# ASUS Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 Express LGA 1155



## cadaveca (May 12, 2012)

The ASUS ROG Maximus V Gene, based on the Intel Z77 Express chipset is here at TPU, ready to overclock the snot out of your new Ivy Bridge CPU. Built for performance first, the ASUS Maximus V Gene is ready for small-sized high-end gaming, or, if freezing things below zero is what you like, it's ready for that too.

*Show full review*


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## Eternalchaos (Jun 15, 2012)

Nice review as always


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## puma99dk| (Jun 15, 2012)

nice review cadaveca only thing that's annoying me with all Maximus Gene boards is they only got 6 sata ports, i should use two more internal instead of e-sata :/


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> nice review cadaveca only thing that's annoying me with all Maximus Gene boards is they only got 6 sata ports, i should use two more internal instead of e-sata :/



I'll keep that in mind. I've always felt that for gamers, and extreme guys, 6 was enough. IF that WASN'T a gaming/OC product, I would have felt the number of ports was a bit short as well.


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## LifeOnMars (Jun 15, 2012)

Awesome review, I'm looking to put this in a Thermaltake Armor A30 Micro ATX case for my new build in a couple of months just need to work out if I can use a corsair H series cooler in there without any issues.


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## Sasqui (Jun 15, 2012)

> don't let its small size fool you, this is one top-tier product, meant to clock the crap out of your Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs.


  LOL

Nice job and looking for more of your Ivy Bridge MB reviews!

For overclocking, have you found any difference in the ceiling between Z77 MBs?, or is 46x the max multi?


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

LifeOnMars said:


> Awesome review, I'm looking to put this in a Thermaltake Armor A30 Micro ATX case for my new build in a couple of months just need to work out if I can use a corsair H series cooler in there without any issues.



Yes, those coolers should work fine, since the backplate is plastic.


IF facing the front of the board, at the bottom left of the socket, that mounting hole does have a few solder points that are really close to that mounting hole, and if the backplate is metal, that may be an issue. I've added a pic here to reference with:








Sasqui said:


> LOL
> 
> Nice job and looking for more of your Ivy Bridge MB reviews!
> 
> For overclocking, have you found any difference in the ceiling between Z77 MBs?, or is 46x the max multi?



My board reviews will come out @ one a week. I have enough here to cover the next 4 weeks, and I am expecting more, although until they arrive there is nothing definite.


Through talking with other reviewers and other Ivy users, it seems that these CPUs on average will end up with 4.4 GHz to 4.8 GHz clocks. Of course, 4.6 GHz is very nicely in the middle, and my CPU reached that with less than 1.2 V measured via Digital Multimeter. I do have a second chip, but haven't had the time to it test yet. I'm gonna pop it in a board today.


So, anyway, with this board, I can set 1.2 V, and it works fine. With the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H, i had to set 1.225 V...and I have another board that requries more. The relatively "modest" overclock I use is eonugh to ensure I can show that different boards will need different voltage when overclocking, while not reaching too high in the volts department that I might degrade my chip.

The way these IvyBridge chips clock, you hit a certain point, and then more is only possible with fairly large voltage boosts, and 4.7 GHz does require a fairly large boost for my CPU, so 4.6 GHz is what I use.

I have also foudn that the CPU pulls a wee bit over 95 W. I think, but am not sure, that once you pass teh 95 W limit on IvyBridge, that's where that voltage boost is needed, and really, these chips might not like any more than that 95 W for 24/7 use. I need a few more chips to test before I can confirm that, but that's the idea I'm working with right now. I think INtel marked these early 3770K chips with 95W, because that's the max they can handle, and that that was NOT a misprint on the box...and they switched to 77 W on the box after the response from reviewers and enthusiasts about the heat issues. BEfore hte box stated teh max draw for the chip at any clocks(since it's  "K" chip), and now it states the max for the stock clocks.


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## TheMailMan78 (Jun 15, 2012)

Nice board is NICE. I wanna see a Micro ATX Sabertooth.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Nice board is NICE. I wanna see a Micro ATX Sabertooth.



I plain old want to see just a normal Sabertooth board, in my livingroom. I've asked for one, and am going to ask again today, as that entire product line seems to not get reviewed very often.


