ASUS Maximus VIII Gene Motherboard Review

The review crew at Hardware Canucks seemed rather impressed with the ASUS Maximus VIII Gene motherboard they just reviewed.

ASUS’ Maximus VIII Gene proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that good things can come in small packages. It boasts features normally found on much more expensive boards, allows for some impressive overclocking feats and incorporates several elements that make overclocking more approachable for novices and veterans alike. If there was a motherboard that proves ASUS’ design team in on their game, it is this one.

Definitely the board I'm trying to talk myself into replacing my Gene V with.

With their latest 1102 bios on the VIII Ranger they FINALLY fixed whatever the hell was going wrong with getting the rated speed out of the G.Skill Ripjaw V 3000 and 3200 kits.

My 32GB kit at 15-15-15-36 can now be made to work on XMP mode at rated speed with only a little fiddling, instead of it being totally impossible without massive adjustment and lowering the timings quite a bit.

This problem was prevalent on the entire Maximus line from what I could see, so now... it finally looks all good. Took a while though. Make sure you update the BIOS first thing on any Maximus VIII board.

i7-6700k @ 4.5GHz, 32GB 3200MHz RAM, 980 card overclocked to 1540. Everything on air. Stable as hell. I'm liking it.

The Gene shouldn't be much different.

EDIT- I just checked, the BIOS releases are identical numbers and timeframes. There's even a brand new beta 1202 for both boards. So hopefully they're both well sorted now.

I think my 4970K will have plenty of life left in it. Just got my setup done this past March, and it's running relatively nicely on my Gene VII. Love the Asus GENE motherboards (been using them since the GENE IV). Looking forward to the Gene IX, and upgrading to that platform at that time.

My Maximus VIII Gene was DOA, it was literally a brick. Still bummed I had to turn to an ATX board instead.

I would be afraid of buying that and ever having to RMA since ASUS RMA process is HORRIBLE

I wouldn't have chosen as ASUS board this time around, but it was the only way to get the processor for quite a while. The bundles Newegg was selling off and on during the big shortage only included the Ranger.

The board I would have gotten was the Gigabyte Z170-XP SLI. Nice standard feature set. Good overclocking. Good price.

Yes, I agree entirely about the ASUS RMA process. It's non-existent. Unless you call getting the runaround and never getting a working product back "service."