Published: August 8, 2014 | Source: ASUS | Author: Tom Logan

ASUS ROG Maximus VII Gene Review

Conclusion

Have you been aching for an ASUS Republic of Gamers Z97 motherboard but limited by space to an mATX, so you’ve spent weeks on the edge of your seat, desperately hoping that it is good enough to be worthy of purchase? If so, you’re already half way out of your chair so keep going and buy it. It wont disappoint.

Or perhaps you just prefer a smaller form factor for various reasons. If so, the Maximus VII Gene is the one for you too. It has all the features we’ve come to love from the Republic of Gamers brand, with the excellent looks that ASUS are known for, married to the black and red colour scheme and sold at a price that even Scrooge himself couldn’t complain about.

I think that’s everyone covered, let’s go and enjoy the sunny weather.

What?

Okay if you’re still sitting there then we’re not sure what more there is to tell you. The Maximus VII range of Z97 motherboards from ASUS have been outstanding, with everything from the bargaintastic Ranger to the range-topping Formula finding themselves sneaking away with an OC3D Gold Award. The Gene isn’t disgraced in such company at all. It perfectly encapsulates everything you could expect of it. If someone said to you that this is a ROG motherboard, but on a mATX package, you’d expect it to look good, be affordable, and have plenty of performance hiding away in that small PCB.

And that’s exactly what you get. It’s a shrunk Maximus VII, but without losing anything that makes them the weapon of choice when it comes to Z97 offerings. Given that it meets every expectation, even the most rock-hiding reader will know what they are getting, so let’s just give you one of the things that we really liked. Because of the small PCB there is always a ‘space at a premium’ problem the designers need to circumvent and yet the need to provide excellent audio without compromise requires plenty of space to fit everything on. The logical, and yet ingenious, solution to this is to mount the sound elements vertically on a break-out board. That’s just one of the ways that the Maximus VII Gene is fully deserving of the Republic of Gamers branding, and also of our OC3D Gold Award.

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