Asus maximus viii extreme review [exclusive]

Today we are dealing with one of the most sought after motherboards for lovers of overclocking and the Republic of Gamer (ROG) series from Asus. Nothing more and nothing less than the fabulous Asus Maximus VIII Extreme equipped with 16 power phases, a control panel, dual SLOT M.2, SupremeFX 2015 sound card and 8 SATA connections at 6GB / s.

Do you want to know more about its overclock and features? Don't miss our review!

We thank Asus for trusting the product for its analysis:

Technical characteristics

Asus Maximus VIII Extreme

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme makes a presentation at the height of the motherboard. We find a minimalist cover where corporate colors predominate: red and black from the Republic of Gamer series. While in the rear area we have all the most important features and improvements.

Once we open the box we find a very complete bundle:

Asus Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard Back plate Instruction manual and quick guide CD with drivers SATA cables Panel adapter SLI Bridge Wifi 802.11 3 × 3 antenna

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme is an E-ATX format motherboard with dimensions of 30.5cm x 27.2cm, so we recommend that you make sure that your box is compatible with this size. Asus offers a sober yet very elegant design with a black PCB and red accents.

On cooling, it has two top-of-the-range heatsinks that keep the 16 supply phases cool and the Z170 chipset of the Maximus Extreme. Incorporates Extreme Engine Digi + technology with custom components: Chokes with 75% more efficiency and high permeability. Mosfet with a maximum 50A capacity, 10K Metal Black capacitors that offer about 5 times more longevity and temperatures above 75 degrees. In addition, it has an EPS 8 + 4 connection to give more stability to the system.

We leave you some images of when we have opened the heatsink.

It has 4 64 GB compatible DDR4 RAM memory sockets and speeds of up to 3866 Mhz (overclocking) and XMP 2.0 profile.

In this image we can also see the OC Zone that allows us to measure the voltage in the essential parameters of the overclocking (vCore, memory voltage…), power button, reset button, swift to activate the LN2 mode, Debug LED, MemOK +, BIOS with default values, etc…

Among its expansion connections we find 3 x16 slots with PCI Express 3.0 bus and compatible with Nvidia's 4 Way SLI technology and AMD's CrossFireX. As an extra, it includes 2 PCI Express x1 connections.

We detail the possible multi card configurations that we can install:

3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16 (single card), x8 / x8 (two cards) x8 / x4 / x4 (3 cards) gray) 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 mode, gray) 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 (black)

The board has a double USB 3.0 connection . allowing us to have several ports in our maximum speed tower.

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme includes only 8 SATA III 6 GB / s connections that share up to two SATA Express 10 GB / s. Where 6 of the SATA IIIs are shared with the Z170 chipset and the remaining two with the ASMedia ASM1061 controller. As a novelty, it incorporates a U.2 port to take advantage of NVM Express (NVMe) storage technology.

The sound card was not a strong point in previous versions of the Extreme. It seems that Asus listened to us and has incorporated the SupremeFX 2015. That among its benefits incorporates an ESS ES9023P analog converter (DAC) with HyperStream technology, Nichicon capacitors, 2Vrms headphone amplifier, and Sonic SenseAmp that automatically detects and optimizes any headphones in the range of 32 to 600 ohms to offer us sound quality more pure.

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme is full of extras… it includes an M.2 connection. with a bandwidth of 32 GB / s that will give us the maximum power that we can achieve with these discs. In addition to Thunderbolt 3 for design professionals.

Among its internal connections we find several buttons to activate / deactivate the SLI / CFX configurations, change the dual bios, the control panel, extra connections for the USB and several heads for fans.

It also has a wireless Wifi 802.11 AC 3X3 connection (very powerful) with a transfer capacity of 1300 Mbps and a Bluetooth V4.0 connection.

Finally I detail the complete rear connections:

Bios flashback button Clear CMOS button4 x USB 3.0.3 x USB 3.1. (Red) Type C.1 x USB 3.1 (Small) Type A.1 x HDMI. 1 x Displayport. 1 x Gigabit LAN. Wifi 802.11 AC. 1 x PS / 2 connection for keyboard or mouse. Digital audio output.

WE RECOMMEND YOU Review: Asus VG248QE, The game down to the last detail.

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i7-6700k.
Base plate:	Asus Maximus VIII Extreme
Memory:	2 × 8 16GB DDR4 @ 3000 MHZ Kingston Savage
Heatsink	Corsair H100i GTX.
HDD	Samsung 840 EVO 250GB.
Graphic card	Nvidia GTX 780.
Power supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2

To check the stability of the processor and motherboard, we've overclocked up to 4, 800mhz with Prime 95 Custom and air-cooled. The graphics we have used is an Nvidia GTX780, without further delay, let's see the results obtained in our tests with a 1920 × 1080 monitor.

BIOS

The BIOS does not change too much to the already analyzed Ranger, Gene and Hero. Its design is exactly the same and the power level is much higher thanks to the 16 power phases. We recommend you take a tour of the Asus Maximus VIII Extreme when you receive it.

Final words and conclusion

Asus has done a great job with its new Asus Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard for Z170 chipset with E-ATX format. The board has 16 power phases, a passive cooling system, a renewed aesthetic, Wifi 802.11 AC 3 × 3 connection, USB 3.1 connections and its great novelty: the SupremeFX 2015 graphics card.

In our tests we have achieved an excellent overclock to our i7-6700k reaching 4.8 Ghz with an excellent voltage. The experience and stability of the system is fantastic, in games we have obtained great results.

For those who love overclocking, it includes the OC Panel II for hot modifications. In addition to a dedicated zone (OC Zone) expressly to restore the bios, control the voltage, activate LN2, etc… a true work of art.

In short, the Asus Maximus VIII Extreme is the best motherboard on the market both for its overclocking potential, graphics card capacity, wireless connections and excellent sound quality. Its availability is immediate and will cost approximately 429 euros.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ DESIGN.	- PRICE OVER 400 EUROS.
+ 16 FEEDING PHASES
+ M.2 AND SATA EXPRESS CONNECTION.
+ OVERCLOCK CAPACITY.
+ USB 3.1 CONNECTIONS
+ SUPREMEFX SOUND CARD 2015 AND WIFI 802.11 AC 3X3.