Asus PCI Express 3.0 Compliant Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3

In short, it's the same as the Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z we reviewed yet now with Gen 3 support on the PCIe lanes.

ASUS  announced another PCIe 3.0 compliant board, the Asus ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z/GEN3.

Asus' new motherboard uses the same design as the previous version of the Gene Z, which has now received PCI Express 3.0 compliant bridge chips to support this new standard.

Otherwise, the board is identical with its non-GEN3 predecessor and includes an important number of enthusiast features like AMD CrossFireX and Nvidia SLI support, ROG Connect support and an on-board Supreme X-Fi sound chip.

In addition to the two PCI Express x16 Gen 3 slots that are required for dual-GPU setups, Asus has also included an open-ended PCI-E x4 slot (this is only PCIe Gen 2 compliant).

Storage is provided by six SATA ports, two of the 6Gbps variety, and Asus has also included a USB 3.0 header which allows for two such ports to be routed to the front of the case.

Another two USB 3.0 ports can be found on the rear I/O panel along with an impressive number of USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA connectors, 7.1-channel audio with a digital S/PDIF output and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

Since we are dealing with an Intel Z68 board, the Taiwanese company has also included an HDMI video output, which is placed right below the S/PDIF connector.

This means that the Maximus IV Gene-Z is fully compatible with the LucidLogix Virtu on-the-fly graphics switching technology as well as Intel's Quick Sync technology. Smart Response is also supported.

CPU power is delivered by a complex Extreme Engine Digi+ PWM with an 8-phase design that Asus claims it can deliver a whopping 250A of current to the processor.

Pricing and availability details are sadly lacking from Asus' press release, but don't get too disappointed as there isn't any reason why you would need such a PCI Express 3.0 motherboard until Ivy Bridge arrives.