Today we're going to review the latest top-line motherboard from ASUS, the ROG Z87 Maximus VI Extreme. For £330 this thing had better be good!
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ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Review
- Thread starter tinytomlogan
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SavageCupcake
New member
Dear oh dear....
murphy7801
New member
I find this totally unshocking tbh MSI and Gigabyte are stepping up there game ASUS hasnt done anything amazing in awhile.
OmegaStalker
New member
Black and red is getting a bit done now needs a couple years off now anyways, the one with the thermal armor ROG board looks loads better anyways if your into thermal armor otherwise the MSI with the hints of yellow look good and the gigabyte boards are always good performers with decent looks for once with good customer support at anyrate Asus its time to stop Appling it out and cut your prices
WillSK
Active member
true say. Asus doesn't seem to be taking many risks with their boards. Good ones at least (Gold motherboard anyone?)
MSI on the other hand have, improved price/performance ratios, removed unnecessary logos from motherboards, use quality black PCBs good components and have attractive BIOS layouts to boot (pun intended). Gigabyte too this generation seem to have produced some stunning looking boards, even more so with Tom's idea of alternating silver and coloured vengeance pro sticks.
MSI & Gigabyte really do appear to have it in the bag this time round.
chrismjurd
New member
hmm, seems a shame though, if its really as cumbersome as your stating, at that price point, damn. Asus dropped it this time, though maybe overall a good thing, some consumers go to other companies, and giving Asus a good kick up the arse.
It seems some of the other reviews are just sucking the big one for Asus, how many are on the payroll?
btw, how much is a "glorified" LCD fan Controller?
It seems some of the other reviews are just sucking the big one for Asus, how many are on the payroll?
btw, how much is a "glorified" LCD fan Controller?
SieB
New member
When it comes to 1155/1150 you don't need these higher priced boards, the mid range ones are plenty good.
The high end ones will just let you push the OC that little bit further, as in a couple of hundred mhz.
Asus has defo dropped the ball on this one though, the top MSI and Giga boards, even though are just as expensive, do actually offer that bit extra for the money. Even if it's not that much over the mid range ones, they do still offer that bit more.
Asus have lost their way with their 1150 boards, first the nasty black and gold boards and now this. They need to pull it back for the next lot of motherboards for Haswell-E and Broadwell next year.
Hope this doesn't turn into another NZXT situation :lol:
The high end ones will just let you push the OC that little bit further, as in a couple of hundred mhz.
Asus has defo dropped the ball on this one though, the top MSI and Giga boards, even though are just as expensive, do actually offer that bit extra for the money. Even if it's not that much over the mid range ones, they do still offer that bit more.
Asus have lost their way with their 1150 boards, first the nasty black and gold boards and now this. They need to pull it back for the next lot of motherboards for Haswell-E and Broadwell next year.
Hope this doesn't turn into another NZXT situation :lol:
Mgutierrez33
New member
I'm wondering if the wonky BIOS issues you guys had and the different BIOS that you got has anything to do with the frankly disappointing story with this board? Most likely not, but it's something to consider. Either way for that price there's no way you'd catch me spending on it. A shame, too. I have one of their Maximus IV Gene boards and it was priced right and performs admirably well. Oh well, they can't all be hits I suppose.
Excalabur50
Well-known member
Such a shame about Asus dropping the ball with there stuff, and with Haswell really makes you wonder if there is any point to buying ANY manufacturers high end boards especially the overclocking boards as the chips can't really overclock from what I'm hearing and FULL KUDOS to Tom for his honesty and unbiased opinion and not being scared to openly say it.
nippinpippin
New member
Fair Comparison Please.
Just a thought guys and gals, but I'd really like to know how the Gigabyte and MSi's premium priced boards perform in relation to the Asus Maximus VI Extreme before I condemn Asus to the scrap heap.
For example the Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force is £460!!! and the MSI Z87 XPower is £350, it may not just be Asus Maximus Extreme, which by the way is £340 (OCUK prices).
I'd really like to see the results to see if it is Asus or that the top end boards really are poor in terms of performance gains vs price.
Any chance of these being tested Tom?
By the way I have both Asus and MSi boards before I get any fanboy comments. I also think Asus has lost the plot with its range of Gold Z87 P series boards, my god who thought of that.:lol:
Just a thought guys and gals, but I'd really like to know how the Gigabyte and MSi's premium priced boards perform in relation to the Asus Maximus VI Extreme before I condemn Asus to the scrap heap.
For example the Gigabyte Z87X-OC Force is £460!!! and the MSI Z87 XPower is £350, it may not just be Asus Maximus Extreme, which by the way is £340 (OCUK prices).
I'd really like to see the results to see if it is Asus or that the top end boards really are poor in terms of performance gains vs price.
Any chance of these being tested Tom?
By the way I have both Asus and MSi boards before I get any fanboy comments. I also think Asus has lost the plot with its range of Gold Z87 P series boards, my god who thought of that.:lol:
This was a really interesting review. I've had countless Asus motherboards over the years and I really love their products but it's clear this is a total disaster. £330 is a lot to ask for an LGA1155 Haswell motherboard in my opinion even with Quad-SLI support and PCIe switches.
As you can see in my signature I have the Rampage IV Extreme and it came with that OC Key thing which is completely useless to me.
