Introduction

Not all that long ago I received an e-mail from ASUS asking about a new brand name. They wanted to create a new line-up of products that were aimed solely at the gamers and overclockers. This line-up would have the "best in class" features and offer performance levels above the norm. The problem was what to call this line...

In the end after the votes were tallied, the name "Republic of Gamers (or ROG as most call it) became the title. ROG products are generally recognized as some of the most feature-packed and tweakable products you can buy. Some of these have been the Crosshair series for AMD fans, the Rampage for Intel's top end chipset (like the X48 and X58) and the Maximus for the midrange P series even though the first Maximus was an X38 based board (P45, P55 etc.).

Today we have the third generation of the Maximus complete with improved cooling, Bluetooth overclocking and two full x16 PCIe slots (there are five, but only two will run at x16 combined) sitting on the test bench. Even with the power off it looks like it is raring to go; so let's hit the big red power button and get to it.