Asus ROG Maximus VII Impact

Synomenon said:
Hehe, I guess you don't have your PC inside a media cabinet. Wireless PS/2 keyboard is my power button. ;)
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Nope indeed, my PC is on my desk. Like most people probably.
If I would build a HTPC, I would probably go for IR, not a wireless keyboard, too clunky for my taste :)
 
Synomenon said:
Hehe, I guess you don't have your PC inside a media cabinet. Wireless PS/2 keyboard is my power button. ;)
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LMAO guess you never heard of the pin adapter that works of the PSU using a remote, Plus who the hell would using a ROG board that cost 3 times as much as a normal board for a HTPC :confused: .
 
AFD said:
EXPreview posted an article today stating that the VII Impact will be "listed" in 2 weeks (not 100% sure, but I think the translation of listed means available)..

http://www.expreview.com/35260.html

La0l55b.jpg


ETA: Yup, they're about ready..

VPxq6yY.jpg


http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/cpu_mainboard/maximus_vii_impact_-_mini-itx_max_spec/1
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Yes the translated "listed" means "available" or "released". :D

Here's a preview/analysis of this board on a Taiwan website:
http://www.techbang.com/posts/19425...ted-slightly-asus-maximus-vii-impact-analysis

A few interesting points according to this article: (With my unreliable translation + poor English)
- The 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 from the CPU are split into x8 x4 x4. M.2 and PCIe each uses 4 lanes and other 8 lanes are dedicated to the graphic card.
(Not sure which "PCIe" he is referring to. Also I'm wondering if the lanes could be dynamically allocated to the graphic card if M.2 device is not appeared.)
- SupremeFX sound daughterboard design has been simplified. Now it only consists of 1 Sonic SenseAMP. It provides a hardware EQ control just like other Maximus VII series boards.
(On a comment of the EXPreview news, someone mentioned that the daughterboard is shorter and the orientation of the AAFP pins is changed, making it less troublesome when installing the CPU cooler.)
- New features: CoolHub & KeyBot. The addition of KeyBot chip makes the PCB even more crowded so two of the fan connectors are moved to a daughterboard to keep the number of fan connectors at 4.

Cons mentioned:
- Probelt voltage measurement points are still placed under the sound daughterboard
- PCIe X16 slot now has a clip which is not easy to use especially in this kind of size of motherboard
 
Tschus said:
- The 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 from the CPU are split into x8 x4 x4. M.2 and PCIe each uses 4 lanes and other 8 lanes are dedicated to the graphic card.
(Not sure which "PCIe" he is referring to. Also I'm wondering if the lanes could be dynamically allocated to the graphic card if M.2 device is not appeared.)
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This was discussed in the past and someone was certain it was the PCIe 2.0 chipset lanes. I hope someone can clarrify this soon :)
 
OverRated said:
LMAO guess you never heard of the pin adapter that works of the PSU using a remote, Plus who the hell would using a ROG board that cost 3 times as much as a normal board for a HTPC :confused: .
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I'm going to be using the Maximus VII Impact in this home theater PC because it's also my gaming PC.

I have a 5.25" bay LCD with a connection to the 24-pin ATX power connector so that I can turn the PC on with a media center remote.

It's still convenient to be able to do it with a keyboard though since the remote gets lost quite frequently.
 
This needs to hurry up and be released. I saw some new articles on tech sites yesterday, so hopefully that means a hard launch is imminent...

I bet there's a bunch of other NCASE M1 v2 owners who are just starting to receive their cases and the Silverstone 600W SFX PSU who'd love to build around the Maximus VII Impact.
 
I guess most of this is arriving or selling in the coming weeks, so it must be exciting times.
I'm happy Asus isn't rushing this to make this an awesome board with high quality and reliability all over it.
 
twwen2 said:
This needs to hurry up and be released. I saw some new articles on tech sites yesterday, so hopefully that means a hard launch is imminent...

I bet there's a bunch of other NCASE M1 v2 owners who are just starting to receive their cases and the Silverstone 600W SFX PSU who'd love to build around the Maximus VII Impact.
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I may upgrade my board to one depending if its released before i get mine back from RMA lol, looking at the CPU layout the my water block with fit right onto it.
 
OverRated said:
I may upgrade my board to one depending if its released before i get mine back from RMA lol, looking at the CPU layout the my water block with fit right onto it.
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Some of the pictures I've seen make it look like the board layout is identical (all the big pieces at least; a few minor components have been moved), but some of them also make it look like the audio daughtercard might be ever so slightly closer to the bottom. Without having one on hand, impossible to tell if that's actually the case, or if it is just due to the differing angle of the photos that were taken.

It would be awesome if EK's M6I fit the Impact VII! I'd hate for EK to have to do a whole new block, because without knowing how well the M6I sold, they might not even think it is worth it.
 
Is there any real benefit to this board over the ASUS Z97I-PLUS if I don't intend to take advantage of the overclocking voltage features and I use an external amplifier? I'm trying to tentatively spec out my M1 build and am having a hard time justifying the cost premium the ROG boards always command. If the cheap boards have Displayport, AC wifi, and GigE, why should I splurge on the Impact? Particularly when all the daughterboards consume valuable case volume. I'm sure I'm missing something.

