Already at first glance the
Maximus VIII Impact leaves an excellent impression. The mix of overclocking
features and a high quality audio hardware makes this a state-of-the-art
motherboard for mini-ITX-gaming. And next to a very nice looking design you
find useful features like for example GameFirst III. This software allows
you to configure your network device the way gaming traffic gets
prioritized (keyword traffic shaping). Furthremore you get ASUS' RAM
Disk Software and lots of other goodies, which make this board even more
appealing. Absolutely remarkable, that's what the ten phase power design
is. ASUS again succeed in bringing even extreme overclocking to the
mini-ITX form factor. |
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Design
- Layout
- Features
- U.2 x4 Slot
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Basically, the
ASUS Maximus VIII Impact's layout has been very well thought. In order to make more
space on the tiny PCB ASUS decided to used two daughter PCBs, one for the
power design and one for the audio solution. Furthermore, the straight SATA
6Gbps ports have been placed at the only location where it makes sense to have
them, when you look at this from an accessibility point of view. Also due
to space contraints ASUS has put the debug LED as well as power and reset button on the I/O panel. Since the CPU socket is in the center of the
PCB it is possible to install even the largest CPU coolers. Another great
addition is the U.2 solit, which allows attaching NVMe SSDs. Also on this board is a WiFi 802.11ac / Bluetooth 4.0 module. |
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- Space around the CPU
socket
- Audio Solution
- Power/Reset-Button
- Debug LED
- Power Design
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