ASUS Maximus VIII Gene LGA 1151 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS Maximus VIII Gene LGA 1151 Motherboard Review - ASUS’ Maximus VIII Gene is the latest in a long line of mATX powerhouses from ASUS’ Republic of Gamers brand. This motherboard is poised to offer an amazing feature set, class leading overclocking, and stability in a compact package. We’ve had great experiences with motherboards in the Gene line, so our expectations are high.
 
So many good motherboards ruined by those cheap rear panel covers. Once you use a padded cover, you never go back!

Typo fixed, thanks. - Kyle
 
Have I missed something? How long has this board been out?
 
I'm a bit confused: the article and the advertising say it's capable of quad SLI or quad CFX. But there are only two gpu-sized PCIE slots. Are they including dual-gpus in claiming quad-sli/CFX support?
Also, wtf are the ports over on the left here:
14549067840tg0WGxMuU_1_17_l.jpg
 
Modred189 said:
I'm a bit confused: the article and the advertising say it's capable of quad SLI or quad CFX. But there are only two gpu-sized PCIE slots. Are they including dual-gpus in claiming quad-sli/CFX support?
Also, wtf are the ports over on the left here:
14549067840tg0WGxMuU_1_17_l.jpg
Click to expand...

Obviously they are including dual-gpus :p
Too bad there hasn't been a decent dual GPU in a while. I wonder if one is set to come out soon.

Those ports are SATA Express ports. I'm not sure why anyone bothers, I have yet to see any SATA express drives.
 
Modred189 said:
I'm a bit confused: the article and the advertising say it's capable of quad SLI or quad CFX. But there are only two gpu-sized PCIE slots. Are they including dual-gpus in claiming quad-sli/CFX support?
Also, wtf are the ports over on the left here:
14549067840tg0WGxMuU_1_17_l.jpg
Click to expand...

Quad-SLI SLI would use two dual GPU cards. That is not the same a 4-Way SLI which requires four PCIe slots. And those are only used with SATA Express.
 
Dan_D said:
Quad-SLI SLI would use two dual GPU cards. That is not the same a 4-Way SLI which requires four PCIe slots. And those are only used with SATA Express.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
I did not realize that Quad-SLI was a thing that the motherboard would need to support, and would be inherent to anything that would support simple SLI (non-multi-gpu card pairings).
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Obviously they are including dual-gpus :p
Too bad there hasn't been a decent dual GPU in a while. I wonder if one is set to come out soon.

Those ports are SATA Express ports. I'm not sure why anyone bothers, I have yet to see any SATA express drives.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
And yea, that's what confused me. Dual-gpu cards are pretty rare anymore, and so advertising support doesn't seem like something to bother with.
 
Modred189 said:
Thanks.
And yea, that's what confused me. Dual-gpu cards are pretty rare anymore, and so advertising support doesn't seem like something to bother with.
Click to expand...
Marketing checkboxes, just like those silly SATA Express ports.

Fortunately, 1 SATA Express port becomes 2 regular SATA ports and that small 3rd plug goes unused. The drive you plug in tells the drive controller to switch between the SATA and PCIe interfaces.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Marketing checkboxes, just like those silly SATA Express ports.

Fortunately, 1 SATA Express port becomes 2 regular SATA ports and that small 3rd plug goes unused. The drive you plug in tells the drive controller to switch between the SATA and PCIe interfaces.
Click to expand...
Yea, thanks for the link. The interesting thing is that the article you linked to was from 2014. With the rise of M.2 and similar cards, it seems like SATA Express's day is gone before it came, eclipsed by different tech. SATA Express seems like an Intel tech, and Intel appears to have moved on. Interesting that this board comes with the ports given that.
 
Is there any reason to get the ATX equivalent of this board if you don't need the extra slots?

This seems like it has everything, just curious what others think.
 
fwiler1 said:
Is there any reason to get the ATX equivalent of this board if you don't need the extra slots?

This seems like it has everything, just curious what others think.
Click to expand...

I don't think there is. This board has turned out to be the perfect solution for me. I just wish there was a wider selection of decent small matx cases. I have it in a Fractal Arc Mini right now, which is a pretty small case... but there's still wasted room.

My only gripe about this board is the location of the M.2 slot. Install a graphics card with a standard cooling shroud and that M.2 slot gets completely covered and has piss-poor airflow. My Samsung 950 drive would regularly get above 75C in that position. I snagged a little M.2 card from Amazon and used it to move the drive to the x4 slot. Now it never gets above 45C.

Here's a photo of my initial assembly:

Initial Assembly (small).jpg


Since then (in addition to attaching the GPU power cables), I've moved the M.2 drive to the x4 slot and I've added a small duct to the bottom intake fan to direct a bit of airflow directly at the M.2 drive.
 
"As usual I tried to go for more than DDR4 2666MHz, but the results were unstable at best. While I could perform most tasks up to DDR4 2800MHz, any Prime95, AIDA64 or Handbrake encoding test results ended up with the system locking up or randomly restarting."

A better 6700K is needed IMO.
 
I'm still on my GENE II, and it's pretty damn reliable. I just wish I hadn't buggered the external LCD socket, that's one thing ASUS fell on their face with (the socket sucks, the LCD concept was neat as fuck).

The earlier GENEs than the VIII were kinda meh, but this one seems pretty on-point! Glad to see they're using intel PHYs instead of "killer" PHYs (barf).
 
BloodyIron said:
I'm still on my GENE II, and it's pretty damn reliable. I just wish I hadn't buggered the external LCD socket, that's one thing ASUS fell on their face with (the socket sucks, the LCD concept was neat as fuck).

The earlier GENEs than the VIII were kinda meh, but this one seems pretty on-point! Glad to see they're using intel PHYs instead of "killer" PHYs (barf).
Click to expand...

The Killer PHY's would be fine if it wasn't for the trash software and drivers that come with them.
 
Sweet review .:) Always good to be a little more informed when making a new mobo purchase. I'll keep this in mind when I move to skylake. Was considering this board but gonna shop around a little first before making my decision.
 
wx chaser, if you look up the tests, when you raid up more than 2 m2, you get diminishing returns the 3rd is almost non functioning.
 
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