Asus Gryphon Armor Kit Sabertooth mATX cooling armor for LGA 1150

Asus Gryphon Armor Kit Sabertooth mATX motherboard armor for LGA 1150.

The ASUS Z87 Gryphon can be fitted with an Armor Kit, i.e. a plastic armor that tightly wraps the PCB and slot covers. Apart from the visual aspect, which we will leave to readers' individual judgment, the first changes can be felt already when installing the CPU cooler. Pressing down the upper left mount is no mean feat, and with a larger cooler, e.g. the Scythe Rasetsu, it almost borders on a miracle. Installing the Gryphon Armor Kit itself is fairly simple - we fit the back and top covers to the holes on the ASUS Gryphon Z87, then screw everything together with a few screws - done. The metal backplate turns out to be quite heavy, however, and the whole assembly clearly gains weight.

After the Armor Kit is screwed on, the board is tightly covered - only the slots, connectors and the CPU socket are visible. All the inputs and outputs on the rear panel, ports and slots on the PCB can be protected with appropriate plugs. If the ASUS Z87 Gryphon is to work in a place with a lot of dust, it is best to leave unused sockets plugged, which will protect them from dirt.

The plastic cover works a bit like clothing that retains heat, so it is obvious that temperatures rise. That is why ASUS added a small fan to the set, which, mounted behind the rear panel, improves cooling of the CPU power section and forces air circulation. This does not change the fact that after assembling the Armor Kit, temperatures rose by exactly 5 degrees Celsius at standard settings and 9 degrees Celsius after overclocking.

The maximum stable CPU clock achieved on the "bare" board, together with the plastic housing, works for only a few minutes and ends with the infamous blue screen. Lowering the clock by a dozen or so megahertz was enough for the system to run completely stably, but the temperature increase is noticeable. Even so, 4673 MHz is still a very decent result, not achieved on any other LGA 1150 motherboard tested so far.

Specifications:

Brand: The Ultimate Force.
Model: Gryphon LGA 1150.
Color: black.
New product
No user manual.

Package contents:

1 x Asus Gryphon Armor Kit Sabertooth mATX motherboard armor for LGA 1150.

Used product.
Checked and tested, fully working, practically like new.
No packaging.
No manual.