Introduction

With another video card launch out the way it's time to get back into testing the pile of Z77 motherboards that we've been collecting for the last few months. The latest comes from ASUS and is part of the popular Republic of Gamer series or ROG as most enthusiasts know it as.

The Maximus V GENE is the first of the ROG boards to hit us and carrying the GENE tag means that it's a mATX based model. While we'd normally expect to see a larger size ATX based ROG motherboard from ASUS, the Maximus V Formula was slightly delayed and is due in the coming weeks.

As always, though, there are a few things we need to do before we look at the performance side of things. First we'll start of by checking out the package and take a closer look at the bundle to see what ASUS is offering us with the Maximus V GENE.

Once we've done that we'll move onto the board to see just how the Maximus V GENE looks before we dive into the BIOS and then of course move onto the test system side of things and also the overclocking ability of the board.

Once we've done that it's time to get into the fun stuff to see just what kind of performance we're able to get out of the board at both stock speeds and overclock before we finally wrap everything up. But let's first check out what's going on with the package here today.

Package

Looking at the box we can see we've got a fairly small one on hand thanks to the mATX style of the board. Opening up the box we also see some of the main features that are on offer and one of the big stands outs is the SurpremeFX III onboard audio solution which is powered by Sound Blaster X-Fi technology.

Along with that you can see some of the other major highlights including GameFirst via Intel Ethernet networking, LucidLogix Virtu MVP support, ROG Connect, Extreme Engine Digi+ II and the new mPCIe combo card which we'll look at in just a moment.

Moving into the package we've got a user manual, driver CD, SATA cable labels and a sign to hang of your door which looks really cool. We've also got a ROG Connect cable, six SATA cables, SLI cable, EZ Connectors and the rear I/O plate.

The big extra in the board would be the new mPCIe combo card that ASUS has included. On one side we've got an mSATA connector while the other is a mini PCIe connector that can be used for a wireless card.

Looking above you can see the mPCIe combo card with our MemoRight mSATA SSD installed. We'll take a closer look at the installation of the mPCIe combo card in the next page when we check out the board. Overall, though, it's a really nice handy extra that adds more to a small board that is normally limited by room.