{"video_id":"7YchTib0kSY","title":"ASUS Maximus III Extreme Core i5 DDR3 Gaming Motherboard Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2010-05-08T14:53:29Z","duration_s":704,"segments":[{"start_s":0.32,"end_s":7.279,"text":"so this is a fairly exciting new product from isus this is the latest edition or","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.24,"end_s":11.96,"text":"one of the latest two editions in their Republic of gamer line of motherboards","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":9.599,"end_s":15.759,"text":"this is the Maximus 3 Extreme so the other one that's launching at the same","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":13.4,"end_s":20.72,"text":"time is the Rampage 3 Extreme which is the x58 version and then this is the p55","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":19.32,"end_s":25.279,"text":"version so that means that it is compatible with I'm going to I discarded","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":23.24,"end_s":30.119,"text":"my remote there which was a bad move okay so that means it is compatible with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":27.72,"end_s":37.12,"text":"Intel Core i7 and core i5 so the those are the LG LGA 1156 variants it is SLI","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":33.48,"end_s":40.48,"text":"ready Crossfire ready and let's see what","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":37.12,"end_s":42.6,"text":"Aus has to say for themselves on the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.48,"end_s":47.16,"text":"back or on the inside I should say of the motherboard box so first of all it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.719,"end_s":54.0,"text":"has Rog connect Rog connect allows you to plug in and overclock tweak get the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":50.0,"end_s":56.48,"text":"hardcore way okay that's not very","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":54.0,"end_s":60.559,"text":"explanatory I think it's a little um little module though that you plug into","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":57.92,"end_s":64.64,"text":"the board okay so USB BIOS flashback no worry of BIOS crash anytime so rather","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":62.96,"end_s":68.56,"text":"than having a dual BIOS feature like their competitors what they've done is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":66.68,"end_s":72.88,"text":"they've actually worked in a way to just plug in a USB thumb drive and recover","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":71.08,"end_s":77.92,"text":"your BIOS that way clever because then you can cover whatever recover whatever","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":75.04,"end_s":81.84,"text":"one you want Extreme Engine Digi plus this one I've never heard of say hello","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.4,"end_s":85.52,"text":"to the Next Generation design and then they have a picture of the CPU socket","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":84.119,"end_s":90.32,"text":"area so I'm guessing it's something to do with power delivery okay and then PC","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":88.28,"end_s":95.6,"text":"Bluetooth overwhelm your acknowled M with wireless overclocking","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":92.6,"end_s":98.68,"text":"experience let me read that again","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":95.6,"end_s":101.28,"text":"overwhelm your acknowledgement with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":98.68,"end_s":105.88,"text":"wireless overclocking experience okay it includes a copy of 3D","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":104.119,"end_s":111.56,"text":"Mark Vantage as well as a copy of kasperski antivirus uh which may or may","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":108.759,"end_s":115.84,"text":"not be a trial version I don't know all right and then we have a window into the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":113.52,"end_s":120.2,"text":"board itself so you can see that it has their uh their typical excellent look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":118.719,"end_s":124.479,"text":"which you always expect from their Republic of Gamers line it's always","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":121.719,"end_s":128.759,"text":"going to look awesome on the back we find uh most of the same information we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":126.6,"end_s":131.92,"text":"found on the inside there except for a couple other things it gives us a big","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":130.239,"end_s":136.36,"text":"list of specs and I'm not going to bother to tell you that and like what's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.239,"end_s":140.2,"text":"included because I'm about to open it up and tell you about it so let's get this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.319,"end_s":144.48,"text":"box opened up and have a look at the board so I'm going to pull out there's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":142.16,"end_s":148.64,"text":"two two boxes inside here there's uh two black boxes side by side so I'm going to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":146.519,"end_s":152.239,"text":"pull out the accessories one first and we'll have a look at that start with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":150.36,"end_s":158.68,"text":"here all right so I'll just put the board aside for a minute and let's see","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":155.36,"end_s":160.599,"text":"what we find inside the accessories","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":158.68,"end_s":163.56,"text":"box I'm going to have to figure out how to get it open first and then we'll be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":162.28,"end_s":167.599,"text":"good to go wow lots of accessories that's