ASUS Maximus II Formula @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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ASUS Maximus II Formula - In their typical fashion, ASUS’s latest Republic of Gamers branded release looks to dominate the P45 market. The Maximus II Formula board performs as well as it looks, and seems to be shaping up to give the other Intel boards a run for their money. Did we mention it is themed in blood red and black?

The ASUS Maximus II Formula is solid, stable, uber-tweakable, and delivers overclocking abilities that will more than stretch the limits of most CPUs while still taking advantage of that DDR2 you invested in so long ago. The M2F showed to stay up with the latest and the greatest in the benchmarks and have more features than you could probably ever utilize. And for those of you that care, this ASUS M2F just looks incredible with a great color scheme, stylish start and reset buttons, and just a great overall finish. And that is not something we say about motherboards too often.
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Nice review. Thinking about getting one of these to go with a 4870x2 and a Q6600.
 
Good review-

I'm impressed by the BIOS configuration/flexibility, not to mention the fact that there are two of them...

I like ASUS boards, and this one is mighty nice...
 
is the x-fi functionality like the software implementation on the xtreme audio, or is it hardware? I didn't notice at a glance
 
so what was the key factor for this board to warrent it a silver instead of a gold? seems like a really good mobo. was it the non barn burner 500mhz+ capability? or the DVD/CD IDE drive would only run at UDMA 2 speeds?

My friend is building a rig with the launch of 4870X2, what would you suggest he gets? the Asus Rampage Formula or this Asus Maximus 2 Formula? he wont be doing heavy OC
 
Ryle said:
so what was the key factor for this board to warrent it a silver instead of a gold? seems like a really good mobo. was it the non barn burner 500mhz+ capability? or the DVD/CD IDE drive would only run at UDMA 2 speeds?

My friend is building a rig with the launch of 4870X2, what would you suggest he gets? the Asus Rampage Formula or this Asus Maximus 2 Formula? he wont be doing heavy OC
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no overclocking? get a more main stream board like the P5Q Deluxe
 
I have this board and i love it everything about the overclocking is really easy. Setting up the RAID0 on it couldnt be easier either. Really awesome board if you plan on overclocking i say buy the board.
 
I'm also curious to know what make it get a silver award instead of a gold one. I own a Maximus Formula (X38 version) and the features, stability and overclocking is great to warrant a gold rating IMHO.

 
EnderW said:
no overclocking? get a more main stream board like the P5Q Deluxe
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sorry i should of made myself more clear, i ment no heavy OC, as in water/LN2 stuff.. he will still be OCn on air. money isnt a issue.
 
Just ordered an ASUS Maximus II last night when all I was going to do was get a NB, SB, mosfet and VGA cooler so I can overclock an E8500 on my ancient 965 DS3 and be happy with it for @8 months before a complete build. Then I started thinking...'hhhhmmm, all these coolers almost add up to the cost of a better mobo........' and it was all down hill from there that ended up with me reasoning to myself why it was acceptable to spend $269 on the mobo...you see, it has all the heatsinks I would have ordered for my DS3, which would have totalled $100+ and for just double that plus $70 more dollars, I was able to save my money and get a better board that was set-up exactly how I wanted. Win win!!
 
I've been thinking about this board or the Rampage Formula for my Q6600 as well. I can't find a good article that tells me conclusively that the 16x/16x of the x48 chipset is really any better than the 8x/8x of the P45. I have one 4870 now and will add another later on this fall.
 
This is very tempting. I am looking for a new board for my Q6700 and my 2 4850's that will run them both at 16x. I think it's number one on my short list of "buy when on sale" items!

Oh, and an optical output PLUS EIGHT sata ports is phenomenal.
 
Great review. And the board is sweet. My only complaint is the placement of the optical S/PDIF out. I've got a set of speakers (Logitech Z5500s) that only need an optical out. I don't need the clutter of three thousand analog outs on the back of my motherboard. Asus took a great step in making the audio an external card so if I don't need it I don't have to waste the space (since it gives me another PCIe port), but they could still put an optical out (or a coaxial out even) on the motherboard itself, driven by its own simple audio chip, to aid those of us with a digital solution who don't need or want analog outputs on our mobos. Just a thought.
 
I've owned the board for like.. 3 days, and im already super impressed.

Why did this get a silver again? There's like.. nothing wrong with it. I mean, yea, 16x in crossfire would be nice, but im not bitching. The best layout ive seen and its bios is on par with dfi.

I owned the X48/X38 ROG boards, and what bugged me about those was the crappy heatsink. Barely on the board, and weak cement holding everything on. The heatsink on the p45 (and upcoming x48 extreme) is FAR FAR FAR superior. NB temps are like.. 38.. compared to 55ish for the x38-48 boards.
 
hi, great review...
however, is it possible to do a crossfire performance benchmark with 4850/70s?
tweaktown recently published an article stating how PCIE 8X/8X CF will hurt performance.. i would wish to see how true is that...

Thanks!! Keep up the good work
 
Good review overall... would be good to have this article covering CF benches between this board and say the Rampage formula.
 
zeroboi said:
hi, great review...
however, is it possible to do a crossfire performance benchmark with 4850/70s?
tweaktown recently published an article stating how PCIE 8X/8X CF will hurt performance.. i would wish to see how true is that...

