ASUS ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z Review

[siopao1984]

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ASUS ROG Maximus IV GENE-Z Review by VR-Zone.com


Introduction

Today we take a look at one of the best priced Sandy Bridge boards to date, the ASUS ROG Maximus IV Gene-Z, a powerful overclocking board in a tiny package.

To begin we would like to show you a block diagram provided by Intel, of how the Z68 PCH(platform controller hub) connects to the rest of the system.



Compared to the earlier P67, the Z68 chipset adds Intel HD Graphics support, as well as Intel Smart Responce Technology(SSD Caching). Intel probably should have skipped P67 and just come out with the Z68 PCH. We see that ASUS has taken the better route and used the more expensive Intel PHY for LAN connectivity, and avoided the cheaper Realtek chipsets we see on other boards. This motherboard also has Lucid Virtu technology which allows for switchable graphics, but only a HDMI port is used, so maximum resolution will be 1920x1080 for those of you who want to use i-Mode Virtu to save power.


Specifications:


CPU Support
Intel® Socket 1155 for 2nd Generation Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core™ i3 Processors
Supports Intel® 32 nm CPU
Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
* The Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 support depends on the CPU types.

Chipset
Intel Z68

Graphics
Integrated Graphics Processor
VGA output support : HDMI port
- Supports HDMI with max. resolution 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz

Memory
4 x DIMM, Max. 32GB, DDR3 2200(O.C.)/2133(O.C.)/1866(O.C.)/1600/1333 Hz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
* Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.
* Refer to ASUSTeK Computer Inc. or user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
* Due to CPU behavior, DDR3 2200/2000/1800 MHz memory module will run at DDR3 2133/1866/1600 MHz frequency as default.

Multi-GPU Support
Supports NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology
Supports AMD CrossFireX™ Technology
Supports LucidLogix® Virtu™ Technology

Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x
1 x PCIe 2.0 x4

Storage
Intel® Z68 chipset :
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
4 x SATA 3Gb/s port(s), gray
Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10
Support Intel® Smart Response Technology on 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor family
JMicron® JMB362 controller : *1
2 x eSATA 3Gb/s port(s), red

LAN
Intel®, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller

Audio
SupremeFX X-Fi 2 built-in 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Supports : Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
Audio Feature :
- X-Fi® Xtreme Fidelity™
- EAX® Advanced™ HD 5.0
- THX® TruStudio PRO™
- Creative ALchemy
- Blu-ray audio layer Content Protection
- Optical S/PDIF out port(s) at back panel

USB
ASMedia® USB 3.0 controller :
4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, blue, 2 at mid-board)
Intel® Z68 chipset :
12 x USB 2.0 port(s) (8 at back panel, black, 4 at mid-board)

FireWire
-

ASUS Unique Features
ASUS TurboV EVO :
- CPU Level Up
ASUS Exclusive Features :
- MemOK!
- Onboard Button : Power/Reset/Clr CMOS (at back IO)
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution :
- ASUS Fan Xpert
ASUS EZ DIY :
- ASUS Q-Shield
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS MyLogo 2
ASUS Q-Design :
- ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
- ASUS Q-Slot
- ASUS Q-DIMM
- ASUS Q-Connector)

Overclocking Features
ROG Connect
Extreme Engine Digi+ :
- 8 -phase CPU power design + 4 -phase iGPU power design
- 2 -phase Memory power design
Mem TweakIt
ROG Extreme OC kit :
- Debug LED
ProbeIt
UEFI BIOS features :
- ROG BIOS Print
- GPU.DIMM Post
GameFirst
iROG
Extreme Tweaker
Loadline Calibration
Overclocking Protection :
- COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX)
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port(s)
1 x HDMI
2 x eSATA 3Gb/s
1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
2 x USB 3.0
8 x USB 2.0 (white port can be switched to ROG Connect)
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
6 x Audio jack(s)
1 x Clear CMOS button(s)

Internal I/O Connectors
1 x USB 3.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 2 USB 3.0 port(s)
2 x USB 2.0 connector(s) support(s) additional 4 USB 2.0 port(s)
2 x SATA 6Gb/s connector(s)
4 x SATA 3Gb/s connector(s)
2 x CPU Fan connector(s)
3 x Chassis Fan connector(s)
1 x S/PDIF out header(s)
1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s)
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector(s)
1 x Front panel audio connector(s) (AAFP)
1 x System panel(s)
6 x ProbeIt Measurement Points
1 x Power-on button(s)
1 x Reset button(s)
1 x ROG Connect switch(es)
1 x Go Button(s)
1 x Clear CMOS jumper(s)