the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.0,"end_s":172.519,"text":"thing about these high-end boards is you get a nice big accessory package with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":170.48,"end_s":177.2,"text":"them that you don't typically see on the lower end model so first of all we have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":174.92,"end_s":183.36,"text":"an IO Shield all right typical looking IO Shield it has A's uh fluffy shiny","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":180.76,"end_s":193.48,"text":"metal thing on the back all right then we have a USB cable USB a mail to a mail","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":189.4,"end_s":195.04,"text":"then we have a USB and eSATA bracket","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.48,"end_s":199.44,"text":"that you can install in your case if you don't already have those enough of them","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":196.76,"end_s":204.959,"text":"at the back then we have the Maximus 3 Extreme user guide as well as oh a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":202.92,"end_s":211.239,"text":"couple things okay first of all you've got um the driver CD which also includes","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":209.2,"end_s":215.64,"text":"a copy of 3D Mark Vantage on it the keys on the back so I'm obviously not going","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":212.64,"end_s":217.92,"text":"to show you that and then on in here we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":215.64,"end_s":222.879,"text":"have a bunch of stickers to label your SATA cables so you can label them with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.519,"end_s":226.519,"text":"hard drive 1 hard drive two optical drive 1 optical drive two and then you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":224.879,"end_s":230.84,"text":"can write a little descriptive thing for it that's pretty nice then you've got a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":228.72,"end_s":234.28,"text":"huge Republic of Gamers case sticker this thing is enormous there's my hand","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":232.64,"end_s":240.159,"text":"for scale so you could throw that on like your side window if you so desired","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":237.799,"end_s":244.68,"text":"although most people probably wouldn't desire but for those who do desire it is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":242.64,"end_s":249.159,"text":"there that's the thing about you know a big accessory packag is just in case","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":247.48,"end_s":255.479,"text":"it's there all right you've got an optional fan for cooling the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":251.72,"end_s":258.6,"text":"mosfets next thing we find is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":255.479,"end_s":260.759,"text":"the I think this is the Rog connect","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":258.6,"end_s":266.68,"text":"module or something oh maybe this is the Bluetooth","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":263.44,"end_s":269.84,"text":"thing you know what I don't know okay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":266.68,"end_s":271.24,"text":"next we have a three-way SLI Bridge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":269.84,"end_s":275.52,"text":"looks just like that looks like any other three-way SLI Bridge so I guess","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":273.479,"end_s":279.919,"text":"that answers that question this board does have support for three-way SLI and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":277.68,"end_s":285.0,"text":"then you have just a normal flexible SLI bridge for two-way SLI they include a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":282.52,"end_s":289.56,"text":"couple of uh zip ties as well as the assus Q connect in case you have a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":287.24,"end_s":295.08,"text":"really old chassis that doesn't have the the block of connectors they've included","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":292.32,"end_s":300.4,"text":"a wide variety of SATA cables here so you've got one right angle and one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":298.08,"end_s":304.199,"text":"straight in each of these four packs so ASUS has included eight SATA cables for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":302.759,"end_s":308.08,"text":"you with this board they're black so they'll look good then you've got three","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":306.24,"end_s":312.08,"text":"temperature probes which I'm assuming you can plug","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":310.199,"end_s":316.28,"text":"into the board somewhere and then finally a crossfire Bridge so they've","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":314.24,"end_s":319.039,"text":"included it looks like a it might be a little bit longer than a standard","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":317.56,"end_s":322.72,"text":"Crossfire Bridge although it's hard to tell because I'm doing that off memory","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":321.639,"end_s":326.88,"text":"so um yeah it's atypical for the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.16,"end_s":330.319,"text":"motherboard manufacturer to include a crossfire bridge but I guess it doesn't","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":328.479,"end_s":334.96,"text":"cost them a whole lot cuz most manufacturers actually include the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":331.919,"end_s":338.0,"text":"crossfire Bridge with the uh with the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":334.96,"end_s":339.36,"text":"video card not with the motherboard so I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":338.0,"end_s":343.8,"text":"mean I guess the last thing they