ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex Review
Published by Luca Rocchi on 08.02.18Page:
Conclusion
| General | + | - | |
| A closer look at the motherboard lineup from ASUS reveals that the Maximus X Apex is a high-end model, regarding their gaming branded Z370 based products. Therefore it comes with a bunch of really neat features, like for example ASUS's SupremeFX audio solution, dual ethernet ports and two M.2 slots as well as a great looking design. In addition this motherboard sports several overclocking features that might be a great help if you want try and take down some overclock score. At the moment this motherboard is available on Geizhals for 294 Euro and we believe that is a rather good price. Although the ROG Maximus X Apex is a motherboard designed for extreme overclockers, there is a very good bundle which includes cables, brackets, stickers and ROG DIMM.2 card. | -
Design - Layout - Features - ROG DIMM.2 |
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| Layout | + | - | |
| The layout of the ASUS Maximus X Apex has been well thought - as expected. Once more practical are the angled SATA connectors as well as the power- and reset-buttons and the debug LED. Apart from that we like the placement of the PCI-Express x16 slots. There is a total of four full sized PCI Express slots and two PCIe x1 slots. Three of the four full-size PCIe slots receive metal reinforcements and these slots are two slots apart. This means that there is plenty of space for graphics card in multi GPU setups to breathe.
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. In addition you can install a small fan above the DIMM.2 card. On the ASUS ROG Maximus X Apex there are only four SATA ports. Since this is a motherboard for overclockers we don't think that is a huge downside, however some enthusiast user might be bothered. However we understand that less ports means less board noise and trace routing. |
- Space around the CPU
socket
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- 4 x SATA3 6Gb/s | |
| Performance | + | - | |
| At the moment our test setup includes only six motherboards but during next weeks we will add more models. Calculating the average of all benchmarks results we ran, we see that this board scores 1st. If we check a bit closer, we see that the ASUS Maximus X Apex is about 4% faster than the MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon in Sisoft Sandra - Cryptography - AES benchmark. Furthermore, speaking about 3D performance, we see a good result for the ASUS motherboard in 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. On another note, we had at energy efficiency where this board scores 2nd. | - Sisoft Sandra |
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| Overclocking / BIOS | + | - | |
| The UEFI BIOS gets a black background and there are a few additional red and white design elements. Meanwhile it's almost normal that a BIOS is complete, offering countless features. If you're looking for overclocking options you'll find a great many of them and they are equally practical for novices and extreme overclockers. We always love the pre-defined profiles, which make overclocking quite a bit more efficient. Boosting our CPU to 5 GHz was absolutely no problem at all. | - Sheer amount of
options - LN2 |
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| Recommendation | + | - | |
| Should you be looking for a high-end overclocking motherboard, then the ROG Maximus X Apex is simply a great choice. The motherboard comes with a pretty solid power design and it also sports a long list of overclocking features, some of them unique. With this motherboard you will be able to squeeze both your CPU and memory. Although the ROG Maximus X Apex is supposed to be targeting mainly overclockers and modders, there are several features that might be interesting for gamers as well. Obviously you should have the necessary cash, since this board is no bargain and it's available on Geizhals for 294 Euro. | - Price | ||
| Rating | |||
| We give the ASUS Maximus X Apex excellent 5 out of 5 stars. | |||
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