ASUS MAXIMUS III Formula Review

[sacha35]

Introduction
ASUS MAXIMUS III Formula
ASUS has always been at the forefront of motherboard innovation and their track record lately certainly speaks for itself being The No1 Motherboard Manufacturer in the World, while they are just as well known for affordable solutions.

I've always been impressed with the features that come on Asus' "Republic of Gamers" motherboards and the Maximus Formula III is certainly no exception to the ROG trademark, Complete with full features such as ROG Connect, MemOK and Probe-It.

In today’s review I will be taking a look at the newest board to be graced with the ROG name (the Maximus III Formula) ASUS have added some nice touches and BIOS refinements plus unique features to this board, the Maximus III Formula gets a load of features that are aimed squarely at the gamer and hardcore enthusiast so Let's take a Look around this board and see what it has to offer.


Features
Republic of Gamers
Green ASUS
Intel LGA 1156 Lynnfield Processor
Intel P55 Express Chipset
SLI/Crossfire On Demand
Dual Channel DDR3 2133 (OC) MHz
PCIe 2.0
ROG Connect
GameFirst
MemPerfect
Speeding HDD
iROG
CPU Level Up
MemOK
Extreme Tweaker
ProbeIt
Voltimeter LED
Component Overheat Protection EX (COP EX)
Loadline Calibration
SupremeFX X-Fi sound card
Noise filter
Onboard switches
Q-Fan Plus
Kapersky Anti-Virus
ASUS EZ DIY
ASUS Q-Shield
ASUS Q-Connector
ASUS OC Profile
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS EPU
ASUS CPR

Click link to see slide show.






Specifications
CPU
Intel Socket 1156 Core™ i7 Processor/Core™ i5 Processor/ Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology Refer to www.asus.com for Intel CPU support list

Chipset
Intel® P55 Express Chipset

Memory
4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR3 2133(O.C.)/2000(O.C.)/1800(O.C.)/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
Hyper DIMM support is subject to the physical characteristics of individual CPUs.

Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
Please refer to www.asus.com or user manual for the Memory QVL(Qualified Vendors List).

Multi-GPU Support
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (red) support single at x16 or dual at x8 mode
1 x PCIe x16 (white) supports at x4 mode
2 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI 2.2
Supports NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology / ATI® CrossFireX™ Technology

Storage
6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
Intel Matrix Storage Technology Support RAID 0,1,5,10
JMicron® 322 controller and 2 x JMicron® 363 controllers:
2 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (Red) supporting Hardware RAID 0 and 1 (SPD_HDD1 + SPD_HDD2)
1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
2 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (White) - SATA_ODD1 + SATA_ODD2

LAN
Realtek® RTL8110SC Gigabit LAN controller
GameFirst

Audio
SupremeFX X-Fi discrete Audio Card
8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
EAX® Advanced™ HD 4.0
X-Fi CMSS®-3D
X-Fi Crystalizer™
Creative ALchemy
Supports 1 x S/PDIF out header
Supports Coaxial/Optical S/PDIF out ports on rear
Blu-ray support

IEEE 1394
2 x 1394a ports (1 port at back I/O, 1 port onboard)

USB
14 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (5 ports at mid-board, 9 ports at back panel)

Overclocking Features
Extreme Engine Power Design
16-phase CPU power
3-phase VTT power
3-phase Memory power
ROG Connect
CPU Level Up
Memory Level Up
Speeding HDD
iROG
Extreme Tweaker
Loadline Calibration
Intelligent overclocking tools:
ASUS AI Booster Utility
O.C. Profile
Overclocking Protection:
COP EX (Component Overheat Protection - EX)
Voltiminder LED
ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)

Special Features
MemOK!
MemPerfect
ProbeIt
Onboard Switches: Power / Reset / Clr CMOS (at rear)
Q-Fan Plus
ASUS EPU
ASUS MyLogo3
ASUS Fan Xpert
ASUS EZ Flash 2
ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
ASUS Q-Connector
ASUS Q-LED (CPU, DRAM, VGA, Boot Device LED)
ASUS Q-Slot
ASUS Q-DIMM

Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x External SATA
1 x IEEE 1394a
1 x LAN(RJ45) port
1 x Clr CMOS switch
1 x ROG Connect On/Off switch
1 x PS/2 Keyboard port (purple)
9 x USB 2.0/1.1 (1 port for ROG Connect)

