We have already made the V-Pro Asus P8Z68 rotating mother and came away impressed with its performance. Although it was a bit 'on the expensive side for Micro-ATX motherboard features are available to pay for it. Today we look at the Maximus IV GENE-Z motherboard, the second is based on the Z68 chipset, but this is their Republic of Gamers (ROG), which means that line-up is aimed at enthusiasts who like to experiment and develop each setting down to the last detail.
Design and Layout
The GENE-Z may be a micro-ATX motherboard, but Asus has crammed every inch of PCB components. As is their ROG line, we have a striking black PCB with Red PCI expansion slots. There is even a little smaller than the standard micro-ATX which means that fewer PCI slots. The rear I / O ports include PS2 combo port, 8 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit LAN, audio optical output SPDIF, HDMI 8-channel audio and onboard SupremeFX X-Fi 2. CMOS reset button is also located here and is backlit easy to see in the dark.
This motherboard supports all Socket 1155 processors from Intel and is reinforced with a design layout of 8-phase CPU power supply with four stages to iGPU. There are even power two-stage design for RAM. With multiple phases to ensure power delivery / all points of the power source is removed before they reach components. These VRMs are cooled by a radiator squat in the area of the CPU. Due to the small size of the board, installing the Intel stock cooler was a bit difficult because there are a lot of capacitors in the way. Not much room to mess up with your fingers. The memory slots, touching the graphics card, but fortunately, the clips are placed to the side which facilitates the exchange of RAM, once installed.
Expansion slots include one PCIe 2.0 x16 and one x8 slot. There are no PCIe x1 slots, and legacy PCI slots, one PCIe 2.0 x4. There are a total of six SATA ports natively support the chipset Z68. Four SATA II, III, the rest are SATA. Asus has also two JMicron eSATA ports on the back I / O panel. What distinguishes this platform in addition to their standard offerings are passionate about class features added by backlit "Start" and "Reset" button. These are useful for the environment overclockers certainly appreciate the open bed. Debug LEDs give you real-time system status and forty something wrong, you can easily adapt the code of a manual to know exactly what is wrong. Despite its small size, the Asus has also managed to cram four PWM fan headers, other than the CPU fan.
In general, the PCB is well built and not long after flex install all components. The black lacquer finish against the expansion slots is definitely sexy red and go very well with glass. In the quest to save space, Maximus IV feels a little cramped in the construction of the platform and the number of expansion slots may be a delay of a few.
Features
The UEFI BIOS has undergone a facelift and has a red background ROG theme. The play + VRM option gives you much more control over how power should be supplied to the elements and you can adjust the phase VCore VDRAM, etc. You can either choose one of the predefined profiles (regular, high, extreme) or manually adjust it yourself. You can even take a screenshot of the page of the BIOS, you're just pressing F12 if you want to send parameters to a friend or just for your file. RAM slots can support speeds of up to 2133MHz memory which means that there is much room for overclocking. Tools include BIOS EZ Flash 2 to update the BIOS, SPD Info gives you all the details of your memory modules, Asus OC Profile save up to eight profiles allows you to quickly switch to them, and then click the button Go, which lets you can set a profile and activate it overclock by pressing the physical button on the board.
Perhaps the most unique feature is the ROG Connect allows you to monitor the system for the laptop. Once installed the ROG Connect and Connect Plus key on the desktop and a laptop, you only need to hit the top of the motherboard so that it is. Then connect a laptop and desktop using the supplied cable, and through the utility, the RC TweakIt you can monitor and adjust settings on the local computer. RCPoster shows the status of the local system during the POST, as well. All these data can be monitored and recorded.
Package contents are bands, labels, SATA cables, six SATA cables, SLI bridge, Q-connectors on the front panel headers, I / O shield, ROG Connect the cable, drivers, manual and a nice case characters. Unlike other high-end cards, you will not get the Bluetooth GENE-Z.
Test specifications of the device
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU@3.40 GHz
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68 Pro-V
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 6 GB (3 x 2 GB)
Hard Disk: WD Velociraptor 300 GB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6970
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
Performance
We setup Maximus IV GENE-Z motherboard with a new installation of Windows 7 Ultimate. All drivers have been updated to the latest version too. We have not updated the BIOS because we do not really feel the need so everything was rock solid.