Accessories
User's manual
I/O Shield
2 x SATA 3Gb/s cable(s)
1 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
1 x SLI bridge(s)
1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
1 x ROG Connect cable(s)
1 x Cable ties pack(s)
1 x ROG theme label(s)
1 x 12 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)

BIOS
64Mb Flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI2.0a Multi-Language BIOS

Manageability
WfM2.0, DMI2.0, WOL by PME, WOR by PME, PXE

Support Disc
Support DVD:
- Drivers and applications
* ASUS AI Suite II
* ROG CPU-Z
* ROG GameFirst Utility
* Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 Utility
* ROG Mem TweakIt Utility
* ASUS AI Charger+
* DAEMON Tools Pro Standard
* Kaspersky® Anti-Virus 1-year license

Form Factor
uATX Form Factor
9.6 inch x 9.6 inch ( 24.4 cm x 24.4 cm )

[siopao1984]

A Closer Look at the Mini Maximus

As you might expect ASUS has used a smaller more fitting box for the Maximus IV GENE-Z.



In the box we have a long list of accessories, many of them unique to the ROG series.

User's manual I/O Shield
2 x SATA 3Gb/s cable(s)
1 x SATA 6Gb/s cable(s)
1 x SLI bridge(s)
1 x Q-connector(s) (2 in 1)
1 x ROG Connect cable(s)
1 x Cable ties pack(s)
1 x ROG theme label(s)
1 x 12 in 1 ROG Cable Label(s)
The lack of a USB 3.0 bracket is not surprising as it is pretty hard to find a sub $200 Z68 motherboard that comes with one.



The mini SLi/CrossFire cable is a nice touch.



As you can see the board's PCB is pretty packed, which is not a bad thing. It is better to have features that are supported by some sort of dedicated hardware, rather than just software emulation. The first PCI-E 16X slot is a full 16X slot, the second is a PCI-E 8X slot. We also have a PCI-E 4X connected to the PCH. Four ASMT 1440 PCI-E switches switch 8 PCI-E lanes between the first slot and second for 8X/8X SLI/CF which is the preferred way to run two way SLi on LGA1155, something its full-sized big brother the Maximus IV Extreme can do as well. We have two 4-pin fan connectors side by side on top of the board for dual fan configuration, something people demand these days. We also have 3 other 4-pin fan connectors, but none on the right edge of the board, but one is in the lower right-hand corner.

Two ASMedia ASM1042 controllers provide for a total of 4 x USB 3.0 ports, two are located on the back panel, and two can be provided by the single internal header, positioned in one of the best locations we have seen it, on the right hand edge of the motherboard which is perfect for a USB 3.0 front panel.

Back Panel I/O:

PS/2 Combo
8 x USB 2.0
2 x USB 3.0
Clear CMOS
ROG Connect
RJ-45 LAN
2 x eSATA 3.0 GB/s
S/PDIF Digital
HDMI
7.1 HD Audio



The back panel is pretty standard, we like to see that clear CMOS button here, but a button on the board itself for benching wouldn't be bad location either.



Like its big brother, we see that the GENE-Z has a nice VR heatsink, styled in the same ROG fashion as the Maximus IV Extreme-Z, but missing a splash of red. The contact between the heatsinks and the MOSFETs is very tight, and the thermal pad used definitely had a strong impression left by the pressure, the best we have seen yet. ASUS opted to use the Lottes socket their Maximus IV lineup which have been proven to be generally more reliable.

On the power circuitry front we have a 8+4 phase voltage regulator design, 8 phases for the CPU Cores, and 4 for the iGPU.



We see a total of 12 inductors, but that is where the similarities between the Maximus IV Extreme-Z and the Maximus IV Gene-Z voltage regulators stops. Instead of the high quality copper top Infineon MOSFETs, Asus opted to use a 3 transistor design - Two PH5030AL TrenchMOS for the low-side and a single PH7030AL TrenchMOS for the high-side. You can see the rest of the low-side MOSFETs on the back of the board. The 4 phases for the iGPU just use the typical two transistor design, but with the same MOSFETs. The same design per phase is found on the P8P67-Deluxe.



