Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Motherboard

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Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z is a gaming motherboard. As you can see the highlighted features below it shows clearly that you can build up one of the most advance system on this. Support for Intel Core i7 processor and ddr3 ram overclocking gives you enough power to play any high-end gpu supported games. Based on the Intel Z68, the Maximus IV GENE-Z is part of the series of high-end Asus, the now famous series ROG. This series aims to combine quality components designed to ensure a rock-solid design which is quiet attractive. ASUS always brings out interesting motherboards, so that also has a slightly different model this time found their way to us. This is ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z kept in micro-ATX format, based on the Intel Z68 chipset and offers many overclocking features. ASUS has the ability to output graphics of Sandy Bridge processors used, also has the Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) to speed up the disk using an SSD as a cache ready.

Asus has announced this board for the micro-ATX support. It is a kind of premium board in this range. The Maximus IV Gene-Z in which Z stands for a design principle. This series belongs to Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) for the LGA 1155 which was based on the P67 chipset. This was released some time before and widely accepted. Today we demand more higher in support of overclocking and stability. This board as more features which also include the benefits of the P67 chipset also incorporates the possibility of using the IGP processor (H67 chipset features), and other advantages, such as Intel Smart Response. The Maximus IV Gene-Z uses a design very similar to its predecessor, based on socket LGA1155, has 12 stages FEEDING VRM DIGI + Extreme Engine, two-phase VRM for DDR3 memory, dual channel, support for speeds up to DDR3-2000 MHz . As for expansion slots include two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (x8/x8 x16/NC or), support for NVIDIA SLI and AMD configurations CrossFireX, and an open-ended PCI-E x4. The Asus motherboard has two SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s, sound card includes a Supreme FX X-Fi 8-channel audio also an eSATA port, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0 and HDMI 1.4 second. Other unique features ROG series are voltage measurement points, iROG, ROG UEFI, among others.

It is equipped with ROG Connect. This technology will allow you to connect a laptop directly to the motherboard via a USB cable to monitor the BIOS, make adjustments in it. The Maximus IV GENE-Z has a PWM power stage 11 phases providing outstanding stability even under extreme overclocking. So you can push your CPU to its limits without fear of being limited by the instabilities of a standard motherboard.

Features :

• Intel Z68 Express Chipset : LGA1155 socket for 2nd Generation Intel Core i7/Core i5/Core i3 Processors
• Intel Smart Response Technology : Faster Access, Bigger Storage
• Lucid Virtu : Enjoy optimal onboard graphics and discrete GPU's performance by dynamic switching
• SLI/CrossFireX On-Demand : Board supports both Sli and Crossfire
• Extreme Engine Digi+ : Powerful combination of analog and digital design elements
• ROG Connect : Plug and Overclock - Tweak it the hardcore way.
• GPU.DIMM Post : Easily check the status of your graphics cards and memory in the BIOS.
• Mem TweakIt : Dynamic timing adjustments, DRAM efficiency gauge
• BIOS Print : One click, easily share your BIOS settings
• CPU Level Up : A simple click for instant upgrade
• SupremeFX X-Fi 2 : Play with ultra-real cinematic in-game surrounds sound
• ROG CPU-Z : Whole new design of CPU-Z
• Intel Gigabit LAN : Experience the fast network connectivity

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Performance :

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z is packaged in a small box which is not really catchy. You get all your connection and feature listed over the box. There is nothing much to figure out from the box. Small size boards do not have strongly influenced on the system assembly. From our point of view, most of the Maximus IV Gene-Z is placed correctly without much hassle but the only thing that could not interfere is the installation of the cooler. So if you have a quite massive cooling system then you have more space to configure it properly on the board. In many case this is never a issue. The maximum amount of memory installed on the motherboard is 32 GB which is impressive.

You can make beast out of this. The 32GB simply is kind of four strips of 8 GB capacity RAM each. As it should, Maximus IV Gene-Z supports all memory multipliers described in the specification of Intel, in addition, ASUS engineers have implemented support for 2200 MHz frequency, and however, this requires increasing the base frequency to 103 MHz.