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## puma99dk| (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> I'll keep that in mind. I've always felt that for gamers, and extreme guys, 6 was enough. IF that WASN'T a gaming/OC product, I would have felt the number of ports was a bit short as well.



well even the Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 is a overclocker and can be used for more than just gaming, bcs other than gaming i want storeage aswell and when 2x2TB just gets too small i wanna add more drives, but i also got 2 optical drives i wanna use ^^;

so all suddenly, 2xSSD's, 2x2TB's, 1x500gb and 2x optical (Blu-ray and a DVD Burner) i miss more ports xD


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## TheMailMan78 (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> I plain old want to see just a normal Sabertooth board, in my livingroom. I've asked for one, and am going to ask again today, as that entire product line seems to not get reviewed very often.



I agree. I would like to see a soild review for a Sabertooth and I really think they need a Micro-ATX version. If they did that I MIGHT upgrade.


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## Sasqui (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> My board reviews will come out @ one a week. I have enough here to cover the next 4 weeks, and I am expecting more, although until they arrive there is nothing definite.
> 
> 
> Through talking with other reviewers and other Ivy users, it seems that these CPUs on average will end up with 4.4 GHz to 4.8 GHz clocks. Of course, 4.6 GHz is very nicely in the middle, and my CPU reached that with less than 1.2 V measured via Digital Multimeter. I do have a second chip, but haven't had the time to it test yet. I'm gonna pop it in a board today.
> ...



Absolutely makes sense.  Naturally, I'm curious what each board can get the chip up to (max stable OC), but you're not interested in melting glass and wrecking the common chip for testing.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> well even the Maximus IV Gene-Z/Gen3 is a overclocker and can be used for more than just gaming, bcs other than gaming i want storeage aswell and when 2x2TB just gets too small i wanna add more drives, but i also got 2 optical drives i wanna use ^^;
> 
> so all suddenly, 2xSSD's, 2x2TB's, 1x500gb and 2x optical (Blu-ray and a DVD Burner) i miss more ports xD



Yeah, I hear ya on that, but hte use of dual optical drives is part of the issue you've got. TO me, the addition of a USB 3.0 dock or external will fix all those problems, so I do not see it as a major thing. The chipset supports 6 ports only, and that's what you get, although you get the bonus of 4x SATA 6 Gb/s instead of just two.

That said though, that was my reasoning. I do understand that there are users like you that have multiple drives, and that 6 ports is not enough in all situations, but it is also impossible for them to cater to absolutely everyone.

USB 3.0 is so damn fast...and a dock costs just $25 or around there...the Thermaltake BlackX is pretty popular, and works very very well with this board.



Sasqui said:


> Absolutely makes sense.  Naturally, I'm curious what each board can get the chip up to (max stable OC), but you're not interested in melting glass and wrecking the common chip for testing.



There are some reviewers out there that get trays of chips to play with. I got just one, and bought another one myself, and the one I got that i did not pay for, did take some for me to get. In fact, the chip I am using for reviews is the one I bought myself, with my own money, as the sponsored chip took a long time to get here, and I was sick of waiting.

If I can get more chips, I'll push things much much further. I am not afraid of pushing the limits, but I do need to ensure that I have stuff so I can do my job, and I cannot afford to replace a chip with every motherboard. Fixing this issue, because I do see it as a real issue, is something i am working on over the coming months. I've talked to W1zz about some plans I have when I get these boards done, and I'll just leave it at that for now, and say that I do plan to cater to more extreme users in the near future. I can run LN2, no problem, and have done so many many times, and I do have some help local if needed as well...I just need more chips.

Thankfully, INtel does offer that new Tuning plan warranty, so I am really really eager to get working with the extreme side of things, just need to cover all the details so that it doesn't affect my ability to finish my reviews. If the chip gets damaged, and say, it draws more power after, that invalidates the rest of the reviews used with it. I cannot have that.  I've been overclocking since before TPU even existed, so I really want to get back into the extreme things as I have not done very much like that in 3-4 years.


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## Eternalchaos (Jun 15, 2012)

So cadaveca as the Maximus V Gene and the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H are priced the same (here in the UK anyway) which one do you think is best for the money?


