CONCLUSION
There’s simply no denying that the ASUS Maximus V Extreme is no consumer motherboard. All the glitz and glamour of a premium motherboard simply just gets thrown out the window when you’re under LN2 and chasing numbers. That said, we’re finding it quite hard to come up with a proper verdict for the Maximus V Extreme. Before we proceed to the final verdict, let’s break down our scoring.
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The Maximus V Extreme gets a lot of things right in our testing, scoring high in nearly every benchmark and task, taking away the spot from the competition. For that we give the Maximus V Extreme a perfect 10. Build quality is almost perfect with the signature ROG attention to detail present at every corner but we’re still docking half a point from ASUS because I still don’t like the curvy heatsink. Functionality gets a high 9 with solid overclocking tools at hand, we’re docking 1 whole point for 2 things: the discarding of the SupremeFX audio solution and FusionThermo. Now before you go shouting “BUT THIS IS AN OC BOARD FOR BREAKIN’ RECORDS!!!”, some people just like having all the good stuff. Putting all those features in the Formula then castrating it in the higher-tier variant because its for another niche defeats the purpose of having a product hierarchy. Bundle gets a perfect with the OC Key and other inclusions, rounding out what’s already a very impressive package together with the free premium software included. Retailing forรย รขโยฑ23,990 at the time of writing, this motherboard is way way way up there in the price bracket. As most hardcore overclockers get sponsorship packages, it will be rare for most of them to buy this board. Given that scenario, that leaves us with the not-so-regular joe with wads of cash to burn. In all seriousness, there are only 2 scenarios where we picture this board being purchase on retail: 1) for epeen and/or 2) serious OC’ers who want to jump into hardcore scene with a bang. That said, even with all the flare and performance, the price just doesn’t warrant not going for the Maximus V Formula over the Extreme.
The ASUS Maximus V Extreme has a lot going on for it: performance, features, and looks. But underneath all that, it’s a purpose-built product. Even for the highest-caliber gamer or any gaming pro, this product is such a remote purchase which puts to question what ASUS defines gamers as. Trivial matters aside, ASUS does deliver on its quality and purpose. The ROG Maximus V Extreme is designed for extreme overclocking runs and this alone sets the stage for any serious OC’er to start crunching those benchmarks.
In closing, the Maximus V Extreme is a tool designed for a specific set of people. There is no going around that fact. For those of you who may belong in this class, the ASUS Maximus V Extreme is equipped to the teeth with all the right stuff to set you on the path of chasing world-records, provided you have the proper gear to do so. We give the ASUS Maximus V Extreme our Performance Award.
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