ASUS Z170 ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME Review! Asus Drops The Bomb!

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME

Every generation of chip-sets manufacturers carefully design and implement their Flagship offering and we wait with bated breath to see whats been put on the offering plate. The ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME is the top dog Flagship simply crammed with every feature a person can think of from micro-fine alloy chokes to the coolest of features the OC Panel. Every inch of the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME is covered with the best hardware ASUS has to offer and to many it represents the pinnacle of boards bar none. You can mate the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME with any of Intel’s Skylake chips but it is as close to a Nerd Sin as you can get if you don’t pair it with one of the “K” series Slylake chips. In a pinch the 6600K will work but to justify a board of this magnitude you really need to strap a 6700K Skylake 4.0GHz (turbos to 4.2 GHz) chip. Once you have clamped the 6700K into place and strapped your best cooling solution on it just stand back for a minute and soak up the ambiance. It’s not often you stand in front of a un-christened ASUS Flagship board.

The ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME is geared toward the hardest core enthusiasts just for starters you get Built in WI-Fi, USB 3,1, a  M.2 slot, well-heeled VRM’s to make the staunchest geek drool and support for the fastest DDR4 Dual Channel kit you can dream of. We will be running the top Skylake processor the 6700K on the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME and the boards amenities promise to give the 6700K all the infrastructure it needs to nestle down into the 1151 socket and prepare to kick some benchmark butt. Our 4 core 8 thread 92W Intel Skylake 6700K with its 14nm fab almost leaped out of our hands to get a shot at the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme.

The ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME is the most expensive of the ROG boards and that’s no surprise to any previous “Extreme” owners, the ASUS Extremes generally run in the $500 price range and the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME is no exception spotted at  with free shipping the board is already sold out at some vendors (at the time of writing) and in low supply on other vendors. With major vendors unable to keep the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME on the shelf that should tell you a lot about the board itself.

 

ASUS has been going through a transformation with its ROG boards deviating from the traditional ROG RED to a black PCB with grey PCI-e slots, light grey heatsinks with ROG Red accents sprinkle around the board.

Specifications Table

For quick Reference we’ve dropped a specifications table for you to gander at in case you need to verify a feature or two before opening the wallet for one of these beauties.

ASUS MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME
CPU	Intel Socket 1151 for 6th Generation Core i7/ i5/i3/Pentium/Celeron Processors Supports Intel 14 nm CPU Supports Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
Chipset	Intel Z170 Express
RAM	4x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3866(O.C) MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory Dual Channel Memory Architecture Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Storage	Intel Z170 chipset : 1x M.2 x4 Socket 3, with M Key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (both SATA & PCIE mode) 6x SATA 6Gb/s ports, gray 2x SATA Express ports 1x U.2 port Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 Intel Rapid Storage Technology Intel Smart Response Technology ASMedia ASM1061 controller : 2x SATA 6Gb/s ports) black
Graphics	Integrated Graphics Processor- Intel HD Graphics support Multi-VGA output support : HDMI/DisplayPort 1.2 ports – Supports HDMI with max. resolution 4096 x 2160 @ 24 Hz – Supports DisplayPort with max. resolution 4096 x 2304 @ 60 Hz Maximum shared memory of 512 MB 3x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8 or x8/x4/x4, gray) 1x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x4 mode, gray) 2x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x1 (black)
Audio	ROG SupremeFX 2015 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC – SupremeFX Shielding Technology – ESS ES9023P DAC – TI RC4580 2VRMS audio OP AMPs – Gold-plated jacks – DTS Connect – Optical S/PDIF out port – Sonic SenseAmp – Sonic Studio II – Sonic Radar II
Interfaces	1x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port 1x DisplayPort 1x HDMI 1x LAN (RJ45) port 1x USB 3.1 (black)Type-C 3x USB 3.1 (red)Type-A 4x USB 3.0 (blue) 1x Optical S/PDIF out 5x Audio jacks 1x Clear CMOS button 1x USB BIOS Flashback Button 1x ASUS Wi-Fi GO! module (Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth v4.0/3.0+HS)
Form Factor	Extended ATX (EATX) 12 inch x 10.7 inch ( 30.5 cm x 27.2 cm )