want you to do is buy a Maximus 3 Extreme you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":341.639,"end_s":346.639,"text":"know high-end motherboard for your build and you know not have some part that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":345.479,"end_s":350.68,"text":"you're going to need to put together your computer so ASUS has kind of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":348.759,"end_s":354.44,"text":"thought of everything on this one let's get the motherboard itself out of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.28,"end_s":358.36,"text":"box here take just taking off the plastic cover and I remember having a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":356.12,"end_s":362.8,"text":"bit of trouble getting a motherboard out of one of these um Republic of Gamers","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":360.68,"end_s":366.24,"text":"boxes at some point you just got to bend it just right yeah I got it figured out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":364.36,"end_s":370.199,"text":"this time all right so let's have a look at the board layout itself so this is a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":368.319,"end_s":375.4,"text":"p-55 board so that means you're going to find an LGA 1156 socket so that means","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":373.199,"end_s":380.28,"text":"you got support for core I3 Core i5 core i7 something to note about any cor i3s","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":378.16,"end_s":384.36,"text":"or core i5 dual course is that you are not going to have support for the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":381.639,"end_s":388.88,"text":"Onboard video built in because there's no Onboard video ports on the back of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":386.16,"end_s":395.479,"text":"the board the p-55 chipset does not support that particular feature whereas","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":390.8,"end_s":397.28,"text":"the h55 and h57 do okay you've got your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":395.479,"end_s":401.56,"text":"uh your mosfet cooling here connected by one heat pipe to your North Bridge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.08,"end_s":405.28,"text":"cooler and then that goes down by via another heat pipe to your South Bridge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":403.52,"end_s":411.039,"text":"cooler and I'm guessing there's probably a SATA 6 as well as a USB 3.0 chipset","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.639,"end_s":414.44,"text":"under there somewhere actually the USB chipset might be somewhere else it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":412.44,"end_s":419.0,"text":"doesn't really matter okay over on the side once again standard features you've","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":416.28,"end_s":423.84,"text":"got your DDR3 dual Channel slots and they use the these unique assus memory","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":421.879,"end_s":429.16,"text":"slots where you can see that only one side actually moves back and forth the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":425.919,"end_s":430.8,"text":"other side is just fixed so what you do","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":429.16,"end_s":434.12,"text":"is you take the module you slide it in this way and then you put it down and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.759,"end_s":439.759,"text":"then clip it into place so that's kind of a neat feature that they've built into a lot of their newer motherboards","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":437.52,"end_s":444.4,"text":"on the very high end so then up here we've got a four pin sorry a four pin","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":442.319,"end_s":449.16,"text":"an8 pin CPU connector right where it belongs at the top left of the board as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":446.52,"end_s":454.16,"text":"well as a BIOS reset switch right there this there that is awesome because you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":452.24,"end_s":459.28,"text":"don't need a bio switch on the back well mind you you have one but having one","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":456.96,"end_s":463.599,"text":"here is so much smarter than all the guys who are putting them wait a minute","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":461.44,"end_s":466.96,"text":"is that even a bio switch no I don't think it is that does something else","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":465.52,"end_s":471.0,"text":"because yeah they've already got one here they've got one on the back of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":468.68,"end_s":475.08,"text":"board and then they've got another bio switch down here at the bottom right of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":473.08,"end_s":478.56,"text":"the board which is also a fairly good location for it because that's the kind","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":476.44,"end_s":481.599,"text":"of place that you can actually access even when you've got aoup graphics cards","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":480.28,"end_s":487.68,"text":"installed which is what I was about to say about this location no Q reset yeah","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":485.52,"end_s":490.919,"text":"all right okay so let's keep going down the board we've got our 24 pin connector","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":489.52,"end_s":498.36,"text":"right where it belongs on the right hand Edge and then we have a Go Button","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":494.919,"end_s":500.479,"text":"qled all right up here we have probit so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":498.36,"end_s":507.12,"text":"that is where you can stick a a multimeter to find out what the