMM DDR3 memory and 16 PCI Express 3.0/2.0 lanes. Intel 4th generation processors are also energy efficient.

Intel B85 Express Chipset

• The Intel B85 Express chipset provides improved performance by utilising serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. It natively supports up to four USB 3.0 ports for up to ten times faster transfer rates than USB 2.0. Moreover, the Intel Express chipset also supports iGPU functionality, letting users enjoy the latest Intel integrated graphics performance.

Intel Smart Connect Technology

• Your computer can receive web updates with fresh content for selected applications, even when the system is in sleep mode. This means less time waiting for applications to update and sync with the cloud, leading to a more efficient computing experience.

Intel Rapid Start Technology

• Allows your computer to quickly resume from a low-power hibernate state in seconds. Saving your system memory to the designated SSD, it provides your computer a faster wake-up response time, while still keeping energy use low.

PCI Express 3.0

• PCI Express 3.0 uses improved encoding that provides twice the performance of PCI Express 2.0. Total bandwidth for an x16 link reaches 32 GB/s, delivering fast data speeds combined with the convenience and seamless transition offered by complete backward compatibility.

USB 3.0 Integration

• Plug-n-play connectivity at speeds up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.

SATA III Ports

• ASUS provides SATA III 6.0 Gb/s ports with enhanced scalability, faster data retrieval, and double the bandwidth of SATA II 3Gb/s.

Intel SBA support

• Intel Small Business Advantage is a combination of hardware and software that provides unique security and productivity capabilities designed for small businesses. Requirements
• Windows 7/8 32/64-bit
• 5MB ME 9.0 firmware load
• MEI drivers (AMT host software kit)
• Intel Management Engine software kit

GreenASUS

• Motherboards are EU Energy-related Products ready, which requires products meet high efficiency standards with regards to energy consumption. This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient products through design and innovation that reduce the carbon footprint of products and thus mitigate ecological impact.

Bundled Software

• Drivers ASUS utilities ASUS/TUF CPU-Z

Specifications