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## Delta6326 (Jun 15, 2012)

Awesome review! I like the looks of this board now only if they would take the this ROG line to the ITX level.

Any chance for a review on the ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe I really want one of those.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

Eternalchaos said:


> So cadaveca as the Maximus V Gene and the Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H are priced the same (here in the UK anyway) which one do you think is best for the money?



Tough choice. Both are great, but the ASUS Maximus does require a bit less voltage from the get go. The UD5H is jsut as capable, but does require more tweaking to get there.

I dunno, what color do you prefer?  Both boards got the same score, although for slightly different reasons, and each has it's own form factor. IF you want a smaller build, go wit hteh Maximus Gene...although ,you know, I think a Maximus V Formula is flapping it's wings on the way to my door right this moment...


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## _JP_ (Jun 15, 2012)

Thank you very much for this review. I find it very useful since this board hit retail here last week and I've been in a pickle to choose whether this one was better than the MaxIV Gene-Z/Gen3 (cheaper by ~20€).
Still, what do you reckon?
Besides what you listed as minor shortcomings, the mSATA being the most pronounced one, I feel the lack of a PS/2 port for the keyboard is something that could be mentioned. Since I still use a lot of PS/2 keyboards...and surely a lot of other people do as well.
Of course, lacking that port, ASUS used the space for a clear CMOS button...but I'm used to jumpers anyway, so it's not something I crave for.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

I feel that this board is much better than the Maximus IV Gene-Z. It's far more caapble, especially for memory clocking. The BIOS seems much more mature at htis point, ready profiles for nearly every memory IC on the market is a big thing when it comes to reaching for hte Maximus clock. 

I know that many prefer PS/2 for n-key rollover reasons, and while it's unfortunate that one is not included, I kinda have to side with ASUS on this one(and other board makers that drop support for PS/2), since such a port is very much a legacy item at this point. I feel it is up to keyboard makers to come up with a better connector interface to deal with n-key issues, and not a board maker to make sure they support a connection that is like 25 years old at this point.

Yes, PS/2 has been around for 25 years.

I went to my local retailers, and checked boards and the add-on cards, none had the same problem, so while that was an issue with that rubber pad on my particular sample, it was not found on any of the boards in town here, so I feel it is a one-off, and I got unlucky. the card does still work, and I wil leb using it(I hate wires, need the wireless bit).


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## puma99dk| (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Yeah, I hear ya on that, but hte use of dual optical drives is part of the issue you've got. TO me, the addition of a USB 3.0 dock or external will fix all those problems, so I do not see it as a major thing. The chipset supports 6 ports only, and that's what you get, although you get the bonus of 4x SATA 6 Gb/s instead of just two.
> 
> That said though, that was my reasoning. I do understand that there are users like you that have multiple drives, and that 6 ports is not enough in all situations, but it is also impossible for them to cater to absolutely everyone.
> 
> USB 3.0 is so damn fast...and a dock costs just $25 or around there...the Thermaltake BlackX is pretty popular, and works very very well with this board.



i could also do e-sata to sata, my CM690II Advanced got rubber holes for watercooling i can just use for that, if i can find long enough.






or will there be problems with using that for hdd and optical drives?


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## TheMailMan78 (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> I feel that this board is much better than the Maximus IV Gene-Z. It's far more caapble, especially for memory clocking. The BIOS seems much more mature at htis point, ready profiles for nearly every memory IC on the market is a big thing when it comes to reaching for hte Maximus clock.
> 
> I know that many prefer PS/2 for n-key rollover reasons, and while it's unfortunate that one is not included, I kinda have to side with ASUS on this one(and other board makers that drop support for PS/2), since such a port is very much a legacy item at this point. I feel it is up to keyboard makers to come up with a better connector interface to deal with n-key issues, and not a board maker to make sure they support a connection that is like 25 years old at this point.
> 
> ...



Better then the Maximus IV Gene-Z? NEVER!


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

puma99dk| said:


> or will there be problems with using that for hdd and optical drives?



That's a very good question. I do not think that there will be power for the drive that way? So you will need to provide power to it somehow?

eSATA uses one of the SATA 3 Gb/s ports from chipset, so I do not foresee any issues there.



