While a little less flashy looking than some of the performance motherboards we’ve seen lately, opting for an understated gray/red color scheme over a black PCB, there is nothing subtle about the new Maximus VIII Extreme. From the specs it looks to be the most overbuilt gaming/overclocking motherboard possible for the Intel Z170 chipset, and that’s exactly what the ROG Extreme motherboards are made for.
Here are the (very lengthy) specifications:
- CPU: LGA1151 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron®
- CPU Cache Ratio Tuning
- Turbo Ratio OC
- BCLK OC (Pro-Clock)
- iGPU OC
- DRAM: Spec supported 4x DIMM, max. 64GB
- DDR4 3866(O.C.) non-ECC, un-buffered memory, XMP 2.0
- Extreme Overclocking
- OC Zone: Retry button, Safe Boot button, LN2 mode, Slow Mode switch, Probelt, PCIe x16 lane switch, DRAM channel jumper
- OC Gadget: OC Panel II
- OC Design: ASUS PRO Clock Technology
- Optimize System
- Power Design: Extreme Engine Digi+
- DRAM Layout: 2nd Generation T-Topology
- Performance Optimization
- Intel® Quick Sync Video
- Intel® Smart Response Technology
- USB 3.1 Boost
- HW Fast Boot support
- Network: Intel® I219-V NIC with LANGuard Anti-surge
- Network bandwidth management: GameFirst III + GameFirst IV (Beta)
- Intel® Rapid Start Technology
- Intel® Smart Connect Technology
- Expansion Slots:
- PCIex16 @ x16 – 1x Max. @Gen3
- PCIex16 @ x4 – 1x Max. @Gen3
- PCIex16 @ x8/x4 – 1x Max. @Gen3
- PCIex16 @ x4 – 1x Max. @Gen3 via PCH
- PCIex1 @ x1 – 2x Max. @Gen3
The included OC Panel II fits in an open 5.25” bay
- BIOS: CPU-Free Update/USB BIOS Flashback/UEFI Level Update/EZ Flash 3/BIOS Flash Protection/CrashFree BIOS 3
- BIOS feature:
- All fans including pump header are DC and PWM mode compatible
- Wizard for simple OC and RAID
- SSD Secure Erase
- My Favorite & Shortcut
- Boot Logo Size Adjustment
- F12 BIOS Print
- Power Solution:
- Full Digital 8 Phase CPU Power Design
- 4 Phase for iGPU
- 2 Phase Digital DRAM Power Design with ASUS DRAM Power Utility
- System Agent Power: 1 Phase for VCCSA
- Extreme Engine Digi+
- Dual PWM Controllers, 1 for Vcore, 1 for VGT
- 10K Black Metallic Capacitors
- MicroFine Alloy Chokes
- OptiMOS™ MOSFET
- Real-time adjustment: ASUS DIGI+ Power Control Utility
- Anti-Surge Protection
- Mass Storage:
- 1x M.2 socket 3 with M Key; Supporting form factor 2242, 2260, 2280, 22110, PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA mode, PCIe RAID
- 1x U.2 connector (sharing PCIe with M.2)
- 2x SATA Express via PCH (SATA-E 1 share SATA with M.2)
- 8x SATA 6Gbps (2 via PCH native; 4 via SATA-E; 2 via ASM1061)
- RAID: RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 via iRST 14
- USB Support:
- 4x 3.1 (1 Type-A and 1 Type-C via Intel Alpine Ridge; 2 Type-A via Asmedia USB 3.1 controller)
- 4x USB 3.0 (4 rear, 4 mid) via PCH
- 6x USB 2.0 – 6 mid via PCH, two shared with ROG extension (ROG_EXT) port
- Bundled Software
- AI Suite 3 (Real-Time OC); ROG GameFirst III + GameFirst IV (Beta); ROG Keybot II; RAMCache; ROG RAMDisk; USB 3.1 Boost; ROG CPU-Z; ROG MemTweakIt; Lighting Control
Pricing and availability were not immediately available.
See discussion of integrated
See discussion of integrated U.2 port here:
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/nvme-2-5-sff-drives-working-in-a-normal-desktop.5864/page-16#post-63237
MRFS