Maximus IV GENE-Z Review
If you're one of those hard core gamers and looking for the best Z68 motherboard with lower price alternative for your computer rig the Maximus IV Gene-Z is the perfect answer to your needs. This board belongs to the ruthless ROG family; made for those enthusiasts who always hungry for speed.
Even though it comes in a small micro ATX form factor, you can be sure of it, because it will definitely deliver to goodness in you. This is a high end motherboard from ASUS, we're expecting that it will be full of overclocking headroom.
The Looks
This board has a traditional looks of a Republic of Gamers series, with a combination of red and black so that they can be easily distinguish the difference of a high end board. The ROG logo can be seen on the top of Z68 chipset heatsink. Those heatsinks are in great shape, well design to withstand heat during overclock, this is what the board is design for.
This board comes in a micro ATX form factor with 9.6in x 9.6in dimensions, a compact size that doesn't consume much of your space. Despite of its cute size, it has a good PCB layout. The two PCI-E x16 slot are well spaced for proper air ventilation when using two GPU's. All 4 DIMM's are also in black and red color combinations which I think a bit crowded when you installed a longer GPU's, as it will touch the edge of the slot.
All SATA port is in right angle position for easy access, 2 SATA 6GB/s in red and 4 SATA 3GB/s in black. The ATX power connector is located on the edge of the board for neat wirings that doesn't cause any distractions.
At the back I/O port, a single PS/2 mouse/KB port is provided. 8x USB 2.0 and 2x USB 3.0 are available to make sure you'll never run out of ports. CMOS clear is also located on the back I/O panel for your convenient without the need for opening the case. 1x LAN port, 8x audio port, 2x eSATA and an optical S/PDIF output are also available. The thing that I like the most here is the availability of the HDMI port; this is perfect if you want to connect it to your HDTV.
Specs
Supports Intel Socket 1155 Core i7/ i5/i3 Sandy Bridge Processors
Intel Z68 Express Chipset
4x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/1866(O.C.)/1600/1333
Supports NVIDIA 3-Way SLI and CrossFireX Technology
2x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8), 1x PCIe 2.0 x1
2x SATA 6Gb/s ports, 4x SATA 3Gb/s ports, Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
2x eSATA 3Gb/s port
2x Gigabit LAN Controller
12x USB 2.0 ports, 4x USB 3.0 ports
SupremeFX X-Fi 2 8-Channel HD Audio CODEC
Features
This board is packed with the best features that you ever wanted in a gaming rig. This board is built with the Z68 chipset so that you can take the advantage of its overclocking capabilities using the unlock version of Sandy Bridge processor, at the same time the QuickSync features of the Sandy Bridge processors, this is perfect for Transcoding applications.
The latest technology with the Z68 chipset that features in this board is the ability to combine the iGPU and the discrete GPU's using the LucidLogix Virtu. In this case, you can take the full advantage of the QuickSync for faster video conversion. Another great thing here is that, it can automatically switches from heavy 3D games usage to a simple office applications while putting your discrete GPU into idle. This can save you power at the same time you don't need an additional hardware.
Some of the best features of this motherboard can offer are the EFI BIOS that replaces the traditional keyboard controlled to make it easier to navigate using a graphical user interface. It provides an 8 CPU power design, 2 phase in memory power design and 4 phase in iGPU. This feature provides power efficiency to the CPU and memory that maximized its usage with minimal power loss.
The best thing about this board is the support for both SLI and CrossfireX that allow us to have freedom to choose our own multi GPU. The HDMI port is also provided for your HTPC applications, back up with the SupremeFX X-Fi 2 HD Audio, a great advantage over the Maximus IV Extreme version.
Some of the best ROG extreme features are the CPU-Z, ROG Connect, GPU.DIMM Post and the ROG CPU Level Up. The CPU-Z is a customized version only for ROG that reports your CPU related information. The ROG Connect lets you monitor and tweak your voltage and frequency in real time using your notebook. The GPU.DIMM post can easily check your memory and graphics card status in BIOS whenever a component failure arises. The ROG CPU Level Up is an instant OC, by simply choosing your processor you want to overclock and the board will do the rest.
This also includes The ROG bundle software's; a 3DmarkVantage is a standard PC gaming benchmark design for Windows Vista and DirectX10. A Kaspersky antivirus is also provided to keep you safe from any malicious software programs.
Performance
This board was tested using the Core i5-2500K processor, 8GB memory, GTX570 GPU using windows 7 64-bit. By changing some few BIOS settings 4.6GHz is easily achieved. A quick jump of 1.3GHz is added with the stock clock speed of 3.3GHz using the 2500K. With new UEFI EZ BIOS, overclocking with Maximus IV Gene-Z can get with minimal effort. Enthusiast will surely love this, even the novice will do.
To push it even further, 4.9GHz is achievable but not quite stable, I think a bigger cooling system will require for this. We decided to settle down for 4.8GHz to get a stable speed. With this clock, we gained a healthy 1.5GHz on top of the 2500K 3.3GHz processor. Using the bundled software exclusive for ROG CPU-Z, you can easily check these speeds.
These gains in speed really add in its performance considerably in various applications, especially in games, for sure hard core gamers will be joyful for it. Although we don't achieve the 5GHz speed limit, I think using the 2600K and a high end water cooling system will do. The main attraction here is, how easily can be done the overclocking with the Gene-Z, this will make everyone happy to have it.
Conclusion
The ASUS Maximus IVGene-Z is well design for enthusiast and gamers like you, an excellent stuff for overclockers. In addition to that, the capacity to overclock the memory and the iGPU is considerably good factor to this board. Some people may be thinking that Gene-Z is the low end version of the Extreme, but it is not. It proves that, this board is worthy to belong to the ROG family. Admittedly, there are some few changes that take off with the Gene-Z compare with the Extreme version, but some additional features taking its advantage.
The Gene-Z is design for your future needs; it fully supports all hard drives with more than 2TB capacity. The UEFI EZ BIOS is a fun way to do CMOS settings and tweaking compare with traditional keyboard controlled. It can handle up to 32GB of memory with max frequency of 2200MHz.
The support for both SLI and CrossfireX, eSATA, a generous number of USB 3.0/2.0 ports is a big plus for this board. This is unstoppable when it comes to overclocking, the best part of this board. The addition of HDMI port combined with the SupremeFX X-Fi 2 HD Audio is perfect for your HTPC applications.
The Lucid Virtu support is great, the latest technology that combines the iGPU and your discrete GPU in a single output. This will automate your high end 3D to 2D depending on your applications to further saves you energy. You can take full advantage of the QuickSync for your Transcoding applications, we all know that, this is unbeatable when it comes to video conversion. This is how great the Z68 chipset is all about.
The board is limited to two PCI-E slot and two SATA 6GB/s due to its compact design, but if you don't need more than that, this board is definitely your perfect choice. There's so much we can take with this board at a lower price point, this is unbelievable until you'll see it. With all of these, we can see how amazingly ASUS creates the latest entry to its lineup.
Read more review of the Best Motherboards here and discover the Best Z68 Motherboard for Intel Sandy Bridge processors.
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