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It has been a very long week of testing retesting and then confirmation of results to bring these reviews to the table and with the release of Ivy Bridge the reviews can now begin to flow with those results. Ivy Bridge CPUs are the whole reason for this new platform and in many ways this is a very successful launch for Intel and their partners. Here is where it may be a bit daunting to many would be end users and that is the question of just what motherboard to buy for their upgrade or new system build.
Anything that has a nomenclature like Maximus is going to be a product that screams I have it all and you want me. Why? Well for starters this motherboard represents the flagship series of segment boards in the R.O.G family of products. And made for the traveling gamer. Many people still feel that the bigger the board the more it has, but that is a fallacy paramount to words like never and always. The fact of the matter is this: Today’s advanced technology allows for the Gene to perform on par with boards of any size, but performance at stock speeds is no way to judge a motherboard as that us serious tunnel vision in a world where performance variables are only in a 1 though 4 percent range, in today’s market it is a battle of the features my friends.
Amazingly enough the Maximus V Gene has enough features on its silicon hide than many boards in the larger standard ATX Form Factor have, and this is due to the detailed engineering that was put into this motherboard and the UEFI BIOS and it shows in both its performance and flexibility. Filled with features of every kind from simple one click overclocking to 4.6GHz without a hiccup, excellent audio clarity, both HDMI and Display Port options and the ability to do either a CrossFire or SLI configuration all on a mATX Form Factor package is tech candy. You can see from our successful overclock to 5.5GHz using the Vapochill LightSpeed Phase cooler the Gene the mATX motherboard is geared for the serious overclocker who wants to maximize their systems potential.
Although I know most people do not put any merit in the WEI we were still able to maintain a constant overclock and get a Window Experience Index of 7.9 across the board, the maximum score currently obtainable, not the end all of test for sure, but still pretty cool. R.O.G or the Republic of Gamers handle means visually a few things for fans of the series as the Black and Red theme is ever prevalent on the Gene, which if you are building a custom PC where you can see the parts inside, this become an important factor. Now as for being sized in the mATX FF, this allows for those who want to maximize their systems components, but do not have the available real estate for a full sized tower or just like having system in s small case still get all the options the R.O.G series motherboards offer gamers and enthusiasts without compromise. The Maximus V Gene is the epitome of small FF motherboards and offers no sacrifice looks and performance worthy of an Editors Choice here on Motherboards.org the Motherboard HomeWorld! Thanks for reading.