Internal I/O Connectors
3 x USB connectors support additional 5 USB 2.0 ports (1 port reserved for ROG Connect @ rear)
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
10 x SATA connectors: 2 x Speeding HDD SATA connectors (Red) / 2 x SATA_ODD (White) / 6 x standard SATA connectors (Gray)
8 x Fan connectors: 1 x CPU / 1 x PWR / 3 x Chassis / 3 x Optional
3 x thermal sensor connectors
1 x 24-pin ATX Power connector
1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
1 x En/Dis-able Clr CMOS header
5 x ProbeIt measurement points
1 x ROG light connector
1 x Go Button
System panel connector

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


Manageability
WOL by PME,WOR by PME,PXE

Accessories
User's manual
1 x I/O Shield
1 x ROG Connect Cable
1 x SLI Cable
1 x SupremeFX X-Fi Audio Card
1 x 2-in-1 ASUS Q-Connector Kit
3 x 2-in-1 SATA signal cables
1 x 2-port USB2.0 + ESATA module
1 x Cable Ties
1 x ROG theme label
1 x 12-in-1 ROG Cable Label

Support Disc
ASUS PC Probe II
ASUS AI Suite
ASUS Update
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus
Support DVD: Drivers and applications
Sound Blaster X-Fi Utility
ASUS TurboV EVO utility

ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )


Front, inside and rear cover of the packaging that houses the ASUS MAXIMUS III Formula.


Accessories and Extras.
6 SATA Data cables
6 HDD Labels
2 USB port/1 Firewire port bracket
USB Cable
Q-Shield
Q-Connector
SupremeFX Sound card
Driver CD
Crossfire Bridge
User Guide



The ASUS ROG Maximus III is the ROG P55 based motherboards from ASUS is built with the gamer and hardcore enthusiast in mind and includes features that set it apart from the rest of the ASUS P55 series boards.

The first thing we notice is the colour scheme used it is black and red, The Maximus III board includes features you will not see on the non ROG line P7P55D series such as ROG Connect, Game First and the Go button. Stack Cool construction is used on the Maximus using a 2oz copper layer for better electrical conductivity and heat distribution.









On the back side of the board you can see the 1156 socket back plate as well as the fact that the other heatsinks are bolted on to the motherboard.





The Maximus III Formula has rows of low-profile solid-state polymer aluminium capacitors next to the VRM heatsinks on the 16+3 phase power circuit which incorporate various power saving features to increase its efficiency and improve electrical stability when overclocked



The heatsink in the middle lights up when the board is powered up.



ASUS have included four DIMM Slots which can accommodate up to 16GB allowing DDR3-2133 (OC) memory to be installed, the memory controller is on the CPU, meaning that the Core i5 CPU will natively support DDR3-1333MHz. memory, but the board will support much higher clocks when overclocked.

the memory retention method is a bit different from what has been used in the past. On one end the locking mechanism pushes straight down rather than rotating into place



ProbeIt, The side edge of the board has five positions where you can measure voltages using a multi-meter, the voltage measurement points are available in an easy to use location and include check points for the CPU pll volts, PCH volts, the CPU Vcore, Dram and the IMC volts, you will also notice some small LED's to the left, The LEDs are part of the Q LED system that can help with diagnostics.



The Go button automatically overclocks the CPU when in Windows to a given preset with the press of the button.



The heasink over the PCH is massive on the bottom side of the ROG Maximus III Formula



The P55 Express chipset natively support six SATA ports which this board has in the sideways facing orientation. This prevents a large video card from interfering with the SATA ports .



ASUS have also included six further SATA ports, two next to the memory slots



Two Speed HDD SATA ports on the bottom side of the board.



The 1394a Header can be connected to the PCI bracket or case



There are three full-length that supports both ATI Quad-GPU CrossfireX and nVidia Quad-GPU SLI PCI Express 2.0 x16 (red) support single at x16 or dual at x8 mode and PCIe x16 (white) supports at x4 mode slots on the board, The board also has two PCI Express x1 slots and two legacy PCI slots.



Easy access to the power and reset buttons



Onboard sound on the motherboard is provided by a Supreme X-Fi add-in card that is installed in the first slot of the motherboard, The card offers support for Creative Lab’s EAX 4.0 effects, which is more advanced than the 2.0 effects supported by most other onboard audio solutions from Realtek.



