- Intel Z97
- Core i7 / i5 / i3 / Pentium / Celeron (LGA1150)
- DDR3 3300(O.C.) / 3200 (O.C.) / 3100(O.C.) / 3000(O.C.) / 2933(O.C.) / 2800(O.C.) / 2666(O.C.) / 2600(O.C.) / 2500(O.C.) / 2400(O.C.)/2200(O.C.) / 2133(O.C.) / 2000(O.C.) / 1866(O.C.) / 1800(O.C.) / 1600 / 1333
First look at a standout board
04/22/2015
This review is from: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VII IMPACT LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Gaming Motherboard
Pros:
ITX-small. Sturdy. Good VRMs. Includes wireless, and it's fast. Antenna has a magnetic base, so will stay in place if you sit it on top of your case.
Sonic Radar: if you're deaf in one ear like I am, you may finally find out where sounds are coming from!
Lots of BIOS options for tweakers. Added features like a keyboard macro utility, Daemon Tools, and tweaking software.
THREE 4-pin chassis fan headers (two on a riser card) !
Four SATA 6Gb/s ports: room for one SSD, one optical, and a RAID1 data pair.
Q-connector now has leads on it, not just pins.
Cons:
Only one USB2.0 header; had to give up my card reader.
VRMs and/or RAM block finger access to one of the four HSF holes on larger coolers; if the cooler blocks RAM insertion (even if it clears mounted RAM), you can't use that cooler because of this "deadly embrace."
Some of the add-ons are bloat, like the Home Cloud stuff.
If you install a M2 SSD, your PCIe slot drops to X8.
I don't think these cons are worth dropping an egg; one should expect a few limitations in this form factor, and there's no requirement to install the bloat.
Overall Review:
I bought this board because a) I prefer smaller systems, and have never used more than one graphics card, b) I wanted to try Sonic Radar as I otherwise do not enjoy FPS titles.
This is only a first look (a few days after building), but so far I am pleased with this board and have no regrets about buying it. I couldn't mount my 120mm Gaia, but should have no trouble with an 80mm or even 92mm tower; my overclocks are mild.
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- Joseph T.
-
Verified Owner
-
Owned For:
1 day to 1 week
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