ASUS Maximus VII Impact Review: Premium Gaming Z97 in mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on December 9, 2014 10:00 AM ESTASUS Maximus VII Impact Conclusion
At the beginning of this review, we mentioned that the Maximus VI Impact, the version from Z87, would be a tough act to follow. Both products cater for Haswell and Broadwell processors, so the major benefit from the hardware point of view is the Z97 additions. On the Maximus VII Impact this means M.2 x4 support, but Asus has in turn upgraded the package overall.
The most obvious upgrade on the hardware side is the addition of the new fan header PCB that allows more fans (particularly those located at the rear of the board) to be used and controlled. This has been added in response to enthusiasts who want more fan header control - a typical mini-ITX motherboard might have two or three headers, and the Impact with the CoolHub card ups the total to four. We also get SoundStage as a hardware solution for optimized audio in different scenarios.
The BIOS and software are both upgraded to their Z97 versions. For the BIOS this means complete fan control, XMP enabling in EZ mode, a full range of overclocking functions, the auto overclocking wizard and configured overclock modes specifically for the motherboard. On the software side of the equation we have upgraded versions of AI Suite 3 including 5-Way Optimization, Turbo App, Sonic Radar 2, GameFirst 3 and also new software such as KeyBot. The auto overclocking rules here have also been upgraded to allow users to specify peak voltages and temperatures for the test along with longer stress tests and AVX/memory testing.
Performance for the Maximus VII Impact is good all around, especially with DPC Latency coming top out of any other motherboard we tested, tying with the TUF Z97 Mark S. Multicore turbo is enabled, ensuring that stock performance is also near the top if our benchmark list. The only odd mark was with the audio tests, with our sample had a low sub-100 Hz response. After speaking with Asus, it would seem that my review sample is suspect. However due to the detachable audio card, replacing it doesn't require a completely new motherboard.
Expensive motherboards often find respite in being some of the best in the business. The Maximus VII Impact is the most expensive mini-ITX motherboard available, but it still ends up in that mid-to-high $200-$250 bracket in terms of overall Z97 pricing. The Maximus VII Impact also has to compete with the cheaper mini-ITX boards around $130, such as those in our $140 mini-ITX roundup that might perform similarly at stock. What the Maximus VII Impact does differently in exchange for the extra is component quality, enhanced engineering and more options, giving a system builder an opportunity to do more. That is the ultimate strength in the ROG Impact line.
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TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
looks like a very nice motherboard, if a tad expensive. especially the fan control with custom fan curves...wish my p8-z77 pro had that. wonder why 1.05 volt is the lowest voltage available?ME5H - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
Man these boards are nice! Im pretty sure my next build will be a itx or atx, but for now my 2600k @ 4.8/GTX 780 can handle everything I throw at it. I was this close to buying a used Maximus for my 2600k but didnt trust them coming from Hong Kong :/ Thanks for the review. Peacevarg14 - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
I am in the same boat with my CPU I have falling in love with going on 4 years old. A good ole Sandy Bridge i7 2600k @ 4.9ghz on a p67-ud4-b3 MB with 2 EVGA GTX 770 4GB Classifieds in SLI I do not see a CPU upgrade coming until PCI-E 2.0 @8X start limiting GPU performance at high res and settings. As of now you only see a real difference between 3.0 and 2.0 at low res with low settings.Morawka - Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - link
the real hero are the millions of i7 920's still in circulation. You can get one on ebay for like $75. Quad core with HT ftwmapesdhs - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
CPUs for P55 still run nicely too (cheaper than X58 CPUs, less power, easier to oc). I recently
tested an i5 760 @ 4.2GHz with single/dual 7970 3GB, it was easily able to match or beat a
5GHz 2700K with a single GTX 980. I can't post the URL here, but Google for, "SGI Ian pc
benchmarks". I tested with Stalker COP, CoJ, FC2, all the Unigine tests, and the 3DMark suites.
Only down side of Lynnfield CPUs is that P55 mbds have become highly valued for some
bizarre reason.
Best used value atm though is a Z68 board and a 2500K, as the mbds go for diddly.
Ian.
Samus - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
True the i7-920 (even the 950) are cheap, but a decent X58 board still sells for $200. I know because I just sold my Asus P6X Deluxe for that much on eBay. It's ridiculous how much these boards command, but I kind of get it, they're ridiculously good. I feel my H87's stability pales in comparison...but I wanted to do an ITX rig so the negligible performance increase and PCIe 3.0 weren't really the selling factors over X58.mooninite - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
This review is a little late. The board has been for sale for a couple months now. There is one issue I've had with my board and it's with Turbo settings. The default core ratio settings are to sync all cores. This will bring your CPU outside of its rated spec and in the case of a i7 4790k it will cause your CPU to overheat and throttle at extreme loads. At first I thought I had a defective CPU, but after investigation the board is maxing out at 4.4ghz with 4 cores instead of 4.2ghz. With the correct settings my CPU does not throttle and stays within thermal limits. With an aftermarket cooler I can run at 4.4ghz on all cores, but just barely.This Turbo / stock CPU cooler issue should be a good topic for Anandtech to investigate. It seems many (all?) motherboards have wrong defaults for this and stock coolers cannot do the job.
varg14 - Tuesday, December 9, 2014 - link
Really overheats on stock voltage? What Cooler you using ? Also have you tried undervolting a tiny bit?Zap - Wednesday, December 10, 2014 - link
tl;drThis board (along with many other "enthusiast" boards) overclocks the CPU by default through "multicore enhancement." It has been around for a few years, and AnandTech even had an article about it.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6214/multicore-enhan...
mooninite - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
No, I specifically said *default* settings. Not with XMP. Not with Multi-core-enhancement. ASUS, Gigabyte, and others are, by default, syncing ratios on all cores.