Uncle Fester

I just received the Maximus III Gene from Asus, my first impression as soon as i opened the box was WOW this board looked amazing albeit micro sized.
I was very keen to see what this board could do.

ASUS MAXIMUS III GENE













Specifications
CPU:
Intel® Socket 1156 Core™ i7 Processor/Core™ i5 Processor
Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
* Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list
Chipset:
Intel® P55 Express Chipset
Memory:
4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)*/2000(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
**Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
*** Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors Lists).
Expansion Slots:
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (support single at x16 or dual at x8/x8 mode)
1 x PCIe x4
1 x PCI 2.2
Multi-GPU Support
Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology / ATI® Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology
Storage:
Intel® P55 Express Chipset built-in
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10

JMicron® JMB363 SATA controller
1 xExternal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port at rear (SATA On-the-Go)
1 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s port
LAN:
Gigabit LAN controller featuring AI NET2
GameFirst
Audio SupremeFX X-Fi built-in
- 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- EAX® Advanced™ HD 4.0
- X-Fi CMSS®-3D
- X-Fi Crystalizer™
- Creative ALchemy
- Blu-ray support
- Supports Optical S/PDIF out port on rear
IEEE 1394 2 x 1394a ports (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)
USB 14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (5 ports at mid-board, 9 ports at back panel)
ASUS Unique Features MemOK!
MemPerfect
ProbeIt
Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS (at rear)
ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
ASUS Q-Connector
ASUS Q-Slot
ASUS Q-DIMM
ASUS EPU
ASUS Fan Xpert
ASUS MyLogo3
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
Overclocking Features CPU Power Design
- 8-phase CPU power
- 2-phase VTT power
- 2-phase Memory power
ROG Connect
CPU Level Up
iROG
Extreme Tweaker
Loadline Calibration
Intelligent overclocking tools:
- ASUS TurboV EVO
- O.C. Profile
Overclocking Protection:
- COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX)
- Voltiminder LED
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Back Panel I/O Ports 1 x External SATA
1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical)
1 x IEEE 1394a
1 x LAN(RJ45) port
9 x USB 2.0/1.1
1 x PS/2 Keyboard port (purple)
1 x Clr CMOS switch
1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
8-channel Audio I/O with gold-plated jack
Internal I/O Connectors 3 x USB connectors supports additional 5 USB 2.0 ports (1 port reserved for ROG Connect at rear)
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
7 x SATA connectors (one is from JMicron® 363 (black))
5 x Fan connectors: 1 x CPU / 2 x Chassis / 2 x Optional
1 x SPDIF out header
1 x CD audio in
1 x Front panel audio connector
2 x thermal sensor connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header
5 x ProbeIt measurement points
1 x Go Button
System panel connector
BIOS 16 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.4, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS
Manageability WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE
Accessories User's manual
1 x I/O Shield
1 x ROG Connect Cable
1 x ROG Cable Labels (12 in 1)
1 x SLI Cable
1 x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
3 x 2-in-1 SATA signal cables
1 x Cable Ties
1 x ROG Theme Label
Support Disc Support DVD:
- Drivers and applications
Sound Blaster X-Fi Utility
ROG GameFirst Utility
ASUS TurboV EVO Utility
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS Update
ASUS AI Suite
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
Form Factor uATX Form Factor
9.6 inch x 9.6 inch ( 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm )

This board is boasting some very impressive features such as ROG connect giving you the ability to overclock your machine at a bios level from another computer as well as flash the bios remotely so no fear of bricking your motherboard due to bad flash, 10 phase digital PWM's & bios features to improve cold bug booting, the list goes on and on.
Well lets get down to some benching and see what this board can do.

Test setup:

ASUS MAXIMUS III GENE
INTEL I5 670
CORSAIR DDR3 2000MHZ C8 2X2GB
CORSAIR HX 1000W PSU
ATI 3850
OCZ VERTEX 64GB SSD
FROZEN SYSTEMS K6 LN2 POT
28" VIEWSONIC LCD SCREEN


Stock air benching :



































As you can see at stock setting performance is very reasonable for a micro ATX factor setup but now lets see how it overclocks

Max air overclock @ 4875mhz











Well all I can say is bloody impressive I have never seen a micro atx board perform this well, these digital PWM's are worth every penny. The overclocking features in the bios were amazing they gave me the ability to change every setting i needed.

Well as I am sure you all know what comes next, LN2 lets see what this board can really do !!!!!



ASUS ROG CONNECT @ -173c



FULL TILT -180.1c







Now unfortunatly this was all i could achieve when running LN2 as this motherboard seems to have a bios corruption issue when running -100 and below. After a crash the motherboard would post then display an message stating the is an invalid checksum in the bios please insert the motherboard disk or USB to reinstall bios and restart your computer. Well i did this about 50 times i tried motherboard disk, USB, and ROG Connect everytime it would say successfull !! please restart your computer then it would happen again. I cant tell you how frustrating this was waiting for my pot to warm up to -20 before magically it would all work again and then back to the benching so after 20 hours of LN2 benching i only achieved these 2 results.

Conclusion:

Pro's
Price
Looks
Digital PWM's
Great overclocker
ROG connect
Fail safe bios flashing
Great on-board sound

Con's
2:8 divider not working at high mhz
Bios corruption issue at -100 ( not that this would effect that many people)

Overall:
Well for a micro ATX board you can not go wrong, this board would be excellent for LAN parties or even your HTPC ( as im doing ) it has all the features of a full blown ATX board but in a compact size. The price has to be the best thing, this board is so cheap i can not believe it you should pick up one of these boards for under 300.00 dollars and brings you everything you would expect with ROG reputation behind it.

BIG THANKS TO MATT & TEAM AT ASUS AUSTRALIA

Uncle Fester

kayl

nice work there uncle fester
be interested to see what this cpu does in other boards

CryptiK

Very nice results for a matx for sure. Glad they finally went digital PWM.

eva2000

wow that's one nice max air clock there before the LN2 clocks

Alot of love from Asus lately

Uncle Fester

Ya the board handled very well apart from the bios corruption issue which drove me insane.
Asus support has been great

Kal-EL

Nice work Fester!

Miravo

Nice results