ASUS Maximus IV Extreme B3 Revision Review
Conclusion
Published: 23rd March 2011 | Source: ASUS | Price: £299 |
Conclusion
When we first reviewed the Maximus IV Extreme it was good, but not great. The performance in particular was very ho-hum when compared to its ROG stable-mates.
The B3 revision has fixed the only real issue with the P67 chipset, that of the data corruption. But the extra time involved has allowed ASUS to come keep tinkering away at their BIOS to bring the Maximus up to par with the lofty Republic of Gamer branding.
Clearly there can be no doubt that this rocks very hard indeed now. 5 GHz from a i5-2500K is very good, especially at 1.48v. We always make sure our overclocks for testing are ones you could live with all the time, but if you're somebody who lives for the CPUz and blast the consequences there certainly is plenty of voltage headroom to go beyond should you choose.
As it was we couldn't quite get PC Mark Vantage to complete consistently but a tiny reduction down to 4.8 GHz gave us a .08v reduction and the heat and lifespan benefits thereof. Most importantly it didn't really affect the performance as the Maximus IV was right up there throughout all of our testing. Considering it's primarily going against a hyper-threaded Core i7-2600K that's nothing to be sniffed at. Often we've found that you can reach a plateau with an overclock after which the speed stays high but the results fall off a cliff. Akin to a BHP graph. The revs continue to rise but the power drops off.
Not so with the Maximus IV Extreme B3. A lot of performance to go with its lengthy title.
It's very much a sigh of relief around the OC3D offices as a motherboard that comes in the ROG red and black automatically brings with it certain expectations. These are finally fulfilled. Despite the near £300 price-tag the Maximus IV Extreme has every bell and whistle you could desire, and in B3 spec has the performance to match those gorgeous looks.
A worthy winner of the OC3D Gold Award.
Thanks to ASUS for supplying the Maximus IV Extreme for review. Discuss in our forums.
Most Recent Comments
I'm looking forward to the Big Bang Marshall review now to see who comes out on top, the Maximus or the BBM.
how does it stack up against the ud7 and other higher end boards? only i thought the gd65 was a bit of a let down when you tested it
How does it compare to the BBM? *whistles innocently*
As for the UD7, there isn't much in it tbh. But we could either have graphs that take a week to scroll through, or let you do a tiny bit of legwork. Tabbed browsing has it's benefits
My name is Maximus IV Extreme, Motherboard to an over-clocked processor, foundation to a speedy system, and I will have 5GHz with this attempt or the next.
Bryan dude, your reviews crack me up
Thank you thank you.
To be honest, I was all in favor for the 1366 especially since the first review but has somewhat changed after this review.
Kinda keen if you opion is changed after the new revision ?
The 1155 is amazing though. Either in 2500K guise or 2600K if you need HT.
If you must have the absolute top-end, hold on for the 2011 revision in a few months time.
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Originally Posted by VonBlade
I'm only a humble reviewer, but it depends what you've got now and how desperate you are to upgrade. 1366 will soon be phased out for 2011. The 1155 is amazing though. Either in 2500K guise or 2600K if you need HT. If you must have the absolute top-end, hold on for the 2011 revision in a few months time. |
Its running fine, no probs. However mine son needs a new PC.
He`s using a Opteron 147/A8N32-Sli/4GB ram/2x7900GT.
So he`ll be getting mine and me gonna get a new one.
I was aiming at a 1366 setup, however since the revised review I am kinda in the middle.
Seeing this review and the looks of it I kinda eager to get this.
With a 2600k/16Gb dominator ram/2x560Ti Sc it will suite me fine.
But seeing Toms opion I kinda like hmmmm what to get ?
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Originally Posted by CueBall
Well to be honest, I have now a q9550/Maximus formula/8Gb ram/2xGTX460. Its running fine, no probs. However mine son needs a new PC. He`s using a Opteron 147/A8N32-Sli/4GB ram/2x7900GT. So he`ll be getting mine and me gonna get a new one. I was aiming at a 1366 setup, however since the revised review I am kinda in the middle. Seeing this review and the looks of it I kinda eager to get this. With a 2600k/16Gb dominator ram/2x560Ti Sc it will suite me fine. But seeing Toms opion I kinda like hmmmm what to get ? |
At the end of the day not everyone is interested about doing all the fiddling about and they just want a powerful PC and there is nothing wrong with that IMHO.
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Originally Posted by SieB
The thing is those are Tom's opinions, and he is basing them on the fact he likes to tinker with his PC and adjust all the settings himself instead of letting the motherboard do it all for him. If you want a powerful PC and you are not bothered about doing all the settings and balancing this and changing that and then upping the other then there is nothing wrong with 1155. But if you do like to do all the settings and tinker with them and spend time getting them all right then you would be better off with 1366 or waiting for 2011. Personally i missed out on X58 and went strait from 775 to 1155 and never learned about how to do overclocking properly but when 2011 comes ouit i am thinking of upgrading so I can learn. At the end of the day not everyone is interested about doing all the fiddling about and they just want a powerful PC and there is nothing wrong with that IMHO. |
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