Motherboards

Asus’ Maximus series has always been a great line for the user than demands top notch performance. We have tested them going all the way back to the original Maximus and each one has brought new performance features to the table. As you have seen in our feature and design review the Maximus IV Extreme is no different. We have finished putting the Maximus IV Extreme through our test suite and are ready to let you know how well it works in our lab. So sit back and relax as we walk you through the performance of the Asus Maximus IV Extreme.

As 2011 comes to a close the big name in desktop CPUs is Intel. AMD’s Bulldozer failed to impress the market and while it is not a terrible product it does not have what it takes to grab the CPU performance crown from Intel. The top product for Intel is its new Sandy Bridge E CPUs and the X79 chipset. We have taken a look at Intel’s X79 Desktop board and Gigabyte’s G1.Assassin2. Both of these products let the Sandy Bridge E stretch its legs and run. Now we have our third X79 board in the lab. This one is from Asus and is the upper end of their consumer line. The board in question is the Asus P9X79 Deluxe. This board features the standard Intel LAN (you get dual LAN but only one is Intel in this case) as well as Asus’ BTGO (Bluetooth Go) 3.0. This is a continuation of the Bluetooth that Asus has been putting on their boards since the beginning of the year (we saw this at CES 2011). Now they are also dropping in Wireless (just like most other X79 boards), but wireless and Bluetooth are not all that Asus has packed into this board. So let’s take a look at exactly what you get with the Asus P9X79 Deluxe.

So the X79 is out along with the fastest CPU family on the planet (consumer CPU that is). This means that all of the P67, H67, H61 and Z68 boards are history right? Well you would be wrong. There are still a large number of motherboards out there from the P67 lineup that will not only turn your head, but also perform well enough to satisfy 99% of the enthusiast and gaming community. We have one of these in the house from Asus and are getting ready to see what it can do with our Core i5 2600k (you know the one that can hit 5.1GHz).  So let’s dive into the $300 Asus Maximum IV Extreme and see if it can drag your eyes away from the sexy new thing on the market.

We have now had the G1.Assassin2 up on the test bench for a little over a week now and are ready to talk about our experience with it. The G1.Assassin2 is Gigabyte’s current top of the line x79 motherboard and follows in the same trend as the other boards in the G1 line up. This means that you get the military theme, the built in audio card, and of course the KillerNIC E2100 NPU. However, there are also things that had us concerned about how the G1.Assassin2 might handle certain types of work. So let’s get started and see if all of the new features (like the 3D BIOS and 3D Power) work and if the concerns that we talked about in the design and feature review are valid or not.