ASUS MAXIMUS III Formula Review

[Roger_D25]

Maxx102 - Its odd because the owners manual has a "Debug Code Table" and it mentions the following "The appendix lists the debug code table for the LCD Poster", however this motherboard doesn't come with an LCD Poster nor does it have any connectors for an LCD Poster (I checked because I have one left over from an old motherboard). With that said these codes may be viewable is using the ROG Connect feature but I'm not sure?

Hey guys I just barely got the Maximus III Formula motherboard along with a new i7 860 and a 4GB (2 x 2GB) kit of Corsairs CMG4GX3M2A2000C8 RAM (I'm very glad I decided to get the MIIIF over any of the other P55 motherboards given how I intend to use it)! The hardware was just delivered yesterday and since I needed to use the Internet (because of collage) I quickly loaded Windows 7 (no drivers or software installed and motherboard is running on "Optimized Defaults"). Fortunately I've got the whole day off and don't need to do any homework, so I'm going to reformat (to run HDDErase 3.3 to bring my new X25-M 80GB G2 SSD back to life), after that I'll rebuild Windows 7 and start playing with all this new hardware and I can't wait!

Although I haven't had much time to test yet I can say that this is probably the best hardware upgrade I've ever done (mobo, RAM, and CPU combo). The motherboard layout is excellent with great placement on all connectors (plus this is the first motherboard I've owned with no IDE or Floppy connectors which is awesome). One of the first things I do when getting a new motherboard is test for voltage read-points (to measure actual component voltages with DMM), fortunately this motherboard already has all the important voltage read-points together on the edge of the board in an easy to reach spot (this saved me many hours of testing and probing)!

The only drawback (and one that probably won't effect me) is the use of a Foxconn LGA1156 socket which was recently shown to have poor CPU pin contact. Again this only seems to effect users who overclock using sub-ambient cooling and run high voltages and high overclocks (Anandtech specifically mentioned that overclocks below 4.3Ghz on air/water cooling are probably safe but that users should manually check their CPU pads to check for proper pin contact. Check the article HERE for more information). My new CPU heatsink just got delivered today so I'll be checking my own CPU later today and will check back with results.

With that said thanks for all the help guys and thanks specifically to Sacha for a great review, so far I'm very happy with this motherboard!