ASUS Maximus III Extreme - P55 for $349
by Rajinder Gill on April 26, 2010 1:32 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
In terms of layout this board is just a ‘souped-up’ Maximus III Formula. Careful inspection of both boards suggest that ASUS have not made any real adjustments other than to add a beefier VRM for the CPU and the addition of SATA 6G, USB 3 and the NF200 bridge chip. The positives are that the M3E should hit the floor running because it’ll use the same basic BIOS backbone of the M3F.
Some might be disappointed to find that the cooling assembly is a single unit – connecting the CPU VRM, NF200 bridge chip and the P55 PCH together with a heatpipe. We found that temps for all three areas are well controlled unless you ramp PWM switching frequency into the 800KHz~1Mz region. In such instances, the assembly does get hot although we did not have any problems with stability as a result. You can use a small latch-on fan to cool the assembly by a few degrees if need be.
The good news is that ASUS have used screw fittings rather than push-pins to attach the heatsink to the board. Although this is a step in the right direction, we’d liked to have seen the use of back plates behind the PWM FET’s to provide a little more rigidity and prevent the central FETs from pulling away when the board bows under pressure from some after-market coolers.
Slot spacing is geared for multi-GPU setups, with lane allocation divided to allow for quad SLI or CrossFire. A couple of Molex connectors are placed on the board to bolster PCIe voltage when all slots are loaded with high performance GPUs that are heavily overclocked.
A single PCI slot is available for older devices, and remains accessible in most configurations should you need to use it.
Nine SATA ports are placed in the lower right hand corner of the board, eight are right angled with one placed head on for easy access.
Two BIOS chips are utilized allowing users to flash different BIOS versions for comparison purposes and as a failsafe. Switching between both is done either via BIOS, ROG Connect or by using the red push-button at the lower right corner of the board (LEDs indicate which BIOS is in use).
The DIMM slot area is surrounded by voltage measurement pads, ASUS’s GO button (to load saved profiles or to recover the board to safe mode and help it to post) and also an LN2 cooling mode jumper to help the board POST when processors are cooled with liquid nitrogen. We did try the LN2 jumper with our Clarkdale processors to see if they help the board to POST below -110 and found that it was not much help at all. Like other boards out there, we had to mod the 750 ohm PEGR BIAS compensation resistor to a lower value to alleviate cold-boot lock ups at low temperatures.
The onboard measurement points could do with being moved to a location where access is not hampered by cabling. Their current location is not ideal because the ATX 12V cable blocks access somewhat.
The rear panel I/O set is made up of 1 x PS2, 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 6 x USB ports, 1 x 1394, 1 x Optical S/PDIF, 1 x CMOS clear switch, 1 x ROG Connect switch, 1 x ROG USB port, 1 x RJ45 and six audio I/O connectors.
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duploxxx - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
nice looking, nice features expensive board and really expensive knowing that the platform is dead early next year.what a waste
miburns100 - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
Nice board, but way too expensive.jriofrio - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
Too expencive compare with alternatives...Micki57 - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
Super Nice of you to give this system to some lucky reader!Affectionate-Bed-980 - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
You're promising a new X58 roundup - Yes quite honestly your first X58 roundup was a joke. It was really like a 4 mobo roundup of the motherboards that were available at launch. Tom's Hardware had like 4 roundups or something to cover the budget end and the enthusiast end.You also promised an in depth i7 overclocking guide. Really, there was nothing. The most you ever mentioned about overclocking was in those investigations into high vDIMM or whatever. And it's obvious most of those articles were really more like lab testing notes geared for those with systems ready to OC.... not the general reader.
Also there was never a DDR3 roundup as you promised.
So yes, let's hope you deliver on this one. I know there's been a gradual shift in the change where Anand likes smartphones and stuff, and don't we all, but there have been cell phone geeks from the beginning, and that's why there are places like Mobile Review, Howard Forums, GSM Arena, Phone Arena, etc. Let's stick to our core and get the cpu+motherboard+video card reviews down yeah?
Rajinder Gill - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
Hi,It'll be pleasing for you to know that this X58 'round-up' is only going to be the refresh boards only. It's four boards.
later
Raja
gasgas - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
If you’re in such a dire need of an i7 over clocking guide, you really should not be near a PC. It’s the easiest platform to overclock ever.Anandtech’s coverage of H55/H57 was unsurpassed in honesty. The very fact you mention Tom’s here shows the line is very fuzzy for you.
Granted, things were promised in the past that did not get posted, but it looks like everything that’s been promised over the past 6 months has arrived. Maybe you should stick to cruising Tom’s instead of trolling here.
Taft12 - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
You're awfully quick to rush to AT's defense and ignore every issue the original poster said. How does "H55/H57 was unsurpassed in honesty" refute any of his points?? Almost every AT article refers to an upcoming roundup that never appears. The quality of Toms articles are not as high as AT, but give them credit for much wider coverage of available parts than AT provides.Rajinder Gill - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
Hi,Fully respect what you guys are saying. We've been trying hard to stick with the articles we've promised this year and so far everything we've said was coming has been delivered. I shall re-iterate, don't expect anything huge on the X58 - there are four new boards we'll be comparing (they're high-end).
later
Raja
thorgal73 - Monday, April 26, 2010 - link
In support of Raja, I don't think any of you realise how much time goes into the review of one motherboard (they're generally the worst in my experience, followed by ram reviews), let alone four or more.As a reviewer, it's sometimes hard not to fall for the abundance of products different manufacturers offer you, which in the end gets you frustrated because of lack of time and lack of progress, further leading to long waiting times for the readers or even outdated products before you even get to publish the product review. In my opinion it is a virtue to stick to the stuff you can manage within a reasonable deadline.