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Tags : Asus Maximus II Formula   Intel P45 chipset   Motherboard   Motherboards   republic of gamers   Reviews   ROG  

Introduction Features and Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Contents Test Setup, Procedures and BIOS CPU-Z, Everest and System Properties Benchmarks: Sandra Pro XII SP2 Benchmarks: FutureMark Suite Benchmarks: FEAR and Science Mark 2 Benchmarks (DX10): Call of Juarez and Crysis Overclocking Verdict and Conclusion

Asus's new addition to their ROG series ... the Maximum II Formula has a lot to offer. It's very appealing to gamers and enthusiasts alike.

 

INTRODUCTION

I have to say in recent months, enthusiasts have never had it so good. There are now numerous, if not hundreds of products designed and aimed at this highly competitive, yet niche enthusiast market. This is now the new battle ground for all the top manufacturers whether it's motherboards, graphic cards or even chassis. If you have a winning product that enthusiasts will go for, then you would have a huge advantage over your competitors. It's a tough game ... and only a few will prevail.

Asus have traditionally been extremely good with producing enthusiast products, especially motherboards and some graphic cards. So much so, they've even established a new product line during 2007 called ROG, which were specifically aimed at the hardcore gaming enthusiasts. Asus's ROG stands for "Republic of Gamers" ... its sole mission and purpose is to provide enthusiasts with the best of the best ... in hardware engineering, the fastest performance, the most innovative ideas. Asus have laid down quite high set of standards to meet, but I'm sure they can come up with the goods ... or can they?

 

 

OK let's turn our attention to this review. In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Asus Maximus II Formula motherboard. It's Asus second installment in their Maximus series.

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The original Maximus Forumla uses Intel's X38 chipset with ICH9R southbridge supporting 1600FSB and DDR2-1200 (OC). The newer Maximus II Formula now uses Intel's P45 chipset with ICH10R southbridge, which has already proven to be a very capable chipset. Like its predecessor, this motherboard also supports 1600FSB and DDR2-1200, but this time it has a host of added features. Firstly, the motherboard includes a separate PCIe SupremeFX card, which uses Creative's X-Fi HD audio technologies, and features a host of audio input and outputs, including SPDIF coaxial and optical connectors. Then there's also an extra chipset fan for extra cooling, and also a LCD poster for diagnostic purposes.

But that's not it. The Maximus II Formula has some new innovative features which Asus have already heavily marketed on their mainstream boards. These include Asus's new Extreme Engine and EPU ... it's their next generation dynamic multi-phase power management with 16-phases for CPU, 3-phases for NB and 2-phases for memory. All-in-all, it offers superb power management and stability. Other innovative features include the BIOS flashback, which has 2 BIOS ROMs and 2 BIOS tettings, allowing more overclocking flexibility. The CPU level up feature allows a simple one click for instant upgrade. And finally the Speeding HDD feature reduces load times allowing you to boot instantly. 

 

 

Finally, to add some icing on the cake, the Maximus II Formula features a very unique chipset cooler. It's very large and covers, not only the southbridge but also stretches to cover the northbridge and the rest of the mosfets. It's a one piece cooling solution and features a unique "Pin Fin Thermal Module", that looks very "enthusiast" with its grooves and backlit ROG logo. The Maximus II Formula wouldn't an enthusiast motherboard without 3 important things .... it's what we call CPR switches ... Clear CMOS, Power and Reset switches. Well you'll be glad to know that this motherboard has all of these.

Already the Asus Maximus II Formula is looking very good on paper. With such a rich feature list ... can this motherboard attract the hardcore enthusiasts? And how well will it overclock? One of the main questions I'll be asking is ... what does a ROG motherboard have that differ from Asus's other boards?

 

               

 

We'll be testing the Asus Maximus II Formula with our trusted old Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ default 2.4Ghz, Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC2-9200 2Gb Kit, a Radeon HD3870 512MB DDR4, PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 860W PSU and a 19" Dell Ultrascan P990 monitor. Windows Vista with native DX10 was used as our OS.

Ok, let's not waste any more time and take a closer look at Asus Maximus II Formula motherboard.

 

 

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Introduction Features and Specifications Photos and Pictures Installation and Contents Test Setup, Procedures and BIOS CPU-Z, Everest and System Properties Benchmarks: Sandra Pro XII SP2 Benchmarks: FutureMark Suite Benchmarks: FEAR and Science Mark 2 Benchmarks (DX10): Call of Juarez and Crysis Overclocking Verdict and Conclusion