ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

Ahead of its launch, ASUS showed off its flagship socket LGA1151 motherboard, the ROG Maximus VIII Extreme. Based on the Intel Z170 Express chipset, this board offers the largest feature-set from ASUS' stable, for the enthusiast crowd. Built in the ATX (almost E-ATX wide) form-factor, the board retains the styling of its series siblings, such as the Maximus VIII Hero, but does away with the red+black for a more contemporary golden orange+black scheme, which made its debut with the GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum graphics card (also pictured here).

The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 16-phase VRM. The CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16, from which three are wired to the CPU, and one to the PCH. All four are PCIe gen 3.0. Storage connectivity includes an SFF-8639 U.2 32 Gb/s connector, an M.2 32 Gb/s slot, two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s, and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Networking includes 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit Ethernet (all Intel controllers). The new SupremeFX onboard audio solution borrows a lot of tech from ASUS' discrete sound cards, and comes with an 5.25-inch front-panel bay with rotary controls, and front-panel jacks. The board features a boat-load of overclocker-centric features, including dual-BIOS.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[PLAfiller]

That is some sizable chipset heatsink right there.

 

[HumanSmoke]

That is some sizable chipset heatsink right there.

The bottom part (above the first PCIe x16 slot) of which probably serves no useful purpose. Been a long time since an Intel chipset needed a northbridge heatsink.

 

[zSc]

The bottom part (above the first PCIe x16 slot) of which probably serves no useful purpose. Been a long time since an Intel chipset needed a northbridge heatsink.

Seems to me like it could pose a fitting problem with backplate equipped GPUs and/or full watercooling blocks.

 

[rooivalk]

That is some sizable chipset heatsink right there.

that's small fry

 

[PLAfiller]

that's small fry

Touche....

 

[Ferrum Master]

that's small fry

How did they attach the molex there?

 

[RejZoR]

The bottom part (above the first PCIe x16 slot) of which probably serves no useful purpose. Been a long time since an Intel chipset needed a northbridge heatsink.

I disagree. Yes, there is no northbridge, but having cooler there is conventient to attach a fan on it and help entire VRM heatsink cool down faster.

Btw, is the 8pin + 4pin power a new thing on PSU's? I have a 3-4 years old Corsair HX750 and it only has 8pin EPS. This is the second time I see mention of connecting both, 8pin and 4pin connectors at once and my Sabertooth X99 has it as well.

 

[emissary42]

The bottom part (above the first PCIe x16 slot) of which probably serves no useful purpose. Been a long time since an Intel chipset needed a northbridge heatsink.

Since we are talking about the top of the line M8E, i would not be surprised if there was a PLX present at this location like on the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 ( pic ).

Btw, is the 8pin + 4pin power a new thing...?

It is not a new thing, high end overclocking models have had dual cpu voltage connectors in the past as well. The Maximus Extreme (V, VI, VII), MSI Xpower, Gigabyte (S)OC Force and ASRock OC Formula series are the prime candidates.

 

[HumanSmoke]

I disagree. Yes, there is no northbridge, but having cooler there is conventient to attach a fan on it and help entire VRM heatsink cool down faster.

I don't see any fan mounting options on that vestigial heatsink.

Btw, is the 8pin + 4pin power a new thing on PSU's?

No. Many PSU's have a secondary EPS12V that is a 4+4 arrangement in just the same way that many also use a 6+2 pin arrangement for PCI-E 8-pin connection. A lot of 1kw class PSU's have options for a second EPS12V connection. My Seasonic X-1050 certainly does.

Since we are talking about the top of the line M8E, i would not be surprised if there was a PLX present at this location like on the Gigabyte Z170X-Gaming G1 ( pic ).

You're probably right...although I wonder why you would need a heatsink for a PEX 8747 chip that is rated at 7.3 watts power consumption.

