Out Now: Asus ROG Maximus VIII Impact

[Marinatall_Ironside]

On October 16, Asus has released their smallest motherboard in the ROG stack; the Maximus VIII Impact Z170 Intel Motherboard. Here is the rundown of the motherboard itself.

 

Z170 Intel Chipset

 

LGA 1151

 

Supports all Core i7, i5, i3, Pentium and Celeron processors

 

DDR4 Speeds up to 4133 MHz and up to 32GB of RAM

 

1 PCI Express x16 Slot

 

5.1 Channel Audio from the SupremeFX Impact III add-on card

 

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless networking

 

Bluetooth 4.0

 

1 USB 3.0 front panel connector

 

4 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 3.1 port, 1 USB 3.1 Type C, 1 LAN port, 1 HDMI port, 1 Optical Out port, CLR CMOS button, USB Flashback button, Q-Code Read-out screen, start and restart buttons

 

1 U.2 Port, 4 SATA 6Gb/s ports for your storage needs

 

mini-ITX form factor

 

MSRP is USD $249

 

I mean, there is way more features than what could be listed on here. This is one hell of a board that's is really small for you guys who want to go small and take your system with you without having to haul down your heavy, big ass cases to a LAN party or event, or whatever event that requires you to bring your own computer.

 

Also the Q-Code, start and restart buttons are all on one spot now.

 

Maximus VIII Impact

The Front of the board

The I/O

[Decon]

pretty sure this a repost; can't find OP though... Good article though

[Amazingasian]

The board itself looks amazing but I'm not a fan of the post codes where the i/o is and the flat SATA connectors.

[Prysin]

its great that it is out, but it is a minor downgrade of the old IMPACT board for LGA1150 seeing as it is missing the M.2 slot...

 

a Samsung SB950 PRO 512GB would be damn great to have in a tiny enclosure. Giving extreme responsiveness, and yet not sacrificing compactness.... but alas, it is what it is

[Marinatall_Ironside]

pretty sure this a repost; can't find OP though... Good article though

Well I did an article of the Maximus VIII Extreme yesterday, if there is another article about this motherboard, I'll get it taken care of. But more exposure from the consumers should be good though for the companies IMO.

[Marinatall_Ironside]

its great that it is out, but it is a minor downgrade of the old IMPACT board for LGA1150 seeing as it is missing the M.2 slot...

 

a Samsung SB950 PRO 512GB would be damn great to have in a tiny enclosure. Giving extreme responsiveness, and yet not sacrificing compactness.... but alas, it is what it is

Whoops looks like I skimmed over a spec that they have on this board

[Prysin]

Whoops looks like I skimmed over a spec that they have on this board

they dont...  i saw the board on newegg earlier today... they DONT have a proper M.2 PCIe Gen3 (NVMe) slot....

 

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS-VIII-IMPACT/specifications/

 

Read it from the manufacturers themselves... no M.2 slot

[Marinatall_Ironside]

they dont...  i saw the board on newegg earlier today... they DONT have a proper M.2 PCIe Gen3 (NVMe) slot....

On Asus' website there is one, located in the Wi-Fi module. Either it works with SATA or not, I verified it under the internal I/O section. They even give you a disclaimer that specs can change without notice.

[Prysin]

On Asus' website there is one, located in the Wi-Fi module.

that next to it is a U.2 connector, which IS used for 750 series NVMe drives, however that does not allow for M.2 SSDs to be plugged in

 

The connector inside the Wifi module is most likely half mini PCie or mini PCIe... which isnt meant for storage, although there IS modules for it....

[dizmo]

No M.2 port, and only 5 USB ports make this board a no go for me.

Sad.

[patrickjp93]

that next to it is a U.2 connector, which IS used for 750 series NVMe drives, however that does not allow for M.2 SSDs to be plugged in

 

The connector inside the Wifi module is most likely half mini PCie or mini PCIe... which isnt meant for storage, although there IS modules for it....

Yes it does, if you have a daughter board you can hook up to it.

[patrickjp93]

No M.2 port, and only 5 USB ports make this board a no go for me.

Sad.

Run splitters off the 3.1 ports, jeez. At 10Gbps and 100W, you can run 4 normal speed USB 3.0 and be fine, hell, even have enough power for a supercharger.

[dizmo]

Run splitters off the 3.1 ports, jeez. At 10Gbps and 100W, you can run 4 normal speed USB 3.0 and be fine, hell, even have enough power for a supercharger.

I don't like the clutter that comes with it <_<

[weez]

Run splitters off the 3.1 ports, jeez. At 10Gbps and 100W, you can run 4 normal speed USB 3.0 and be fine, hell, even have enough power for a supercharger.

