Product Showcase

Product Showcase

The ASUS motherboard follows an EATX form factor (12 inch x 10.7 inch - 30.5 cm x 27.2 cm). The motherboard is located in the ROG high-end range of the Skylake and Kaby Lake desktop processor product stack. 

Right, ROG in da house, the really good stuff. The Maximus Extreme has that awesome factor harbored in it, it's all cool stuff and features really. Mind you the monoblock for liquid cooling is missing here hence it still looks a little empty so to say. The motherboard comes with extended features like 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 3 and tied to it USB 3.1 Gen2, an advanced Audio solution, much connectivity and sure LED RGB AURA SYNC independently configurable throughout the motherboard or compatible connected LED devices (these can be controlled with AURA software).  Next to that, great shielded looks and a certain military feel pops out due to a tint of green/grey in the black design.

 
Included with the motherboard are the regulars including; manuals, driver CDs, SATA cables and a rear I/O plate. It also has a couple of new features which we'll talk about in-depth in this review. The entire Accessories list is as follows:

• User's manual
• 8 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
• 1 x M.2 Screw Package
• 1 x CPU installation tool
• 1 x Fan Extension Card (3 x 4-pin fan out)
• 1 x Fan Extension card screw pack
• 1 x ASUS 2T2R dual band Wi-Fi moving antennas (Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n compliant)
• 1 x SLI HB BRIDGE(2-WAY-M)
• 1 x ROG big sticker
• 1 x Q-Connector
• 1 x 10-in-1 ROG cable label
• 2 x Thermal sensor cable pack(s)
• 1 x Extension Cable for RGB strips (80 cm)
• 1 x USB drive with utilities and drivers 
• 1 x ROG coaster(s)
• 1 x ROG Monoblock
• 1 x ROG Monoblock Accessory pack
• 1 x M.2 Heatsink package

• CPU support: Skylake / Kaby Lake class Intel Core processors
• Chipset: Intel Z270 Chipset
• 1x Gigabit: Ethernet Intel Gbe I219-V 
• 1x WIFI 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4/5 Ghz and Bluetooth 4.1 compatible
• Storage: 
  • 2 x M.2 Socket connectors (Optane supported) (one is vertical!)
  • 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors 
• Connectivity: 
  • 3x PCI-E 3.0 x16  (single at x16 / dual at x8 / triple at x8 - x8 - x4)
  • 1x PCI-E 3.0 x4
• USB 3.0 / 3.1 
• 8-channel ALC S1220 Realtek chip

The I/O back panel reveals a combo of 3.1/2.0 ports. The audio unit has special noise reducing capacitors and shielding sitting next to that Realtek chip. You will spot one 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet jack. In this price range I am surpized that ASUS did not opt an Aquantia 5Gb/s LAN Ethernet jack. Missing is a PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port. Audio wise we spot an optical S/PDIF out port and five audio jacks. If you plan to use the integrated IGP of the processor, you can make use of one HDMI or DisplayPort connector. The rear connectivity back-panel is loaded full, nice. Also present are clear CMOS and BIOS flashback buttons.

Above the monoblock and M.2. SSD heatsink. The board has 3 x physical PCIe 3.0 x16 slots which can be arranged in these slot configurations with graphics cards:

• 2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (Single at x16, dual at x8/x8) 
• 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 
• 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4

These are all PCI Express Gen 3.0 configurations, that's plenty for regular graphics card setups up-to 2-way SLI/Crossfire. The motherboard comes with one 8-pin and extra 4-pin power connector. You'll get four DIMM slots that can be used for up-to 64GB of dual-channel memory up-to even 4133 MHz supported in OC mode. 

Back Panel I/O Ports

• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
• 2 x USB 3.1 ()Type-A + Type-C
• 6 x USB 3.0 (blue) 
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF out
• 1 x Clear CMOS button(s)
• 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)
• 5 x LED-illuminated audio jacks
   

 
Notice something unusual? Yes, the motherboard comes with a pre-mounted / pre-fitted rear I/O plate. I like that. You can spot two antennas for WIFI, this is 802.11ac with MU-MIMO. The board thus comes with that pre-mounted I/O shield, SafeSlot, SafeDIMM, and copper-plated edge (Look to the outer edge of the PCB to see that cooper lining). 

 
The liquid cooling monoblock that ASUS includes is a seriously proper one, mind you that you MUST water-cool this board, air cooling is not an option. It is made by Bitspower and covers the VRM phase area, the CPU, as well as some regulators. The block has sensors for temperature, flow (meter) and leakage. 
 

 
To the lower side you can see the nickel plated block. The wires are for the sensors (flow-rate / temp / leaking) and of course RGB LEDs, that can be driven by the Aura software suit (that have been included as well). Once enabled that looks terrific really. The upper block that you see can be connected to the mono-block and covers your M2 SSD hence it cools that NVMe unit preventing it from throttling.