Tuesday, November 17th 2009
ASUS Readies ROG Maximus III Extreme Motherboard
ASUS is ready with yet another socket LGA-1156 motherboard, only this one you can't pass on. The Maximus III Extreme is the company's second motherboard in its coveted Republic of Gamers series of high-end motherboards suited for gamers and overclockers, and will end up as the best ASUS has to offer for this platform. Based on the P55 Express chipset, the Maximus III Extreme seems to make use of an additional PCI-Express bridge chip to provide two x16 links. External lane switching further allows there to be four slots with x8 bandwidth. A fifth x16 slot could be wired to the PCH, being electrically x4 to accommodate other PCI-E devices.
The CPU socket is powered by a 11-phase digital PWM circuit, which uses a SuperML capacitor. The four DDR3 DIMM slots are powered by a 3-phase circuit. Apart from the main 24-pin and 8-pin CPU power connectors, there is an additional 6-pin connector. We suspect this to be a PCI-Express power connector for additional electrical stability, which could help overclocking.
Apart from the plethora of overclocker-friendly features ROG series motherboards have, the Maximus III Extreme includes the ROG Connect, which allows users to control overclocking using Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Another new handy feature, the LN2 Mode Header, is a jumper, which when shorted, tricks the internal temperature diode of the CPU and reduces coldbug issues encountered when using liquid-nitrogen or other extreme cooling devices.
The board is left with enough room for another PCI-Express bridge chip, which provides PCI-Express 2.0 connections to the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers onboard. The rest of the connectivity includes 10 channel audio (8+2 separate FP audio channels), FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. The board maintains the black+red color-scheme for the PCB and the various slots and connectors. Information regarding price and availability is awaited, and should surface in two weeks from now.
Source:
NordicHardware
The CPU socket is powered by a 11-phase digital PWM circuit, which uses a SuperML capacitor. The four DDR3 DIMM slots are powered by a 3-phase circuit. Apart from the main 24-pin and 8-pin CPU power connectors, there is an additional 6-pin connector. We suspect this to be a PCI-Express power connector for additional electrical stability, which could help overclocking.
The board is left with enough room for another PCI-Express bridge chip, which provides PCI-Express 2.0 connections to the USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/s controllers onboard. The rest of the connectivity includes 10 channel audio (8+2 separate FP audio channels), FireWire, and gigabit Ethernet. The board maintains the black+red color-scheme for the PCB and the various slots and connectors. Information regarding price and availability is awaited, and should surface in two weeks from now.
12 Comments on ASUS Readies ROG Maximus III Extreme Motherboard
The P55's only real weakness as a gaming motherboard was it's lack of PCI-E x16 lanes. This fixes that.
Very very relevant to my interests. Although the price will probably be of more interest to the bank manager. :(
Edit: Nevermind I see it in the first picture. Thought that was the 8, but saw the 8 in the second.
Now, if you ask for my opinion on it being foolish or not,
Yes, it's foolish since it's loading just the power connector.
No, it's not foolish since dedicating power draw from the power connectors ensures high-wattage graphics cards remain completely independent of the motherboard, and that spikes in power draw don't end up damaging the motherboard in any way. Voltage regulation also becomes simpler (=cheaper), since the controller is only dealing with one source of power.
Since power, be it from the motherboard+connector or just the connector, typically comes from the same source (the same system PSU), it really doesn't matter if all the power is coming from the connector(s).