Asus has used some customized ICs here to run the VR. Above we have a very special IC, probably specifically made for ASUS, it is a way of doubling the number of phases the PWM can output. In this case 4 PWM channels(phases) are turned into 8 channels, this little IC divides the switching frequency in half and then also has two integrated drivers to run two phases. So this little tiny IC can run 2 phases from one PWM channel. GIGABYTE uses a very similar method(such as on the G1.Sniper.2), the IC they use is made by Intersil, their PWM manufacturer, so this one is probably made by CHiL, as that is ASUS's PWM manufacturer.



That brings us to the ASUS EPU, a rebranded and probably modified CHiL PWM. The reason we say its modified, is becuase it has a total of 56 pins, 8 more than the CHiL 8326 (6 phase, 48pin), but the same as the CHiL 8328 (8 phase, 56pin). We see no reason to use the 8 phase PWM over the 6 phase becuase of the use of only 4 PWM channels, but this PWM should be the 8 phase beucase of the pin count. The PWM features phase dropping, as well as high switching frequencies up over 1mhz, which has a corresponding setting in the BIOS of up to 550khz, which is the result of the small IC that doubles the phases. All in all its a pretty nice VR, but it's missing the NEC Proadlizer capacitor which can be found on most ROG products, not that we expect that kind of equipment on a sub $200 motherboard anyway. ASUS claims up to 250A output with their design.



Moving on we have the VCCSA/VCCIO VR which provides power for the System Agent and IMC. It is two phases powered by the uP6203B. What we found odd, but kind of fitting was the fact that the VCCIO and VCCSA are combined into a single voltage in the BIOS, of course that makes sense coming from a single VR. We think this was done to save space on the board, and since no one really needs to tune the VCCSA, it should have zero performance impact.



Moving on we have the prominent GO button which can load a preset OC profile on in real time. This along with voltage read points are prominent features that every ROG series board has. Unlike its big brother, the Gene-Z lacks the cable connections that we usually find along with the read points. This board also has Q-LEDs which can tell you what piece of hardware is causing problems or missing. The memory is powered by a two phase uP6203B, and the same MOSFETs and inductors we have for the main VR.



Above we have the well placed USB 3.0 connector in red, as well as 6 SATA 3GB/s ports, the red ones are SATA 6GB/s from the Intel PCH. The eSATA 3GB/s on the back panel is powered by a JMB362 controller.



Here we have some more proprietary ICs, a TPU IC which works in unison with the EPU to provide real time hardware overclocking. The iROG IC is probably used for the ROG connect feature this board has.



The nuvoTon IC is a SuperIO. In this corner we have the power button, reset button, as well as a POST Code display, which is all too handy when troubleshooting a bad OC or hardware issue. On this board ASUS decided to include a PCI-E 4X slot, and this 4X slot is not connected to the CPU instead its connected to 4 of the PCH's 8 PCI-E 2.0 lanes. Instead of 1X slots, we get one 4X, which in this case might come in handy as it is not going to take away PCI-E lanes from the first two 16X slots.



In the ASUS advertising we see that they show a picture of this corner of the board with a Creative Audio IC, but that is clearly not the case, as is on most ROG boards. The Creative XF-I suite is in software form, and the board instead uses the Realtek ALC889 Audio Codec, which in itself is not bad at all. It can provide HD Audio along with 108dB SNR and Blu-Ray playback, commonly used on high end motherboards. We hope to see a board from ASUS with the Creative hardware we see with the Rampage 3 Extreme Black Edition and the GIGABYTE Sniper 2, as we think that would be pretty well paired with the LGA1155 platform. The audio codec is well taken care of by a plethora of solid capacitors.



The hardware on this board is nothing short of impressive, packed into such a small form factor, this board packs a large punch. At its target price its pretty hard to pass up the nice VR and the ROG features, but lets take a look at how it performs.

[siopao1984]

The BIOS

The full featured UEFI BIOS on all the ASUS LGA1155 boards is nothing short of impressive. It is full featured, and can do everything and much more than any traditional style BIOS such as screenshots and overclocking profiles. The ability to use a mouse in the BIOS is a key feature that new users will find handy, as the UEFI GUI makes using the BIOS a hassle no more. ASUS claims that boot times are improved as well, and we found the BIOS to be pretty snappy.