TheMailMan78 said:


> Better then the Maximus IV Gene-Z? NEVER!



The audio on the Maximus V Gene is awesome. Far better than the Gene-Z.  In every way the Maximus V Gene is an evolution of the Gene-Z.

Don't forget...W1zz is using one for VGA reviews, and I wil leb using this one for memory reviews. That says something.


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## puma99dk| (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> That's a very good question. I do not think that there will be power for the drive that way? So you will need to provide power to it somehow?
> 
> eSATA uses one of the SATA 3 Gb/s ports form chipset, so I do not foresee any issues there.



i don't care if i need extra power that i don't mind ^^

and sata 3gb/s is fine for optical drives anyway and i hope that will work for burning aswell as reading ^^;


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

If i had one of those cables, I'd check for ya, but sadly, i do not. I use 3x SSD, 1x mSATA SSD and an optical drive for review testing. I cannot see why it'd be OK to read a disc, but not write..have you run into such an issue before?


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## _JP_ (Jun 15, 2012)

Well, it's good to know that mSATA problem was a one-off, but bad since it happened to you. 
As for the PS/2 port, yeah, I guess I could move on...but I'd have to buy a new keyboard...an expensive one, at that. :\ 
I was planning on getting a 2500k (budget overclocker by now ), so I guess the Z68 would be better for that chip...not to mention cheaper by this point, but I will still take your arguments and points in high consideration.
The BIOS part is very important to me, but IIRC, memory profiles are usually updated with new BIOS versions, right?
The MaxiIV has had a couple of updates so far, one of them clearly stating memory compatibility improvements.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

THe profiles are NOT available on the Gene-Z. These are very specific profiles that can be loaded form within the BIOS itself for memory clocking. There are several different profiles for each IC type, fast/slow, etc.

This is very much different than compatibility things fixed in the usual BIOS update manner.

As to 2500K being better supproted by the Gene-Z ,that coudl be possible, I suppose, but I do nto see any real reason for that, since both boards each support both CPUs. The Maximus V gene, however, does have a few memory dividers for Ivy that is not there on the Gene-Z, as far as I remember.


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## Sasqui (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> If the chip gets damaged, and say, it draws more power after, that invalidates the rest of the reviews used with it. I cannot have that.  I've been overclocking since before TPU even existed, so I really want to get back into the extreme things as I have not done very much like that in 3-4 years.



Perfect, couldn't agree more.

Can't wait till you do get to push it to the max!


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

Sasqui said:


> Perfect, couldn't agree more.
> 
> Can't wait till you do get to push it to the max!



I'll be working with memory clocking this weekend. I got many sets to test for a ram review, so that wil lelt me get a good general idea of what's going on, as well as trying out hte other chip(gotta check for a better IMC).


I plan on using this board for some time, I really want to get off of X79 and it's higher power consumption, although the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe I am using now has proven itself as excellent time and again.


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## TheMailMan78 (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> That's a very good question. I do not think that there will be power for the drive that way? So you will need to provide power to it somehow?
> 
> eSATA uses one of the SATA 3 Gb/s ports from chipset, so I do not foresee any issues there.
> 
> ...



It says I'm jelly.


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## evaseeker (Jun 15, 2012)

> There are six internal SATA connectors, with a rather weird arrangement. The bottom red ports are SATA 6 Gb/s, driven by an ASMedia controller, while the other red ports are SATA 3 Gb/s, driven by the Intel Z77 Express PCH. The black ports are also driven by the Intel PCH controller, but are SATA 6 Gb/s



are you sure about the RED ports being 2 6g and 2 3g? because Rog.Asus list em otherwise,

both are 6g

with the black being the 3g

From http://rog.asus.com/motherboard/gene/maximus-v-gene/

_2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red_
2 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
1 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red
1 x mini-SATA 3Gb/s port(s), black
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Supports Intel® Smart Response Technology, Intel® Rapid Start Technology, Intel® Smart Connect Technology *5
ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller : *6
_2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red_

otherwise great review!