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD did better "productivity" and "HDD" PCMark Vantage tests, due to the solid-state drive from Intel on board. In other tests, however, GENE-Z knows how to step before his younger brother, P8Z68 Pro-V. P8Z68 may look behind the graphical benchmark, and that when we tested the use of the 570 GTX So, in addition to that, the rest of the results of disk memory, CPU and hard can be directly compared with Massimo IV.
Asus bundles along a number of software packages that are available through a single interface, AI Suite II. The DIGI + VRM tool allows you to adjust the VRM voltage and frequency modulation directly from the OS without having to go through the BIOS. It also allows the load-line calibration limit of the maximum voltage of the processor when overclocking. TurboV Evo is an overclocking tools like AMD Overdrive. You can either do it manually or let the software do it for you. In automatic mode, the program tends to stumble tensions, even when not in use, it is advisable to do it manually.
EPU makes a comeback as well, so you can invest in that state your computer run to select the performance, quiet, comfort, safety and energy saving. Each of these settings can be further customized to your liking. Fan Xpert you can control the speed of case fans, but remember, this only works if the fans have the PWM function, which usually come with four-pin connector instead of the three surfaces.
Verdict
The Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z mother is priced at Rs.13, 110 which is more than P8Z68 Pro-V motherboard from the same company. We understand it is designed for enthusiasts and overclockers, but there is away from the fact that it is quite expensive for a micro-ATX motherboard. If you are into overclocking and benchmarking competitive, the Z68 is a strong candidate for this purpose. But for the average user, most of these features will not be used and also the motherboard does not have enough expansion slots to be sustainable.
Design and Layout
The GENE-Z may be a micro-ATX motherboard, but Asus has crammed every inch of PCB components. As is their ROG line, we have a striking black PCB with Red PCI expansion slots. There is even a little smaller than the standard micro-ATX which means that fewer PCI slots. The rear I / O ports include PS2 combo port, 8 USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit LAN, audio optical output SPDIF, HDMI 8-channel audio and onboard SupremeFX X-Fi 2. CMOS reset button is also located here and is backlit easy to see in the dark.
In general, the PCB is well built and not long after flex install all components. The black lacquer finish against the expansion slots is definitely sexy red and go very well with glass. In the quest to save space, Maximus IV feels a little cramped in the construction of the platform and the number of expansion slots may be a delay of a few.
Features
The UEFI BIOS has undergone a facelift and has a red background ROG theme. The play + VRM option gives you much more control over how power should be supplied to the elements and you can adjust the phase VCore VDRAM, etc. You can either choose one of the predefined profiles (regular, high, extreme) or manually adjust it yourself. You can even take a screenshot of the page of the BIOS, you're just pressing F12 if you want to send parameters to a friend or just for your file. RAM slots can support speeds of up to 2133MHz memory which means that there is much room for overclocking. Tools include BIOS EZ Flash 2 to update the BIOS, SPD Info gives you all the details of your memory modules, Asus OC Profile save up to eight profiles allows you to quickly switch to them, and then click the button Go, which lets you can set a profile and activate it overclock by pressing the physical button on the board.
Package contents are bands, labels, SATA cables, six SATA cables, SLI bridge, Q-connectors on the front panel headers, I / O shield, ROG Connect the cable, drivers, manual and a nice case characters. Unlike other high-end cards, you will not get the Bluetooth GENE-Z.
Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K CPU@3.40 GHz
Motherboard: Asus P8Z68 Pro-V
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 6 GB (3 x 2 GB)
Hard Disk: WD Velociraptor 300 GB
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 6970
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
Performance
We setup Maximus IV GENE-Z motherboard with a new installation of Windows 7 Ultimate. All drivers have been updated to the latest version too. We have not updated the BIOS because we do not really feel the need so everything was rock solid.
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD did better "productivity" and "HDD" PCMark Vantage tests, due to the solid-state drive from Intel on board. In other tests, however, GENE-Z knows how to step before his younger brother, P8Z68 Pro-V. P8Z68 may look behind the graphical benchmark, and that when we tested the use of the 570 GTX So, in addition to that, the rest of the results of disk memory, CPU and hard can be directly compared with Massimo IV.
Verdict
The Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z mother is priced at Rs.13, 110 which is more than P8Z68 Pro-V motherboard from the same company. We understand it is designed for enthusiasts and overclockers, but there is away from the fact that it is quite expensive for a micro-ATX motherboard. If you are into overclocking and benchmarking competitive, the Z68 is a strong candidate for this purpose. But for the average user, most of these features will not be used and also the motherboard does not have enough expansion slots to be sustainable.
