ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme vs. Extreme Assembly

[Zangtetzu]

So I have saved up enough money to afford either the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard, or its Assembly addition, which comes with a 10Gb PCIe Ethernet port and a Supreme FX Hi-Fi Sound DAC. I was wondering if it was worth it to pay the extra $80 for the Assembly addition for the 10Gb Ethernet port and sound DAC, or if it isn't worth it and I should just stick to the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme.

 

Here are the links to the two motherboards for further information:

 

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132637

 

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Assembly: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132698

[Brooksie359]

7 minutes ago, Zangtetzu said:

So I have saved up enough money to afford either the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme motherboard, or its Assembly addition, which comes with a 10Gb PCIe Ethernet port and a Supreme FX Hi-Fi Sound DAC. I was wondering if it was worth it to pay the extra $80 for the Assembly addition for the 10Gb Ethernet port and sound DAC, or if it isn't worth it and I should just stick to the ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme.

 

Here are the links to the two motherboards for further information:

 

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132637

 

ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme Assembly: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132698

when would you use 10gb Ethernet? do you have an isp that provides that type of data rates?

[Zangtetzu]

6 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

when would you use 10gb Ethernet? do you have an isp that provides that type of data rates?

Back at my parents place, Google Fiber is their ISP, and I plan on relocating to anywhere that has Google Fiber. But currently, I am using BrighHouse Lightning 300, so no. I would not use/need 10gb ethernet. However, part of me really wants to future proof as much as possible.

 

[Sintezza]

If do allot of data transfers over your network.

Then it could be worth it yeah.

But yeah, then you will also need a 10Gb/s switch.

Otherwise you wont realy benefit from it.

[Lays]

There's literally nothing the board offers that's worth the price, for what reason do you want it? Because it's the most expensive "highest end" Z170 board? Or for overclocking? For overclocking, there's cheaper, BETTER boards. In terms of sound quality, if you care that much about sound quality that you'd pay extra for a DAC/AMP, then you should be getting an external DAC & amplifier, as it's better in almost every way.

[Sintezza]

47 minutes ago, Lays said:

 For overclocking, there's cheaper, BETTER boards.

Beter and also cheaper board for overclocking then the Maximus VIII Extreme?

Which board do you think would be "better" ?

There are only a very few Z170 boards that have a compairable vrm design.

And those boards arent that cheap either.

I do agree that the Maximus VIII Extreme is a very expensive motherboard.

But yeah there is also a reason for it.

Its just Asus's top of the line showoff board for gamers and overclockers.

With pretty much the best components on it, wenn it comes to vrm cirquitry and what not.

 

Quality costs money.

 

[Lays]

1 minute ago, Sintezza said:

Beter and also cheaper board for overclocking then the Maximus VIII Extreme?

Which board do you think would be "better" ?

There are only a very few Z170 boards that have a compairable vrm design.

And those boards arent that cheap either.

I do agree that the Maximus VIII Extreme is a very expensive motherboard.

But yeah there is also a reason for it.

 

Quality costs money.

 

If benchmarking where CPU overclocking is of the up-most importance, the Impact & Asrock M-atx OC Formula are both better, as they can run 1T at higher memory frequencies & clock memory much higher, allowing for more CPU performance in the benchmarks.  They also cost 1/2 the price. ( Both have extremely relevant VRM) Both these boards will have no issues reaching the same clocks on the CPU as well.

 

Even the Maximus VIII Gene has the same capabilities as the Extreme when it comes to CPU overclocking, a quick look at HWBOT's high scores on 6700k's will tell you what the best OC boards are.

[Sintezza]

39 minutes ago, Lays said:

If benchmarking where CPU overclocking is of the up-most importance, the Impact & Asrock M-atx OC Formula are both better, as they can run 1T at higher memory frequencies & clock memory much higher, allowing for more CPU performance in the benchmarks.  They also cost 1/2 the price. ( Both have extremely relevant VRM) Both these boards will have no issues reaching the same clocks on the CPU as well.

 

Even the Maximus VIII Gene has the same capabilities as the Extreme when it comes to CPU overclocking, a quick look at HWBOT's high scores on 6700k's will tell you what the best OC boards are.

Well as a vrm expert, i can tell you that non of those boards you named, are not even close to what the vrm implementation on the Extreme is.

The only thing they have in commen is that they use the same pwm the IR35201 flexmode pwm.

However where boards like the Asrock Z170M OC formula only has a single pwm implementation, means that there is phase doubling going on.

 

The Asrock Z170M OC Formula has the IR35201 pwm running in 6+2 phase mode.

They took only 4 phases and doubled those to 8 pwm phases for VCC.

And the +2 phases doubled to 4 phases for VCCGT.

But never the less the Asrock Z170M OC Formula is still a decent board indeed.

 

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme has a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

From which the first pwm runs in 8+0 true phase mode for VCC.

And the other pwm provides 4 true phases for the VCCGT.

There is no phase doubling going on on this particular board.

And thats one of the reasons why this board is so expensive.

Simply because of the dual pwm implementation.

Most other brands cheap out on this, and use phase doubling and a single pwm implementation.

Its relatively cheaper to use phase doubling then to implement a second pwm solution.

This is all mainly because on Z170 you need 4 major imput rails namely VCC, VCCGT, VCCsa (systemagent) VCCio (Qpi/VTT).

And of course Dram, but those are powered by a sepperate vrm on every board.

 

BUt to list the Z170 boards that have a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

 

- Asus Maximus VIII Extreme.

- Asus Z170 Deluxe

- Asus Z170 WS.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X Soc Force.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X G1 Gaming

- EVGA Z170 Classified.

