Maximus IV Extreme-Z Unboxing The Next Revolution in Performance Continued...
The ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-z incorporates an impressive 4 PCI express lanes the first two are connected via the Intel sandy bridge CPU's internal PCI express lanes with a maximum of 16x bandwith for a single Graphics card in lane one or two. For two graphics cards with lanes one and two occupied the maximum bandwidth is 8x per graphics card. when lanes one two and four are occupied by NVIDIA graphics cards the on board NVIDIA NF200 chip is activated and allows use of 3-Way SLi and full 16x bandwidth per card.
Asus has taken it one step further with the Maximus IV Extreme-z cooling solution, the heatsink is remarkable blend of performance and aesthetics. The use of a uni-
heatpipe and layered sweeping fins provides excellent cooling for the Voltage regulators and NF200 SLi chip even under extreme overclocking conditions.
The Overclocking area of the motherboard has many features some of them we have seen before like the handy Start and reset buttons. Other features found include the Probe it connectors for measuring direct voltage of the DRAM,
VCC SA I/O, NF200, PCH
PLL, PCH, IGPU, CPU PLL, and CPU voltage via a multimeter. The smaller red "GO" button below the Probe it connectors allows the user to boot with a predefigned "GO" BIOS profile at the push of a button. For extreme users the LN2 mode switch allows the CPU to be operated at below freezing temperatures for use with Phase change, Dry Ice, Liquid Nitrogen, and those who live in Antarctica. The four PCIe On/Off switches are used to disable PCI express lanes when troubleshooting a problem with multiple graphics cards or to disable unused slots.
Located on the upper right is the Debug LCD, the LCD is very useful for viewing
POST codes when the system is failing to boot and helping to diagnose the issue.
The Above picture shows us the eight internal SATA ports, the four grey ports are 3Gb/s, the remaining four red sata ports are full 6Gb/s bandwidth. These Ports allow for Intels new SSD Cache technology enabling a user to combine the massive storage capacity of a mechanical hard disk drive with the high performance low latency Solid State Drive. SSD Cache works by intelligently storing frequently used data on the SSD for ready access while using the traditional hard disk drive to store the less used majority of data. Performance is far greater than a single hard disk drive but less than that of a single SSD.
Positioned on the left bottom of the motherboard is a 4 pin molex power connector used to supply additional 12 volt power to the PCI express lanes for maximum graphics stability and performance. Just to the right is the AAFP "Advanced Audio Front Panel" connector for the Microphone and Headphone ports located on the front of most computer cases. Slightly above the AAFP is the S/PDIF "
Sony Philips Digital Interface" Most commonly used to connect older generation graphics cards for DVI to HDMI audio support. The next two 4 pin connectors along the bottom of the board are used for 4 pin
PWM and 3 pin non PWM fans. There are four USB internal headers these 4 headers enable support for an additional 8 USB 2.0 ports on the front and rear of the chassis. The two identical 8 pin chips at the base of the board are the #1 and #2 BIOS, in the event of BIOS corruption or a failed BIOS flashing attempt, functionality can easily be restored. The red BIOS switch button in the lower right corner can be used to switch to the secondary backup BIOS. I find the dual BIOS feature very useful when overclocking or testing a BIOS update. Next to the BIOS Switch is the Front Panel header for connecting the lights and buttons from the front of the case to the motherboard. Here is where you will find the Front Panel Quick Connector handy.
With the Cooling assembly removed we can clearly see the 8 phase Power for the CPU. Processor Power design consists of Japaneses Solid capacitors, R68
Chokes that act as electronic filters,
Drivers and Digital
VRM's "Voltage Regulator Module". Above the LGA 1155 CPU Socket is an additional 4
power phases for the iGPU "Intel integrated GPU"
Below the PCI express slots is the open die "
flip chip" NVIDIA NF200 chip for 3-Way SLi support and full bi-16x graphics bandwidth. the other flip chip exposed by removing the heatsink is the Intel south bridge. The south bridge consists of the Z86 Chipset with SATA 6Gp/s SSD Caching technology also known as "Rapid Storage Technology 10", newly integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller, Internal audio
codec for HDMI and DP audio. The Z68 chipset allows for the use of the Intel internal HD graphics found in sandybridge CPU's alongside the use of discrete add in graphics by vendors such as AMD and NVIDIA.
In conclusion the Maximus IV Extreme-z has won my stamp of approval and is a suitable upgrade for any gamer, enthusiast, or overclocker.
ASUS MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z RESOURCES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z : UNBOXINGMAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z : SYSTEM BUILDING
MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z : OVERCLOCKING
MAXIMUS IV EXTREME-Z : EXTREME OVERCLOKING_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________