 

[RejZoR]

Are you afraid of going a bit ghetto? If you don't exactly use brute force or #FullGhetto, you can find pretty elegant solutions to mount fans on passive heatsinks. My former Rampage II Gene had the perfect size NB heatsink to accomodate 40mm fan with two screws that fit nicely in between fins. It almost looked like it was designed that way.

 

[buildzoid]

If the past extreme boards are anything to go by this should have a PLX chip for 4 way CF and SLI. Which is why it needs the middle heatsink.

 

[rooivalk]

How did they attach the molex there?

It's detachable heatsink but I don't think you can use both (heatsink and molex) at the same time. Worry not, beneath the heatsink lies waterblock...

Spoiler

 

[Ferrum Master]

It's detachable heatsink but I don't think you can use both (heatsink and molex) at the same time. Worry not, beneath the heatsink lies waterblock... [/spoiler]

For all my boards that needed that molex. Most usually to fight coil whine... I soldered wires directly on the other side of the board... It is much more clean and simpler.

 

[FlanK3r]

This is another Extreme. Old and classic Extreme version is there from August:

 

[RejZoR]

That looks like Z170 Deluxe, Z170 Sabertooth and Maximus VIII Hero...

 

[FlanK3r]

look at inscription at board around 2:47 and later. "Extreme"

 

[msamelis]

Hmm, is it me or does the color scheme seem to suit the Noctua's beige?

 

[SkullTrail2010]

Hmm, is it me or does the color scheme seem to suit the Noctua's beige?

The board is being offered in three colors. From ASUS directly:

"...This new lineup of ROG products also introduces an all-new design theme that offers gamers a range of exciting new colors, including Plasma Copper, Armor Titanium, and Lava Red."

 

[SkullTrail2010]

The article is missing a few details:

Quote: "Networking includes 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, and gigabit Ethernet"

Actually it's a 10G ethernet card not just a pedestrian 1G card. From ASUS:

"Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly includes the ROG 10Gb/s Ethernet card. With its low-latency design, this Ethernet card is backwards-compatible with all Ethernet standards and supports speeds of 100Mbit/s, 1Gbit/s, 2.5Gbit/s, 5Gbit/s, and 10Gbit/s. It is suitable for any PCIe® 2.0 x4 connection."

Also missing from the article: From ASUS:

"ROG Maximus VIII Extreme/Assembly also features the ROG SupremeFX Hi-Fi headphone amplifier. This uses an ESS® ES9018K2M digital-to-audio converter (DAC) for lower audio jitter, with two Texas Instruments LM4562 operational amplifiers for superior audio signal amplification, plus a TPA6120A2 headphone amplifier to drive high-fidelity headphones."

 

[EarthDog]

The bottom part (above the first PCIe x16 slot) of which probably serves no useful purpose. Been a long time since an Intel chipset needed a northbridge heatsink.

perhaps the board has a PLX chip under it.

Edit: sorry bullzoid.. read down the thread, lol

You're probably right...although I wonder why you would need a heatsink for a PEX 8747 chip that is rated at 7.3 watts power consumption.

for the same reason a yellow color bonfire is the same temperature as yellow flame on a lighter. lease

Being serious, those buggers get hot when running a couple cards.

 

[Jetster]

Too much plastic

 

[deemon]

Like we didn't have any Maximus VIII huge-ass motherboards already.... what about ITX board for a change?

 

[emissary42]

Like we didn't have any Maximus VIII huge-ass motherboards already.... what about ITX board for a change?

From previous generations we know that the Impact is usually a bit late to the party. Just get yourself a drink or two in the meantime... it will turn up eventually

 

[deemon]

From previous generations we know that the Impact is usually a bit late to the party. Just get yourself a drink or two in the meantime... it will turn up eventually

Will it arrive this year? Before March 2016 (so I can get computer together for Vive)? Before Arctic Islands / Pascal? before Kaby Lake (nobody gives an efff anymore at this point though)?