Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Firmware
Maxsun’s BIOS is a bit of a blast from the past. While it’s 100% functional, it doesn’t have an Easy Mode and isn’t quite as refined (good-looking) as others. The BIOS screen has the major headings across the top (Main, Advanced, Power, Turbo, Startup, Security, and Exit) with detailed information on the left and system information (including CPU temp/speed, fan speed, vcore, memory frequency, and more) on the right. You can overclock the system in the Turbo section, and there are plenty of options to tweak. Again, it has all the functionality you’re looking for, including overclocking and tweaking memory, but it just doesn’t look as good compared to most competing brands.
Software
Maxsun’s only Windows-based software is Maxsun Sync, which controls any attached RGBs. I can’t find any other application on the website for Windows-based overclocking and fan control, which is lacking compared to most other board partners. The Maxsun Sync app does offer several different RGB lighting modes, a couple of which you can tweak even further. It’s a functional application, but i’d like more functionality or another program for adjusting CPU parameters and fan control.
Test System / Comparison Products
We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of mid-October 2023. We kept the same Asus TUF RTX 3070 video card from our previous testing platforms but have updated the driver to the latest, keeping our games, F1 22 and Far Cry 6, the same. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest non-beta motherboard BIOS available to the public using ‘optimized default’ settings except for the memory (XMP). The hardware and drivers we used are as follows:
Test System Components
| CPU | Intel Core i9-14900K |
| Memory | Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32) |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Teamgroup T-Force Delta RGB DDR5- 7200 CL34 (FF3D516G7200HC34ABK) |
| Row 3 - Cell 0 | Klevv CRAS XR5 RGB (KD5AGUA80-80R380S) |
| GPU | Asus TUF RTX 3070 |
| Cooling | Coolermaster MasterLiquid PL360 Flux |
| PSU | EVGA Supernova 850W P6 |
| Software | Windows 11 64-bit (22H2) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA Driver 537.42 |
Benchmark Settings
| SYNTHETIC BENCHMARKS AND SETTINGS | Row 0 - Cell 1 |
| Procyon | Version 2.6.848 64 |
| Row 2 - Cell 0 | Office Suite (Office 365), Video Editing (Premiere Pro 23.6), Photo Editing (Photoshop 25.0, Lightroom Classic 12.5) |
| 3DMark | Version 2.27.8177 64 |
| Row 4 - Cell 0 | Firestrike Extreme (v1.1) and Time Spy (v1.2) Default Presets |
| Cinebench R24 | Version ‘build unknown’ |
| Row 6 - Cell 0 | Open GL Benchmark - Single and Multi-threaded |
| Blender | Version 3.6.0 |
| Row 8 - Cell 0 | Full benchmark (all 3 tests) |
| APPLICATION TESTS AND SETTINGS | Row 9 - Cell 1 |
| LAME MP3 | Version SSE2_2019 |
| Row 11 - Cell 0 | Mixed 271MB WAV to mp3: Command: -b 160 --nores (160Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 1.2.2 |
| Row 13 - Cell 0 | Sintel Open Movie Project: 4.19GB 4K mkv to x264 (light AVX) and x265 (heavy AVX) |
| Corona 1.4 | Version 1.4 |
| Row 15 - Cell 0 | Custom benchmark |
| 7-Zip | Version 21.03-beta |
| Row 17 - Cell 0 | Integrated benchmark (Command Line) |
| GAME TESTS AND SETTINGS | Row 18 - Cell 1 |
| Far Cry 6 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, HD Textures ON |
| F1 2022 | Ultra Preset - 1920 x 1080, Ultra High (default) Bahrain (Clear/Dry), FPS Counter ON |
MORE: Best Motherboards
MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard
MORE: All Motherboard Content
Raspberry Pi brings broken NEC TurboExpress handheld back to life for retrogaming fun
Lexar doubles up the NM790 series SSDs max capacity to 8TB — new drives spotted at retail for approx $1,000
Nvidia reports the latest GeForce drivers are causing issues in Corsair iCUE and Bluestacks — Users need to rollback drivers as a temporary fix