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

Yes, I am sure. I made a point of plugging a drive into each port and verifying the connectivity and what controller was used. I do that for every board. I connect my Crucial M4 128 GB SSD to every port, and run HDTune to confirm performance. Black ports at the top are the Intel Z77 PCH SATA 6 Gb/s ports, bottom red is connected to ASMedia 6 Gb/s controller.


If it waas not that way, my Crucial M4 would not have tested at the speeds it did. I actualyl mentioned it becuase i saw that info, and connected my drives according to that info, and found my M4 to be underperforming.

your comment does make me want to re-test though.  I'll check it out. teh board is physically labelled as described by ASUS.


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## evaseeker (Jun 15, 2012)

well i don't wanna continue questioning your methods because i always look forward to your reviews! but it seems to me then that both the Board manual and Asus website are wrong?

this can get messy for me, now i need to open up my case and switch the drives lol.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

I'll toss the board on my bench right now and check it out. Give me about 20 minutes.  If I am wrong, I really need to fix it!


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## evaseeker (Jun 15, 2012)

thanks! i appreciate that


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

evaseeker said:


> thanks! i appreciate that



You are correct, sir, thanks very much for pointing that out. I editted the review accordingly. I guess I must have wired it as normal, and then had to make the switch, and mistakenly wrote it out wrong. I simply play with too muc hardware, but there is no excuse there either. MY fault, and really, thanks very much. Please do question!!!!











Just booting into windows to test and verify right now....(edit)verified.  drive is plugged into the bottom black port right this moment, testing at a very even 268 MB/s


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## MetalRacer (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> I'll be working with memory clocking this weekend. I got many sets to test for a ram review, so that wil lelt me get a good general idea of what's going on, as well as trying out hte other chip(gotta check for a better IMC).
> 
> 
> I plan on using this board for some time, I really want to get off of X79 and it's higher power consumption, although the ASUS P9X79 Deluxe I am using now has proven itself as excellent time and again.



Great review! 

The M5G + Ivy Bridge are a memory over clocker’s wet dream come true, can’t wait to see your results.


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## evaseeker (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> You are correct, sir, thanks very much for pointing that out. I editted the review accordingly. I guess I must have wired it as normal, and then had to make the switch, and mistakenly wrote it out wrong. I simply play with too muc hardware, but there is no excuse there either. MY fault, and really, thanks very much. Please do question!!!!
> 
> 
> http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=47501&stc=1&d=1339781627
> ...



That was quick!

Thanks a lot for your efforts now i can breath easily!


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## DOM (Jun 15, 2012)

I like my mvg but I would like a mve


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

evaseeker said:


> That was quick!
> 
> Thanks a lot for your efforts now i can breath easily!



Yeha, you know, I don't have any real job, so stuff like this I can deal with quickly. I jsut simply mis-labelled each in the review, no big deal, but misleading, for sure, so again, thank you very much. I just simply changed 6 Gb/s to 3 Gb/s in the review, and all is well now.


Heh. I did say 20 minutes...



DOM said:


> I like my mvg but I would like a mve



Can you explain why? Did I miss something, or does early info have you hoping for more from the Extreme?


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## kajson (Jun 15, 2012)

Howdy tnx great review 

I am currently using a very similar setup, (see system details) and i can confirm the middle red sata ports are the sataIII intel chipset powered ones, the ones on the outside are asmedia. The sata configuration screen of the bios only sees my m4 on the sata ports, and denies the existence of any other harddisks, even though they are selectable boot devices and otherwise work fine. 


However i have a question as I'm currently running an i5 3570k @4.5 with 1.26v I cant seem to go lower or it gets unstable. 

Could you tell me what kind of settings you are using to get that overclock stable, because you seem to be able to clock higher at lower volts. ( I wants ) 

My temps arent a problem i think, 75 celcius on one core max after a couple of hours of prime 95, and typical gaming they dont go higher then ~50 celcius. 


Or is this purely down to the difference between the i7 and the i5

tnx in advance


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

The clocks I get are CPU-dependant. With that little SATA thing, I tossed in my other CPU isntead of the one used in the review... It is also not stable at the same clocks and voltages. I set 1.2 V, and then 1.225 V in bios, and 4.6 GHz failed both times. Looks like it's really down to individual CPUs, I do not think the i5/i7 difference is really the telling factor here.

