Asus Maximus V Formula review

Asus is no stranger to high-end boards, particularly when said boards can house some of the most powerful consumer CPUs currently available.

The company’s Maximus range has always been reserved as the high-end range of boards for Intel’s mid-range CPU offers (currently on socket 1155) and come in two flavors; Formula which we have for review, and Extreme. So does this board live up to the meaning of its Latin roots? In short, yes – read on for more.

Asus Maximus V Formula

Features

Future-proofing is important and for that reason Asus has prepared the Maximus V Formula for Windows 8.

The board supports fast boot technology optimised for Windows 8 but compatible with previous OS versions. It allows the PC to fully boot to Windows within 2 seconds according to Asus. In practice this was a few seconds off the pace but with a latest generation SSD and other hardware tweaks it seems totally doable. The board also offers multi-startup settings, letting users customize how they want their system to behave during boot up.

Gamers are taken care of by the Maximus V Formula thanks to SupremeFX IV, GameFirst II and Intel Gigabit LAN. The SupremeFX IV chip is the fourth generation of acclaimed Asus audio, offering better quality than regular onboard audio solutions thanks to EMI shielding, PCB layer separation, and a 300 ohm headphone amplifier to drive high-end headphones with ease.

GameFirst II is network prioritizing for gaming and offers a surprising amount of control over network settings. There is a basic mode for those new to network optimization, and an advanced mode for power users who know their way around settings and want greater control over the application.

Finally, Intel Gigabit LAN is rated as one of the best Gigabit LAN chipsets available to gamers. The Maximus V Formula has this built in for the best possible networking experience and it shows.

Asus Maximus V Formula top

There are also a number of ROG features found on the Maximus V Formula aimed at gamers and hardware enthusiasts.

There is a Fusion Thermo cooler, designed to offer the best performance possible and being compatible with both standard air cooling and custom water cooling setups. Full cover water blocks for motherboards are often very expensive and totally redundant when you upgrade to a new board. This solution allows Asus to offer water cooling without alienating consumers who prefer to go the air route.

The other noteworthy ROG feature is ROG Connect. This allows power users the ability to overclock the board while monitoring and tweaking BIOS settings in real time via any notebook that connects to the Maximus V Formula via USB. Bundled with this is a special version of CPUZ known as the ROG edition, meant for use by overclockers to monitor their system as they work.

Asus Maximus V Formula angle

In use and Performance

Installing the board could cause some headaches for gamers with mid-sized cases. The board features eATX class dimensions which are larger than most standard ATX sized cases can accommodate. It is possible to squeeze the board into some regular ATX cases but this will take a while to achieve. Other than its large size (which is normal for high-end boards) installing the Maximus V Formula was a pleasure. All of the various component areas are clear and easily accessible, and no installed components (apart from massive CPU air coolers) obstruct the install path for others.

During use the board performed well and made overclocking the CPU and RAM a breeze. Hitting 4.2GHz with our i5 3470 took all of 30 seconds to do in the BIOS and the stability of the board after a quick overclock is commendable. The variety of options mean overclocking CPUs to even higher than 4.2GHz for regular every day use (cooling permitting) should be doable for experienced overclockers, all while being user-friendly to less experienced gamers.

As for Asus’ hybrid air/water cooling, the chipset did not go above 59c during testing, even with the system overclocked. This dropped down to a max temp of 50c with our custom water cooling loop installed, and better temps are possible with a more powerful of dedicated cooling loop.

Asus Maximus V Formula close up

Bottom line

The Maximus V Formula is a beast of a board and is worthy of the name given to it. In fact the only board that could give the Maximus V Formula a run for its money is the more expensive Extreme version, and even then one would have to think long and hard between the two boards.

The wide array of features makes this board an attractive option and it seems unfathomable that anyone would be disappointed with it after purchase. As for stability, the Maximus V Formula has this by the boat load. Overclocking chips is a breeze and even high settings are manageable for everyday gamers thanks to the quality of the components. The Maximus V Formula comes highly recommended.