Just to go on a bit of a teeny-tiny rant, The Rampage IV Extreme (X79 board) cost about £340 retail I think. And it came with this OC Key which has a DVI pass-through to show you your overclocks, fan speeds and temperatures on your PC screen as an on-screen display. The key is so long that if you use it your PC case has to be like 9 inches away from the wall and it doesn't support Dual-Link DVI.
Now who in their right mind is going to spend £340 + £220-£440 on a Mobo + CPU on X79 and not be using a 27" 2560x1440 or 30" 2560x1600 display? The reason I say this is because those displays use DVI-Dual Link, it has twice as many metal contacts on the DVI connector as normal DVI and thus makes those screens completely incompatible with the OC Key.
So not only do you need to move your case 9 inches forward, you need to be using a 24" or smaller display and they make you pay for that key thing regardless if you can use it or not.
It is gimmicks like that which mar their otherwise good reputation and I was pretty disappointed to see them bundling yet more useless shit like that with this Maximus VI Extreme. Not only does it cost you money to get something none of us would use but it is poorly designed with the cover easily coming off and the SATA cable at the bottom.
This board and the general direction Asus has been going in for the past year seems at odds with who they should be. Gimmicky rubbish, overpriced underperforming boards. And I agree with tom that they are seriously misjudging the market by aiming these Republic of Gamer boards at hardcore overclockers, that makes no sense to me because people who are going for record attempts don't want all this extra fluff. Gigabytes OC boards get what hardcore overclockers want they keep it as sparse as possible as not to burden the processor with extra faff, sticking things like sub zero temperature sensors on these RoG boards makes no sense to me whatsoever.
If I was advising Asus right now I'd say get rid of these Overclocking accessories, they are a waste of time and make a new brand for hardcore overclockers, sticking RoG in with that crowd is doing a disservices to both camps.
As you can see in my signature I have the Rampage IV Extreme and it came with that OC Key thing which is completely useless to me.
Just to go on a bit of a teeny-tiny rant, The Rampage IV Extreme (X79 board) cost about £340 retail I think. And it came with this OC Key which has a DVI pass-through to show you your overclocks, fan speeds and temperatures on your PC screen as an on-screen display. The key is so long that if you use it your PC case has to be like 9 inches away from the wall and it doesn't support Dual-Link DVI.
Now who in their right mind is going to spend £340 + £220-£440 on a Mobo + CPU on X79 and not be using a 27" 2560x1440 or 30" 2560x1600 display? The reason I say this is because those displays use DVI-Dual Link, it has twice as many metal contacts on the DVI connector as normal DVI and thus makes those screens completely incompatible with the OC Key.
So not only do you need to move your case 9 inches forward, you need to be using a 24" or smaller display and they make you pay for that key thing regardless if you can use it or not.
It is gimmicks like that which mar their otherwise good reputation and I was pretty disappointed to see them bundling yet more useless shit like that with this Maximus VI Extreme. Not only does it cost you money to get something none of us would use but it is poorly designed with the cover easily coming off and the SATA cable at the bottom.
This board and the general direction Asus has been going in for the past year seems at odds with who they should be. Gimmicky rubbish, overpriced underperforming boards. And I agree with tom that they are seriously misjudging the market by aiming these Republic of Gamer boards at hardcore overclockers, that makes no sense to me because people who are going for record attempts don't want all this extra fluff. Gigabytes OC boards get what hardcore overclockers want they keep it as sparse as possible as not to burden the processor with extra faff, sticking things like sub zero temperature sensors on these RoG boards makes no sense to me whatsoever.
If I was advising Asus right now I'd say get rid of these Overclocking accessories, they are a waste of time and make a new brand for hardcore overclockers, sticking RoG in with that crowd is doing a disservices to both camps.
svinogidiot
New member
review roundup at asus homepage
Just had a look at the different reviews posted there. The 5 reviews manages to compare the maximus to as much as 2 (two) different z87 motherboards...
one is the intel one, which sucks, and the other is the asus gryphon z87 which delivers performance within 1 percent of the maximus and often to the maximus disadvantage.
So a huge thumbs up from me for actually comparing it to z87 boards, instead of saying how much better it is compared to a z77 or older.
http://rog.asus.com/241982013/maximus-vi/maximus-vi-extreme-review-roundup/
Just had a look at the different reviews posted there. The 5 reviews manages to compare the maximus to as much as 2 (two) different z87 motherboards...
one is the intel one, which sucks, and the other is the asus gryphon z87 which delivers performance within 1 percent of the maximus and often to the maximus disadvantage.
So a huge thumbs up from me for actually comparing it to z87 boards, instead of saying how much better it is compared to a z77 or older.
http://rog.asus.com/241982013/maximus-vi/maximus-vi-extreme-review-roundup/
murphy7801
New member
TBH the last board I liked from ASUS was the rampage extreme 3 maybe the black edition of it aswell. Sure there sabertooth range seems solid but they dont seem to take any risk's MSI's changing there product range into 3 colour coded catorgies was big. Mpower series was bold move colour and market wise but I like it. Asus dont seem to have anything but revised designs from previous gens and seem to be looking for ways to make short cuts.
son of spanner
New member
asus do make some nice things if I was asus I don't think id have the balls to ask anyone to buy this mobo
I hope thay don't take what tom said to hart and go back to building good mobo,s
I hope thay don't take what tom said to hart and go back to building good mobo,s
