A couple of days ago we have received a big package with inside the ASUS Maximus X Apex. Compared to the previous model, the ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex is very similar. ASUS has improved the heatsink design and updated the motherboard with the new chipset. The motherboard targets the high-end market.


The ROG Maximus X Apex is based on an E-ATX form factor and the edges have been shaped to resemble the shape of "X", which we'd guess stands for "Xtreme". There are four full-sized and metal-strengthened PCIe slots, which have been wired with 16/8/4/1 lanes top to bottom. Between each PCIe slot there is one slot distance, which allows running multi-GPU setups comfortably.

Checking the SATA connector count there are four of them, while the other models of the same generation feature from six to eight of these connectors. In addition ASUS has removed the U.2 and M.2 connectors. One of the most unusual features on this board is the "third" DIMM slot. In combination with an adapter card (which is included in the bundle) it's possible to put two M.2 SSDs into the DIMM slot.

Looking for additional features we find the usual bells and whistles you'd expect from an overclocking motherboard, such as onboard buttons and a debug display, slow mode, LN2 mode, CMOS button and much more. At a first glance this is certainly a good looking motherboard and judging by the records that have already been broken using this board it is also a highly capable platform.

During the upcoming days we are going to test this motherboard with our Intel Core i7-8700K and update our motherboard charts.



Source: Gallery