Review: ASUS Maximus V Gene
Published by Christian Ney on 23.05.12Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| At a first glance the Maximus V Gene definitely leaves a very good impression. The mix of overclocking features and a high quality audio hardware makes this a state-of-the-art motherboard for mATX-gaming. And next to a very nice looking design you find useful features like for example GameFirst. This software allows you to configure your network device the way gaming traffic gets prioritized (keyword traffic shaping). And then there is the "Do Not Disturb" door hanger. When we found this one we really had to smile. It really is these small thing that make manufacturers win gamers hearts! | - Design - Overclocking Features - BIOS | ||
| Layout | + | - | |
| Generally the ASUS Maximus V Gene'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. We also liked the voltage readouts. But on the other hand there also are some hints that the ASUS design team have run out of space when putting all the features onto this little board. You can see this for example when looking at the power and reset buttons, which you can find at the bottom center of the board which can be hardly accessible when a card is populating the last PCIe slot. Meanwhile most of the manufacturers place them above the ATX power plug on the right hand side of the motherboard but in this case for the Gene you will find the voltage reading points. | - Space around the CPU socket - SLI and CrossFire Capable | - No PS/2 port | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| Also from this point of view the Maximus V Gene is a good motherboard. Regarding our 3D performance rating one can find this motherboard on the top 4 of our comparison charts. Concerning 2D performance it scores well too and you can find it at the fourth span of our rating tables. If you browse through all the results you will find that it's under SuperPi 1m and SuperPi 32m where the Maximus V Gene tops scoring first two times in a row. Which means that the BIOS ajust really well the memory subtimings. | -
SuperPi 1M - SuperPi 32M |
- Web Browsing - Resident Evil 5 | |
| BIOS / Overclocking | + | - | |
| Overclocking that's what this tiny motherboard is made for. The BIOS is well thought and you find way more settings than in any other BIOS. It is a piece of cake to overclock with such a BIOS as you can set everything you want even things you didn't even immagine to ever find in a BIOS one day. It's like the lovely old DFI days. Therefore it's been childrens play to reach the clock wall of our test CPU. Memory overclocking is definitely an asset for this motherboard, it's not only simple it really is baby job. Asus added preset overclocking profile for memory series and ICs so you don't have to think about what to set you just have to select a preset. Furthermore the UEFI BIOS is easy to use and one can quickly find the settings needed. There are BIOSes from other manufacturers which are nicer to look at, but that's it. During the tests it was just astonishing what's possible with the little board. | -
Well structured BIOS
- UEFI-BIOS - Voltage measuring points - LN2 Mode |
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| If you should be looking for a truely excellent mATX motherboard, that comes with a lot of useful features and also good performance values, then ASUS' Maximus V Gene is most definitely a good choice for you. When this review was published the board wasn't available in Switzerland. On Geizhals.at we were able to find it listed for EUR 299.- (est. CHF 360.-). | -
Overclocking - Gaming |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the Asus Maximus V Gene very good five out of five stars. | |||
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