Maximus II Formula Onboard Devices
| Northbridge | Intel P45 Express |
| Southbridge | Intel ICH10R |
| Voltage Regulator | Sixteen Phases |
| BIOS | 0802 (07/10/2008) |
| 333.3 MHz (FSB1333) | 334.0 MHz (+0.20%) |
| Clock Generator | ICS 9LPRS918JKLF |
| Connectors and Interfaces | |
| Onboard | 2x PCIe 2.0 x16 (Modes : One x16 or Two x8) |
| 3x PCIe x1 | |
| 1x PCI | |
| 3x USB 2.0 (2 ports per connector) | |
| 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire | |
| 1x Floppy | |
| 1x Ultra ATA (2 drives) | |
| 8x Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s | |
| 1x Asus "LCD Poster" Interface | |
| 1x Fan 4 pins (CPU) | |
| 5x Fan 3 pins (Chassis/Power) | |
| 1x Internal Power Button | |
| 1x Internal Reset Button | |
| IO panel | 1x PS2 (keyboard ) |
| 6x USB 2.0 | |
| 1x Clear CMOS Button | |
| 2x RJ-45 Network | |
| 1x IEEE-1394 FireWire | |
| 1x External SATA | |
| Mass Storage Controllers | |
| Intel ICH10R | 6x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0,1,5,10) |
| Marvell 88SE6121-NAA1 PCI-E | 1x Ultra ATA-133 (2-drives) |
| 1x External SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0, 1 JBOD) | |
| 1x SATA Host for SteelVine Controller | |
| Silicon Image Sil5723CNU SATA | 2x SATA 3.0Gb/s (RAID 0, 1, Cascading) |
| Network | |
| 2x Marvell 88E8056-NNC1 PCI-E | Dual Gigabit LAN with Teaming |
| Audio | |
| SupremeFX X-Fi Riser Card | ADI AD2000BX HD Audio Codec |
| Eight-Channel (7.1 Surround) Output | |
| FireWire | |
| VIA VT6308P PCI | 2x IEEE-1394a (400 Mbit/s) |
Three controllers and three x1 slots consume all six of the ICH10R’s PCI Express lanes. Asus does us a favor in the allocation of USB 2.0 headers however, providing three connections to support a total of six front-panel devices or ports.
The chipset’s other six USB 2.0 ports can be found on rear panel, along with an old-fashioned PS/2 keyboard port, dual Gigabit networking ports, IEEE-1394 FireWire, eSATA ports, and a CLR_CMOS button.
Asus’ big new feature is its SupremeFX X-Fi riser card, which uses an ADI AD2000BX HD Audio codec along with software emulation to provide EAX 4.0 effects. This riser card uses a specialized dual-mode slot at the motherboard’s top position, which has been modified to allow either PCI Express x1 cards or Asus’s custom riser cards to work. It may only have a codec, but many users will find that the best thing about the SupremeFX X-Fi riser is that it doesn’t rely on any problematic Creative components.
Hidden under the southbridge ’sink, the Marvell 88SE6121 controller supplies one eSATA port, one Ultra ATA header, and the SATA interface for a Silicon Image “SteelVine” port multiplier. The Sil5723 SteelVine controller is more than just a hub, as it adds advanced features such as drive cascading and RAID modes to the two ports.
Network devices can operate at the Marvell 88E8056 Gigabit network controller’s peak speeds, thanks to its PCI Express interface. A second Gigabit network controller of the same model is hidden under the extended portion of the northbridge sink.
IEEE-1394 FireWire doesn’t need PCI Express speeds, so Asus gets by with an ancient VT6308P PCI controller.
