ASUS Maximus V Gene Intel Z77 Express LGA 1155

[cadaveca]

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.

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[Eternalchaos]

Nice review as always

 

[Shou Miko]

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 :/

 

[cadaveca]

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.

 

[LifeOnMars]

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.

 

[Sasqui]

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?

 

[cadaveca]

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:

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.

 

[TheMailMan78]

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

 

[cadaveca]

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.

 

[Shou Miko]

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

 

[TheMailMan78]

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.

 

[Sasqui]

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.

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.

 

[cadaveca]

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.

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.

 

[Eternalchaos]

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?

 

[Delta6326]

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.

 

[cadaveca]

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...

 

[_JP_]

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.

 

[cadaveca]

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).

 

[Shou Miko]

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?

 

[TheMailMan78]

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).

Better then the Maximus IV Gene-Z? NEVER!

 

[cadaveca]

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.

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.

 

[Shou Miko]

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 ^^;

 

[cadaveca]

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?

 

[_JP_]

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.

 

[cadaveca]

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.