Personal Opinion

Overall the Maximus V Formula is a good board but unfortunately there seems to be some performance related issue. In our tests we always use the latest BIOS versions and even though, the Maximus V Formula has not been able to keep up with the competition. It really is a pity and we hope that future BIOS update will change this situation. As soon as ASUS is able to get some more performance out of this board, we will absolutely recommend this board to any gamer out there.
On the plus side there is a very attractive and well balanced feature mix which offers everything a high-end gamer could possibly need. Ok, there is no way to run a four way SLI setup. But hell I think at least 99 percent of all gamers out there will never ever put four GPUs in their system. Especially not if they decide to buy a more budget oriented Formula board from ASUS over a more expensive Extreme. Even triple SLI is an absolute overkill in such a case and ASUS seems to be aware of that too. Otherwise there would have been an additional PLX chip between the first PCI Express x16 slot and the CPU socket. On the other hand you find a beefed up onboard audio chip which is more useful on a gamer motherboard than a million fullsize PCI Express slots. In fact, when I connected my quite decent AKG HD 272 headphones it offered higher audio quality than what you get from Realteks ALC 898 chips you usually find.

In my opinion it make a lot of sense that ASUS splits their Maximus series into two different products. With the Formula the manufacturer targets gamers whereas the Extreme is the right choice for overclockers and enthusiasts. Meanwhile Overclockers prefer features that really no gamer will ever use. Just think of thermal sensors that are capable of reading out temperature of -200°C. Absolutely no gamer will evern need such a feature and ASUS seems to be very well aware of that.