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- Date:
- Wednesday, December 02, 2009
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
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ASUS Maximus III Formula Motherboard Review
ASUS brings us yet another Republic of Gamers branded motherboard, this time in the new Intel P55 Express chipset flavor. The ASUS Maximus III Formula promises not to disappoint with its robust feature set, solid design, and excellent pedigree.
Introduction
ASUS is one of this industries most recognized brands. It almost goes without saying that nearly every enthusiast on the planet has heard of ASUS at one point or another. Being one of the largest OEM manufacturers of motherboards on the planet it almost guarantees that you've used an ASUS built board at some point in your life whether you know it or not. These days ASUS has more competition than ever before from the likes of MSI and Gigabyte. However, ASUS isn't about to just hand over the market after retaining its "spot" for as long as it has. To this end ASUS continues to fortify their enthusiast targeted Republic of Gamers product line with yet another offering. This time based on Intel's LGA1156 socket and P55 Express chipset.
The ASUS Maximus III Formula comes from a relatively new yet robust and extensive line of Republic of Gamers boards. This is not the first board to carry the name "Maximus" and it probably won't be the last.
As I've already stated the Maximus III Formula is based on Intel's P55 Express chipset and features everything that comes with that chipset. 6 USB ports, 14 USB ports, RAID support etc. However that's not all. We see the return of the ASUS Probelt and other familiar features such as the ASUS EPU, iROG, CPU Level Up, Memory OK, and the ProbeIt.
The ProbeIt for those of you who may not remember, or be familiar with the feature is a series of contact points on the motherboard itself that allow for the connection of a voltage or multi-meter. This serves several purposes that stand out in my mind. It allows you to check your voltages via hardware and by pass all the software readings. This of course lets you calculate vdroop and make more informed decisions about what to adjust your settings to while overclocking or generally tuning the system. It also allows you to reconcile potentially false BIOS readings or perform diagnostics if the system stops working. This way you can make sure that all your voltages are in specification on the board rather than just testing your PSU alone. This is a feature I first saw on the ASUS Rampage II Extreme and I was VERY fond of it. It works quite well and it does in fact provide more accurate readings than software monitoring can.
The Memory Ok feature is another one I've always liked. This basically has failsafe settings that allow virtually any memory module to be forced into compatibility thus allowing the system to use virtually any DDR3 memory module. The idea is to be able to "get around" compatibility problems with this feature. This can really help you troubleshoot the system when new modules are installed and the system won't POST. When powering up the system for the first time or just from a cold boot, you can use the new "Go" button to start the MemOK feature. It also has a second purpose which is to allow a temporary overclock profile to be engaged even when the system is in Windows. I found no documentation telling me how temporary the setting was. CPU Level up is an old feature but one that I've always found to work really well. It basically allows you to set the processor up to behave like the next (or next few) models up from the processor that's installed. So if you have a Core i7 860 you can make it run like a Core i7 870 with the simple level up adjustment. This feature has never failed to work properly for me regardless of the CPU I was using and regardless of the ASUS board in question.
Some new features were added as well such as ROG connect. This is an interesting feature and one of the rare features I've seen on a board recently that just made me say, "that's cool, I want to try that." The feature allows you to connect a USB cable to another PC or laptop and monitor your POST codes remotely and in real time. Furthermore it allows hardware tweaking from the remote machine in real time regardless of if the Maximus III Formula based system is in Windows or any other OS. It also allows monitoring and adjustments of voltages as well as fan speeds remotely as well. Of all the features normally named with marketing speak features; I have to say this was one of the coolest and most potentially useful for overclockers. It also would aid in diagnostic processes when the system is closed and you can't see the motherboard itself. You can check POST codes and the software goes one step further actually translating each POST code into plain English so you don't need a lengthy chart in the manual to do it for you. For those individuals who like looking at the POST codes the old fashioned way, ASUS has you covered as well.
