With the Maximus XI Gene/Apex not appearing in the US, are there warranty issues with importing one?

DoubleTap

DoubleTap

2[H]4U
Joined
Dec 16, 2010
Messages
2,990
From what I can tell, Asus has inexplicably decided not to sell two of their more interesting boards in the US.

I can get one of them from an Amazon 3rd party seller for a (semi) reasonable price, but I'm wondering - if I have issues, will Asus support the board?
 
I would expect no warranty support from the manufacturer. Supposedly the reason they're not selling it in the US in the first place is that they don't have the infrastructure in place to accommodate warranty claims for this board here.
 
I saw on Reddit that they did officially make it available in the US (hard to confirm):

I've found one vendor that is selling it for about $338 on both ebay and Amazon. For some reason, the delivery time on Amazon is about 2-3 weeks.

As much as I like this board, the price and lead time has me looking pretty hard at the Asrock Z390 ITX/ac Phantom
 
DoubleTap said:
I saw on Reddit that they did officially make it available in the US (hard to confirm):

I've found one vendor that is selling it for about $338 on both ebay and Amazon. For some reason, the delivery time on Amazon is about 2-3 weeks.

As much as I like this board, the price and lead time has me looking pretty hard at the Asrock Z390 ITX/ac Phantom
Click to expand...
I talked to their support a few weeks ago, they suggested buying overseas. Person here is probably importing them himself.
 
DoubleTap said:
I saw on Reddit that they did officially make it available in the US (hard to confirm):

I've found one vendor that is selling it for about $338 on both ebay and Amazon. For some reason, the delivery time on Amazon is about 2-3 weeks.

As much as I like this board, the price and lead time has me looking pretty hard at the Asrock Z390 ITX/ac Phantom
Click to expand...
Look at the dates. The thread was made in November last year and the post linked was made in January.

The reseller you mention is probably importing them as noted above, they are just probably either getting a better deal than everyone else or undercutting for a smaller profit on each board in hopes of making more sales.
 
Armenius said:
Look at the dates. The thread was made in November last year and the post linked was made in January.

The reseller you mention is probably importing them as noted above, they are just probably either getting a better deal than everyone else or undercutting for a smaller profit on each board in hopes of making more sales.
Click to expand...

Well, the board is on their US page:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-XI-GENE/

I've been debating back and forth for the last week - I already have an 8700K and I'm giving my dad my 7700k/ROG IX Apex

However, this 8700K is really just a stop gap and a future upgrade for my second boy next year so in the final analysis:

1. It's too much board for a temporary (9 months max) system
2. It's too much board for the "tick" 8700K CPU when it would be more appropriate for the 9900K "tock"

I pulled the trigger on the Asrock Z390 ITX/ac Phantom for $130 less and it will fit in my kids system (they all run ITX).

I feel like I need some kind of six sigma training to navigate the family upgrade strategy...
 
Nasgul said:
I don't see why You'd want the Apex, seems like it's for overclocking with LN2 and offers no features which you wouldn't find in the HERO.
Gene? Nevermind that one.

I'm getting the Z390 HERO soon......when I return this horrible GIGABYTE PRO WIFI Z390, which the BIOS suck!!
Click to expand...
Can hit higher OC with same settings and will run cooler otherwise due to optimized traces and such. Depends on your usage really.
 
Nasgul said:
I don't see why You'd want the Apex, seems like it's for overclocking with LN2 and offers no features which you wouldn't find in the HERO.
Gene? Nevermind that one.

I'm getting the Z390 HERO soon......when I return this horrible GIGABYTE PRO WIFI Z390, which the BIOS suck!!
Click to expand...

It has better VRMs than the Formula and Hero boards. It has potentially more overclocking headroom for both CPUs and RAM.
 
Nasgul said:
Still, I wouldn't get a motherboard geared for those that overclock to speeds not able to be achieved with a Loop or AIO or a simple HSF.
Like buying a Formula 1 car just so you can drive from home to work and work to home.
And also, I don't see ASUS using "better" but "more" VRM than the other two models. Better than GIGABYTE and MSI, yes.
The HERO is prettier too.
Click to expand...

If you don't see the differences in the VRM's, you have done absolutely zero research on the topic and haven't actually looked at the motherboards. I've actually got all three in my office. The Maximus XI APEX board does have better VRM's than the Hero and the Formula do. The power stages on the APEX are IR3555's rated at 60A which are more capable than the SiC639's rated at 50A on the Hero, Formula and Code. The IR3555's have greater power output, more efficiency and additional features that you do not find on the SiC639. You also have eight phases compared to four phases comparing the APEX to the Hero, Code and Formula. The advantage of the APEX is overall greater power delivery and better output ripple. The only advantages to the Hero, Code and Formula design is cost savings and improved transient response.

The VRM on the APEX is flat out more capable of doing what needs to be done on the overclocking front for both the CPU and RAM. That said, aside from memory clocking you can probably achieve everything you want on the Formula, Hero or Code that you can on the APEX. I certainly haven't seen better overclocks on the APEX over the others. The APEX is designed for LN2 overclocking primarily. It does have features for water cooling and all that, but so do the others. The one area where the APEX shines over the others that you will really see is in regards to the memory clocks. The APEX is designed to clock RAM higher. If that's important to you, then the APEX is the way to go.

Think of it this way: It's like towing the maximum limit of a 1/2 ton truck. Technically, its within the design limits of the vehicle but the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks will do the same job with much greater ease. They are more capable, even if you won't necessarily always use that capability.

One last thing, the Hero isn't the pretty one. It and the APEX are actually very similar looking. It's the Formula that's the pretty one.
 
Methadras said:
I don't see NVMe support on these boards. Am I seeing it wrong?
Click to expand...

yes

Socket 1151 for 9th / 8th Gen Intel® Core™, Pentium® Gold and Celeron® processors :
2 x ROG DIMM.2 Module support(CPU_DIMM.2), with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)
Intel® Z390 Chipset :
2 x M.2 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280 storage devices support (x4 PCIE mode)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top