The Rear I/O
9 x USB ports, 1 x USB port for the ROG Connect, a Clear CMOS button, a IEEE-1394 port, a RJ-45 jack for the onboard Gigabit LAN, PS/2 keyboard port and an external SATA port.



The Bios
Click link to see slide show.




Test System
Intel Core i7 LGA-1156 870 CPU Stock Air cooled.
4GB Corsair CMGS2GX3M1A2200C8 ES1 Cas 8 memory running at 2200MHz
ASUS maximus III Formula
ASUS MATRIX GTX285/HTDI/1GD3/A
Samsung HD322HJ
Enermax 1000W PSU
Windows 7 32-bit stock install with no tweaks.

Before running any tests i needed to find out what the system was capibale of give my in regards clocks as only stock air cooled parts are used at this time.

Intel Core i7 LGA-1156 870
Maximum 221 Bclock using Intel's Stock Air cooled heatsink



Maximum CPU 4584MHz using Intel's Stock Air cooled heatsink


4GB Corsair CMGS2GX3M1A2200C8 ES1 Cas 8 memory




Now to see what sort of speeds I could get from the Air cooled memory.
2408MHz Cas 8, not to bad for air cooled sticks





Now for the Tests

• ROG Connect tests ( This is done from another PC or laptop)
• Wprime 1024m and 32m
• PiFast
• Supper PI 32M
• Cinebench
• Everest catch and memory
• 3Dmark 03
• 3Dmark 05
• 3Dmark 06
• 3Dmark Vantage

RC Connect tweakIT


RC Poster display


Wprime 1024m and 32m


PiFast


Supper PI 32M


Cinebench


Everest catch and memory


3Dmark 03


3Dmark 05


3Dmark 06


3Dmark Vantage


Conclusion
What you have with the ROG Maximus III Formula is a board that looks ready to carry the ROG nameplate into the next generation with its sexy looks and full features, as you'd expect from the Asus board, the Maximus III has a superb layout and all the connectors on the board are just where you'd expect to find them, it is full of features with Speeding HDD, GameFirst A unique traffic shaping technology and SupremeFX X-Fi that delivers the most realistic and accurate audio.

The range of ROG motherboards from ASUS has always been a favourite with the extreme overclocker and the Maximus III offers a high degree of overclocking features and the ability to tweak the board using ROG connect, which is the same sort of technology that is used in Formula one teams use to tune their cars so In terms of features the ASUS Maximus III Formula board delivers with CPU Level Up and MemPerfect settings that set it apart from the competition.

the performance is there as well but Just when I thought that things couldn't get any better than my recently reviewed Asus P7P55D Deluxe motherboard, Asus prove me totally wrong with the Maximus III Formula, Not only does the Maximus III have all the best features of every Asus "Republic of Gamers" board before it, but it also adds a multitude of extra BIOS options, tweaking tools and insane voltage selections.

Overall, for the serious overclocker going the P55 route, this is the board to beat, The results in all the tests that I did were better than the P7P55D Deluxe motherboard even when I used a core i5 750 CPU, not by much but every little helps and the overall features and settings are better suited to overclocking, don't get me wrong the P7P55D Deluxe motherboard is a great motherboard that will appeal to many users, but if overclocking is your thing then it has to be the ASUS Maximus III Formula for the reasons stated above.

[hiwa]

thanks for sharing sacha
love to see black and red match

what you think about memory config? better than other asus board u tested?

[sholvaco]

Very nice. Thank you for the review.

Could you check something though:
If you've got any PCIe x1 cards longer than the included audio module could you please try fitting one in the first x1 slot to see if it clears the "NB" heatsink? Thanks in advance.

[Bojamijams]

No bad words to say about it? Come on, it can't be perfect. Its asus after all

[humeyboy]

1st Thanks for review.

Asus are getting lame, bare min on the Rear I/O, the usual 1 ESATA (used to be 2 on the 680I) and now only 1 NIC after years of all High end Asus Mobos having 2 NIC's.

Asus should not have stuck that massive ugly Heatsink on the bottom of all their P55 Mobos, it is not needed as they run cool, other vendors use a smaller Heatpipes connected one and looks far better.

The MSI is probably the nicest looking P55 but they don't perform the same.

I also see on all the P55's and new CPU's we are back to 1.4v+ just to get 4GHZ, same as the 65nm CPU days with E6850 and Q6600 (if you got lucky and even got 4GHZ on them), also this issue about PCI-E clock being tied to the new CPU's and can rise as you OC.

