ASUS Maximus VI Extreme LGA 1150 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS Maximus VI Extreme LGA 1150 Motherboard Review - Earlier we looked at the ASUS Maximus VI Hero which is much more basic compared to other Republic of Gamers motherboards. Now we take a look at its flagship offerings in the ROG series, the Maximus VI Extreme. Let's see how the ASUS Maximus VI Extreme motherboard stacks up in a market packed with features.
 
This is a prime example of why I will not buy another high end tagged board. You get some extra stuff, which you may or may not use. The LN2 doesn't matter as a selling point to most. As people that use that have sponsors to begin with and get their hardware free. So a general person will never use that feature. I guess it is nice to have all the extra features and gizmos then to need them and not have them.

When a $200 dollar board beats and maintains with a $400 dollar board that is where it starts to stick in your mind. What did you get when you bought the high end board. What did you actually pay for that sets it apart. Seems the hero is about the best bang for buck in that line up. Save your money buy a cheaper board and put the rest on a better gpu or sli.

Thanks for the review.
 
KILLER_K said:
This is a prime example of why I will not buy another high end tagged board. You get some extra stuff, which you may or may not use. The LN2 doesn't matter as a selling point to most. As people that use that have sponsors to begin with and get their hardware free. So a general person will never use that feature. I guess it is nice to have all the extra features and gizmos then to need them and not have them.

When a $200 dollar board beats and maintains with a $400 dollar board that is where it starts to stick in your mind. What did you get when you bought the high end board. What did you actually pay for that sets it apart. Seems the hero is about the best bang for buck in that line up. Save your money buy a cheaper board and put the rest on a better gpu or sli.

Thanks for the review.
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I couldn't agree more. I made that mistake with an X58 board and I had to RMA it twice to Asus for various reasons. I've had cheap boards that lasted me years without any issues. It seems like you can get a pretty decent board for like $150 or so these days.
 
At the very least on the Extreme model boards ASUS needs to stop being so cheap and put higher-end audio on them to match the top boards from their competitors and even their own Formula boards. Yes, a lot of the people buying Extreme boards will also buy a dedicated sound card but there are those that won't and many more that wouldn't have to if ASUS matched their competitors in that regard.

ASUS needs to find a way to put more value into their $400 Extreme board next year that the average consumer can make use of otherwise their sales will continue to decrease in comparison to the cheaper boards now that we've reached a point where the motherboard makes a lot less difference in OC'ing for air/water.

That said, I bought the Maximus VI Extreme myself and am still debating between a 4770k build with it and a 4930K build with the EVGA X79 Dark.
 
Honestly, I don't see the need to go to 1150 when the Maximus V 1156 w/3770k is chugging along just fine. I have no problem being a generation behind when the differential is so small.
 
For the amount of money being charged for the Asus Maximus VI Extreme one would think Asus would have maintained the quality level of the USB Controller and ensured the construction of the OC Panel was up to standards. While neither of those items are deal killers, the lack of Thunderbolt, eSATA and Thermal Armor are, IMO, let-downs and contribute nothing exceptional to Asus' Extreme series.

Asus Maximus VI Extreme was released beginning of June. Hopefully, Asus has read the reviews and taken the constructive criticism seriously to improve these short-comings either on this model or up-coming models within the series. As of right now, the Formula version is definitely a better buy.
 
AceGoober said:
For the amount of money being charged for the Asus Maximus VI Extreme one would think Asus would have maintained the quality level of the USB Controller and ensured the construction of the OC Panel was up to standards. While neither of those items are deal killers, the lack of Thunderbolt, eSATA and Thermal Armor are, IMO, let-downs and contribute nothing exceptional to Asus' Extreme series.

Asus Maximus VI Extreme was released beginning of June. Hopefully, Asus has read the reviews and taken the constructive criticism seriously to improve these short-comings either on this model or up-coming models within the series. As of right now, the Formula version is definitely a better buy.
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They will take your advice into consideration, make it happen, then re-release the board as the Asus Maximus VI Ultimate and charge you another $100 for the privilege. But in all honesty you are right, those features should have made it to this board and at this price point.
 
This is something I have commented on ASUS ROG boards for a long time. They include a bunch of stuff, most of it CRAP, that is never used. They bill these boards as feature added and it really comes across as gimmicky (Like being able to overclock your board via a cellphone???) I have bought ROG boards for a long time, but the only thing I usually take out of the box is the board.
 
But can it play Crysis? AND....My A7M266 has better audio, h/ware c-media chip - FTW!!!!!
 
This seems to be the main reason for the higher price here fro what Raja explained.


Raja@ASUS said:
Those options are reserved for high-end models only. Why? Because each option requires copious amounts of R&D time tuning microcode. That's some of what segregates the high-end models from lesser ones. We put more time into the high-end products for their audience.
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Honestly the crysis joke has long been over.

5E7EN said:
But can it play Crysis? AND....My A7M266 has better audio, h/ware c-media chip - FTW!!!!!
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Have tried this board seemed to work OK but after one day of loading programs and testing, then it just quit working. Replaced it with another board and the same thing happened. I have now replaced it with an Asus gold board with newer tech on it and like it. It is not a ROG board tho. I know you guys want to know all that was in the build? It is Sunday morning. This is a game computer has the best of everything. Have a great day.:eek:
 
Read the review and decided I might start thinking about doing an upgrade soon. Decided to run that Bioshock Infinite benchmark (I'm assuming this is the one that comes with the game) on my PC, which is getting old.

150 average FPS

[MachineInfo]
OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1
GraphicsVendor: 000010DE (NVIDIA)
DeviceID: 00001201
DeviceName: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
IsDX11: 1
DriverVer: 9.18.13.2723
Physical Mem: 4094MB
CPUName: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9770 @ 3.20GHz
Hyperthreaded: 0
NumProcessorsPerCPU: 1
NumLogicalProcessors: 4
NumPhysicalProcessors: 4
CoresPerProcessor: 4

That's on an XFX 790i with SLI too.

A motherboard over 5 years old and I'm getting 1/3rd the frame rate on that bench. Granted, that's one of the old extreme CPU's and 2 newer'ish graphics cards, but still. Not the jump I'm looking for.

Just thought I'd post this here for FYI and shits n' giggles.
 
5E7EN said:
But can it play Crysis? AND....My A7M266 has better audio, h/ware c-media chip - FTW!!!!!
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Raja...

You need to move past onboard Realtek for these boards. No amount of juicing it up is going to save it. You guys produce soundcards with c-media chips, so the "but drivers" excuse is wearing more and more thin.

Though given the amount of times I've had to flash your cards compared to ht-omega....
 
I needed more PCIe (LSI 9268-8i) and CF 290xs. IT was either this or the workstation mobo (no I wasn't going down the X79 path), and this fit the color scheme in my case way better. That being said, my 4770K sucks. 1.3v to get 4.2 out of it. With crazy custom WC loop.
 
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