ASUS Maximus VI Impact Review: ROG and Mini-ITX
by Ian Cutress on November 22, 2013 10:00 AM ESTMany thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our test bed:
Thank you to OCZ for providing us with 1250W Gold Power Supplies.
Thank you to G.Skill for providing us with memory kits.
Thank you to Corsair for providing us with an AX1200i PSU, Corsair H80i CLC and 16GB 2400C10 memory.
Thank you to ASUS for providing us with the AMD GPUs and some IO Testing kit.
Thank you to ECS for providing us with the NVIDIA GPUs.
Thank you to Rosewill for providing us with the 500W Platinum Power Supply for mITX testing, BlackHawk Ultra, and 1600W Hercules PSU for extreme dual CPU + quad GPU testing, and RK-9100 keyboards.
Thank you to ASRock for providing us with the 802.11ac wireless router for testing.
Test Setup
Test Setup | |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-4770K Retail 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) |
Motherboards |
ASRock Z87 Extreme6/AC ASRock Z87 OC Formula/AC ASRock Z87M OC Formula ASRock Z87E-ITX ASUS Z87-Pro ASUS Maximus VI Impact Gigabyte Z87X-UD3H Gigabyte Z87X-OC MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming MSI Z87 XPower MSI Z87I |
Cooling |
Corsair H80i Thermalright TRUE Copper |
Power Supply |
OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series Corsair AX1200i Platinum PSU |
Memory |
GSkill TridentX 4x4 GB DDR3-2400 10-12-12 Kit Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8 GB DDR3 2400 10-12-12 Kit |
Memory Settings | XMP (2400 10-12-12) |
Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
Video Drivers |
Catalyst 13.1 NVIDIA Drivers 310.90 WHQL |
Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 256GB |
Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
Case | Open Test Bed |
Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
WiFi Testing | D-Link DIR-865L 802.11ac Dual Band Router |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply, while in a dual 7970 GPU configuration. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
While this method for power measurement may not be ideal, and you feel these numbers are not representative due to the high wattage power supply being used (we use the same PSU to remain consistent over a series of reviews, and the fact that some boards on our test bed get tested with three or four high powered GPUs), the important point to take away is the relationship between the numbers. These boards are all under the same conditions, and thus the differences between them should be easy to spot.
The M6I is middle of the pack when it comes to idle loading, whereas on game loading it competes with the other mini-ITX boards.
Windows 7 POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows 7 starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
Normally our POST target is around 12 seconds, with under 10 being pretty good. The M6I comes in at over 21 seconds, which is a rather long POST sequence. ASUS’ Z87-Pro for example hit under 10 seconds, so I can only assume that this is more related to the add-in board detectors and boot sequence required.
69 Comments
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Morawka - Saturday, November 23, 2013 - link
it's ATA Secure. Every nand chip in the ssd gets cleared out by writing zeroes to the entire drive.Gigaplex - Monday, November 25, 2013 - link
That's not necessarily how it works, especially for SandForce based controllers.colinisation - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
Could you test out an M2 SSD in the MPCie Combo card slot, I am interested to see if it chokes the SSD?Mr Perfect - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
Two questions about the overview on page one.First, what is the difference between using the FastBoot jumper to toggle between UEFI booting methodology and the legacy boot sequence? Under what circumstances would you want to use an older, slower boot method?
Second, the top right button on the "Impact Control" board is labeled as Clear CMOS, but the paragraph under the picture describes it as a USB BIOS Flashback button. Is this a dual function button, or am I missing something?
DanNeely - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
Using an obsolete OS *cough*Windows XP*cough* that doesn't support UEFI would be an obvious example.Some people in OSS land have a massive hateon for UEFI because it's much more heavily controlled and patent encumbered by Intel and might refuse to use it for ideological reasons.
Morawka - Saturday, November 23, 2013 - link
First: When Using Liquid Nitrogen to OverclockSecond: No it's a error. USB Bios Flashback button is found on the i/O shield and the usb stick must be in the designated port.
Mr Perfect - Monday, November 25, 2013 - link
Hmm, okay, thanks.martixy - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
That moment when you discover a whole new dimension just waiting for you to play in!creed3020 - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
Thanks so much for the review Ian! I have been waiting for this review since the ASUS Z87 lineup launched. I was floored that a mini-ITX board was joining the ROG lineup. I'm hoping for my new build to be centered around this board.Arbie - Friday, November 22, 2013 - link
It's simply amazing that one can buy this much engineering, fabrication, and quality for $225.