ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase

ROG Maximus XII Extreme tops the Z490 lineup and is the flagship motherboard. A set of MicroFine Alloy chokes work with teamed power stages and ASUS ProCool solid pins to deliver stable power to the Intel Core CPU. Conductive thermal pads conduct heat away from the VRM, effectively transferring it to a massive heatsink array. A solid aluminum plate provides additional cooling, dissipating heat from the NVMe storage drives. Maximus XII Extreme gives builders access to memory clocks of 4800 MHz and beyond. It features out-of-the-box compatibility with over 80% of 4600 MHz DDR4 kits, and has an onboard POST code LED display next to the Power-on, Retry, and Safe Boot buttons. Four M.2 slots allow for builds with fast, ample storage, with two situated underneath the main body armor in the middle of the board, and another two on the DIMM.2 card with accompanying heatsinks to ensure sustained and reliable storage performance. An assortment of USB ports is available, including a next-generation USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port capable of speeds of up to 20 Gbps. Three additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports — one Type-C and two TypeA — deliver speeds of up to 10 Gbps. Wired connections come by way of an Intel Ethernet I225-V controller that provides 2.5 Gb Ethernet and a Marvell 10 GbE controller.