1 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:16,160 Maximus 4G Z. So, this is a version of a 2 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:18,160 microATX motherboard for the LG 1155 3 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:23,279 platform that includes support for SLI ATI Crossfire ATI Crossfire. I think 4 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:28,800 what they surely mean is AMD Crossfire X. It uses the Intel Z68 chipset. So 5 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:34,719 yes, this is a version of an MATX Republic of Gamers motherboard that uses 6 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:36,880 a ZType chipset rather than the P67 7 00:00:34,719 --> 00:00:42,800 chipset, which means you have support for Intel SRT technology, which stands 8 00:00:40,079 --> 00:00:48,640 for makes your hard drive go faster using an SSD. And then we've also got 9 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:53,280 support for Virtue, which is using the Lucid Hydrolologic software in order to 10 00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:58,719 use the integrated GPU for things like transcoding video and saving power and 11 00:00:55,520 --> 00:01:01,600 using your dedicated GPU or GPUs in the 12 00:00:58,719 --> 00:01:06,000 example here for running games and like other baller stuff like that. Okay, so 13 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:09,920 Supreme FX X52 is built in, so you got decent onboard sound. Game first, which 14 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:14,720 is uh something to do with prioritizing your network traffic. OG Connect, which 15 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:18,960 is kind of neat. So, you can use a USB cable to plug in and overclock your 16 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:23,439 board using another computer. This is cool. BIOS print. One click. Easily 17 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:27,520 share your BIOS settings. So, you can print out your BIOS settings. Very neat 18 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:33,280 because this is very helpful for helping other people with their stuff. GPU 19 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,960 dimost is okay. This is kind of poorly 20 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:42,000 named actually because what they really mean is like GPU and 21 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:43,280 memory post diagnostics and I think 22 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,560 they're trying to shorten it a little too much because it's a cool tool but 23 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:52,399 they've made it kind of hard to communicate exactly what it does. So, from within the BIOS, you can actually 24 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:57,040 easily diagnose which cards are plugged into which DIMs, if they're detected 25 00:01:54,240 --> 00:02:01,119 properly, or dims slots, uh, for the PCIe slots, whether they're being 26 00:01:59,119 --> 00:02:06,719 detected properly, and that'll allow you to more easily diagnose any issues that 27 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,920 you're having with the system. So, let's 28 00:02:06,719 --> 00:02:12,440 have a look at what we've got included. Here's our ROG connect cable. We've got 29 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:19,120 some um, uh, cable ties. We've got an short 30 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:22,720 SLI bridge. That's a flexible bridge. I prefer to see a black one or a red one 31 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:28,160 on a board like this, but that's okay. We've got front panel connectors. We've 32 00:02:25,599 --> 00:02:32,319 got an ad for Zonar sound cards, which I definitely believe are 33 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:35,840 awesome. I'm a big fan of this guy right here, the 34 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:40,800 Zense. Although the Essence STX is very popular as well. Zense is what I'm using 35 00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:46,080 personally, though. All right, we've got six SATA cables. 36 00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:50,160 Two of which are SATA 36 Gbit per second right angle cables and four of which are 37 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:53,760 SATA 2 3 Gbit per second right angle cables. Although any of them will 38 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:58,400 probably work for any of them. Okay, we've got our IO shield, our user guide, 39 00:02:56,720 --> 00:03:01,440 including a DVD, which you should throw away and download the latest drivers 40 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:06,080 from the ASUS website, Republic of Gamers sticker, which you cannot download from the ASUS website. You'll 41 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:10,840 have to you'll have to use that one. hard drive labels. So, you can go ahead 42 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:15,920 and label your uh your 43 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:15,920 cables. Label your cables on the 44 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:22,720 tables before playing all three 45 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:26,720 Fables, but not on a PC because Microsoft doesn't support the PC the way 46 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:30,570 they support Xbox, which is not really related to this motherboard. Here's an 47 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,660 ROG sticker. 48 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:43,200 There we go. All right, let's go ahead put these things back in here. Put the 49 00:03:41,519 --> 00:03:46,519 other thing back in the other thing. Put this thing in the thing. That thing in 50 00:03:44,879 --> 00:03:53,120 the thing. And all 51 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:56,640 right, this is the Maximus 4 G&Z. 52 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:58,879 you know, ever since the original um 53 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:02,879 like, okay, do you guys remember how hard it was to find a performance 54 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:08,879 microATX motherboard even a few years ago? Like I remember back in the NF4 55 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:11,680 days, EVGA was the only one the only one 56 00:04:08,879 --> 00:04:15,920 who went and released an N4 SLI motherboard in the microATX form factor. 57 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:20,880 And even then, it wasn't a great board. I mean, it it had all kinds of bugs. I 58 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:24,560 had one at one point. It was not a great board. It had like a goofy color scheme. 