WEBVTT 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:16.160 Maximus 4G Z. So, this is a version of a 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:18.160 microATX motherboard for the LG 1155 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:23.279 platform that includes support for SLI ATI Crossfire ATI Crossfire. I think 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:28.800 what they surely mean is AMD Crossfire X. It uses the Intel Z68 chipset. So 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:34.719 yes, this is a version of an MATX Republic of Gamers motherboard that uses 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:36.880 a ZType chipset rather than the P67 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:42.800 chipset, which means you have support for Intel SRT technology, which stands 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:48.640 for makes your hard drive go faster using an SSD. And then we've also got 00:00:45.760 --> 00:00:53.280 support for Virtue, which is using the Lucid Hydrolologic software in order to 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:58.719 use the integrated GPU for things like transcoding video and saving power and 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:01.600 using your dedicated GPU or GPUs in the 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:06.000 example here for running games and like other baller stuff like that. Okay, so 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:09.920 Supreme FX X52 is built in, so you got decent onboard sound. Game first, which 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:14.720 is uh something to do with prioritizing your network traffic. OG Connect, which 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 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:23.439 board using another computer. This is cool. BIOS print. One click. Easily 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:27.520 share your BIOS settings. So, you can print out your BIOS settings. Very neat 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:33.280 because this is very helpful for helping other people with their stuff. GPU 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:34.960 dimost is okay. This is kind of poorly 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:42.000 named actually because what they really mean is like GPU and 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:43.280 memory post diagnostics and I think 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 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 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:57.040 easily diagnose which cards are plugged into which DIMs, if they're detected 00:01:54.240 --> 00:02:01.119 properly, or dims slots, uh, for the PCIe slots, whether they're being 00:01:59.119 --> 00:02:06.719 detected properly, and that'll allow you to more easily diagnose any issues that 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:07.920 you're having with the system. So, let's 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 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:19.120 some um, uh, cable ties. We've got an short 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 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 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:32.319 got an ad for Zonar sound cards, which I definitely believe are 00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:35.840 awesome. I'm a big fan of this guy right here, the 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:40.800 Zense. Although the Essence STX is very popular as well. Zense is what I'm using 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:46.080 personally, though. All right, we've got six SATA cables. 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 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.760 SATA 2 3 Gbit per second right angle cables. Although any of them will 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:58.400 probably work for any of them. Okay, we've got our IO shield, our user guide, 00:02:56.720 --> 00:03:01.440 including a DVD, which you should throw away and download the latest drivers 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 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 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:15.920 and label your uh your 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:15.920 cables. Label your cables on the 00:03:16.760 --> 00:03:22.720 tables before playing all three 00:03:20.200 --> 00:03:26.720 Fables, but not on a PC because Microsoft doesn't support the PC the way 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:30.570 they support Xbox, which is not really related to this motherboard. Here's an 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.660 ROG sticker. 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 00:03:41.519 --> 00:03:46.519 other thing back in the other thing. Put this thing in the thing. That thing in 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:53.120 the thing. And all 00:03:48.680 --> 00:03:56.640 right, this is the Maximus 4 G&Z. 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:58.879 you know, ever since the original um 00:03:56.640 --> 00:04:02.879 like, okay, do you guys remember how hard it was to find a performance 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:08.879 microATX motherboard even a few years ago? Like I remember back in the NF4 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:11.680 days, EVGA was the only one the only one 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:15.920 who went and released an N4 SLI motherboard in the microATX form factor. 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 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. 