Ports and Features
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Already mentioned above, the Maximus VII Gene is a small form factor motherboard based on the micro ATX standard. It measures 9.5″ by 9.5″. Despite is small size, ASUS has managed to fit quite a bit of assortment of expansion slots and headers, while making the board clean cut and a user-friendly layout.
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Starting from the left, we start of with the Clear CMOS Button and ROG Connect button, a combo keyboard/mouse PS/2 port and 2 USB 2.0 ports, Digital S/PDIF Audio output and HDMI Output, an Intel I218V-powered LANGaurd gigabit LAN port and 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports and 2 additional USB 3.0 ports. Last but not least the audio outputs on the SupremeFX Impact II audio module.
The Maximus VII Gene comes with an 8-phase CPU power design with NexFET power Block MOSFET. There are also 60A Ferrite chokes and 10K black Metallic Capacitors, which are all part of the new Extreme Engine DIGI+ III Design, you will see these on all the new 9-series ROG models. Asus has added a dual color PCB matte black finish with red, it looks a lot nice, also pulling back the white accents on the previous models so it’s just black and red. Also using chrome nickel plating on the actual CPU socket and the SupremeFX shielding.
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There are four DDR3 memory slots, keeping the colour scheme of black and red. They are fed by a standard 2-phase power design and support overclocked memory Frequencies up to DDR3-3300. There is a MemOK! button that initiates a memory compatibility tuning process if there are memory issues preventing a system from booting up and such. ASUS kept the Q-DiMM Memory slots, which can help in preventing any clearance issues that can possibly arise between the conventional memory clips and the back of any nearby expansion card. Next to the DiMM there’s a LEP Q-Code Debug display, with a list of Q-Code definitions in the manual.
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Like Stated above the M.2 slot is located in between the two x16 PCI-E Slots and supports both 2260 and 2280 type devices.
The internal front-panel USB 3.0 header can connect up to two USB 3.0 ports to the front panel or any compatible case (The bigger the better?) It is also supplied by the actual Z97 chipset instead of a third party controller.
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The chipset is also cooled by a decent-sized passive heat sink. There are six SATA 6Gb/s ports that are native from the chipset and support RAID 0/1/5/10, and two are supplied bu the ASmedia ASM1061 PCI-E SATA controller and are RAID 0/1/10 capable.
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There is included a mini PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot, which is pretty great since it allows you a great deal of flexibility in regards to expanding the options of the motherboard, anywhere from installing an Itel Wireless dual Band Wifi + Bluetooth card or an mPCI-E SSD or even something like a GPS module, what you like with the addition of the mini PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Slot.
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As mentioned before the SupremeFX is now it’s separate component and can be easily removed if you feel necessary to do so.
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