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Asus Maximus Formula Special Edition X38 S775 Motherboard

Introduction & Specifications

Published: 6th November 2007 | Source: Asus | Price: £170 - £180 | Author: James Napier

Introduction & Specifications

Just over two months ago Asus gave us the opportunity to sample the latest board in their "Republic of Gamers" linup. Based on the P35 chipset and named the "Blitz", the board literally blew our pants off with its wealth of features, extreme looks and outstanding performance. So it's no wonder why when Asus asked us to take a look at yet another "Republic of Gamers" board, but this time based on the X38 chipset, we literally bit their hands off.

Many of us already know what Intel's latest chipset; the X38 has to offer, but before we get down and dirty let's recap over some of the changes and extra features we can expect to receive from this virgin chipset...

First off the bat is PCI-Express 2.0. Effectively doubling the signaling rate from 2.5Gbps up to 5Gbps, this allows plenty of headroom for future bandwidth-hungry graphics cards. Of course until these graphics cards see the light of day, you're unlikely to see any performance gains. But it's good to "future-proof" yourself never less.

Going hand-in-hand with PCIe 2.0 on the X38 are two x16 (electrical) PCIe slots. This is certainly no surprise as the X38 is the successor to Intel's vastly popular 975x chipset, which also featured the same PCIe configuration for optimal performance when using dual graphics cards in Crossfire mode.

Finally, Intel claim that the X38 chipset was designed with overclocking in mind. Both the front-side bus and latency timings have been tweaked for increased performance and several improvements have been made to the X38's memory controller to allow for more stable overclocking of high-frequency memory modules.

With everything considered, the X38 doesn't really have many new features that would encourage enthusiasts to upgrade from their existing P35/975x chipsets. However, the success of many previous chipsets has been largely down to the creative genius of motherboard manufacturers who add many of their own features and further tweak the chipsets in order to make their latest motherboards a worthwhile upgrade over their previous products. With this in mind, lets take a look at what Asus have to say about their latest motherboard:


As with the previously reviewed Blitz Extreme motherboard, the Maximus Fusion comes with Asus' trademark Fusion Block System that consists of a copper Northbridge block linked to the Southbridge and Mosfets via heatpipes. Obviously we'll re-visit this later on in the review, but judging by some of our initial glimpses of the board, it's certainly fair to say that Asus have made some significant tweaks to its design.

A brand new feature to appear on some of Asus' very latest motherboards is Energy Processing Unit (or EPU for short). The EPU is an onboard, hardware-based power saving IC controller that digitally monitors and fine tunes your CPU's power supply in real-time, providing improved VRM efficiency under light and heavy loads. This allows the EPU to provide up to 58.6% CPU power savings when running low-intensity applications.

More information on the various features of the Maximus board can be found on Asus's website, but for the moment all we're interested in are the raw specs:

CPU	LGA775 socket for Intel® Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Quad / Core™2 Duo / Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 Processors Support Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-Core CPU Compatible with Intel® 06/05B/05A processors * Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list
Chipset	Intel® X38/ICH9R with Intel® Fast Memory Access Technology
Front Side Bus	1600 / 1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz
Memory	Dual channel memory architecture 4 x DIMM, support max. 8GB, DDR2-1200*/1066/800/667 MHz, ECC, non-ECC and un-buffered memory *DDR2 1200 is O.C. speeds. *Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lidts).
Expansion Slots	2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, support at full x16, x16 speed 3 x PCIe x1 ( the PCIEx1_1 (black) is compatible with audio slot) 2 x PCI 2.2
VGA	Support ATI CrossFire™ graphics cards
Storage	ICH9R Southbridge: - 6 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports - Intel Matrix Storage Technology supports RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 JMicron® JMB368 PATA controller: - 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66/33 for up to 2 PATA devices
LAN	Dual Gigabit LAN controllers, both featuring AI NET2 Support Teaming Technology
Audio	SupremeFX II Audio Card: - ADI 1988B 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC - Noise Filter Coaxial, Optical S/PDIF out at back I/O
IEEE 1394	2 x 1394a ports(1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)
USB	Max. 12 USB 2.0 ports(6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)
Overclocking Features	Fusion Block System Extreme Tweaker 2-Phase DDR2 Loadline Calibration Intelligent overclocking tools: - CPU Level Up - ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) - AI Gear 3™ - AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner) - ASUS AI Booster Utility - O.C Profile Overclocking Protection: - COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX) - Voltiminder LED - ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features	LCD Poster Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Cls CMOS (at rear) ASUS Q-Connector ASUS Q-Fan 2 ASUS EZ Flash 2 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 ASUS MyLogo3
Back Panel I/O Ports	1 x PS/2 Keyboard port(purple) 1 x Optical 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Output 2 x LAN (RJ45) port 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports 1 x IEEE1394a port 1 x Clr CMOS switch
Internal I/O Connectors	3 x USB 2.0 connectors supports additional 6 USB 2.0 ports 1 x Floppy disk drive connector 1 x IDE connector for two devices 6 x SATA connectors 8 x Fan connectors: 1 x CPU / 1 x PWR / 3 x Chassis / 3 x Optional 3 x thermal sensor connectors 1 x IEEE1394a connector 1 x S/PDIF output connector 1 x Chassis Intrusion connector 24-pin ATX Power connector 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector 1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS System panel connector
BIOS	16Mb AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS
Manageability	WOL by PME, WOR by PME, Chasis Intrusion, PXE
Accessories	Fusion Block System Accessory LCD Poster ASUS Optional Fan SupremeFX II Audio Card 3 in 1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable Floppy disk drive cable SATA cables SATA power cables 2-port USB2.0 IEEE 1394a module I/O Shield Cable Ties User's manual
Support Disc	The hottest 3D Game: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Support DVD: - Drivers and applications ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update ASUS AI Suite Futuremark ® 3DMark® 06 Advanced Edition Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor, 12"x 9.6" (30.5cm x 24.5cm)

I've always been impressed with the features included on Asus' "Republic of Gamers" motherboards and the Maximus Fusion is certainly no exception. Complete with features such as OC Profile (for saving settings), Voltminder LED (for displaying voltage status) and Asus C.P.R (for recovering after bad overclock) all integrated into the board and BIOS, the Maximus should certainly appeal to Overclockers. Asus haven't skimped on I/O ports either with a total of 12 USB ports, 2 NIC's, 6x SATA ports and a SupremeFX II High Definition add-in sound card. The only thing thats really missing is eSATA ports, but the reasoning behind cutting these out will become clear over the next few pages.

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