voltages","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":502.879,"end_s":509.52,"text":"are going to the CPU uh CPU PLL I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":507.12,"end_s":513.76,"text":"integrated memory controller the RAM PC CH and then you've got a couple ground","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":511.52,"end_s":519.719,"text":"connections there that's pretty nice and then uh qled tells you CPU dram VGA boot","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":517.36,"end_s":523.12,"text":"device H maybe it's some kind of error reporting you know what they've actually","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":521.599,"end_s":527.24,"text":"included a lot of features with this board that I've never seen before and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":525.2,"end_s":530.959,"text":"I'm uh I've been caught a little bit uh off my guard here all right well why","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":529.12,"end_s":535.92,"text":"don't we keep just keep on chugging along so down at the bottom side of the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":533.04,"end_s":541.6,"text":"board here we have two SATA 3 so that's SATA 6 gbit per second as well as six","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":539.079,"end_s":547.12,"text":"SATA 2 so that's SATA 3 GB per second running off the chipset and then we have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":543.88,"end_s":549.88,"text":"the plx bridge chip which assus says is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.12,"end_s":555.519,"text":"the best solution for running SATA 6 and USB 3.0 because it gives them access to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":553.04,"end_s":560.519,"text":"the full bandwidth that they need okay and then we've got down at the bottom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":557.68,"end_s":565.88,"text":"this motherboard has it appears all four pin pwm fan connectors built in so it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":563.2,"end_s":568.2,"text":"has a ton of them actually why don't I pull back and have let you have a look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":567.12,"end_s":576.88,"text":"at the whole board and I'll show you where they all are there's one here one here that's 2 3","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":572.88,"end_s":580.48,"text":"4 5 6","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":576.88,"end_s":582.24,"text":"7 eight eight four pin pwm fan","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":580.48,"end_s":587.76,"text":"connectors so you could potentially plug a CPU fan um you know and then seven","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":585.48,"end_s":592.0,"text":"case fans if you felt like it okay so let's keep on going here here's all your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":590.399,"end_s":595.36,"text":"front panel connectors as well as one more SATA port and that's probably","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":593.76,"end_s":602.04,"text":"running off the same chipset as the one powering the EA port on the back you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":597.68,"end_s":604.959,"text":"have 1 2 3 4 5 five PCI Express 16x","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":602.04,"end_s":610.88,"text":"physical connectors but not all of these are actually going to run at PCI Express","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":607.76,"end_s":613.16,"text":"16x um because with the p55 chipset you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":610.88,"end_s":618.6,"text":"don't actually have access to that many PCI Express Lanes down here on the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":615.16,"end_s":621.92,"text":"bottom we have ASUS's uh stylized start","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":618.6,"end_s":623.56,"text":"and restart buttons as well as a Molex","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":621.92,"end_s":626.2,"text":"connector so right there on the bottom of the board you got a Molex connector","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":625.0,"end_s":630.32,"text":"I'm going to go ahead and assume that that's for supplementary power for the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":628.36,"end_s":634.04,"text":"PCI Express slots I mean if you're plugging in you know you could","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":631.56,"end_s":639.639,"text":"potentially do one two three four fmes if you had a yeah if","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":638.0,"end_s":643.839,"text":"you wanted to turn this into like a folding board then uh yeah you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":641.76,"end_s":647.2,"text":"definitely need some supplementary power all right then they've got another","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":645.48,"end_s":651.56,"text":"supplementary power connector up here there's another Molex connector right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":649.68,"end_s":656.12,"text":"there on the motherboard and then let's get around to the back panel so here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":653.72,"end_s":661.88,"text":"you're going to find two USB 2.0 ports a PS2 keyboard Port then you've got a SE","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":659.68,"end_s":666.48,"text":"reset button and that actually is one then you have a a couple USB 3.0 ports","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":664.519,"end_s":672.079,"text":"you can tell by the blue color coding then you have optical audio out ESAT","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":668.92,"end_s":674.0,"text":"fire wire two more USB 2.0 ports two","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":672.079,"end_s":678.959,"text":"more USB 2.0 ports you know this is actually kind of confusing they've gone","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":675.6,"end_s":683.36,"text":"in