Thanks!! Keep up the good work
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comparing mine @ 8x/8x with 2 4870 cards to a couple others ive seen on the evga forums im less than 500 3dmark06s behind a 16x/16x board , and that could be as simple as more fsb or a higher clocked e8400 for that few of points

the only real loss in performance i found was @ 2560x1920 or what ever rez 30" monitors use, 1920x1200 and blow didnt suffer very much
 
i've had this board for about 2 weeks now after moving up from an asus commando. the maximus II formula is a superb board. why it only got a silver award is confusing me.
 
the x38 and x48 chipsets are all

although my laptop xps 1730 uses a 975 chipset and reports 16x/16x for the 8800m gts cards
 
Ah, so here's the question, my P5B Deluxe wifi/ap runs my 4850's at 16x and 4x in cf. Would I see a speed boost going to two at 8x?
 
i think it was the p35 that did that 16x/4x and those took quite a hit, alot more so than the p45

but i only looked at 2-3 reviews i think
 
CanadaOwnsJoo said:
i think it was the p35 that did that 16x/4x and those took quite a hit, alot more so than the p45

but i only looked at 2-3 reviews i think
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Well, mine is a p965. I absolutely love the board in every way, but I would like to get more out of the cards...
 
AthlonXP said:
Good review overall... would be good to have this article covering CF benches between this board and say the Rampage formula.
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I agree. Since these two boards are in the same price range it would be good to see if there are any real trade-offs between an x48 and an x45, particularly from the same vendor.

The tweaktown article addressed this, and keeps getting quoted around the web as the definitive source to answer this question but I would rather see some of the better sites (ie. [H] ) look into this.
 
Ryle said:
so what was the key factor for this board to warrent it a silver instead of a gold? seems like a really good mobo. was it the non barn burner 500mhz+ capability? or the DVD/CD IDE drive would only run at UDMA 2 speeds?

My friend is building a rig with the launch of 4870X2, what would you suggest he gets? the Asus Rampage Formula or this Asus Maximus 2 Formula? he wont be doing heavy OC
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Mostly the 500MHz not being attained.

Not OCing heavily, just make sure he gets the feature set he wants.
 
supergrover said:
I've been thinking about this board or the Rampage Formula for my Q6600 as well. I can't find a good article that tells me conclusively that the 16x/16x of the x48 chipset is really any better than the 8x/8x of the P45. I have one 4870 now and will add another later on this fall.
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While you might see some limitations in BENCHMARKS, my suggestion is that with two 4870 you would never see any real world gaming issues.
 
AthlonXP said:
Good review overall... would be good to have this article covering CF benches between this board and say the Rampage formula.
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If I had it my way, I would not even run benchmarks on motherboards any more except internal stuff to make sure they are working correctly.
 
Interesting article, why 3 nvidia chipsets and no X48 though?

Liked the article alot, but I'll stick to my P5Q its a good over clocker and like you said I haven't seen any problems with crossfire in a 8x/8x setup.
 
Did you try messing with the memory timings or voltage to get a higher fsb?

Kinda sounds like the board is undervolting something.

Could be some compatibility issue with the RAM you were using and the BIOS...

Even my P35 board can do 480fsb with my Q6600 and my DDR2-800 RAM (all 4 sticks)
 
This board has a good number of appealing features. And until recently I've had a strong preference for Asus boards. But the most recent of their products (as P5E) to come into my possession was severe disappointment. Namely memory voltage settings in BIOS did NOT work! The result was that the board ran it's memory and the default 1.8v, or slightly lower, which damaged some memory I had that required more voltage. :eek:

I might advise anyone interested in this board to verify that the memory they intend to use, is "fully certified". And in particular that it does not require more voltage than what the chipset deems to be the default values. Am just trying to spare you some trouble....
 
triple said:
I owned the X48/X38 ROG boards, and what bugged me about those was the crappy heatsink. Barely on the board, and weak cement holding everything on. The heatsink on the p45 (and upcoming x48 extreme) is FAR FAR FAR superior. NB temps are like.. 38.. compared to 55ish for the x38-48 boards.
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..and that was precisely the question I was about to ask. I currently have a Maximus Formula (non-SE) board, and the NB heatsink is just horrible!

I know I could just remove & reapply the NB/SB heatsinks, but in all fairness, the chance of damaging the board is still present, and I'd miss out on the extra 2 SATA ports (where I'd plan to toss 2 Velociraptors), and extra PCIe 1x slot (the original Maximus board used a proprietary connection for its audio card which I'm not using).

Sounds like I might put my current board up for sale and buy the Maximus II. :)
 
This is a gold level board, not a silver level board. Not crack the 500+ might be a bios issue that might be worked out. If that is the case, I'd like to see this board get a gold.
 
im stuck at the 475 mark myself, actually reports 477 in windows but 480 and it gets into windows and locks up

still need to mess with it :)

i dont have the cdrom issue with mine
 
Methadras said:
This is a gold level board, not a silver level board. Not crack the 500+ might be a bios issue that might be worked out. If that is the case, I'd like to see this board get a gold.
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We have yet to EVER give an award yet that everyone agreed with. As always, we hope to give you enough information to make up your own mind. So the fact that you are using our review to disagree with us tells me that we have done our job in making sure our readers have enough information to start formulating their own opinions. :D
 
Did this board have any problems with the Raptors like the other P45 boards reviewed?
 
OK, I know this is a good board and all, I just don't think a P45 board should be in the same price range as the X48 boards.
 
Nice review. This board will fit in nicely with a couple of new builds I'm quoting out.
 
Kyle or anyone else, what mobo's are you referring to when you say "500 MHz+ barn burner?"
 
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