59 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:28,000 It was just terrible. And then all of a sudden, DFI started this trend. They 60 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:32,320 released a performance microATX board. And all of a sudden, Gigabyte and ASUS 61 00:04:30,479 --> 00:04:36,000 and MSI, they're like all on this bandwagon of performance boards. And I 62 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:40,400 think it's great because the reality of it is this is all your power and your 63 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:46,479 CPU socket and your memory. And that's all the same size as an ATX board. Here 64 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:48,400 you've got enough room for dual GPU. So 65 00:04:46,479 --> 00:04:53,280 whether it's SLI or Crossfire, you can put in two dual slot GPUs. And since 66 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:58,160 you've got decent onboard sound, decent onboard LAN, decent onboard everything 67 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:02,240 else you could possibly need. I mean, this this is this is now just a smaller 68 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:06,360 version of everything that you could put on an ATX board. You've got all of that 69 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:10,560 performance, even things like voltage checkpoints, and uh you save a little 70 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:14,800 bit of power by using a smaller PCB, fewer chips and all that good stuff, 71 00:05:11,919 --> 00:05:19,360 powering fewer slots. And yeah, it's just smaller. I think small gaming boxes 72 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:23,680 are cool. I built myself a gaming box in an SG01 73 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:27,440 uh Sugo system. It was water cooled. I took the top of the system and I turned 74 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:30,880 the whole thing into a triple rad and then like put a little shroud around it 75 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:34,000 and put some grills on it so people wouldn't like stick their fingers 76 00:05:34,039 --> 00:05:38,800 in. So yeah, sorry the battery run out. 77 00:05:37,039 --> 00:05:43,919 I'm back. All right, so let's have a look at the overall layout of the board. Here's our LG A155 socket, which 78 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:48,800 supports all the latest Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 CPUs, including unlocked 79 00:05:46,479 --> 00:05:52,160 ones because this is a Z68 board. So, all those overclocking features are 80 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:56,360 enabled. We got some beefy looking heat sinks here. Check those out from an 81 00:05:53,919 --> 00:06:01,039 angle. They look kind of like like 2D sprites of something like a dragon. See? 82 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:04,639 See? Check this out. There's his little eye and there's his little like mouth 83 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:10,080 thing. And there's his wings right there. Like that's his wing. That's kind 84 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:13,840 of like his rump right there. See, you see the dragon? Cool. I think 85 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:17,360 it's a dragon. So, our eight pin power connectors up in the top left corner of 86 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:22,080 the board. We've got a couple of uh Look at that. Two CPU fan connectors. See, 87 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:25,600 why does it take ASUS to think of simple things like that? So many CPU coolers 88 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:29,680 have dual fans. Why don't you have two CPU fan headers? Well, ASUS thinks you 89 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:35,039 do need two CPU fan headers. And I think they're right. four DDR3 DIM slots uh 90 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:38,400 supporting up to probably 32 gigs of memory would be my guess in dual channel 91 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:42,639 because that is what is supported by these CPUs. We've got all of our V 92 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:49,039 checkpoints here including ground DRAM CPU SAOP PCH iGPU CPU PLLP CPU and an 93 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:51,759 additional ground. Our 24 pin power connectors in its ideal location along 94 00:06:50,479 --> 00:06:56,800 the right hand edge. We got another four pin PWM fan connector, one USB 3.0 front 95 00:06:55,280 --> 00:07:01,560 panel connector. There's your BIOS chip if you care. We've also got two SATA 3 6 96 00:06:59,599 --> 00:07:07,360 Gbit per second ports and four SATA SATA 3 6 Gbit per second ports and 97 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:10,319 four SATA 2 3 Gbit per second ports. Got a chipset heat sink here. It's not 98 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:13,840 cooling much these days. There's not a whole lot that goes on in the chipset. 99 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:18,560 We've got our front panel connectors. So for your power reset, all of that good 100 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,639 stuff. Two USB 2.0 front panel ports. 101 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:24,960 Another four pin PWM fan connector. They really do squeeze a lot onto this tiny 102 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:30,880 PCB. Post readout start and reset switches that are both built on. front 103 00:07:26,479 --> 00:07:32,560 panel audio and then the two times PCIe 104 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:39,639 16X slots. Although this one is only wired for 8X. So what you've got 105 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:43,919 essentially here is 16X 8X 8X or 16X 1X 106 00:07:39,639 --> 00:07:46,800 4X 8X 8X 4X. That is what you are 107 00:07:43,919 --> 00:07:52,759 looking at. So here is yet another four pin PWM. And let's go ahead and count 108 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:58,400 them all. So, one, two, three, 109 00:07:55,400 --> 00:08:00,479 four, five. Five four pin PWM fan 110 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:07,759 connectors. Ah. Ah. So, let's have a look on the back. We got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 111 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:10,160 8. Yep. Eight USB 2.0 ports. We've got a 112 00:08:07,759 --> 00:08:14,160 PS2 keyboard mouse combo port. We've got the uh that's the BIOS reflashing. No, 113 00:08:12,720 --> 00:08:19,440 that's Clear Simos. Look at that. Okay. Clear Simos. Two USB 3.0 ports. Gigabit 114 00:08:17,039 --> 00:08:23,840 Ethernet. Optical audio out. HDMI out, which you're going to want to go ahead 115 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:26,400 and use if you want to use the uh Intel 116 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:30,360 shoot. What's it called? Uh quick smart response. No, hold on. Smart response 117 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:34,719 technology is the hard drive one. Quicksync, I think it's quick sync. The 118 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:38,959 one where you use your integrated GPU in order to do uh video transcoding. We've 119 00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:42,640 also got 7.1 audio out, and those look like gold-plated connectors. Very nice 120 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:47,839 touch. So, thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Maximus 4 Ganz from 121 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:53,440 ASUS. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, 122 00:08:49,680 --> 00:08:53,440 and other computer videos.