Asus Reveals ROG Maximus VI Impact Mini-ITX Motherboard
Asus has revealed a proper high-end Mini-ITX board, one that can put even most ATX-size motherboards to shame.
Asus has revealed a new motherboard, the ROG Maximus VI Impact. The name "Impact" certainly applies here, because this is one well-equipped motherboard, even by ATX size standards, let alone Mini-ITX. The Maximus VI Impact is a Mini-ITX motherboard which carries the LGA1150 socket and the Z87 chipset. The CPU is powered through an 8+2 phase VRM design that protrudes the main motherboard in its own little PCB, which in turn gets its power through an 8-pin EPS connector. The rest of the board is powered through a 24-pin ATX connector.
The motherboard's interior connectivity includes two DDR3 memory slots, a single PCIe x16 3.0 slot, four SATA3 slots, front USB 3.0 through a header, and audio connection headers. External I/O connectivity is taken care of by a DisplayPort, an HDMI port, four USB 2.0 ports, another four USB 3.0 ports, an optical SPDIF port, Gbit Ethernet, and three analog 3.5 mm jacks. Furthermore, the rear features POST diagnostic readouts and CMOS reset and restore switches. This has been placed on the rear I/O due to space constraints on the motherboard surface itself.
The sound board on the motherboard is one of the most impressive bits, though. The motherboard features its own daughterboard sound card, which carries an audiophile grade headphone amp, a 120 dB signal-to-noise ratio, a shield over the main audio core, as well as ELNA audio caps. The sound card is also placed above the PCIe x16 slot, meaning that you can still use a graphics card next to it, without sacrificing your sound card. The motherboard also features an mPCIe combo adapter, which takes care of both 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The company gave no word on pricing or availability, but let's not expect this little board to come cheap.
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Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.
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slomo4sho That appears to be great utilization of space. When you are out of real estate, you build up vertically. The only issue I see is the obscure placement of the Sata ports.Reply -
Mike Honcho Reply
Yikes, I didn't see that until I read your comment. They should have flip flopped the SATA ports with the DIMM slots. SATA should be on the outside.10914223 said:That appears to be great utilization of space. When you are out of real estate, you build up vertically. The only issue I see is the obscure placement of the Sata ports.
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slomo4sho Reply10914278 said:They should have flip flopped the SATA ports with the DIMM slots. SATA should be on the outside.
Moving the DIMM slots in would make it impossible to mount the CPU cooler.
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xkche I Like it! *.*Reply
But, for AMD? :/
I think that can make a 5.2" cage with some connectors, to save space on the board, maybe connected by one propietary cable. -
lowguppy I can't wait to build a little monster of a PC with one of these. It might be time for the Micromachines Death Star project. (seeing as I already built a Falcon with 3570K in it)Reply -
dalethepcman VCR sized HTPC / light gaming rig here I come. I hope asus creates one of these for FM2+ chipset / Kaveri APU. Intel's onboard video still does not offer enough performance for my liking.Reply
The 16x PCIe while great in theory is effectively useless. Any cases made for this size board are as diminutive as possible, adding a 13" full height video card would require a standard ATX power supply, much greater airflow, and a much larger enclosure.
At that point, why would you stick an m-itx board in a m-atx case, just buy an matx board... -
bigshootr8 Reply10914533 said:10914491 said:ITX is intel. Amd doesn't have a ITX board.
What?
I stand corrected they have a few boards but its not a AMD type thing really.