ASUS ROG Maximus V Extreme Pictured And Detailed
Pictured today is ASUS’ biggest, baddest Intel Z77-based motherboard to date: The ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) Maximus V Extreme. Like its siblings in the Maximus V range, the Maximus V Extreme is aimed at overclockers. As with other ROG motherboards, the red and black colouring of the Maximus V Extreme makes quite a statement and specifications add some bark to the bite. As mentioned, the motherboard is based on the high-end Z77 Intel chipset and supports processors from both the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge families.
Four RAM slots allow for up to 32 GB of memory in dual channel operation at speeds of up to DDR3-2,800, and five PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots allow for up to four cards in CrossFire X or SLI mode. Storage is taken care of by no less than ten SATA ports, of which four support SATA 6Gb/s transfer rates. The rear I/O panel is feature packed with a vast selection of connectivity options including 8x USB ports (3x black USB 2.0 ports, 1x white USB 2.0 port which is used for BIOS Flashback, and 4x blue USB 3.0 ports), DisplayPort and HDMI display connectors, ROG Connect, Thunderbolt, a PS/2 port for either keyboard or mouse operation, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet jack and both 7.1 channel sound outputs and optical sound in/outputs. The rear I/O panel also contains BIOS Flashback and clear CMOS buttons, and a dual-band WiFi 802.11n/BlueTooth 4.0 module.
The Maximus V Extreme also includes the OC Key as seen on the Rampage IV Extreme. For those who don’t know, the OC Key is a device which plugs into the DVI port of any graphics card and allows for performance monitoring and tweaking at a hardware level. This means that there are no slow-downs as no system resources are used. The OSD is super-imposed on the screen, much like an LCD monitor’s OSD. VGA Hotwire makes another appearance, too, and Subzero Sense is added to the mix.
Other features to expected from an extreme overclocking motherboard which make an appearance are a debug LED display, a slow mode switch, voltage readout points and an OC Profile switching button. Memory profiles have been updated to include more RAM than before, including the G.SKill Tridents favoured by many overclockers. In order to fit all of these features on one motherboard, the board is wider than your standard ATX size of 12 × 9.6 in (305 × 244 mm), so a case capable of housing an E-ATX motherboard would be required. Pricing is expected to be around the US $299 mark, and availability is still to be announced.
