Product Showcase

The Motherboard Showcase

Right, there we have the Maximus IV GENE-Z which quite honestly is due to its size does not look even remotely close to what it can do.  Small yes, but that is a good looking motherboard alright, and its just might powerful. Aesthetically the focus on this motherboard is that ROG dark/red sturdy looking design whilst remaining competitive with pricing.

We dig the two tone (black/red) design a lot, dark colored PCBs are the trend these days. What immediately catches the eyes is obviously the sheer size of 24x24cm.

We received the final retail sample and as such it comes packed with a "decent" product bundle, its a little scarce on the extras though. Among the gear inside the kit you'll find the following:

• User's manual
• I/O Shield
• 2 x SATA 3Gb/s cable(s)
• 1 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
• 1 x SLI bridge(s)
• 1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
• 1 x ROG Connect cable(s)
• 1 x Cable ties pack(s)
• 1 x ROG theme label(s)
• 1 x 12 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)

That's it really, keep in mind that ASUS tried hard to keep this motherboard affordable. The extras you need to seek in the overall design and components usage, which is impressive all by itself.

Notable features are 6x SATA connections (4x SATA2 and 2x SATA3), 2x PCIe x16 slots and 1x PCIe x4 slot. The mobo has DDR3 2200 MHz support straight out of the BIOS with the help of XMP profiles, then there's USB 3 as well of course. The LGA 1155 socket will allow you to use Sandy bridge based processors -- get a K model 2500 or 2600 if you like to overclock okay?