I left the CPU in, as I need to test IMC for memroy review purposes, but it seems this second 3770K is just like your 3750K, if not worse!


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## PopcornMachine (Jun 15, 2012)

TheMailMan78 said:


> Better then the Maximus IV Gene-Z? NEVER!





cadaveca said:


> The audio on the Maximus V Gene is awesome. Far better than the Gene-Z.  In every way the Maximus V Gene is an evolution of the Gene-Z.
> 
> Don't forget...W1zz is using one for VGA reviews, and I wil leb using this one for memory reviews. That says something.



But the Gene-z still is a very good board, right? 

Just kidding.  I know it is.  Very happy with it and my 2500K.  Especially considering I got the board for $160 and the chip for $180. 

That said, I wouldn't mind having the new board. Although I would still put a 2500K or 2600K in it.  I think they are much better values than the Ivy's. 

Oh, and thanks for the review.  I love M-ATX boards.


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

I have two more mATX product reviews incoming, too, so far.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 15, 2012)

How do you ensure that the SSD's performance is consistent? Every time I bench a M4 performance gets a little worse and takes a good while to come back up.

Audio is promising. Hopefully they start doing that on more boards. What's the audio software like? Similar to their sound cards?


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## kajson (Jun 15, 2012)

I'm currently using the 75% loadline calibration setting, would the 100% version drastically improve my chances to lower the voltage on the overclock? 

Also I must note that I'm using the normal energy saving settings like EIST, the one thing i havent been able to figure out is how to get the voltage to also pace itself when the cpu isnt taxed, like it does when you dont overclock. But i'm guessing thats got to do with the loadlinecalibration overruling that? 

At least in cpu-z and AI suite II it just stubornly stays at 1.26v.


Tnx for the info


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> How do you ensure that the SSD's performance is consistent? Every time I bench a M4 performance gets a little worse and takes a good while to come back up.
> 
> Audio is promising. Hopefully they start doing that on more boards. What's the audio software like? Similar to their sound cards?



Good question. All SSDs that i have played with experience "performance degredation" from usage. 

SO, to offset this, I simply don't use the drives used for testing for anything other than drive testing, and I use a seperate drive for OS installs. The drives used to test were loaded with data, and then only read testing has been done since. I have, as recently as yesterday, connected the drives to my P9X79 Deluxe, and confirmed that the numbers have stayed the same, even though they've been used for about 6 board reviews since then.

Audio performance is outstanding. Comes with the fairly standard onboard X-Fi suite, nothing too exciting.


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## DOM (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Yeha, you know, I don't have any real job, so stuff like this I can deal with quickly. I jsut simply mis-labelled each in the review, no big deal, but misleading, for sure, so again, thank you very much. I just simply changed 6 Gb/s to 3 Gb/s in the review, and all is well now.
> 
> 
> Heh. I did say 20 minutes...
> ...



I just want it no reasons  but do like the extra pci-e lanes


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

kajson said:


> I'm currently using the 75% loadline calibration setting, would the 100% version drastically improve my chances to lower the voltage on the overclock?
> 
> Also I must note that I'm using the normal energy saving settings like EIST, the one thing i havent been able to figure out is how to get the voltage to also pace itself when the cpu isnt taxed, like it does when you dont overclock. But i'm guessing thats got to do with the loadlinecalibration overruling that?
> 
> ...



Manual votlage setting is what the issue is. You need to use "Offset Mode" to get the votlage drop when idle.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> Audio performance is outstanding. Comes with the fairly standard onboard X-Fi suite, nothing too exciting.



From what I can gather it's a realtek chip with a combo of realtek/asus/creative drivers, which I'm slightly amazed play nice together. Wondering how much is offloaded vs done on the CPU. Would be interesting to see CPU usage compared between this, a standard realtek, and a full on card.


