In appearance, it bears a passing resemblance to the Intel X38 Maximus Formula SE - reviewed here - with an extensive passive cooling system that covers the chipset and power regulation hardware. It comes complete with a Fusion cooler on the northbridge, which makes life very easy if you want to water-cool the Asus. The reference design from Nvidia uses a large active cooler on the northbridge, and judging by our experiences with the Asus this is probably a good idea.
PCMark05 Results
Longer bars are better
At first, our testing went smoothly, but as we cranked up the speed of the test rig's Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and QX9770 processors, and that of the DDR 3 memory, the scores in our benchmark tests became erratic. After a time, the QX9650 system would freeze and require a restart, something we weren't anticipating as the chip we have here has always been well up for overclocking in past tests.
By contrast, the QX9770 was far less problematic, even though it's the CPU we'd have expected to fail had we been told one of our two CPUs wouldn't overclock. All this suggests to us, the source of the problem is Nvidia's support for different Intel CPUs, suggesting it needs to do some more work here, possibly in conjunction with Asus' driver writers.
COMMENTS
The LED Switch
I still hate that button. Stupid idea. I wish they removed it - all it does is confuses my customers!
Great board regardless. Ordered one today.
@AC: "Passive cooling....more like water?"
That was kinda my point, also. According to the marketing blurb on Asus' webbie (written in that strange "murricanese"), it's a "hybrid" which is "H2O ready: {snip}
The Fusion Block System is a more efficient thermal solution compared to competing followers with complicated looks. It is a hybrid thermal design that combines the ROG´s renowned heatpipe design with the additional ability to connect to a water cooling system."
Hmm... not convinced and this seems borne-out in Leo's test.
If I were building a water-cooled rig right now, I'd be looking for best-of-breed, proven water-cooling components and lashing those to a "conventional", air-cooled mobo, probably spending roughly the same amount of moolah :s
Not so
Fusion is very clearly offered as air OR water cooling and on Intel chipped boards it keeps the chipset perfectly cool with air rather than water as the medium.
The Asus Maximus Extreme is a water cooled board so if Asus had chosen it could have made this model a Striker II Ultra Extreme.
But, Shirley....
("Stop calling me Shirley") ... this, like the previous "Striker Extreme", has the "fusion" block on it 'cause it's intended to be a liquid-cooled board from the get-go? Not using the thing the way it was intended is, IMNSHO, asking for trouble... Sure that w/b is a big hunk of copper with some fins on it, but -- and I'm not a thermodynamicist -- no way can it perform anywhere near as well as a pukka air-to-air 'sink if there's no liquid circulating its innards...?
Is this deceased equus suitably flagellated?
Incidentally, stopped using Asus mobos after the grief I had when building my last current rig -- their support was appalling compared to the excellent service from EVGA (albeit their product being little more than an EVGA-badged Foxconn reference model).
Rik.
Passive cooling....more like water?
The North Bridge block looks like it plugs into a water cooling system which would certainly keep hardcore overclockers happy...
Is the cooling meant to be run passive or only with a water cooling system?
