ASUS Z170 Maximus VIII Formula Review

Asus showing their dominance at the high end, nice :)

Grats on the award too, you don't get many of them to the pound.
 
If only they had moved the first PICe slot one position up, or the last one down - so that 2 GFX cards could really get some air. Top cards always seems to heat up with only one slot spacing between the cards.

Does anyone one know why such a layout as i describe is hardly ever seen?

I hardly ever hear about people installing any other cards that graphics card(s), so I do not understand why the layout is not optimized for SLI / Crossfire.

I mean, after onboard sound became really good, on-board NIC's are standard - and the board all have so many connections : *WHAT* is it exactly people needs to have 'several slots' for ? I can understand ONE slot for "whatever", but more than that, i think is mostly left unused - and the only effect is destroying a goos SLI layout.
 
MiNo said:
If only they had moved the first PICe slot one position up, or the last one down - so that 2 GFX cards could really get some air. Top cards always seems to heat up with only one slot spacing between the cards.

Does anyone one know why such a layout as i describe is hardly ever seen?

I hardly ever hear about people installing any other cards that graphics card(s), so I do not understand why the layout is not optimized for SLI / Crossfire.

I mean, after onboard sound became really good, on-board NIC's are standard - and the board all have so many connections : *WHAT* is it exactly people needs to have 'several slots' for ? I can understand ONE slot for "whatever", but more than that, i think is mostly left unused - and the only effect is destroying a goos SLI layout.
Click to expand...

There are other one slot solutions like PCIe based storage that can't be ignored. With the majority of cards being 2 or 2.5 slot it leaves an equal spacing between the cards as well as between the bottom card and the PSU/floor in a 'typical' case, obviously there are lots of exceptions but that slot layout presents a logical set of options for the mainstream 16-lane CPU's. Running SLI cards 20mm further apart doesn't actual yield very big thermal gains, the top card will always be using warmer ambient air, flow restriction isn't really the issue.

Having the top location occupied with a full PCIe slot also makes laying out the rest of the board a little tighter particularly clearance between graphics card backplates and memory or IO. Issues worth making sacrificies for or overcoming when there are 40 PCI lanes available.

JR
 
Proper excited about this motherboard, and also the upcoming RGB BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPS that you can't talk about... but it's about bloody time they came out, and I hope that a standardised RGB pinout can be agreed between manufacturers so that either boards like this or standalone RGB controllers can control both motherboards, RGB LED strips and RGB BEEEEEEEEEEEEPS as well.

Really exciting times in the PC market right now.
 
First of all, finally! A colour indifferent-erm my Englishhh :P- motherboard.

THOSE POWER AND RESET SWITCHES THOUGH!!!! <3 <3
 
JR23 said:
There are other one slot solutions like PCIe based storage that can't be ignored. With the majority of cards being 2 or 2.5 slot it leaves an equal spacing between the cards as well as between the bottom card and the PSU/floor in a 'typical' case, obviously there are lots of exceptions but that slot layout presents a logical set of options for the mainstream 16-lane CPU's. Running SLI cards 20mm further apart doesn't actual yield very big thermal gains, the top card will always be using warmer ambient air, flow restriction isn't really the issue.

Having the top location occupied with a full PCIe slot also makes laying out the rest of the board a little tighter particularly clearance between graphics card backplates and memory or IO. Issues worth making sacrificies for or overcoming when there are 40 PCI lanes available.

JR
Click to expand...

I guess you are right. I just really want this 'free space' and hate that it will cost me *a LOT* to get, as only a E-ATX board with 4 PCIe 16x slots will deliver while half of the board will go unused. I and really cannot justify that, as PCIe 3.0 8x is plenty for even high-end SLI.

Perhaps I should look into a clever way to push some fresh/cool air to the top card.
 
Getting a Z170 board within a few days and have read and seen most of the reviews for this board. Would really appreciate if someone can fill me in on a few questions since i haven't built a pc in a while.

How does this compare against the Z170-Premium ?
Where i'm ordering from, premium is only 10$ more and seems to have better connectivity?

Is thunderbolt 3 even important? I'm not that familiar with it but i noticed it doesn't even get mentioned in many of the reviews i've seen. I really want to go for the VIII Formula but don't want to end up missing out on something just because of aesthetics.

In the video it was mentioned U.2 and M2 share bandwidth. On the Asus website both the Z170-Premium and Alpha Hero state that they can do raid-0. I'm guessing this one can't?
 
XanderV said:
Getting a Z170 board within a few days and have read and seen most of the reviews for this board. Would really appreciate if someone can fill me in on a few questions since i haven't built a pc in a while.

How does this compare against the Z170-Premium ?
Where i'm ordering from, premium is only 10$ more and seems to have better connectivity?

Is thunderbolt 3 even important? I'm not that familiar with it but i noticed it doesn't even get mentioned in many of the reviews i've seen. I really want to go for the VIII Formula but don't want to end up missing out on something just because of aesthetics.

In the video it was mentioned U.2 and M2 share bandwidth. On the Asus website both the Z170-Premium and Alpha Hero state that they can do raid-0. I'm guessing this one can't?
Click to expand...

They are probably both great boards, I ordered the Formula :D
Connectivity is good, but do you need a dual LAN or thunderbolt?
As for Thunderbolt, I guess it depends if you are using or will be/want to use thunderbolt products then it is interesting, but you can also use a PCIe thunderbolt expansion card.
U.2 and M2 raid-0, I have no idea.
Hope I helped you a bit :)
 
Archang3l said:
They are probably both great boards, I ordered the Formula :D
Connectivity is good, but do you need a dual LAN or thunderbolt?
As for Thunderbolt, I guess it depends if you are using or will be/want to use thunderbolt products then it is interesting, but you can also use a PCIe thunderbolt expansion card.
U.2 and M2 raid-0, I have no idea.
Hope I helped you a bit :)
Click to expand...

You did help a bit. You are right in that i'm probably never going to need dual LAN and probably not even thunderbolt.
Will probably go for Formula as well, since i can't even find a single review for the Z170-Premium and that board has been out for a while :confused:.
I just really wish they've done storage options like on the Alpha Hero and had a second U.2 instead of sata express :(
 
dukefan6842 said:
Great write-up, I've already got one pre-ordered. My one concern is with the enclosed m.2 slot. There has been some attention given to thermal throttling on some newer m.2 drives including the Samsung 950 Pro, and I'm worried that enclosing one in plastic with no ventilation could cause problems. I suppose if it was a problem I could just leave the m.2 cover off, but that's not ideal as it would take away from the board's aesthetics. Do you have any thoughts on this Tom?
Click to expand...

Idle it does 54C. Max 76C under benchmarks. Ordered some Arctic thermal padding so see whether that makes a difference.
 
I wasn't sure where to post this question, but I recently got this motherboard as I just simply fell in love with it... Although, one thing that annoys me is the "HD_LED" light just above the top SATA port, which blinks whenever there's activity on the HD.

Now I only have an Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2 SSD in my system and it's quite frankly, quite annoying when it flashes all over the Place. Anyone that knows if this can be turned off or so?...

Thanks,
Chrazey
 
Chrazey said:
I wasn't sure where to post this question, but I recently got this motherboard as I just simply fell in love with it... Although, one thing that annoys me is the "HD_LED" light just above the top SATA port, which blinks whenever there's activity on the HD.

Now I only have an Samsung 950 PRO 512GB M.2 SSD in my system and it's quite frankly, quite annoying when it flashes all over the Place. Anyone that knows if this can be turned off or so?...

Thanks,
Chrazey
Click to expand...

Have you looked in the BIOS?
 
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