We have high expectations for Asus’ Maximus VIII Formula, given its predecessors’ prowess, and it looks like we won’t be disappointed. The Maximus VIII Hero was one of the first motherboards to introduce customisable lighting, with Gigabyte playing with the idea too. However, the Formula takes lighting to a whole new level. Asus has removed all other colours from the PCB, making it look quite un-ROG-like, with just a few hints of colour around the heatsinks, plus a red LED POST code display. However, this setup enables the comprehensive RGB lighting system to make a big impact, and it’s configurable in a desktop program.
The lighting comes from several sets of RGB LEDs, which are hidden under the large plastic shroud that covers most of the PCB. These LEDs illuminate the ROG logo on the PCH heatsink cover, the Formula text and the strips above the rear I/O shield. As the rest of the motherboard is black or silver, this system means you can effectively colour-match the board to your case and hardware, unlike the Hero, which had spatterings of red logos and only one RGB LED.
The Formula is fully kitted-out in other areas too, as you would expect with its astronomical price tag. Asus has worked in partnership with EWKB – maker of the awesome Predator all-in-one expandable liquid cooler – to create a VRM waterblock that also works as a standard heatsink. However, the waterblock/heatsink unit is essentially a single piece of metal with a copper insert that acts as a waterblock, cooling the entire heatsink. When it was plumbed into our loop, we found it shaved at least 5°C off the software-reported temperature of the VRMs compared with air cooling. As it has standard G1/4in ports, you can use practically any fittings too, although the RGB lighting system will make it hard for third parties to make full-cover waterblocks for the Formula.
There’s a wealth of overclocking and testing tools included as well, such as illuminated power and reset buttons, and a clear-CMOS button on the rear I/O panel. There are also three 2-pin thermal sensor headers, which are accompanied by four case fan headers, two CPU fan headers and another header for powering 3 or 4-pin all-in-one liquid coolers.
While previous ROG boards we’ve reviewed have sported either M.2 or U.2 ports, the Formula has both, with the former located underneath a removable fascia in the shroud and supporting up to 110mm SSDs. As well as the usual six SATA 6Gbps ports you get from the Z170 chipset, there’s an additional two via an ASMedia controller. However, rather than using an ASMedia USB 3.1 controller, Asus has opted for Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller. There’s no Thunderbolt support, but you get both USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C ports.
At this price, there’s obvious competition from X99 motherboards, especially as LGA2011 CPUs offer more PCI-E lanes for multi-GPU setups. There’s no PLX chip on the Formula either, so it offers the usual dual 8x modes in 2-way multi-GPU setups, while the third slot is limited to 4x mode. There’s plenty of other expansion room, though, with three 1x slots, one of which is located above the primary 16x slot, so you should always be able to access it.
While it lacks dual LAN ports, the single Intel Gigabit Ethernet port is enough for most people, plus the Formula also includes 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, with a desktop antenna included in the box. As you’d expect, the on-board audio has been beefed up too, with the Formula sporting a Realtek-based SupremeFX 2015 audio codec with electronic shielding, Nichicon capacitors and an ESS ES9023P DAC.
The EFI and software bundle sport all the usual additional features we’ve come to expect from modern ROG boards as well, such as Keybot II, which enables any keyboard to record and execute macros and Windows shortcuts. Meanwhile, RAMCache works by using your system RAM as a super-fast cache drive to decrease load times, plus there’s a handy SSD secure erase command built into the EFI.
The Formula’s RealBench score of 135,385 is one of the faster results we’ve seen at stock speed, with an especially lofty score of 62,295 in the image editing test, although both the Maximus VIII Ranger and MSI Z170A Xpower Gaming managed to beat its performance slightly overall. There was nothing nasty to report in our game test either, where the Formula matched the best results we’ve seen. Meanwhile, the Formula’s power consumption was better than average under load at 131W.
We then managed to hit our joint maximum frequency of 4.9GHz using our Core i7-6700K, which required a hefty 1.41V vcore. Getting there was easy, though, thanks to Asus’ excellent EFI. This result was enough to post a blistering RealBench score of 152,858, although the total system power consumption hit 207W with the CPU under full load.
Audio performance was excellent too, with noise and dynamic range figures of -104.6dBA and 104.6dBA respectively – on a par with the best we’ve seen, while the M.2 port was more than capable of dealing with a Samsung 950 Pro, dishing out read and write speeds of 2,200MB/sec and 958MB/sec respectively.
The Formula is undoubtedly one of the most expensive Z170 motherboards around, so if you have a limited budget, you can get a considerably cheaper board, such as Asus Maximus VIII Ranger, which will still offer similar performance. The Formula is for water-cooling enthusiasts and modders that want some colour coordination, but perhaps don’t want the hassle of spraying their motherboard. Indeed, a VRM waterblock and RGB lighting kit would only set you back around £60 on their own, and the Formula’s carefully coordinated out-of-the-box package makes for a hassle-free route. It might be ludicrously expensive, but if you don’t need the grunt of an X99 setup and would benefit from the integrated water cooling and RGB lighting, the Maximus VIII Formula as desirable and feature-packed as motherboards come. ANTONY LEATHER
VERDICT
It has a huge price tag, but the latest ROG board is packed with features, and the RGB lighting and integrated water cooling make it great for enthusiasts.
SPECIFICATIONS
Chipset Intel Z170
CPU socket Intel LGA1151
Memory support 4 slots: max 64GB DDR3 (up to 3733MHz)
Expansion slots Three 16x PCI-E 3, three 1x PCI-E 3
Sound SupremeFX 2015 Realtek ALC1150
Networking Intel Gigabit LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi
Overclocking Base clock 40–650MHz, CPU multiplier 8-83x; max voltages, CPU 1.7V, RAM 2V
Ports 6 x SATA 6Gbps (Z170), 2 x SATA 6Gbps (ASMedia) 1 x M.2, 1 x U.2, 6 x USB 3, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 4 x USB 2, 1 x LAN, 8-channel audio, line in, mic, 1 x HDMI 1.4, 1 x DisplayPort
Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244