Think I will wait on 32nm and new Steppings next time around and see if it drops to 1.1v (ish) like current E8600 and Q9650's.

I have read all week and not 1 Mobo makes me happy, all have 1 or 2 things I do not like.

[core_tracer]

+1 to sacha

wondering will the ocz hydroflow wb compatible with socket 1156?

[Asylum1]

Nice review,
Thanks

[sacha35]

thanks for sharing sacha
love to see black and red match

what you think about memory config? better than other asus board u tested?

Hi Hiwa
Yes from what I have seen so far the memory config table is better, ASUS have done something to this board that makes the memory performance better as well with the timings.

Very nice. Thank you for the review.

Could you check something though:
If you've got any PCIe x1 cards longer than the included audio module could you please try fitting one in the first x1 slot to see if it clears the "NB" heatsink? Thanks in advance.

Hi sholvaco
Sorry but I do not have a PCI x1 long card to test this out but I will say the heat sink is very low about the same height as the PCI x1 port so any long card installed should clear this heatsink.

[jugeen]

Hey Paul,

check BIOS 0042 and you'll see much more stability on RAMs

[rkgriffin]

Thanks for taking the time for the review!

Has anyone found a copy of the user guide online yet? I am wondering if Asus has made any changes to the Speeding HD so that you can use an OS drive using Raid 0. I ask since I want to run six other hard drives off the Intel Sata ports. Also do the White Sata ports really only support optical drives?

[bazx]

great reveiw paul

alot of work there mate

[PatRaceTin]

nice review but i am choosing between MAX III and Tpower I55

[joxus_winner]

@Ts, request to OC memory on not binding timing, couse in P55 frequency of memory so very high. thanks

[sacha35]

@Ts, request to OC memory on not binding timing, couse in P55 frequency of memory so very high. thanks

2408MHz Cas 8, not to bad for air cooled sticks

[sacha35]

+1 to sacha

wondering will the ocz hydroflow wb compatible with socket 1156?

I cannot see why not but I would think you would need a new mounting bracket as the holes on the socket 1156 are different to 1366 and 775

[sacha35]

Bios update available 0801, This version improves “Low voltage on Vcore and IMC”.

0801 Bios Download

[rkgriffin]

Where you able to mount the Corsair AirFlow fans onto the those new memory mounts?

[sacha35]

Where you able to mount the Corsair AirFlow fans onto the those new memory mounts?

Yes on this Motherboard but some of the others this will not be possible, as there are no lugs at all to hold the bracket.

[sacha35]

Today I managed to get the cascade to run a little wormer with some 2P coins used as spacers between the Evap and CPU as -130c was far too cold for i5, the end result was having a Die temp of around -100c give or take a few c.

After playing with a few settings I managed to run Supper PI 32M at 4970Mhz with a final time of 7M 36s which is not that great but considering the Supper Pi was run on a very old windows 7 O/S with no tweaks at all I do think the end result was too bad, but will try a few tweaks on a good OS next time to see what sort of improvements can be made.

Sorry for the black background but as said this was a very old copy of win 7 that needed activating so did not have the option of changing the screen background.

[WaterFlex]

Great review! Thank you! MIIIF ROCKS!

[Brian y.]

great review Sacha

I noticed you used the new BIOS for that 32M run. Did you experience any improvements with it?

[sacha35]

great review Sacha

I noticed you used the new BIOS for that 32M run. Did you experience any improvements with it?

It's hard to say as I flashed this bios before going cold so cannot say.

[sacha35]

Max CPUz and supper Pi 1M at the moment, but still playing so more to come.

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=714717

[edo]

hi guys
probably i'm going to join you soon with MIIIF selling my rig in sign. i hope to get an i7 860 ( at least i5 750). Does Artic cooling freezer pro rev 2 (1156) fit well on MIIIF ? this mobo rocks

[sacha35]

hi guys
probably i'm going to join you soon with MIIIF selling my rig in sign. i hope to get an i7 860 ( at least i5 750). Does Artic cooling freezer pro rev 2 (1156) fit well on MIIIF ? this mobo rocks

Hi Edo, I can not say if that cooler will fit on this Motherboard as I don't have one, but if it is for socket 1156 then you will have no problems at all as all the heatsinks are very low profile so you should not have any problem at all.