I've been very happy with my current ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z for the last few years, but I can't say I ever really noticed the gamer/OC features they tout.
 
Bobalias_LeShay said:
Is there any real benefit to this board over the ASUS Z97I-PLUS if I don't intend to take advantage of the overclocking voltage features and I use an external amplifier? I'm trying to tentatively spec out my M1 build and am having a hard time justifying the cost premium the ROG boards always command. If the cheap boards have Displayport, AC wifi, and GigE, why should I splurge on the Impact? Particularly when all the daughterboards consume valuable case volume. I'm sure I'm missing something.

I've been very happy with my current ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z for the last few years, but I can't say I ever really noticed the gamer/OC features they tout.
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For me it's the enhanced power delivery circuitry on the ROG boards that's most attractive - I get peace of mind knowing that my boards are built as well as they can be with the best components available. Having said that, the ASUS Z97 channel boards (e.g. Z97I-PLUS) aren't bad in this regard - not as spec'ed out as the ROG boards but certainly a step above some of the other brands.

Other than that, the UEFI BIOS will have similar features, and as you've stated the boards have very similar feature sets. For many people I suspect it will come down to wanting the pretty red & black colour scheme!
 
Personally I'm interested in this board because of the ROG's excellent reputation (quality, stability), it has good components (M.2 PCIe x4, headphone amp, good audio solution, Intel LAN), excellent board layout and a few useful features (update BIOS without hardware installed :eek: ).
 
Tschus said:
- The 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0 from the CPU are split into x8 x4 x4. M.2 and PCIe each uses 4 lanes and other 8 lanes are dedicated to the graphic card.
(Not sure which "PCIe" he is referring to. Also I'm wondering if the lanes could be dynamically allocated to the graphic card if M.2 device is not appeared.)
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Anandtech confirms this, that the M.2 indeed uses PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes straight from the CPU instead of the PCIe 2.0 x4 lanes from the chipset.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8386/asus-rog-z97-maximus-vii-impact-officially-launched

Note that when the M.2 slot is occupied, the PCIe slot will reduce to PCIe 3.0 x8, although our previous testing of a similar feature shows no frame rate difference at 1080p.
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I don't see the PCIe sharing as being an issue. Most (all?) SLI/Crossfire boards only give each card an x8 as is, unless it's a socket 2011. It's probably better that the M.2 slot gets maximum bandwidth for the new crop of absurdly fast SSDs.
 
Indeed, I agree. The thing I'm curious about if it does provide a better performance (lower latency) for SSD's this way.
 
Geoffrey4283 said:
Some of the pictures I've seen make it look like the board layout is identical (all the big pieces at least; a few minor components have been moved), but some of them also make it look like the audio daughtercard might be ever so slightly closer to the bottom. Without having one on hand, impossible to tell if that's actually the case, or if it is just due to the differing angle of the photos that were taken.

It would be awesome if EK's M6I fit the Impact VII! I'd hate for EK to have to do a whole new block, because without knowing how well the M6I sold, they might not even think it is worth it.
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After seeing what Phuncz linked (the official release of the VII), I went to check the EKWB cooling configurator, and they list the M6I as compatible with the VII. Oh, happy day!
 
Phuncz said:
Indeed, I agree. The thing I'm curious about if it does provide a better performance (lower latency) for SSD's this way.
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Latency is still going to be governed by the speed of the drive itself I'd imagine. PCIe has much higher bandwidth, and we were starting to see SSDs running into the 6Gbps barrier imposed by SATA, but the latency is still dominated by the drive AFAIK.
 
SSD's have been running into the 6Gbps (in reality = 520-550MB/sec depending on chipset) barrier for a year now, since the Samsung 840 SSD's. The chips and chipsets allow better latencies than attainable with SATA, because of overhead, AHCI and the extra controller. But since the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot has priority and is connected straight to the CPU without touching the chipset, I expect it to have even less latency (and thus better performance) than the M.2 PCIe SSD's that are connected via PCIe 2.0 through the chipset.
 
Phuncz said:
SSD's have been running into the 6Gbps (in reality = 520-550MB/sec depending on chipset) barrier for a year now, since the Samsung 840 SSD's. The chips and chipsets allow better latencies than attainable with SATA, because of overhead, AHCI and the extra controller. But since the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot has priority and is connected straight to the CPU without touching the chipset, I expect it to have even less latency (and thus better performance) than the M.2 PCIe SSD's that are connected via PCIe 2.0 through the chipset.
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It really should and I'd love to actually test that.
 
Anyone know the expected timeframe for release of PCIe based M.2 SSD's? The only one I know of that's currently on the market is the Samsung, and it costs an arm and a leg. Certainly limits the use of the M.2 slot on this board.

Given that I use an external DAC for sound, I tend to agree with Bobalias_LeShay - I fail to see the real benefit of this board over, say, the Z97I-Plus. The big difference IMO is the power circuitry. I guess I'll have to see what the price difference is and make a decision on that.
 