colorcoded USB 2.0 black or red and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":678.959,"end_s":685.6,"text":"then USB 3.0 blue so yeah that's okay I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":683.36,"end_s":690.48,"text":"mean as long as you remember blue is USB 3.0 then you should be good you got","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":687.32,"end_s":693.279,"text":"gigabit Ethernet then you have the um","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":690.48,"end_s":698.0,"text":"Rog link as well as the USB cable that connects to it then you have 7.1 audio","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":696.0,"end_s":705.32,"text":"and that pretty much wraps up my unboxing and overview of the Maximus 3","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":702.32,"end_s":705.32,"text":"Extreme","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"so this is a fairly exciting new product from isus this is the latest edition or one of the latest two editions in their Republic of gamer line of motherboards this is the Maximus 3 Extreme so the other one that's launching at the same time is the Rampage 3 Extreme which is the x58 version and then this is the p55 version so that means that it is compatible with I'm going to I discarded my remote there which was a bad move okay so that means it is compatible with Intel Core i7 and core i5 so the those are the LG LGA 1156 variants it is SLI ready Crossfire ready and let's see what Aus has to say for themselves on the back or on the inside I should say of the motherboard box so first of all it has Rog connect Rog connect allows you to plug in and overclock tweak get the hardcore way okay that's not very explanatory I think it's a little um little module though that you plug into the board okay so USB BIOS flashback no worry of BIOS crash anytime so rather than having a dual BIOS feature like their competitors what they've done is they've actually worked in a way to just plug in a USB thumb drive and recover your BIOS that way clever because then you can cover whatever recover whatever one you want Extreme Engine Digi plus this one I've never heard of say hello to the Next Generation design and then they have a picture of the CPU socket area so I'm guessing it's something to do with power delivery okay and then PC Bluetooth overwhelm your acknowled M with wireless overclocking experience let me read that again overwhelm your acknowledgement with wireless overclocking experience okay it includes a copy of 3D Mark Vantage as well as a copy of kasperski antivirus uh which may or may not be a trial version I don't know all right and then we have a window into the board itself so you can see that it has their uh their typical excellent look which you always expect from their Republic of Gamers line it's always going to look awesome on the back we find uh most of the same information we found on the inside there except for a couple other things it gives us a big list of specs and I'm not going to bother to tell you that and like what's included because I'm about to open it up and tell you about it so let's get this box opened up and have a look at the board so I'm going to pull out there's two two boxes inside here there's uh two black boxes side by side so I'm going to pull out the accessories one first and we'll have a look at that start with here all right so I'll just put the board aside for a minute and let's see what we find inside the accessories box I'm going to have to figure out how to get it open first and then we'll be good to go wow lots of accessories that's the thing about these high-end boards is you get a nice big accessory package with them that you don't typically see on the lower end model so first of all we have an IO Shield all right typical looking IO Shield it has A's uh fluffy shiny metal thing on the back all right then we have a USB cable USB a mail to a mail then we have a USB and eSATA bracket that you can install in your case if you don't already have those enough of them at the back then we have the Maximus 3 Extreme user guide as well as oh a couple things okay first of all you've got um the driver CD which also includes a copy of 3D Mark Vantage on it the keys on the back so I'm obviously not going to show you that and then on in here we have a bunch of stickers to label your SATA cables so you can label them with hard drive 1 hard drive two optical drive 1 optical drive two and then you can write a little descriptive thing for it that's pretty nice then you've got a huge Republic of Gamers case sticker this thing is enormous there's my hand for scale so you could throw that on like your side window if you so desired although most people probably wouldn't desire but for those who do desire it is there that's the thing about you know a big accessory packag is just in case it's there all right you've got an optional fan for cooling the mosfets next thing we find is the I think this is the Rog connect module or something oh maybe this is the Bluetooth thing you know what I don't know okay next we have a three-way SLI Bridge looks just like that looks like any other three-way SLI Bridge so I guess that answers that question this board does have support for three-way SLI and then you have just a normal flexible SLI bridge for two-way SLI they include a couple of uh zip ties as well as the assus Q connect in case you have a really old chassis that doesn't have the the block of connectors they've included a wide variety of SATA cables here so you've got one right angle and one straight in each of these four packs so ASUS has included eight SATA cables for you with this board they're black so they'll look good then you've got three temperature probes which I'm assuming you can plug into the board somewhere and then finally a crossfire Bridge so they've included it looks like a it might be a little bit longer than a standard Crossfire Bridge although it's hard to tell because I'm doing that off memory so um yeah it's atypical for the motherboard manufacturer to include a crossfire bridge but I guess it doesn't