Question 1

Hi!
Does the ASUS Maximus IX Formula come with everything needed for the water cooling, or do I need to buy anything additional?  If so, any recommendations?

I don't really plan on gaming (well, maybe occasional), but it will be a heavy-duty development system with various VMs running.  I will have two M.2 1TB drives, 32GB RAM, a 4TB hard drive, and probably put in a high-end video board.

What do I need for cooling the CPU i7-7700K?

Accepted Answer

Hi Craig. To answer your question, no. The motherboard does not come with anything you would need to watercool your CPU. What it does have is a built in water block for liquid cooling the MOSFIT on  the board. However, it does not include any of the necessary watercooling equipment you would need.

You would need a complete watercooling loop if you wish to cool your CPU.

If that is your goal, and you want the easiest means of accomplishing this, I would suggest buying an AIO (ALL-IN-ONE) CPU water cooler. These are extremely easy to install and provide great cooling. I would recommend Corsair brand kits for this. They are very reliable.

The downside to this would be that it isn't expandable. So that pretty new MOSFIT waterblock on this motherboard would go to waste.

If you are looking at possibly watercooling your GPU as well, I would recommend looking into the EK Predator AIO kit. It is expandable with quick disconnects and provides great cooling. That is what I have. No regrets. EK is also the biggest name in the watercooling game and they have phenomenal customer support.

Best of luck!

Question 2

I have two asus gtx 1080 ti. Do you thinks it will fit in sli?

Accepted Answer

Yes it will. The asus 1080ti has a 2 ,1/2 bay spacing for the card and it is 3 bay spacing on the board so you will have about a half slot spacing between cards. Only issue might be air flow restriction for the card

Question 3

Will this motherboard work with the NZXT Kraken? I have seen that the pump can block one of the ram slots slightly

Accepted Answer

Yes and Yes.  I have a Kraken X62 on mine and it does slightly block the ram slot closest to it.  If you use only 2 sticks it won't be an issue since the recommended slots for 2 sticks does not include this slot.  I use 2 sticks of G.Skill Trident Z ram and i don't think i could fit 4 sticks in due to that one slot being partially blocked and the height of the ram.  However i used to use 4 sticks of Corsair Vengeance LPX and it was lower, so 4 sticks could fit (tightly) without touching the cooler.  You could also rotate the cooler on the CPU so that the lines to the radiator don't block the ram but that might create other interferences with the power connections to the cooler and depends on the case and where you're putting the radiator.  Great cooler and motherboard, happy with both.

Question 4

I will fit two asus strix gtx 1080 ti in sli ?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Easily. There is plenty of room.

Question 5

Does this board support booting the OS from an M.2 nvme PCI 3.0 x4 ssd....say the Samsung 960 EVO or PRO for example?

Accepted Answer

Yes it does, in fact I have that very setup.  Maximus IX Formula with Samsung EVO 960 at x4

Question 6

So why should I consider this board  over the 299.99 alternative -- which comes with ac wifi built in. Does this one have it aswell if so its not posted in the specifications. please explain?

Accepted Answer

Yes it has 802.11ac Wi-Fi on board. I highly recommend you go to ASUS web site.
It has all the specs and features of this board, should answer most if not all of your questions.I would have linked it but its not allowed. I bought this board for its atheistics as well as its performance and water-cooling features

Question 7

Running into Error code 55 (No memory Installed) for this beastie. Has anyone found a solution for this yet?
ROG Maximus IX Formula LGA1151
EVGA SuperNova 1600w 80+ Titanium PSU
ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 TURBO 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
G.SKILL TridentZ Series 32GB 288-Pin DDR4 3466 (PC4 27700) Intel Z170 F4-3466C16D-32GTZ 
Corsair H100i v2 Hydro Series CPU cooler

Accepted Answer

Use XMP,
disable All Core Enhancement,
Sync all Cores in CPU Core Ratio,
and in DRAM Timing Controls, set Tweak Mode to Maximus Tweak Mode 2.
These are the settings that solved this issue for me.

Maximus Tweak Mode 2 helps with overclocked RAM. Extreme performance RAM doesn't seem to like the default XMP settings on this board. This should give you proper stability.

Question 8

Board powers on but does not Post.  The Q-code says 00 anybody else have this issue and how did you resolve it?  Any idea or help would be greatly appricated.

