This is the intels new LGA1156 cpu socket which uses a slightly different clamp mechanism to the previous s775 and X58 offerings. It seems to work just as well, is as secure and i'd say is probably a little easier to use too.
Intels new LGA1156 cpu socket.
Surrounding this we see the mosfet heatsink which is screwed to the motherboard and sports an integrated heatpipe to boost cooling performance. At the top of the image you can also see the 8-pin 12v supply socket for the CPU. It's a neat arrangement which shouldn't interfere with heatsink installation.
Mosfet sinks and 8-pin 12v supply.
The dual channel DDR3 sockets allow for up to 16gb of memory to be installed. Should be plenty for any power user. I like the new single sided clip - gone are the days of the GPU blocking the removal of those DIMMs!
DDR3 sockets.
Next to the DIMM sockets is the 24-pin ATX socket. The absence of an ide socket means there's plenty of room for installation. You can also see a selection of motherboard status LED's as well as the GO_BUTTON which (through a feature called Mem-OK) allows a failed memory overclock to be rescued without changing all other overclock settings. Very nice idea!
24-pin ATX socket and ASUS' GO_Button.
Below these we find the six 3Gb/s sata sockets which are run directly from the P55 chipset. An additional controller powers the single upright sata socket you can see as well as the eSATA socket we'll see on the I/O panel.
Right angled SATA sockets help keep cabling clear of the GPU.
At the bottom of the board we see the front panel connectors. These are normally annoyingly fiddly to populate but with ASUS' Q-connector the process is made easy. Also shown here are the two main USB motherboard headers.
Front panel connectors and USB headers.
Next we find the 'typically RoG' Start and Reset buttons. These are a handy feature especially when testing and tweaking the motherboard out of the case.
The boards Start and Reset buttons.
Being a M-ATX motherboard the Maximus III Gene has little available room for additional expansion cards (especially if you go the whole hog and install two high end GPU's!) so ASUS have included the X-Fi SupremeFX from Creative Labs. This should provide a very immersive gaming experience.
X-Fi should provide good gaming audio.
The large RoG branded feature at the base of the board is in fact the P55 chipset heatsink. When powered up it is tastefully backlit and should be well out of the way when multiple GPU's are installed due to its low profile design.
The heatsink covering the boards P55 chipset.
Beside the heatsink we find the four expansion slots. Dual x16 PCIe slots (x16 with a single card or x8/x8 when running dual GPU's), a x4 PCIe slot and a standard PCI 2.2 slot. Also note the new retention clips which are a much improved design. I always found the single sided clips nearly impossible to remove when a large GPU was installed. There should be no such trouble here! Nice one ASUS!!!
The PCIe slots improved retention clips are great.
Finally we can take a look at the backplate. It's a fairly tidy layout with decent spacing between all of the 9 USB sockets! Also present are the standard PS2 keyboard socket, firewire, eSATA, optical digital output, the usual 6x analogue audio sockets and a Gigabit lan sporting ASUS' new 'GameFirst' to keep ping and latency times low. Ideal for gamers looking for the edge!
The Maximus III Gene backplate.
The eagle eyed amongst you will also notice the two buttons included on the backplate. The leftmost switch is a CMOS reset incase your overclocks failed and you need to recall stock settings.
The switch to the right is a RoG feature (RoG Connect) that utilises the vertically orientated usb socket to its right. Simply plug that port into another PC/laptop with the supplied Connect software installed and you'll be able to monitor and change many aspects of the Maximus III Gene's overclock settings.
