ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Review
Introduction
Product on Review: Maximus IV Extreme
Manufacturer: ASUS
Street Price: £280 inc. VAT
We’ve seen the plethora of Intel P67 ASUS motherboards and experienced the mainstream segment of Sandy Bridge motherboards but the ASUS product line-up wouldn’t be complete without their flagship Republic Of Gamers board. Avid Vortez viewers will be familiar with the range of ROG branded motherboards we have tested here so you will no doubt know that they represent the most premium ASUS motherboards in both price and performance. The ROG brand is sub-divided into three categories; Extreme (targeting overclockers), Formula (targeting gamers), and GENE (targeting LAN party gamers). The board we will be taking a look at today is the Maximus IV Extreme, representing their flagship overclocker board within the P67 line-up.
The motherboard contains a lot of features that we have previously covered in great depth - the Maximus sports 4 PCIe x16 slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots and 1 PCIe x4 slot. Brand new ROG features that we can expect on the Maximus IV Extreme are GPU TweakIt, GPU/ DIMM post, ROG iDirect and ROG BIOS Print. Those who have read previous ROG motherboard reviews will know that they sport an extra USB port at the back for ROG Connect. By simply connecting the bundled cable from the port to a Windows based laptop, the RC TweakIt software can be used to remotely overclock or monitor the motherboard. ASUS have now expanded on its functionality by adding GPU support so users can overvolt/overclock their GPUs remotely as long as they are on the supported vendor’s list. Fan control functionality will come over time. Another method of overclocking is of course by running RC TweakIt on a compatible phone via Bluetooth. The advantage of the Bluetooth module over the dongle solution is that it passes through the iROG microprocessor, thereby not creating a load on the CPU itself when overclocking. This is ideal in extreme benchmarking sessions where a small load spike can cause instability. One complaint on release was the lack of iPhone support… but brace yourselves because it’s finally coming! And because iPhone owners are inherently “special”, the feature had to be given its own name, ROG iDirect. If that wasn’t enough, the iPad will be fully supported as well. The previous lack of support is because Apple limited Bluetooth control on their hardware so extra software was needed to tackle the problem. The disadvantage compared to using other phones is that running RC TweakIt will create a 1% load on the CPU. The utility will be available through the App store.
So with the introduction over, lets begin our analysis of the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme.
ASUS take on Maximus IV Extreme:
Full Specifications
Product on Review: Maximus IV Extreme
Manufacturer: ASUS
Street Price: £280 inc. VAT
The motherboard contains a lot of features that we have previously covered in great depth - the Maximus sports 4 PCIe x16 slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots and 1 PCIe x4 slot. Brand new ROG features that we can expect on the Maximus IV Extreme are GPU TweakIt, GPU/ DIMM post, ROG iDirect and ROG BIOS Print. Those who have read previous ROG motherboard reviews will know that they sport an extra USB port at the back for ROG Connect. By simply connecting the bundled cable from the port to a Windows based laptop, the RC TweakIt software can be used to remotely overclock or monitor the motherboard. ASUS have now expanded on its functionality by adding GPU support so users can overvolt/overclock their GPUs remotely as long as they are on the supported vendor’s list. Fan control functionality will come over time. Another method of overclocking is of course by running RC TweakIt on a compatible phone via Bluetooth. The advantage of the Bluetooth module over the dongle solution is that it passes through the iROG microprocessor, thereby not creating a load on the CPU itself when overclocking. This is ideal in extreme benchmarking sessions where a small load spike can cause instability. One complaint on release was the lack of iPhone support… but brace yourselves because it’s finally coming! And because iPhone owners are inherently “special”, the feature had to be given its own name, ROG iDirect. If that wasn’t enough, the iPad will be fully supported as well. The previous lack of support is because Apple limited Bluetooth control on their hardware so extra software was needed to tackle the problem. The disadvantage compared to using other phones is that running RC TweakIt will create a 1% load on the CPU. The utility will be available through the App store.
So with the introduction over, lets begin our analysis of the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme.
ASUS take on Maximus IV Extreme:
Featuring the new Intel® P67 chipset, the Maximus IV Extreme is equipped with the latest transfer technologies. Ten USB 3.0 and four SATA6Gb/s ports and support for three-way NVIDIA® SLI™ or AMD CrossFireX™ graphics cards ensure that there are plenty of spots for future upgrades. Also on board are dual Gigabit Intel® Ethernet ports and dual-channel DDR3 2400(O.C.) RAM. All this makes the Maximus IV Extreme the world’s most refined motherboard for overclocking, ready to tackle anything power users throw at it!
Full Specifications