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## puma99dk| (Jun 15, 2012)

cadaveca said:


> If i had one of those cables, I'd check for ya, but sadly, i do not. I use 3x SSD, 1x mSATA SSD and an optical drive for review testing. I cannot see why it'd be OK to read a disc, but not write..have you run into such an issue before?



i have only used it for format and backup data on my dad's lappy through e-sata bcs it's soo much faster than usb 2.0


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> From what I can gather it's a realtek chip with a combo of realtek/asus/creative drivers, which I'm slightly amazed play nice together. Wondering how much is offloaded vs done on the CPU. Would be interesting to see CPU usage compared between this, a standard realtek, and a full on card.



That is nearly impossible to test. the app used to play back audio will also use CPU, so I'd have to use the same version of app, etc....and such CPU usage is so miniscule at this point(<1%) for audio apps that such testing is rather useless. I have checked CPU usage.

I will keep it in mind though, and see if there is some other way other than RMAA for audio testing that can give repeatable results. My main focus here is to ensure that whatever I get as a result, you can as well, while providing real usable data.

AS to the chip used...I really have no idea. I assume it's a realtek unit, but decided to not mention anything in the review as really, does it matter? TO me, as long and quality is decent, the chip doesn't matter, as so much more than just the chip itself can affect audio quality. At least half of the boards I have tested in the past 20 months or so used Realtek ACL892 or ACL898, with results quite varied even with the same chip because of circuit design.


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## DOM (Jun 15, 2012)

wheres the ln2 section of the review 

im thinking your cpu might do good on ln2 

what batch is it ?


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

DOM said:


> wheres the ln2 section of the review
> 
> im thinking your cpu might do good on ln2
> 
> what batch is it ?






L204B343. I did kinda purposefully pick this one.  One local retailer ALWAYS has good Intel chips for extreme cooling. I had QX9650 did 4 ghz on 1.25 V, same retailer, was damn good chip, that one. My i7 870 was pretty damn good too, and I did get a 59-multi SB outta that store as well.


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## DOM (Jun 15, 2012)

must be nice i have to play the lotto on mine 

got back my 6.7 cpu and got 2 more to test then sell sucks reselling almost new cpus


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

Yeah i did a lot of SB builds for people when that platform launched, let me bin many chips, but htat is not happening with IVB. I got these two, don't really expect more. I will be trying LN2 on it once I've done all these board reviews though. Still months away though.


I have HWBOT profile, but don't have anything to do with ranked scoring, and have not submitted anything for well over 2 years. I might change that soon though, and probably, this MAximus V Gene is gonna be part of that!


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## DOM (Jun 15, 2012)

yeah i didnt spend much on SB it made me money with my 5.9 2500K 

but one thing i havent tryed and dont really wanna do is use vaseline but it seems its a must with IB and its no CB full pot benching 

i just picked up a 50L dewar and going to see if i can sell my 35L cuz i wont be needed it anymore there going to hook me up at airgas going to pay the same to fill the 50L 

so have you tryed that lucid mvp ?

edit just got one 
3219B207 idk if i even wanna waste my time on it lol


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## cadaveca (Jun 15, 2012)

DOM said:


> 3219B207



Costa Rica chips have never been _good_?

NO Lucid. it is not "perfect", so I cannot use it. Single GPU support only = fail, when I'm a multi-GPU user.

I need to spend more time with a lesser GPU, and MVP, I think. It kinda has a very specific market segment, IMHO, and the fact they have basically said that multi-GPU enthusiasts will not get an update, I thumb my nose at them like they have thumb'd their nose at me.


I couldn't use IntelQuickSync, either, without buying supporting software. Such sillyness is pure marketing for outside business ventures only.


That said, for points and benching...heh...anything goes, as long as you disclose!


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## DOM (Jun 16, 2012)

i havent had luck with them the one i sold 20mmrain was a nice one but didnt have the max clocks i was looking for  but did pass vantage and 3d11 @ 4.7 1.3v

the one im selling in my thread is okay does 4.3 at stock volts


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## AFQ (Jun 16, 2012)

Nice review.

Did you test all the boards with 3770K or the old ones were tested with Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E respectively?


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## cadaveca (Jun 16, 2012)

AFQ said:


> Nice review.
> 
> Did you test all the boards with 3770K or the old ones were tested with Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E respectively?



