Asus P67 1155 Sandybridge Sneak Peak
The Maximus IV Extreme
Published: 14th November 2010 | Source: Asus | Price: |
The Maximus IV Extreme
Now that we have covered some of the features found on all P67 boards, it is now time to discuss some of the perks of the new Republic of Gamers flavour. Without singing you all to sleep, I shall briefly outline some of its key innovations
The Culling of Legacy Devices
So you actively use legacy devices? Seriously, go away. The new Maximus IV Extreme is aimed squarely at those who care about current generation interfaces USB 3.0 (that's right, 8xUSB3.0), e-SATA and Bluetooth. Ultimately the "gamers" audience who will be buying this product will care more about being able to install all the latest peripherals. Consider it as a better way to utilise motherboard real estate.
That said, one antique interface has escaped; PS/2. As the ROG series caters for overclockers, it makes perfect sense to keep the trusty interface that will never fail you in BIOS.
Enhanced Memory and GPU Detection
The M4E's BIOS offers a greater level of GPU and memory detection in order to find non operative equipment before running those all important benchmarks. Time saved, greater convenience.
ROG Connect Enhanced and iPhone iDirect Application
For those who are unaware, ROG Connect was introduced as a remote system tweaking (last mile overclocking) and diagnostics tool. The system leverages the USB interface to link your ROG powered machine to any other laptop/desktop. Consider it the vehicle engine remapping tool of the computing world.
ROG Connect on the new Maximus 4 now covers greater component integration; it has been updated to incorporate graphics card (Core, Memory, Shader) overclocking as well as GPU core voltage manipulation. The feature is expected to work with multiple vendors, however there is no guarantee that a custom design from another manufacturer will be compatible.
Further, Asus have finally brought iPhone/iPad compatibility for remote bluetooth overclocking - the application is known as iDirect. The application is expected to be very responsive and just as effective as the Android, Windows and Symbian equivalents.
Asus ROG Connect and RC Bluetooth/iDirect does not have worthy competition. While other remote overclocking tools exist, there are few that link with a dedicated processing unit such as iROG. The end result is that the end user can seemlessly overclock remotely without causing interruption to on going applications - that's right, CPU utilisation is 0% while changing overclock parameters. The only exception to this is the iDirect application which requires a small driver to pass operation calls; even so we witnessed processor utilisation peaking at a mere 1-2% during the action.
Revamped Sound & Network Capability
From a sound perspective, Asus are answering the needs of many of today's gamers. While previous Creative X-Fi adaptations have been incorporated in ROG boards, a headphone amplifier has been implemented. This is expected to greatly improve sound quality.
Here's the interesting part however. Asus are introducing a Network Processing Unit, which will improve packet and bandwidth control and also offload resources from the processor. It was said during the seminar that gamers could see significantly better ping times in a given game server when compared to another user with the same internet connection.
Most Recent Comments
NDA?
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Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
Turns out there was an NDA but we hadnt been told, no big deal but you will have to wait till the 15th. The seminar was pretty awesome though, Ive seen alllllllllllllllllllll then new toys |
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Originally Posted by SnW
I was on time to have read it Muhbahaha |
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Originally Posted by tinytomlogan
Im not allowed to mention anything, but those who read it can |
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Originally Posted by SnW
I was on time to have read it Muhbahaha |
HARUMPH.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN99jshaQbY
i saw some nice software screens and that's all i can say 
i should of done Prt Scr
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Originally Posted by SnW
K i gave a a quick read and with my memory i saw some nice software screens and that's all i can say i should of done Prt Scr |
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Originally Posted by SnW
K i gave a a quick read and with my memory i saw some nice software screens and that's all i can say i should of done Prt Scr |
you could of said
i think there was a word in it at some point but apart from that i dont know
or at least the M4E does
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Originally Posted by Mr. Strawberry
i also believe these boards have that new version of BIOS on them (cant remember what it is called) or at least the M4E does |
all P67's will feature it.
i knew it
The new BIOS thing is the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Should provide faster boots and pretty up the settings quite a bit. Will probably be initially shunned by purists as you can use a mouse and it means people will become less afraid of the BIOS and overclocking etc.
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Originally Posted by alexhull24
The new BIOS thing is the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Should provide faster boots and pretty up the settings quite a bit. Will probably be initially shunned by purists as you can use a mouse and it means people will become less afraid of the BIOS and overclocking etc. |
I remember when I was younger it was a big thing for parents to keep their children out of the bios
I can see this becoming a big thing again, In the end I imagine it will just come down to passwording it but still.
