ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Review
Published by Marc Büchel on 19.08.13Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| The first impression the Maximus VI Extreme from ASUS leaves makes us want more. Once again we like the ROG design, which meanwhile belongs to the evergreens in the industry. Overall this board is just massive. There are so many features that it's almost unbelievable. For example: this is the first board where we see a total of nine fan headers. Furthermore there is the OC Panel, which offers lot of features for overclocking and extreme overclocking. Overall the OC Panel was a smart move, since ASUS is able to move quite a few features from the board into an external device. If all those features were onboard the would have had to go for a larger PCB. In this case the space offered by a standard ATX board is enough. | -
Design - Layout - Standard ATX |
- Price | |
| Layout | + | - | |
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Basically the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme's Layout has been very well thought. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons. There is also a debug display which is very useful in case you should have issues with a component in your system or the board itself. Even the placement of the PCI-Express x16 is very well chosen. There is a total of five full sized PCI Express slots and four of these slots have been wired to a PEX8747 bridge chip. Between these four slots there is one other slots or free space. In this case it is possible to build a Quad SLI setup without running into issues. Apart from that there is generally a lot of space on this board since, it hasn't been squeezed to the rim with features. Should you use this board for extreme overclocking, then you'll find it easy to isolate. Are you a gamer and you want to install a big CPU cooler, then there is plenty of space to even install todays biggers air coolers. |
- Angled SATA connectors
- 5 x Full-Size PCI Express x16 - Power/Reset-Button onboard - Debug display - Space around the CPU socket |
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| Performance | + | - | |
| Let's first have closer look at overall 3D performance. Calcualting the average of all 3D benchmarks we ran, we see that this board ranks in the center span. Concerning the average of all 2D benchmarks we ran, this board reaches fourth to bottom. Overall we would have expected this board to be quite a bit quicker. Particularly interesting were the memory bandwidth results. After double checking with ASUS, we were told that the memory subtimings are very loose, which explains the low bandwidth. Apart from that ASUS mentions, that this way they are able to improve compatibility, which is obviously true. On another note we had a look at power consumption and in this case we clearly see that we have a board here that has been equipped with many additional chips, which in the end means, that power consumption is high. | - 3DMark Ice Storm | - 3DMark 11 Total - SiSoft Sandra Arithmetik - SiSoft Sandra Multimedia - SiSoft Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 2D Performance |
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| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| As you might have expected from ASUS you get an excellent BIOS which offers not only a boatload of tuning and tweaking options but is also very easy to use. The ROG themed BIOS always comes with a bit more of a technical touch but it is still very well structured and it won't take long until one understands what's where. | - Clear arrangement - Sheer amount of options | ||
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| Should you be looking for a high-end overclocking motherboard, then the Maximus VI Extreme is a great choice, but obviously you should have the necessary cash. | -
Overclocking - Enthusiast - Gaming |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme very good 4.5 out of 5 stars. | |||
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch
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