ASUS ROG Maximus IX Formula motherboard review

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Final Words & Conclusion

Final words & conclusion

The Maximus IX Formula is a thing of beauty, in fact it might be even too nice for a mainstream quad-core processor platform. Still, Kaby Lake is bound to deliver enough performance for another year or two and combined with the features this Maximus IX Formula is offering you could build something really nice. Obviously you'll receive all the benefits from the new Z270, so let's just focus on the extras that ASUS offers as there are quite a few. First and foremost I have to admit that I love the design with all the shielding. That shielding doesn't limit features as there are plenty of extra buttons and fan connectors on the board. Then stuff like the ability to liquid cool the VRM area, the two niche M.2 slots and the excellent WIFI solution that ASUS offers. The motherboard is properly functional, offers all tweaking options you need, two M.2 slots (albeit the vertical one is a bit of a loss really) and furthermore offers everything you'd need for a proper Z270 platform, including an Intel Gigabit WLAN connector. Despite my somewhat salted view of Kaby Lake (no real gain over Skylake) in general I do have to say that the motherboard manufacturers did a lovely job with the new ranges being released. This Maximus IX Formula will cost 400 USD, but please do realize that you will get the very same tweaking results as a 200 USD/ Euro range motherboard, your processor and cooling are the decisive factor here, not the motherboard. The ease of use with XMP memory rocks, the UEFI BIOS is just very advanced. If you have upgraded in the last year or two to a new PC, well, the upgrade remains a hard sell. This motherboard however does have aesthetic improvements as well as your platform will be upgraded towards full compatibility with USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) as well as two M.2 slots.


 

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The RGB trend

Strangely enough, January 2017 motherboard releases are all about RGB LEDs. Personally I like the implementations at hand and do like RGB LED bling. The reality is also that after a day or two of constant LED animations and flickering RGB LEDs inside a system, that constant light movement will wear you out, and yes, it can get annoying even. In the end (we feel) people are going to choose simply one color and after a week leave that enabled in a static mode and probably never look back. I am saying this because you need realize that you are paying extra for complex RGB systems, and for you to spend that money the RGB LED systems need to be of massive interest. I mean, this is a 400 USD motherboard, that in the end can do just as much with nearly the same features as a 200 USD one, and that is the reality. That said, we certainly like the ASUS Aura SYNC initiative. Previously, the software was only able to control individual computer hardware such as LED lighting on the motherboard and additional RGB LEDs within the PC case connected to the motherboard. With the new synchronization capabilities, various hardware components' RGB lighting control can be controlled via a single AURA software interface.

Performance & tweaking

The overall performance for this ASUS Maximus IX Formula motherboard with a Core i5 7600K I'd rate as 'excellent' for the results as tested with a Core i5 7600K. Temps remain very acceptable (depending on choice of cooling) and temperatures when the CPU is overclocked with added voltage definitely seem to be a notch better opposed to Haswell and Skylake. We have been able to reach 5.0 GHz stable enough on liquid cooling. At that level you are looking at up-to 1.35V needed on that CPU core. Bear in mind that ALL, seriously, ALL Z270 motherboards we have tested reach exactly 5 Ghz on the Core i5 7600K. Meaning the processor and cooling are the decisive factor when it comes to generic overclocking and tweaking, not your motherboard so much.

Power consumption

If we step back and take the Intel reference board with a Sandy Bridge processor (2600K) without a dedicated graphics card, that platform idled at roughly 50 Watts. Once we stress the processor 100% on that platform we'd see ~120 Watts power consumption. With Kaby Lake (7600K) we noticed roughly 40 Watts in idle and 100 Watts with processor load at 100%. Things again remain relative. 
  

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The bottom line

The ASUS ROG Maximus IX Formula is a terrific motherboard loaded with features that got stripped from the stuff we do not use anyway. SATA Express and U2? Not on this motherboard, good as it makes room on that PCB for stuff that actually matters like two M.2 slots, extra USB connectors, extra FAN headers and so on. ASUS offers something really special here albeit the vertical M.2 slot once again does not compute in my brain, it just is not a sexy solution for long term usage. You'll have plenty of USB, display, M.2 and storage connectors. You'll purchase a motherboard with a nice audio solution that got optimized with an ASUS software suite. Like it or not, the LED RGB system with AURA software works nicely, but we do wonder much people are willing to pay extra for such intricate features. The AC WIFI is lovely to see and work with, it is proper fast when configured properly. We do miss 10 GBit Ethernet jacks, it would be nice to see the industry move forward with on-board jacks as slowly but steadily the Gigabit jack is maxing out (much like the SATA3 interface). A big YAY! for a dedicated LCS PUMP FAN header (most people these days have some sort of liquid cooling going on). All in all the ASUS ROG Maximus IX Formula is what it is, a terrific product. It is expensive though as historically you'll see prices launch in the 400 euro range. We love the EK waterblock on the VRM area, yet also realize that maybe 1% of end-users are actually going to use it. Perhaps for the next Maximus release that money is better spend on 10 GBit Ethernet something, I dunno, it's just an idea though. The board comes highly recommended, but obviously will serve just a small portion of the market due to its price level, but that doesn't make this any less of a quality product, to the contrary, it is a kick-ass product.

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