I think I maybe upgrading my hero, to one of these and modding my EK predator.

LED: Nice MSI copy. The best motherboard is now the MSI Godlike.

The problem with this board is the M.2 slot shares bandwidth with U.2 slot and a couple of the SATA ports. http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-VIII-FORMULA/specifications/

weird how the pcie x1 are cut to allow longer cards but all that plastic padding is blocking it anyway

This looks really good! :thumbup: The immense increase in interest/support in watercooling from many mobo/gpu and more companies is really welcomed.

I bet this one costs a pretty penny. Does anyone know if actively cooling the motherboard on anything post sandybridge yields substantially better overclocks? Or is it just more for the wow factor?

Is there a massive design flaw here or am I just a bit of an idiot; do you really need to have the whole armor-thingy removed in order to have an M.2 ssd installed, or is the drive just under that plate? What about a Samsung 950-series drive that heats up like all hell and could really use some case airflow?

I bet this one costs a pretty penny. Does anyone know if actively cooling the motherboard on anything post sandybridge yields substantially better overclocks? Or is it just more for the wow factor?

For the average overclock probably not much if any. And even for the extreme OC under water its still disputable. But cooling is cooling. Better there than not I say.

Is there a massive design flaw here or am I just a bit of an idiot; do you really need to have the whole armor-thingy removed in order to have an M.2 ssd installed, or is the drive just under that plate? What about a Samsung 950-series drive that heats up like all hell and could really use some case airflow?

If I'm seeing right that would not be necessary. You probably need to unscrew the small screw below the second pci-e and the plastic as shown would come out for the M.2 drive installation. And about the 950 or 951, a good case airflow would be recommended/optimal. http://i.imgur.com/6BZYXvJ.jpg?1

about time. I love my Formula VII but this does make me drool.

Does anyone know if actively cooling the motherboard on anything post sandybridge yields substantially better overclocks?

at high vcore you bet your ass the mosfets will heat up quite a bit, no matter how many extra power phases the board has. dissipating that heat quickly ensures the vrms deliver stable voltage to your cpu its not going to increase your chips OC ceiling, but it will assure that your mobo isnt a limiting factor in your systems stability. its a nice feature. might be overkill, but i like it.

about time. I love my Formula VII but this does make me drool.

Really I am using a Formula VII and while it is just opinion I think it looks an awful lot better. It might be the image but the red LEDs on the board look horrible, especially the one illuminating the Formula sign and the illumination of the ROG symbol on the grey / steel coloured Southbridge cover in red? The old ROG symbol all in black with the red LED is just enough. The Southbridge cover in grey / steel with the ROG logo looks horrible even worse if the red LED backlight. The FVII doesn't need you to unscrew any part of the armour to mount M2 devices The FVII is also a clean board, the only logo on it anywhere is the illuminated ROG and the Supreme FX logo is small enough and the right colour that it doesn't stand out at all. That board, the Supreme FX logo is in white, the EK logo is in grey the ROG symbol is in chrome / steel, it has Maximus VIII carved in to the armour. It's a mess. Lol I know nitpicking the way the thing looks, I am sure that like all the other Formula boards it will perform well and overclock like a beast but the thing is the old boards were nice to look at, the 8 has way to much going on.