 

But never the less, i do agree that you should be able to achieve decent overclocks with pretty much any decent Z170 board.

The Asrock Z170 OC Formula in my opinnion is a very nice board for its price point.

It has one of the better vrm implementation at the $200,- ish price mark.

To bad that the color theme makes it not sell realy well.

Because the vrm implementation is realy good on that board.

Single IR35201 pwm in 6+2 phase mode.

[Gofspar]

15 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

Well as a vrm expert, i can tell you that non of those boards you named, are not even close to what the vrm implementation on the Extreme is.

The only thing they have in commen is that they use the same pwm the IR35201 flexmode pwm.

However where boards like the Asrock Z170M OC formula only has a single pwm implementation, means that there is phase doubling going on.

The Asrock Z170M OC Formula has the IR35201 pwm running in 6+2 phase mode.

They took only 4 phases and doubled those to 8 pwm phases for VCC.

And the +2 phases doubled to 4 phases for VCCGT.

 

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme has a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

From which the first pwm runs in 8+0 true phase mode for VCC.

And the other pwm provides 4 true phases for the VCCGT.

There is no phase doubling going on on this particular board.

And thats one of the reasons why this board is so expensive.

Simply because of the dual pwm implementation.

Most other brands cheap out on this, and use phase doubling and a single pwm implementation.

Its relatively cheaper to use phase doubling then to implement a second pwm solution.

This is all mainly because on Z170 you need 4 major imput rails namely VCC, VCCGT, VCCsa (systemagent) VCCio (Qpi/VTT).

And of course Dram, but those are powered by a sepperate vrm on every board.

 

BUt to list the Z170 boards that have a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

 

- Asus Maximus VIII Extreme.

- Asus Z170 Deluxe

- Asus Z170 WS.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X Soc Force.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X G1 Gaming

- EVGA Z170 Classified.

wow lets just focus on the pwm rite cause thats all that matters hur hur

 

how about inductor current rating/heat and choke efficiency under load

[Lays]

24 minutes ago, Sintezza said:

Well as a vrm expert, i can tell you that non of those boards you named, are not even close to what the vrm implementation on the Extreme is.

The only thing they have in commen is that they use the same pwm the IR35201 flexmode pwm.

However where boards like the Asrock Z170M OC formula only has a single pwm implementation, means that there is phase doubling going on.

The Asrock Z170M OC Formula has the IR35201 pwm running in 6+2 phase mode.

They took only 4 phases and doubled those to 8 pwm phases for VCC.

And the +2 phases doubled to 4 phases for VCCGT.

 

The Asus Maximus VIII Extreme has a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

From which the first pwm runs in 8+0 true phase mode for VCC.

And the other pwm provides 4 true phases for the VCCGT.

There is no phase doubling going on on this particular board.

And thats one of the reasons why this board is so expensive.

Simply because of the dual pwm implementation.

Most other brands cheap out on this, and use phase doubling and a single pwm implementation.

Its relatively cheaper to use phase doubling then to implement a second pwm solution.

This is all mainly because on Z170 you need 4 major imput rails namely VCC, VCCGT, VCCsa (systemagent) VCCio (Qpi/VTT).

And of course Dram, but those are powered by a sepperate vrm on every board.

 

BUt to list the Z170 boards that have a dual IR35201 pwm implementation.

 

- Asus Maximus VIII Extreme.

- Asus Z170 Deluxe

- Asus Z170 WS.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X Soc Force.

- Gigabyte GA-Z170X G1 Gaming

- EVGA Z170 Classified.

 

 

As a VRM expert, you clearly have no idea how overclocking actually works.  VRM only helps to some extent, have ya heard of diminishing returns before, mister VRM expert?   BIOS implementation & features as well as software in windows are also very important.

 

Reading a spec sheet is nowhere near the same as actual implementation and having experience with extreme overclocking and knowing how boards work.

[Jumper118]

Tbh it's pointless buying a super high end z170 board as z270 will be the later 1151 chipset and be better than any of the current boards.  Just like now people wouldn't buy a z87 over z97 or z68 over z77 even of you had the older  chip. 

[Sintezza]

1 hour ago, Gofspar said:

wow lets just focus on the pwm rite cause thats all that matters hur hur

 

how about inductor current rating/heat and choke efficiency under load

Well i didnt even start talking about that yet.

But we could in a diffrent topic if you like.

[Sintezza]

1 hour ago, Lays said:

 

 

As a VRM expert, you clearly have no idea how overclocking actually works.  VRM only helps to some extent, have ya heard of diminishing returns before, mister VRM expert?   BIOS implantation & features as well as software in windows are also very important.

 

Reading a spec sheet is nowhere near the same as actual implementation and having experience with extreme overclocking and knowing how boards work.

 

I exaly verywell know how overclocking works.

Because you need to actualy measure at the components what the vrm does at certain overclock levels, and under certain loads and circumstances,

to determine the actual efficiency of the VRM implementation.

In my opinnion if you are an extreme overclocker it kinda does matter to know some of the basics about how vrm cirquitry exaly works.

But i´m not even going into all that in this topic. .

Because that goes way offtopic.

But it will be an interesting discussion for another time.

 

Of course the vrm implementation is not the only thing that matters for overclocking, there are way more variables.

But i also never stated that.

Interesting to see that you pick bios implementation and feutures in your post.

Because some of those "overclocking" feutures are directly related to the type of pwm you have on the motherboard.

Analog /Hybrid or Fully digital.

 

But the matter of fact is that the Maximus VIII Extreme is one of the best Z170 boards out there.

But yeah they also come with that price tag.

Is it worth it to buy? well thats of course another question.

But the main question was about the Extreme vs the Extreme assembly.

 

On a side note, I´m not a "Mister"