PCI-Express lines at this time unlike the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme based on the Intel P67 are provided nForce 200 chip. So this can be a point of disappointment but you can go with a good gpu to eliminate this flaw. The only benefit you can derive out of this elimination of nForce 200 chip is that your system does not heat much. Your power usage is reduced to an extent. The board supports CrossFireX and NVIDIA SLI, when you activate one of which the two slots PCI-Express x16 run at x8. Of course, if you have one card, the first plug PCI-Ex x16 running at full speed.

Cooling support

The cooling system on this board is composed of two elements - the sink PCH Z68 and a couple of small radiators connected by a heat pipe, which cools the power supply system board. Installation of the elements of CO by using a small spring-loaded screws, and contact with the cooled chips occurs through a thin layer of thermal paste and thermal pads. The power supply system board is made of 12-phase scheme: 10 phase Vcore and 2 phases for memory controller. Similarly, CP, DDR-3 memory is powered by a 2-phase controller.

The small size of the motherboard does not mean that it is not powerful, in fact the power is enough to make any better hardware configuration available today. There is a difference is in the amount of expansion slots and connections or embedded chips.

Connectivity

Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Motherboard is compatible with SATA Revision 3.0. The latest evolution of the standard S-ATA (standard team almost majority of motherboards on the market), the SATA Revision 3.0 offers a data transfer rate up to 6.0 Gbps. The board also has support for USB 3.0 which gives you power to transfer data 10 times faster than the current USB 2.0. The USB 3.0 delivers transfer speeds up to 4.8 Gbps. Also this standard facilitates the connection of external devices, in fact USB 3.0 ports deliver a higher voltage and is therefore not necessary to hold a second USB port to power the device. Obviously this standard is fully compatible with USB 2.0 and you can connect your USB devices present without any problems.

The current number of SATA-connectors on Maximus IV Gene-Z in comparison to other full size competitors is less. The Asus motherboard has two SATA 6 Gb/s, four SATA 3 Gb/s. Usually the reduction will size surely cost in reduction of some stuff on the board. The red sata connectors denotes a speed of 6Gb / s and the grey one 3 Gb / sec. Here you have a choice to choose the speed of your data transfer as per the model of hard drive you are using. Power and reset buttons are located at the bottom of the board, not far from the slots PCI-Express, while the measuring point and the stress Go Button located next to memory slots. Note the presence of the POST-codes indicator - a very useful tool for troubleshooting, especially after experimenting with overclocking.

Conclusion

Gene-Z - is a top-end motherboard based on chipset Intel Z68, ready to work with the processor architecture Sandy Bridge. Its main difference from the top of motherboards is a competition form factor - micro-ATX. ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z doesn’t have a spare BIOS chip. This is an feature in many board which gives you full bios recovery when crashed. So if you try to overwrite and you do not have the bios backup your board can be dead permanently. Despite its size the micro-ATX Maximus IV GENE-Z has two ports OCI-Express 16x and supports both SLI as Crossfire, which allow both of them combine the power of multiple graphics cards in order to have an unparalleled graphics power. With his experience with the Hydra chip, which combines the dedicated graphics cards AMD and NVIDIA Lucidlogix devised a chip to operate in a complementary manner to the integrated graphics processor and graphics card. This gave rise to Virtu.

This virtualization system allows it to dynamically address the integrated graphics or dedicated graphics card based on the required load. So when the power of the graphics card is not required, Virtu switches to integrated graphics processor, making the graphics card idle. Consumption and ventilation that are then resolved at least to provide an environment more economical and quiet. In all it is a small motherboard which ha large equipment support like USB 3.0, eSATA and SATA 6 Gb / s are on board, the round two PCI Express x16 slots, the overall picture. With the Lucid Virtu technology to efficiently use the integrated graphics and a dedicated graphics card on the other end if required. It is a small but powerful motherboard.

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List of Ram Support on Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Motherboard

List of Processor Support on Asus Maximus IV GENE-Z Motherboard