 

Why buy more stuff though? I dont understand that argument. Fact is new boards have less inputs for the same or higher cost. The argument of well 3.1 can handle more hubs and spliters is dumb. New boards shouldnt offer less inputs

[Swndlr]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[patrickjp93]

I don't like the clutter that comes with it <_<

Because you didn't already have a squid of cables before...  :rolleyes:

[patrickjp93]

Why buy more stuff though? I dont understand that argument. Fact is new boards have less inputs for the same or higher cost. The argument of well 3.1 can handle more hubs and spliters is dumb. New boards shouldnt offer less inputs

Frankly fewer inputs means lower costs of the board which means lower prices which means, dear god, you can externalize the cost by buying 1 splitter that shouldn't fail instead of rebuying ports every x years on a new mobo. CONSUMER SAVINGS!

 

Yes they should, and have lower prices in measure.

[dizmo]

Because you didn't already have a squid of cables before...  :rolleyes:

So the solution is to add to it?

Logical

 

 

Frankly fewer inputs means lower costs of the board which means lower prices which means, dear god, you can externalize the cost by buying 1 splitter that shouldn't fail instead of rebuying ports every x years on a new mobo. CONSUMER SAVINGS!

 

Yes they should, and have lower prices in measure.

Except this is a top tier board, where price shouldn't even really be that much of a consideration. I'm also pretty sure they didn't lower the price.

Lots of other companies managed to cram more ports on. They could have easily done it as well.

[weez]

Frankly fewer inputs means lower costs of the board which means lower prices which means, dear god, you can externalize the cost by buying 1 splitter that shouldn't fail instead of rebuying ports every x years on a new mobo. CONSUMER SAVINGS!

 

Yes they should, and have lower prices in measure.

 

Except this board isnt cheaper. Just because the board has fewer inputs doesnt mean that the manufacture is going to pass those saving on to the consumer. They removed some inputs but added new features. That doesnt = lower cost for the consumer

[patrickjp93]

So the solution is to add to it?

Logical

 

 

Except this is a top tier board, where price shouldn't even really be that much of a consideration. I'm also pretty sure they didn't lower the price.

Lots of other companies managed to cram more ports on. They could have easily done it as well.

No, the solution is pretty much the same.

 

Fewer points of failure means fewer board returns = profits. 

[1823alex]

4 USB ports? FOUR?? Am I the only who feels like mobo manufacturers don't get how many ports I need? Like common, there's so many peripherals that a minimum of 6 is necessary. Keyboard, Mouse, Webcam, HDD, that's already four, and I still run out cause I connect 2 for my K70 and also have another two available for my Novation Launchpad and my 30GB external SSD for World of Tanks.

[patrickjp93]

Except this board isnt cheaper. Just because the board has fewer inputs doesnt mean that the manufacture is going to pass those saving on to the consumer. They removed some inputs but added new features. That doesnt = lower cost for the consumer

Generally it does, because that moves the marginal cost curve further out which means the intersection point with marginal revenue is moved to a higher point of volume production at a lower price than before. Basic microeconomics. The remainder is due to inflation or other board manufacturing costs, such as perhaps more PCB layers for better overclocking. I'm not a mobo nerd, so I can't say for certainty where the cost fluxes all went, but the general principle holds. When costs go down, so do market prices, because the company's profit maximization point moves to higher volumes at lower prices as well. Anyone who tells you otherwise never took economics and has no understanding of it.

[patrickjp93]

4 USB ports? FOUR?? Am I the only who feels like mobo manufacturers don't get how many ports I need? Like common, there's so many peripherals that a minimum of 6 is necessary. Keyboard, Mouse, Webcam, HDD, that's already four, and I still run out cause I connect 2 for my K70 and also have another two available for my Novation Launchpad and my 30GB external SSD for World of Tanks.

6:

4 3.0 Type A,

1 3.1 Type A, 

1 3.1 Type C

 

And seriously, just use a splitter. The extra 50 microseconds of latency you add isn't that bad.

[1823alex]

6:

4 3.0 Type A,

1 3.1 Type A, 

1 3.1 Type C

 

And seriously, just use a splitter. The extra 50 microseconds of latency you add isn't that bad.

Didn't see the type C connector. Assume the red one was one of the dedicated BIOS flashing ports or whatever or the charge while your PC is off. Still I'd rather have the native 3.0 support directly from the board than buying a USB 3.0 hub or a PCI card. It's just my opinion though.

[patrickjp93]

Didn't see the type C connector. Assume the red one was one of the dedicated BIOS flashing ports or whatever or the charge while your PC is off. Still I'd rather have the native 3.0 support directly from the board than buying a USB 3.0 hub or a PCI card. It's just my opinion though.

I like having the flexibility of an external one for ITX systems, but I understand people think there needs to be an overbuilt solution. If we had 64 PCIe lanes all I'd need is 1 TB 3.0 port with an Ethernet and USB 3.0 splitter. I only have 4 peripherals myself since I've never gamed with controllers. I could have 10Gb ethernet and 6 5.0Gbps USB 3.0 superspeed ports all working through one connection on the back. Don't know about you, but I find that preferable to take that solution to future builds instead of constantly repaying for ports I won't end up using.