Asus ROG MAXIMUS X FORMULA Intel Z370 ATX Gaming Motherboard

I got this quite some time ago as I was looking for a top-of-the-line motherboard. The MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming, which was the one I originally wanted, was nowhere to be found (and I learned after that it was because MSI was developing the Z390 revision). Thus, I "settled" for the ASUS ROG Maximus x Formula, and let me tell you, it was well worth it.My previous experience with the X99 Rampage V Edition 10 was less than stellar. Even though it was stable, it sometimes had random crashes, BIOS updates were sparse and to top it off, the DAC it came with didn't even work for reasons not even ASUS knew, even after days of viewing forums and trying strange 'possible fixes' that I found. However, the experience with this motherboard is a vastly different experience.Firstly, it's stable out-of-the box, but it only gets better with the BIOS updates (I'm currently running 2203) and I can't remember the last time I crashed (apart from when I overclock and stress-test). Temps are comfortable (as low as they can get in the humid, hot environment that is Costa Rica), the OSD is useful for when you're gaming and don't want to alt-tab (a minor use, but still appreciated), and the integrated waterblocks, NVMe heat spreader and overclocking stability is just icing on the cake. A 5GHz all-core overclock is easily achievable with my 8086k (1.315V), and I'm sure I could get it down if I tried finding the settings I had before (1.280V), but that took literal weeks of strenuous testing and adjusting, so I just tend to leave it where it is. Oh, and for the record, I haven't yet delidded my 8086k, so there's still room to work with.Overall, a true joy to have and overclock with, even if you do take a hit to the wallet.UPDATE April 18th 2021I got a 9900K a couple of months ago and I just popped it in (my BIOS was up-to-date) and it works great. I haven't seen a single bottleneck and it's been a breeze. Might try OC'ing it when I get the chance.Edit: The MB died in 2020 when OC'ing the 9900K. Even ASUS didn't repair it, they just sent me a new one after I RMA'd it. I tried easier overclocks on this one but it seems to have taken a hit since my PC is stuttering super often now.

My plan was actually to get the Hero version, but I was having trouble finding stock from a seller that is recognized by Asus and thus would qualify for warranty from the date you bought it. BTW, I found out that Asus, by default, goes by date of manufacture to determine the warranty, so you can get warranty for it from most likely almost seller. However, if you want the warranty from the date of purchase, they can manually change the coverage date if you show them the receipt from an authorized seller.Now, as for the actual motherboard. I'm using it with an i9-9900k, overclocked to 5GHz. The board itself doesn't seem to have an issue doing that, but I lost the silicon lottery when it came to the i9-9900k, so the temperatures when stress testing it are pretty high (Prime95, etc). Under real world stress loads (like encoding with x264, placebo settings), the temperatures are completely reasonable. This is all air cooled via Noctua, and the VRM temperatures seem to be under control as well, despite this board being designed for water cooling.The motherboard has BIOS flashback, which means you'll be able to flash it with the latest BIOS supporting 9th generation Intel CPUs without a currently working 8th gen CPU already in your system. I also am glad that I couldn't find stock of the Hero, because the Formula has the metal brace at the back and feels really solid. I have an m.2 SSD in this, and I have not had durability issues with the m.2 shield as some other reviewers had. However, I was careful with it as I was cautious from the other reviews.I chose the Z370 chipset as opposed to the Z390 chipset because it is the last consumer level Intel chipset to officially support Windows 7. I had no issues getting everything on the board working and having no missing drivers for anything on the board in the device manager. There are some workarounds to get intel USB controllers Z390 working in Windows 7, but it's difficult and you may end up with a bunch of yellow marks in device manager for various things.The only thing I dislike about this board is that the shielding at the front is rather unnecessary. I don't believe that it provide any benefit other than aesthetics, and it might even make things hotter. They also make changing out the CMOS battery more difficult.

Yo waz up folks. So I was building a new pc and was looking for parts when I stumbled among the asus maximus x hero. Well lemme tell yah this thing is a beast. It’s looks amazing especially with the rgb. There was only one issue though. So I received an asus motherboard Maximus x hero as a gift from a family member for a certain event. Anyways when I built my pc it was running god tier for a short while. Then I got new ram a few weeks later and when I changed it my computer stopped working. Apparently my motherboard stopped working. I sent it to a company to get checked and they said it had a defect. So I sent it back to amazon got a new one and everything was good again. So I’d really recommend buying this mother board only if you don’t mind waiting a few days for a refund so you can get a new one. Otherwise everything about this board is amazing!

I have to say this board is an Awesome board filled with features, great looks and well made... but you can get all of that from the board product list, here are my details:Got the board from Amazon for 280ish, quick shipping, good packaging.. put it all together:"Asus Rog Maximus X Code i7-8086K @ 5.2Ghz(All Cores) 1.32v G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32G @3600 2 Asus 1080Ti 11G Strix Gaming OC in SLI M.2 NVMe Samsung 960 EVO 1TB 2TOSHIBA MD04ACA400 4TB 7200 RPM Phanteks - Enthoo Evolv ATX Case Corsair -H150i PRO, Corsair - RMx 1000W 80+ Gold, Acer XB321HK"And as soon as I had it up and running one of my GPUs would not show in BIOs, I flashed the newest one, same issue.. did some troubleshooting and issue stayed with the slot, not my GPUs checked BIOs and it only saw one slot active..Amazon tech was helpful, I had done all of the things they suggested already, they then got ASUS on, same situation but they set me up a RMA, I had the board replaced and WOW.. once you get all of the parts setup and working, this thing is a breeze to OC, I am sitting at 5.2GHz at 1.32V, many folks have to go to 1.4+ to get that with this CPU..Now I will admit, I went high end parts on the entire build, but that is what this board is, a high-end part and when put with other high-end parts, this is the results you will get, I know I am leaving some HP on the table while not even trying to get past 5.2, but my voltage and temps are so good (temps Idle in low to mid 30s and never go above 71 gaming and 74 stress testing) for the longevity of all of the parts, I am at a awesome stable setting.

This is a great motherboard. Considering it was built for overclocking, I have to say it does its job very well. It was an easy build with it and everything worked great. I have been using it for about 6 weeks now and can find nothing to complain about. It has helped me overclock my 8700K to some really fun numbers. I have hit 5.4 GHz, not stable though. Stable enough to validate though. I have 5.3 stable and may be able to get 5.4 perfectly stable if I tried real hard, but probably won't. It even overclocked my DDR4 3200 ram to 4000 without even straining.Over the years I have built maybe close to 100 computers, but this may be the best overclocking board I have ever used.I wish I could think of something I don't like about it, but I can't right now. I guess I could talk about only 2 ram slots and the ram is extremely close to the CPU socket, but that was by design, for a specific purpose and I knew that before I bought it. It's one of the reasons it overclocks so well. That makes it a positive, not a negative. I could complain about only 16 pcie lanes, but that's Intel's fault, not the board. That comes from the CPU.If you are an overclocker and an enthusiast, I highly recommend this board. Would I buy it again? I wouldn't even consider a different board. ASUS ROG Maximus X APEX LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 Z370 EATX Motherboard with 5G LAN and USB 3.1 for 8th Generation Intel Core Processors