Extreme Tweaker Menu:







The BLCK Skew is unique to the ROG boards, and a feature that benchers cannot live without. What it does is allow a delay for the CPU and PCH and PCI clock signals to align correctly. Due to the different positions of these components on the boards(further away from each other) their clock signals need to be delayed to give the overclocker the most optimum BLCK frequency.



GPU DIMM POST allows the user to monitor their GPU from the BIOS, saving time when benching to make sure everything is ok before boot.



CPU Features (SpeedStep, Turbo Mode)



VRM control, no doubt the most elaborate in the industry.



Advanced configuration menu:









ROG Connect:



Monitoring:





BIOS Flashing Window:



The BIOS will automatically locate the BIOS ROM file on your USB drive, making flashing your BIOS very simple.



Above you can see how the OC profiles are stored.



We did face an annoying issue during testing - some of the gaming-grade mice we used (Razer and Steelseries) exhibited strange issues or did not work at all in the UEFI Bios.

[siopao1984]

Software:

ASUS has provided a very nice bundle of software. Their ROG series software allows for some very intricate setting adjustments, as well as a very attractive look. The TPU IC we showed earlier is what drives the real-time overclocking abilites, and as you can see, one can ever control VR attributes.



Next we have the monitoring graphs, notice that current is even listed! that is something that interests overclockers a lot, as power usage isn't a number we usually care about. Of course we don't know how accurate it is, but I am pretty sure the PWM that monitors the current has a good idea.



Overclocking:

Overclocking on this board is very simple. For beginners, you can actually select a pre-overclocked presets of 4.2GHz or 4.6GHz . We were able to boot on the max frequency of 5200MHz on a i7-2600K (stock frequency 3.4GHz), same as on our other boards. I am sure we could have pushed a bit higher as well, but we were on a Cooler Master Hyper 212, and we didn't want to burn the CPU. A Vcore of 1.55v isn't a voltage we will run benchmarks at either, espcially not on a 3 pipe air cooler.

What did suprise us was the max BLCK we were able to achieve, as we were able to do a whole 1mhz higher than on other boards we have tested. Now 1MHz might not sound like a lot, but when you are benching and you are short a few MHz and limited by mutlipliers, then every mhz of BLCK counts. Remember 1MHz at 59x multiplier=59mhz.

The overclocking capabilities of this board are pretty extreme, and it can easily be considered a benching board.

[siopao1984]

Test Setup:



Benchmarks:

[siopao1984]

Conclusion



The Maximus 4 Gene-Z has to be one of the best priced ROG boards ever built. While it is in a uATX form factor, it still packs a plethora of features into a small space. Some users think that more phases equals better power delivery, but that is not always the case, and it is certainly not the case here. ASUS's VR design is one of the best, and suits the needs of overlockers and system builders alike by offering power saving features along with some nifty VR controls. A lot of thought has gone into this board, as we saw with the Maximus 4 Extreme, the USB 3.0 connection was right under the VR heatsink, but ASUS moved it to the edge on the Gene-Z, exactly where it should be. The amount of accessories that are bundled with this board is not surprising in the least, as it is a ROG series board. We also enjoyed having a nice UEFI BIOS for a change, and we hope it catches on to every manufacturer as it really is more feature filled and elegant.

In the benchmarks, we saw that the ASUS Maximus 4 Gene-Z kept pace with the full-sized Gigabyte G1 Sniper 2 most of the time, but it lost by a small margin in a few 3D benchmarks. That is probably due to the fact that the Sniper 2 has on-board audio and NIC that have its own memory to save CPU polling resources.

However this board isn't perfect, in fact no board is perfect. The fact that the touted Creative audio is actually run by a common Realtek Audio codec is a bit displeasing. But the Creative software suite is still there, and the codec isn't bad at all. The board is also missing some of the ROG features that its big brother has, such as the PCI-E switches, LN2 cold bug mode, ROG Bluetooth, and even the ROG special features manual. Of course there needs to be some sort of feature differentiation for the $160 price difference.







Retail Price: S$299 / US$179 / PHP 10,465

[aintsick]

nyc! future board nku hehehe...

[cointoss]

nndota sa cute oi