Overclocking

The ASUS MAXIMUS IX CODE is an excellent overclocker, achieving 5 GHz with a simple preset change. The Extreme Tweaker BIOS tab offers a plethora of presets and manual tuning options. When it came to overclocking RAM, I was a little disappointed, though. The board would not post using XMP settings with my GSKILL 3866 MHz kit, which is a letdown for a board of this caliber. However, manually setting the speed and voltage, I was able to get to a stable 3600 MHz.


The ASUS MAXIMUS IX CODE includes three buttons along the board's bottom edge that saved me a lot of time while messing around with RAM overclocking. These include a "retry" button in white which forces a reboot, a "safe boot" button in red which allows the board to post using safe settings after a failed overclock, and a "memOK" button in black which attempts to load compatible settings if the installed RAM kit is causing instability.

The "safe boot" button was invaluable to me as it allowed me to test various RAM overclocks without resetting the CMOS after every failure, which is typically one of the most time consuming aspects of overclocking. Since I was able to quickly get back into the BIOS after a failed overclock, and all settings were still saved, I was able to find the maximum stable clock for my GSKILL RAM kit in less than fifteen minutes.


The post code display on the ASUS MAXIMUS IX CODE is not as big as some I have seen, but it is bright, RGB, and includes other functionalities, like temperature and voltage displays, though those need to be enabled in the BIOS.