Connectors and I/O

ASUS equipped the Maximus IX Formula with six angled SATA ports. All of them offer 6Gbps bandwidth. There aren't any SATA Express ports but we find two M.2 slots which have been wired using four PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes each. As we already mentioned we do question their positioning. On of the M.2 slots is hidden underneath the plastic cover, that spans over the entire motherboard. If you want to install an M.2 SSD underneath the cover, which ASUS calls "armor", you'll first have to remove a plastic piece to then be able to access the slot. After having the M.2 drive installed you'll most likely put that plastic cover back. This might have the effect that the heat generated by your M.2 SSD gets trapped underneath the cover thus your drive starts thrtottling. We also don't agree with the placement of the second M.2 slot, which makes you install your M.2 drive vertically using a support bracket. Despite that there is still the possibility to break the drive out of the slot if you're not careful, when wiring your system. Apart from that, since there is already a support bracket they could have equipped it with a thick thermal pad so it would act as a heatspreader at the same time. That way using this slot would make a little more sense. Having a look around the board we find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons and there is also a debug LED on this board. Furthermore you get a MemOK button, which has proven useful quite a few times. ASUS decided to place a PCIe x1 slot right below the I/O panel. After that one there is a PCIe x16 Gen 3 slot. This means that it's well possible to remove a graphics card even if a large CPU heatsink has been installed.

There is a total of seven fan headers on the Maximus IX Formula which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped high-end or workstation with fresh air. The fan headers have been located close to the CPU as well as spread over the board. Other than that it's a good thing that all of them feature four pins, which allows for rpm regulation in BIOS as well as under Windows.

Lighting

• 2 x Aura RGB Strip Headers

Fan headers

• 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin)
• 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (1 x 4 -pin)
• 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (3 x 4 -pin)
• 1 x EXT_Fan header
• 1 x H_AMP fan connector

Watercooling connectors

• 1 x W_PUMP+ connector (1 x 4 -pin)
• 1 x AIO_PUMP connector (1 x 4 -pin)
• 1 x W_IN header
• 1 x W_OUT header
• 1 x W_FLOW header
• 1 x Thermal sensor connector

Overclocking and debugging connectors

• 1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header(s)
• 1 x ReTry button
• 1 x Safe Boot button
• 1 x LN2 Mode jumper(s)
• 1 x Slow Mode switch(es)
• 1 x Start button
• 1 x Reset button(s)
• 1 x MemOK! button(s)

Additional connectors

• 1 x USB 3.1 front panel connector
• 1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)
• 1 x System panel(s) (Q-Connector)
• 1 x TPM connector(s)

Looking at the external connectors and buttosn directly at the back-panel ASUS equipped the Maximus IX Formula with one DisplayPort, one HDMI, one RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet connector, one USB 3.1 Type-A connector, one USB 3.1 Type-C connector, four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, one optical audio out (S/PDIF), five audio jacks, one clear CMOS button, two WiFi anntenna ports and one USB BIOS flashback button.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 14 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 15 - UC Bench
Page 3 - Features	Page 16 - Super Pi 1M / 32M
Page 4 - Layout	Page 17 - wPrime 1024M Multi Core
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 18 - Cinebench
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 19 - Tomb Raider
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 20 - Metro Last Light
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 21 - Sleeping Dogs
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 22 - Power Consumption
Page 10 - 3D Mark 11	Page 23 - Performance Rating
Page 11 - 3D Mark Vantage	Page 24 - Price Comparison
Page 12 - PC Mark 8	Page 25 - Conclusion
Page 13 - SiSoft Sandra 1