cost them a whole lot cuz most manufacturers actually include the crossfire Bridge with the uh with the video card not with the motherboard so I mean I guess the last thing they want you to do is buy a Maximus 3 Extreme you know high-end motherboard for your build and you know not have some part that you're going to need to put together your computer so ASUS has kind of thought of everything on this one let's get the motherboard itself out of the box here take just taking off the plastic cover and I remember having a bit of trouble getting a motherboard out of one of these um Republic of Gamers boxes at some point you just got to bend it just right yeah I got it figured out this time all right so let's have a look at the board layout itself so this is a p-55 board so that means you're going to find an LGA 1156 socket so that means you got support for core I3 Core i5 core i7 something to note about any cor i3s or core i5 dual course is that you are not going to have support for the Onboard video built in because there's no Onboard video ports on the back of the board the p-55 chipset does not support that particular feature whereas the h55 and h57 do okay you've got your uh your mosfet cooling here connected by one heat pipe to your North Bridge cooler and then that goes down by via another heat pipe to your South Bridge cooler and I'm guessing there's probably a SATA 6 as well as a USB 3.0 chipset under there somewhere actually the USB chipset might be somewhere else it doesn't really matter okay over on the side once again standard features you've got your DDR3 dual Channel slots and they use the these unique assus memory slots where you can see that only one side actually moves back and forth the other side is just fixed so what you do is you take the module you slide it in this way and then you put it down and then clip it into place so that's kind of a neat feature that they've built into a lot of their newer motherboards on the very high end so then up here we've got a four pin sorry a four pin an8 pin CPU connector right where it belongs at the top left of the board as well as a BIOS reset switch right there this there that is awesome because you don't need a bio switch on the back well mind you you have one but having one here is so much smarter than all the guys who are putting them wait a minute is that even a bio switch no I don't think it is that does something else because yeah they've already got one here they've got one on the back of the board and then they've got another bio switch down here at the bottom right of the board which is also a fairly good location for it because that's the kind of place that you can actually access even when you've got aoup graphics cards installed which is what I was about to say about this location no Q reset yeah all right okay so let's keep going down the board we've got our 24 pin connector right where it belongs on the right hand Edge and then we have a Go Button qled all right up here we have probit so that is where you can stick a a multimeter to find out what the voltages are going to the CPU uh CPU PLL I integrated memory controller the RAM PC CH and then you've got a couple ground connections there that's pretty nice and then uh qled tells you CPU dram VGA boot device H maybe it's some kind of error reporting you know what they've actually included a lot of features with this board that I've never seen before and I'm uh I've been caught a little bit uh off my guard here all right well why don't we keep just keep on chugging along so down at the bottom side of the board here we have two SATA 3 so that's SATA 6 gbit per second as well as six SATA 2 so that's SATA 3 GB per second running off the chipset and then we have the plx bridge chip which assus says is the best solution for running SATA 6 and USB 3.0 because it gives them access to the full bandwidth that they need okay and then we've got down at the bottom this motherboard has it appears all four pin pwm fan connectors built in so it has a ton of them actually why don't I pull back and have let you have a look at the whole board and I'll show you where they all are there's one here one here that's 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight eight four pin pwm fan connectors so you could potentially plug a CPU fan um you know and then seven case fans if you felt like it okay so let's keep on going here here's all your front panel connectors as well as one more SATA port and that's probably running off the same chipset as the one powering the EA port on the back you have 1 2 3 4 5 five PCI Express 16x physical connectors but not all of these are actually going to run at PCI Express 16x um because with the p55 chipset you don't actually have access to that many PCI Express Lanes down here on the bottom we have ASUS's uh stylized start and restart buttons as well as a Molex connector so right there on the bottom of the board you got a Molex connector I'm going to go ahead and assume that that's for supplementary power for the PCI Express slots I mean if you're plugging in you know you could potentially do one two three four fmes if you had a yeah if you wanted to turn this into like a folding board then uh yeah you definitely need some supplementary power all right then they've got another supplementary power connector up here there's another Molex connector right there on the motherboard and then let's get around to the back panel so here you're going to find two USB 2.0 ports a PS2 keyboard Port then you've got a SE reset button and that actually is one then you have a a couple USB 3.0 ports you can tell by the blue color coding then you have optical audio out ESAT fire wire two more USB 2.0 ports two more USB 2.0 ports you know this is actually kind of confusing they've gone in colorcoded USB 2.0 black or red and then USB 3.0 blue so yeah that's okay I mean as long as you remember blue is USB 3.0 then you should be good you got gigabit Ethernet then you have the um Rog link as well as the USB cable that connects to it then you have 7.1 audio and that pretty much wraps up my unboxing and overview of the Maximus 3 Extreme"}