The Maximus III Formula supports both the Core i5 and Core i7 LGA1156 socket compatible CPUs. The board utilizes 16+3 (the extra 3 phases are for CPU VTT) phase power and uses 3 phases for both the memory and chipsets as well. Like all other Intel P55 Express chipset based boards the Maximus III supports DDR3 dual channel memory and up to 16GB of RAM. Six SATA ports are provided via the P55 chipset and 3 other controllers are integrated as well. A single JMB322 and two JMB363 controllers provide support for 5 additional SATA devices. Four internal and one external (eSATA) device. ASUS has ditched both legacy IDE and floppy ports in this design leaving it virtually legacy free. In fact the only legacy device available is a single PS/2 keyboard or mouse port. There is no other legacy hardware support present here which actually makes me very happy. Following industry trends, the Maximus III Formula only requires a few components to create a fully functional machine. The required components are: LGA1156 CPU, DDR 3 memory, power supply, drives and a video card. ASUS Integrated the following components into the ASUS Maximus III Formula: 11 SATA ports, 14 USB ports (8 ports on the backplane, and 6 ports available via 4 headers supporting 2 ports each), 2 IEEE1394 ports (1 via header, 1 via backplane), 2 gigabit Ethernet ports, and one PS/2 mouse port.
Main Specifications Overview:
Detailed Specifications Overview:
Packaging
The packaging is identical to that of other ROG boards. This means that it's good looking as well as functional. Though I honestly prefer packaging that is easier to open and get into. The box contents were well protected during shipment. In the box ASUS included a User's manual, I/O Shield, ROG Connect Cable, SLI bridge, SupremeFX X-Fi Audio Card, 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit, 2-in-1 SATA signal cables, 2-port USB2.0 + ESATA module, Cable Ties, ROG theme label, 12-in-1 ROG Cable Label, and a DVD containing drivers and bundled software.
Board Layout
The layout of the Maximus III Formula is for the most part solid. The layout found on some if not most ROG boards honestly does not really impress me the more I look at them. Oh sure they are pretty but I think ASUS ends up making concessions regarding the layout so they can jam one more feature onto the PCB. You end up with some layout issues that honestly should have been avoided though they are hardly monumental in terms of problems. In this case I only have minor complaints but for premium boards, I shouldn't have any. Specifically I do not like the placement of the JMB322 and JMB363 SATA ports. The other issues I have are with the expansion slot area. I'll elaborate on that shortly. Again for the most part solid but I'm fairly "nitpicky" when it comes to a motherboards' layout. The board revision used for our testing is 1.02G.
The CPU area is free from obstructions and the mounting of large CPU coolers such as the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme shouldn't be a problem. There isn't much to say about this area of the board as it was well thought out.
The board features four 240-pin DDR3 DIMM slots supporting dual channel mode operation. They are staggered in a 2x2 channel formation denoted by color coding. There is ample room to install memory modules with a large CPU cooler in place and to install RAM while a large video card is installed as well.
The P55 chipset is actually located where the south bridge chipsets "used to be" and its cooled by a large yet flat heat sink. It has no heat pipe and isn't connected to anything else. Despite all this it seemed rather adequate for normal and overclocked operation. Directly in front of this heat sink are the six SATA ports controlled by the P55 Express chipset.
The ASUS Maximus III Formula has three PCI-Express x16 slots but due to the fact that there is insufficient lanes provided by the platform, these slots only operate at 8x8x4 when SLI or Crossfire modes are in use. The bottom white PCI-Express x16 (x4 electrical) slot is badly placed in my opinion. The problem is that cards with large cooling solutions just won't fit here in many cases because those chassis do not have the appropriate clearance to allow the card to "hang" off the bottom slot. This isn't nearly as big a deal as it would be on an X58 board as the X58 boards support 3-Way SLI or CrossfireX with three cards. The P55 Express chipset based Maximus III Formula does not. The only multi-GPU solutions supported here use only two cards. Furthermore the PCI-Express x1 slot at the top is blocked fairly close by the heat sink in front of it. Again bad planning on ASUS' design team's part. Many board makers besides ASUS are guilty of this lack of foresight. Again while I hate this I wouldn't call it a deal breaker unless you need something longer than the included audio board to fit here.
The Maximus III Formula has 1 PS/2 keyboard port, 1 RJ-45 port, 1 IEEE1394a port, 10 USB 2.0 ports (1 is reserved for ROG Connect, but can still be used as a regular port when ROG connect is disabled), 1 eSATA port, one CMOS button and finally the ROG connect button. The audio ports are absent as they are provided by the included sound card.