Asus Maximus 3 ROG LGA 1156 Motherboard

Introduction

Once in a while when the stars align themselves just right and the moon has a blue ring around it a motherboard of epic proportions falls from the sky and graces mankind with the gift of ultimate overclockability and sheer beauty. Every feature works perfectly and the overclocking flows like a mountain stream during spring snow melts. It doesn't happen very often that such a motherboard is gifted to use from the computing gods high on top Mount Geek but when it does it's something you will never forget.

The Asus Maximus 3 Formula ROG (Republic of Gamers) motherboard is without a doubt one of those legendary boards. Gifted with style and grace and pretty enough to soften the heart of the hardest core overclocker the board is a sheer joy to run and overclock. Despite the ability to deliver great performance for the casual end user and self overclock the i7 870 to 3.52GHz with just a mouse click, the Maximus 3 has more than enough features for the enthusiast hard core overclocker. We would warn you though once you've gone Maximus 3 other boards might seem muted by it's beauty and performance.

Designed for the gamer in all of us, the Maximus 3 packs the features you need and the simplicity of operation you only dream about.

With 16+3 phase power for the CPU and load balancing across the ferrite chokes the Maximus 3 will provide plenty of stable power for overclocking and keep the power regulation components nice and cool in the process. Asus has really gone above and beyond with the Maximus 3 and unlike a lot of vendors who toss in a bunch of mostly useless software utilities that clutter up your drive and never get used, Asus is spot on with the software they included with the Maximus 3. Not only is the software spot on but Asus has been going a direction we really like and incorporating a lot of the features into the hardware itself. With large and easy to reach on board power on and reset buttons that scream turn me on and start gaming the Maximus 3 ROG board just makes you ache to get it installed and fired up. Then you start noticing things like the Go Button and SPD SATA connectors and you find yourself staring at the board an hour later mesmerized by the functionality and beauty of the board.