ASUS Maximus III Extreme LGA 1156 Motherboard Review

The Maximus III Extreme

Today I have the ASUS Maximus III Extreme LGA1156 motherboard for review. ASUS is on a roll with their performance boards and their latest LGA1156 Republic of Gamers board doesn’t fail to impress.

Look familiar? Yup, it is pretty much an LGA1156 version of the LGA1366 Rampage III Extreme motherboard. The PCIe layout is identical and the bandwidth is even the same with an NF200 providing additional PCIe lanes. When you compare the Maximus III Extreme to the competition it appears to trump everyone in nearly every aspect. At first glance it appears to have the best expansion card layout, SATA6 and USB 3.0, ROG Connect, and more than enough power being delivered to the socket.

However, before we immediately call it a winner let’s take a look at what makes the Maximus III Extreme tick. Below is a short list of the features included in the board.

CPU Support:	Supports Core i7 and Core i5 LGA1156 Processors
Chipset	Intel P55 Express
Memory	Dual Channel, 16GB, DDR3-2200(OC), 2133(OC), 2000(OC), 1800(OC), 1600, 1333, 1066
Expansion Slots	5x PCIe x16 slots supporting up to 5 x8 bandwidth. 1x PCI 2.2
Multi-GPU Technology	Supports NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX
Storage	6x SATA 3.0 Gbps, 1x SATA 3.0 Gbps, 1 eSATA 3.0 Gbps, 2x SATA 6.0 Gbps
LAN	Realtek RTL8112L Gigabit controller
Audio	VIA VT2020 10-channel HD Audio Codec
IEEE 1394a	2x 1394a ports
USB	2x USB 3.0 via NEC controller 11 USB 2.0 via P55 PCH
Bluetooth	Bluetooth V2.0/V2.1+EDR
Back Panel I/O	1x PS/2 Keyboard port 2x USB 3.0/2.0 ports 7x USB 2.0 ports 1x eSATA 1x RJ45 1x Clr CMOS 1x ROG Connect Switch 1x S/PDIF Optical Out 1x 1394a port 10x Audio I/O
Form Factor	ATX Form Factor, 12″ x 9.6″