Older ones are tested with SBee for X79, and SB for P67/Z68. SO you kinda get some paltforms compares as well as the Z77 compare. By the time I've posted all Z77 numbers, I might have to remove a fair bit of the SB numbers, or will have huge graphs with far too many results. The drive results are pretty obscene as it is. .


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## 1Kurgan1 (Jun 19, 2012)

Good review, I'm running the AsRock version of this though P67 chipset, they are worth the investment, great boards, tons of features.


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## themach1ne (Jul 28, 2012)

Sorry but I disagree with two things repeatedly mentioned as negative about this board.  1-that it's too expensive...while in your own words its a sick OC'ing board for the enthusiast/gamer with all of the features of a full ATX in a SFF uATX.  2-the mPCIe add-on ability...for one it's a good way to add mSATA btw not to mention its a first for a feature of its kind that gives such a broad range of expandability options.  Giving features while still coming in @ under $200 from retailers is worthy of praise in my book.  I just ordered one for a new 3770k build and paid ~$175 on Amazon.  I was expecting to pay in the mid to high 2s for a board of this caliber but was pleasantly surprised.

Also @LifeOnMars, I have a TT Lanbox VF1000 that I was originally going to throw it in but decided against because of the layout cases like them pose.  PSU on top means you can't put a CPU fan worthy of the board's and the likely 3770k (you'll drop in it) ability to OC the <blank> out of.  Instead I went with a In-Win BR665 (over their Dragon Slayer case that first caught my attention).  I'd suggest doing the same.  No way I could have fit the Noctua NH-C12P SE14 hsf I'm using in my build.  Like I said, originally was going to reuse a Lanbox (handle is cool and all but hardly a used feature) case but once I decided against I decided to build from scratch.  Rest of the components I just ordered...

PSU: Corsair TX650M
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16GB F3-17000CL9Q-16GBSR
Video card: TBD (waiting to see how good Intel's 4000 IGP is as I'm not a gamer)

My $.02


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## cadaveca (Jul 28, 2012)

Price of the board when i reviewed it was $219. At less than $200, you bet it's a great buy.

Do keep in mind I scored it a 9.8.

The mSATA thing...ASUS changed the retention design slightly, and solved the problem with it. My problem wasn't that it's there, but that the retention mechanism wasn't secure with an mSATA drive in place.

you can see the bulging, and the pads beginning to pull off here:


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## themach1ne (Jul 28, 2012)

My board just got delivered today.  I see what you mean now about the mSATA side of the adapter.  What Asus should have done is used softer pads on the both the adapter board side and clip side so that with more give it would actually press and hold better instead of pushing the add-on card and clip itself awkwardly away.  Instead, the harder ones are pushing the clip away.  At least the pads are removable so the user can replace them if desired.

Btw, I was a little confused why I saw a score of 9.8 but could have sworn I saw only a "Recommended" rating at the bottom instead of the "Editor's Choice" one I see now.  

All things considered, great review.


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## DaveOliomen (Oct 3, 2012)

*Mystery Headers*

What are the two 8-pin headers between the x16 and x4 slots? They become un-usable with graphics card installed. There are also two 3-pin headers (right of CPU fan and above Thunderbolt headers). Are they for "future use" or maybe factory testing? I NEED to know for no reason at all.


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## cadaveca (Oct 3, 2012)

DaveOliomen said:


> What are the two 8-pin headers between the x16 and x4 slots? They become un-usable with graphics card installed. There are also two 3-pin headers (right of CPU fan and above Thunderbolt headers). Are they for "future use" or maybe factory testing? I NEED to know for no reason at all.



Hrm...I am pretty sure one of the 3-pins are VRM check points(used by factory, can be found on nearly every intel board), but the dual -pin, and the other 3-pin, I am not sure. 

Perhaps inquire over at the ASUS ROG forum... Might be connector for ASUS 5.25-bay control device.


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## kajson (Oct 3, 2012)

Hi peeps, i would just like to say, that for those of you still using an older Bios version, the newest one (at least i went from 903 to 1204) speeds up the bios part of the startup quite a bit. 

My old bios screen came up twice and sometimes hung a bit on the second screen. 

Warning however is that you do loose all your settings, so make sure to pen them down as saving em to a usb drive still makes em unusable with a different bios.


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