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Originally Posted by alexhull24
That explains why I read about this earlier and now can't find it anywhere! The new BIOS thing is the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Should provide faster boots and pretty up the settings quite a bit. Will probably be initially shunned by purists as you can use a mouse and it means people will become less afraid of the BIOS and overclocking etc. |
I was hoping for a date.
Even tho it was what I expected lol
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Originally Posted by Mr. Strawberry
well it looks like the board manufactures dont even know that |
Asus will let us talk about the mobos on the 15th.
lollooking forward to it
I really really like the new UEFI BIOS.
As to the maxiumus they have always appeared to be the ugly members of the ROG family and things dont appear to have changed on the plus side I'm pleased to see ceramic heatsinks, the negative being it looks like they've just slapped the ROG light up logo on it and called it a day. Yeah I know its just aesthetic but if I'm paying good money for a motherboard I'd at like it to look as good as this generations ROG motherboards. Though this being said next year should be very interesting, two new sets of Intel chips at either end of the year and AMD's new chips sometime next year aswell should be a very good (and expensive year) for us enthusiasts.
I didn't know the 1155 i7's would have the HD Graphics in them but looking on wiki's "List of future Intel microprocessors"
Core i7-2600S Quad Core, 2.8 GHz, 3.8 GHz Turbo, 8 MB, HD Graphics 100, GPU Frequency: 850-1100 MHz, 65 W, LGA 1155, Release Date Q1 2011.
Core i7-2600 Quad Core, 3.4 GHz, 3.8 GHz Turbo, 8 MB, HD Graphics 200, GPU Frequency: 850-1350 MHz, 95 W, LGA 1155, Release Date Q1 2011.
Core i7-2600K Quad Core, 3.4 GHz 3.8 GHz Turbo, 8 MB, HD Graphics 200, GPU Frequency: 850-1350 MHz, 95 W, LGA 1155, Release Date Q1 2011.
Full List of future Intel microprocessors
But yes I agree with wraithien that it looks like a expensive year.
and with the Core i7-990X coming up to. |
Originally Posted by yggdrasil
So with the 3 different color PCIE slots would suggest 3x 16x lanes...? Would that be 3 way GPU compatible...? |
With i3/5/7, 55/58, Intel are still only claiming somewhere around a quarter of their own socket sales to this generation. Meanwhile 775/1 still occupies around two thirds - which is massive in consideration.
(this would be total Intel shipments of their own sockets)
We had to consider, throughout the Intel wish for as all to lever away from the LGA 775, that mobos themselves, apart from chipsets, will be going through changes. Not only was their the hapless introduction of ddr3, which in tech terms goes against logic along with tri-core processing, but there was SATA3 and USB3 on the immediate horizon.
In fairness, the newer generation of the Intel offering, boast some decent tech in it's own right, and as a purchasable item where no existing items (775) were in attendance, apart from the total outlay of cash to consider, you have again a really good system.
But, in the same breathe, if you're nothing short of a professional workstation, there's not really a great point in abandoning your 3.8-4ghz 775 setup, with decent memory and atleast a single Pcie 2.0 x16 slot.
Progress ? Arguable. I can remember shooting the breeze in hard benchmarking terms with a fellow oc3der with his top of the range i7 setup and the extreme 775 I had, with crap memory I hasten to add which negates the extreme rating really. Sure the i7 could keep up and beat the 775 arrangement in many facets - but by really small comparitive amounts. Flip this to the pov of the gamer, and there's nothing in it.
Hyperthreading, multiple cores - again professionally they mean something, also with benchmarking. Other than that, if you're in posession of a really good 775 - no point.
So in Intel's defense, if I can call it that, they are left to squeeze existing socket users into adopting the new one. Eol on cpus and the promise of Pentium class replacements only is fairly scary. And yet to this day - a quarter share.
Many would have understandably skipped i3/5/7, and we have some new offerings. But how well do these compare, across the board with the legendary 775 ? I'm expecting the same comparisons. Workstation professionals - great. Gamers/internet'ers - no point unless you have to.
And of course, we'll rush out for the 67 chipset, feel nice and warm - and just like SATA3/USB3 - the breaker of the deal will be PCie 3.0.
New mobo ? Give me Pcie 3.0/full SATA3/full USB3/DDRx (QUAD channel). Perhaps next year.
Interesting.
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