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ellroy80 said:
Anyone know the expected timeframe for release of PCIe based M.2 SSD's? The only one I know of that's currently on the market is the Samsung, and it costs an arm and a leg. Certainly limits the use of the M.2 slot on this board.
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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/plextor-m6e-pci-express-ssd,3763.html

I think M.2 PCIe SSDs are going to be pretty niche for the next couple of months, with limited selection and limited supply. But I think within the next year you're going to start seeing a little more variety and availability (as they begin serving their true intent more successfully in the OEM laptop/portable market).

But I'm just joe schmoe, what do I know...
 
The Plextor M6e is indeed also PCIe, but only 2 lanes. It's sad that the only x4 SSD for Q3 2014 is an OEM Samsung drive and neither Samsung nor Intel (pushed M.2 hard) are making it their priority, especially Intel, who threw a 530-series Sandforce SATA design at it.
 
ellroy80 said:
Anyone know the expected timeframe for release of PCIe based M.2 SSD's? The only one I know of that's currently on the market is the Samsung, and it costs an arm and a leg. Certainly limits the use of the M.2 slot on this board.

Given that I use an external DAC for sound, I tend to agree with Bobalias_LeShay - I fail to see the real benefit of this board over, say, the Z97I-Plus. The big difference IMO is the power circuitry. I guess I'll have to see what the price difference is and make a decision on that.
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As mentionned, the Plextor m6e is pcie based.
And AFAIK that is also limited to 2x? So no use for more pcie lanes besides perhaps the lower latencies?

The power circuitry and components used will be the main difference.
I'm not sure how big of a difference the audio will be though. Coming from a m5g for example? (Compared to the z/h 97I-Plus and VII impact)


I'm having a hard time deciding if I should either go all out and get VII Impact with a 4790k or get a H97i-plus (asus H87/97 can now overclock) with a g3258. Or perhaps something in between. There is also the possibility of a cheaper xeon matching i7 results (no oc or gfx though).
 
Geoffrey4283 said:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/plextor-m6e-pci-express-ssd,3763.html

I think M.2 PCIe SSDs are going to be pretty niche for the next couple of months, with limited selection and limited supply. But I think within the next year you're going to start seeing a little more variety and availability (as they begin serving their true intent more successfully in the OEM laptop/portable market).

But I'm just joe schmoe, what do I know...
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I can't justify spending an extra ~$250 for an M6e over an MX100. It's just not worth the slight increase in speed and getting rid of a couple of extra cables. Looks like I'll be sticking to a 2.5" SSD for my M1 build.
 
The MX100 has been the best value SSD there is and it will be for a while, the Plextor M6e is the only PCIe M.2 SSD available in retail at the moment and also promises better performance. I don't think you make a bad decision, but I'm hoping this kind of difficult choices can become easier in the near future. Nearly every Z97 motherboard (except most mITX) have one or two M.2 sockets, but it's the SSD's that are lacking in market penetration.
 
Initial post has been updated with the official information from ASUS's website aswell as a Link to the Product Page. Also RAM City ships all over the world and has the Samsung XP941.The AUD to USD conversion is not bad at all, last I checked it was roughly $530 USD shipped for a 512GB version.
 
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Why oh why did they just make the PCIE slot black and leave the rest red? Why not keep it uniformly red or make it all black? Urhg!
 
It sounds like your OCD is flipping out :p
I don't mind, as I apparently didn't even notice that not all the sockets have the same color.
Oh well, not much to see in most mITX cases anyway with a huge donking graphics card and cooler on it.
 
Phuncz said:
It sounds like your OCD is flipping out :p
I don't mind, as I apparently didn't even notice that not all the sockets have the same color.
Oh well, not much to see in most mITX cases anyway with a huge donking graphics card and cooler on it.
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I know, I try to better myself but it's hard. I wonder how much better the power delivery is though.
 
Anyone found a copy of the PDF manual yet?

I cant seem to find anything yet. Im really looking for the Fan control at the BIOS level.

Prior to this board, only the Asrock boards have a comprehensive temperature and fan control that goes right down to 0% output, and any temperature.

The Asus boards in the 87 generation and prior were limited to a minimum fan power of 40 and 60% respectively for CPU and Chassis.

The Z97 Gene board has the minimum CPU fan power down to 0%, and the 3 other chassis connectors down to 60%? but can also select a fan-off option. This seems like it would do the trick. Only problem is the gene manual is still pretty confusing, and seems like its a copy paste job and has not been properly checked through, so it doesn't really seem to make sense when you read it carefully.

Wonder if anyone has specific experiences or access to the manual.

Secondly, does this board come with the thermal measurement thermistor, or does this need to be bought separately?
 
okwchin said:
The Asus boards in the 87 generation and prior were limited to a minimum fan power of 40 and 60% respectively for CPU and Chassis.
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If I'm reading the manual correctly, the minimum duty cycle is still 60% for case fans (20% for CPU), but no mention of the new "fan stop" option that was added to their Z97i-Plus BIOS.

Seems odd.
 
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