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:28.000 It was just terrible. And then all of a sudden, DFI started this trend. They 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:32.320 released a performance microATX board. And all of a sudden, Gigabyte and ASUS 00:04:30.479 --> 00:04:36.000 and MSI, they're like all on this bandwagon of performance boards. And I 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 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 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:48.400 you've got enough room for dual GPU. So 00:04:46.479 --> 00:04:53.280 whether it's SLI or Crossfire, you can put in two dual slot GPUs. And since 00:04:50.880 --> 00:04:58.160 you've got decent onboard sound, decent onboard LAN, decent onboard everything 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:02.240 else you could possibly need. I mean, this this is this is now just a smaller 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 00:05:04.400 --> 00:05:10.560 performance, even things like voltage checkpoints, and uh you save a little 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.800 bit of power by using a smaller PCB, fewer chips and all that good stuff, 00:05:11.919 --> 00:05:19.360 powering fewer slots. And yeah, it's just smaller. I think small gaming boxes 00:05:16.960 --> 00:05:23.680 are cool. I built myself a gaming box in an SG01 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 00:05:25.520 --> 00:05:30.880 the whole thing into a triple rad and then like put a little shroud around it 00:05:29.280 --> 00:05:34.000 and put some grills on it so people wouldn't like stick their fingers 00:05:34.039 --> 00:05:38.800 in. So yeah, sorry the battery run out. 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 00:05:42.080 --> 00:05:48.800 supports all the latest Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 CPUs, including unlocked 00:05:46.479 --> 00:05:52.160 ones because this is a Z68 board. So, all those overclocking features are 00:05:50.320 --> 00:05:56.360 enabled. We got some beefy looking heat sinks here. Check those out from an 00:05:53.919 --> 00:06:01.039 angle. They look kind of like like 2D sprites of something like a dragon. See? 00:05:59.440 --> 00:06:04.639 See? Check this out. There's his little eye and there's his little like mouth 00:06:03.280 --> 00:06:10.080 thing. And there's his wings right there. Like that's his wing. That's kind 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:13.840 of like his rump right there. See, you see the dragon? Cool. I think 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 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, 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:25.600 why does it take ASUS to think of simple things like that? So many CPU coolers 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:29.680 have dual fans. Why don't you have two CPU fan headers? Well, ASUS thinks you 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 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:38.400 supporting up to probably 32 gigs of memory would be my guess in dual channel 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:42.639 because that is what is supported by these CPUs. We've got all of our V 00:06:40.400 --> 00:06:49.039 checkpoints here including ground DRAM CPU SAOP PCH iGPU CPU PLLP CPU and an 00:06:47.440 --> 00:06:51.759 additional ground. Our 24 pin power connectors in its ideal location along 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 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 00:06:59.599 --> 00:07:07.360 Gbit per second ports and four SATA SATA 3 6 Gbit per second ports and 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 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:13.840 cooling much these days. There's not a whole lot that goes on in the chipset. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:18.560 We've got our front panel connectors. So for your power reset, all of that good 00:07:15.520 --> 00:07:20.639 stuff. Two USB 2.0 front panel ports. 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:24.960 Another four pin PWM fan connector. They really do squeeze a lot onto this tiny 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:30.880 PCB. Post readout start and reset switches that are both built on. front 00:07:26.479 --> 00:07:32.560 panel audio and then the two times PCIe 00:07:30.880 --> 00:07:39.639 16X slots. Although this one is only wired for 8X. So what you've got 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:43.919 essentially here is 16X 8X 8X or 16X 1X 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:46.800 4X 8X 8X 4X. That is what you are 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 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:58.400 them all. So, one, two, three, 00:07:55.400 --> 00:08:00.479 four, five. Five four pin PWM fan 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 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:10.160 8. Yep. Eight USB 2.0 ports. We've got a 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:14.160 PS2 keyboard mouse combo port. We've got the uh that's the BIOS reflashing. No, 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:19.440 that's Clear Simos. Look at that. Okay. Clear Simos. Two USB 3.0 ports. Gigabit 00:08:17.039 --> 00:08:23.840 Ethernet. Optical audio out. HDMI out, which you're going to want to go ahead 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:26.400 and use if you want to use the uh Intel 00:08:23.840 --> 00:08:30.360 shoot. What's it called? Uh quick smart response. No, hold on. Smart response 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:34.719 technology is the hard drive one. Quicksync, I think it's quick sync. The 00:08:32.800 --> 00:08:38.959 one where you use your integrated GPU in order to do uh video transcoding. We've 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:42.640 also got 7.1 audio out, and those look like gold-plated connectors. Very nice 00:08:40.800 --> 00:08:47.839 touch. So, thank you for checking out my unboxing of the Maximus 4 Ganz from 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:53.440 ASUS. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, 00:08:49.680 --> 00:08:53.440 and other computer videos.