The bigger brother of the micro-ATX sized Maximus V Gene

Mar 6, 2012 20:31 GMT  ·  By

Besides the Maximus V Gene that we presented a little bit earlier today, Asus’ Intel Z77 ROG motherboard series also includes the ATX-sized Maximus V Formula that was recently detailed during a preview event held by the company.

The introduction of the Maximus V Formula marks the return of water cooling to the ROG platform, a feature which has been absent from this series for quite some time now.

With its new Formula motherboard however, the VRMs are now fitted with a special heatsink that can be added to the liquid cooling loop used for the CPU and video card(s).

Moving to the board’s expansion options, these consist of three PCI Express x16 slots (two of these are PCIe Gen 3.0 and SLI/CrossFire compliant), an open-ended x4 PCI Express slot and no less than three x1 PCI Express slots.

Storage wise, the four SATA 3Gbps and two SATA 6Gbps ports provided by Intel’s Z77 chipset are seconded by another two 6Gbps ports and an eSATA 3Gbps connector.

The latter is placed on the rear I/O header together with four USB 2.0 and four USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, as well as with DisplayPort and HDMI video outputs.

Asus’ Maximus V Formula motherboard also features 7.1-channel audio with an optical S/PDIF output which is driven by a C-Media chipset.

If you look closely at the motherboard images provided by VR-Zone, you'll notice a ROG logo on a matte square in the lower left hand side corner of the PCB, which is apparently a secret feature that Asus hasn’t detailed yet.

Another new feature is the inclusion of a ThunderFX USB sound card and amplifier, which can be used with a PC headset or a PS3/Xbox 360 console thanks to a pair of RCA audio jacks at the rear.

When used with a PC, the external sound card also offers active noise cancelling as it sports a built-in microphone that records and tries to cancel out background noise.

According to Asus, the Maximus V Formula should be released sometime in May, but no details regarding its pricing have been disclosed.

Photo Gallery (4 Images)

Asus Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 motherboard
Asus Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 motherboard CPU socketAsus Maximus V Formula Intel Z77 motherboard - Rear I/O outputs
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