Question 1

Does the motherboard need to be water cooled?

Accepted Answer

This board doesn't "need" water cooling.  Water cooling is always a nice means of rejecting heat because it is so much more effective due to its high thermal capacity compared to that of air, however, that is personal preference and not mandatory.  I use a water-cooled setup with this board, but only on the processor.  I use water cooling because it is efficient and the big 120mm fans on the external cooler are very quiet.  However, not needed at all.

Question 2

Can I put an AMD processor in this motherboard?

Accepted Answer

No AMD processor will fit in this motherboard.
The socket on this board is a LGA 1151 which means any of Intel's 6th Gen skylake CPUs will fit it.
But no AMD CPU.

Question 3

Are the lights on the board RGB?

Accepted Answer

Yea the lights are RGB, but they suck at white pretty bad. and there are only 2 modes, aside from the light effects, strobe, breathing, etc.... On all the time even when the system is shut down. You have to manually turn them off in the Aura software before shutting down the system, then turn them back on, on system boot. Or have them off all the time and manually turn them on each time you want them on.  Maybe it can be fixed in an update, but right now thats how things are.

Question 4

Why does this one only have one rgb aura header while the cheaper hero viii alpha has two rgb headers? I'm deciding between both but not sure if two headers is necessary.

Accepted Answer

The 2 rgb headers aren't necessary. Most rgb strips are connectable so you can just extend the strip that you plug in the header. I have my case lined with some on the inside and only use the one header anyway to connect them to the mobo. I mean 2 wouldn't be bad but I do just fine with the one and rgb led strip I have does a good job of matching the colors to the mobo rgb light. (Some light discoloration, can't match them perfectly but not really noticeable) plus the one rgb header gives more room for more fan headers which is more important to me. Either board would be nice just go with the one that's more in your budget range. i personally preferred the rgb headers on the mobo with the armor but either board will do more than you need. And you don't necessarily need the rgb lit mobo, you can just get rgb strips to light up your case. It's more about personal preference with these 2 boards. Look at the other features that each mobo offers and see what suits your needs more.

Question 5

Is this motherboard compatible with Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB 3200MHz CMD32GX4M4B3200C16? Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

Accepted Answer

I can personally confirm this. I have G.Skill TridentZ and it is perfectly compatible so I see no reason that Corsair Dominator wouldn't. Hope this helps!

Question 6

I am planning on using SAMSUNG 950 PRO M.2 2280 512GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive and the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 DirectX 12 GTX 1080 SEA HAWK EK. can anyone tell me if the M.2 drive will cause the vid card to NOT run at full 16x?

Accepted Answer

You can. Skylake has 20 pcie lanes to work with. 16 from your gfx card 4 from your ssd. Just remember to set it properly so it doesn't go through the DMI and you don't get the full performance of the ssd

Question 7

I must admit, I am not that smart when it comes to these things, hence me asking, 
but is the Asus ROG Maximus VIII Formula compatible with the i5-6600K and i7-6700K?

Accepted Answer

Yes it is compatible. In fact I currently have the i7-6700k installed in mine. The i5-6600k is also compatible. One of the first things you will want to do when choosing your processor is making sure it is the correct socket type. Consult the motherboards specs to find which socket type is compatible.

Question 8

When updating the BIOS, do I need to update using each iteration of the BIOS or can I just grab the latest one?

Accepted Answer

Please dont take my word for it but I am pretty sure the updates take into account older versions. If you are really worried about it I would call ASUS support. Also the software AI Suite should handle this for you instead of you manually doing it.

Question 9

How thick is the board + armor at the top right near the memory slots?

Accepted Answer

From the bottom of the board, ignoring any stand-offs, to the top of the RAM locks is 1.24 inches (28 mm).
From bottom to frame around main power plug (the highest place along the RAM slots) is 7/8 th inch (20 mm)

Just ordered the last parts (HHD & RAM) to get it running by Wednesday night

Question 10

Can a closed loop/factory sealed liquid cooling like the Corsair Hydro Series H115i work with the CrossChill EK as long as you have a EK-ACF Fitting 10/13mm?  Or does the cooling have be set up in a traditional or custom liquid cooling?  (I am new at this,  friends helping me with my first build)

Accepted Answer

I was using the Corsair GTX 100i for about a year with this MB, and left the built in EK block on the VRM's with the rubber plugs installed. This worked well as a passive heatsink. I recently completed my custom loop, and have distilled water running through the EK block. I don't believe that you can add components into the loop of the Corsair AIO coolers. There are probably been bidders out there that have done so, but I personally would not attempt it.

CPU Socket Type	LGA 1151
CPU Type	Celeron / Core i3 / Core i5 / Core i7 / Intel Core 6th Gen (LGA 1151) / Intel Core 7th Gen (LGA 1151) / Pentium
Supported CPU Technologies	Turbo Boost Technology 2.0

Number of Memory Slots	4x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 3733(O.C.)/ 3600/ 3500/ 3466/ 3400/ 3300/ 3200/ 3000/ 2800/ 2666/ 2400/ 2133
Maximum Memory Supported	64GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8, gray) 1 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black)
PCI Express x1	3 x PCIe 2.0 x1 (black)
Other Slots	3 x PCI Express 2.0 x1

Serial ATA (SATA)	6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), by Intel Z170 chipset 2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), black, by ASMedia ASM1061 controller 3 3: These SATA ports are for data hard drives only. ATAPI devices are not supported.
SATA Express	2 x SATA Express port
M.2	1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode) 1 1: The The M.2 slot shares bandwidth with U.2 slot and SATA Express 1 slot.
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	ROG SupremeFX 2015
Audio Channels	8 Channels

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

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Warranty, Returns, And Additional Information

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Manufacturer Contact Info

LAN Chipset	Intel I219-V
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps
Wireless LAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Supports dual band frequency 2.4/5 GHz Supports MU-MIMO
Bluetooth	Bluetooth V4.1

PS/2	1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse port
HDMI	1 x HDMI
RJ45	1 x RJ45
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort
USB 3.1	1 x USB 3.1 (red) Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 (black) Type-C
USB 3.0	8 x USB 3.0 (blue)
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	5 Ports
Antenna Connectors	2 x Wi-Fi antenna port(s)

Onboard USB	2 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 3.0 port(s) 2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)
Other Connectors	1 x U.2 port 1 x Aura RGB Strip Headers 1 x CPU Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 4 x Chassis Fan connector(s) (4-pin) 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s) 1 x Front panel connector(s) 1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP) 1 x MemOK! button(s) 3 x Thermal sensor connector(s) 1 x Power-on button(s) 1 x Reset button(s) 1 x Water Pump header (4-pin) 1 x LN2 Mode jumper(s) 1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header(s) 1 x System panel connector

Physical Spec
Form Factor	ATX
Dimensions (W x L)	12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin	24 Pin

Item#: N82E16813132265