Accepted Answer

I have not had this problem but would check to see it you have a wire next to pressing any of the 4 on board switches or resting against anything else that might cause this problem, especially the start switch/button and make sure your LN2 mode jumper is where you want it to be.  Disable is the default.  Also recheck the seating of the ram, compatibility and if there is a pairing issue with the slots used or if your trying to mix DDR4 with DDR3 and so on.  You might want to unplug all the accessories like audio and USB connections, hard drives and CD ROM until you can isolate the problem, but make sure your CPU fan is still connected to the right terminal so you don't burn it up. Sorry I'm not more help than that.

Question 9

so what is the biggest difference between formula and code besides the name and price?

Accepted Answer

RGB lighting on the PCI slots and heat sink/ water cooling ports near the top of the processor and io ports. The colors on the board are a little different also. If you are looking for more functionality differences there isn't really any besides what I mentioned.

Question 10

I have 4 3 pin radiator fans. can I fit all of them?

Accepted Answer

They should work, just make sure you're placing closest to the tab that hooks it to the motherboard.

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 * Not Compatible with Intel 8th Gen CPUs

Number of Memory Slots	4x288pin (DDR4)
Memory Standard	DDR4 4133(O.C.)/ 4000(O.C.)/ 3866(O.C.)/ 3733(O.C.)/ 3600(O.C.)/ 3466(O.C.)/ 3400(O.C.)/ 3333(O.C.)/ 3300(O.C.)/ 3200(O.C.)/ 3000(O.C.)/ 2800(O.C.)/ 2666(O.C.)/ 2400(O.C.)/ 2133
Maximum Memory Supported	64GB
Channel Supported	Dual Channel

PCI Express 3.0 x16	2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16, x8/x8) 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (max. at x4 mode)* *The PCIe x4_3 slot shares bandwidth with PCIex1_3. The PCIe x4_3 is default set at x2 mode.
PCI Express x1	3 x PCIe 3.0 x1 slots

Serial ATA (SATA)	6 x SATA 6Gb/s
M.2	1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110(PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA modes_M.2_1)* 1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280(supports PCIe 3.0 x4 mode_M.2_2)** * When the M.2_1 Socket 3 is operating in SATA mode, SATA port 1 will be disabled. **When the M.2_2 Socket 3 is operatin in PCIe 3.0 x4 mode, SATA ports 5 and 6 will be disabled.
SATA RAID	0/1/5/10

Audio Chipset	ROG SupremeFX S1220
Audio Channels	8 Channels

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ASUS ROG Maximus IX Formula LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 Z270 ATX Motherboard

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LAN Chipset	Intel I219-V
Max LAN Speed	1Gbps
Wireless LAN	Wi-Fi with MU-MIMO 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac supports dual frequency band 2.4/5 GHz Up to 867Mbps transfer speed
Bluetooth	Bluetooth v4.1

Back I/O Ports	1 x DisplayPort / 1 x HDMI / 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out / 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 / 4 x USB 3.0
HDMI	1 x HDMI 1.4b
RJ45	1 x Anti-surge LAN (RJ45) port
DisplayPort	1 x DisplayPort 1.2
USB 3.1	2 x USB 3.1 ports (1 x Type-A [red] and 1 x Type-C [black])
USB 3.0	4 x USB 3.0 ports [blue]
USB 1.1/2.0	4 x USB 2.0 ports [black]
S/PDIF Out	1 x Optical
Audio Ports	5 x Gold-plated audio jacks

Onboard USB	1 x USB 3.1 front panel connector 1 x USB 3.0 header supports additional 2 USB 3.0 ports 1 x USB 2.0 header supports additional 2 USB 2.0 ports [ via ROG_EXT header]
Other Connectors	1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header 1 x 4-Pin CPU fan connector 1 x 4-Pin CPU_OPT fan connector 3 x 4-Pin Chassis fan connectors 1 x EXT_Fan header 1 x 4-Pin W_PUMP+ connector 1 x W_IN header 1 x W_OUT header 1 x W_FLOW header 1 x 4-Pin AIO_PUMP connector 1 x H_AMP fan connector 1 x Thermal sensor connector 1 x 24-pin EATX power connector 1 x 8-pin EATX 12V power connector 1 x Start button 1 x Reset button 1 x Safe Boot button 1 x Retry button 1 x LN2 mode jumper 1 x Slow mode switch 1 x MemOK! Button 1 x Front panel audio connector (AAFP) 1 x TPM connector 1 x System panel connector

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

Item#: 9SIC4RPKRD4198