ASUS has officially taken the drape off its Intel Z370-based motherboards which are designed for the upcoming 8th Gen Intel Core processors for desktop PCs. The company has come out with plenty of them around across several series including those that are positioned under the Republic of Gamers (ROG) family.
For those who are not familiar with product tiers within ASUS motherboard’s family, the ROG series is designed for high-end users. That being said, there is also the ROG Strix series that is meant for mainstream gamers and the new TUF Gaming series for entry-level gaming market. We will discuss more about the two other these series in subsequent articles.
Leading the new Z370-based ROG series is Maximus X Formula which is targeted for gamers that are looking for premium performance as well as for those who love to mod or style their PC. Among of its features that were highlighted by ASUS is its LiveDash OLED which allows users to monitor the status of their hardware right on the motherboard itself although they can still set the display to show one of the pre-loaded animation instead if they want to.
ASUS also claimed that the circuit design on the motherboard has been optimized DDR4 speed of more than 4133MHz with the help of its T-Topology design and OptiMem memory routing. The motherboard also comes with a M.2 heatsink, integrated I/O shield, and addressable RGB headers. Its UEFI BIOS also now features 5G OC profile that allows users to easily push the performance of their 8th Gen Intel Core CPUs.
Being an ASUS product, the Maximus X Formula naturally has the support for the company’s own Aura Sync RGB lighting eco-system which apparently now has an improved software. Not to forget, ASUS Sonic Studio III suite now features a new function called Sonic Studio Link that provides 360-degrees sound for virtual reality headsets such as HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Meanwhile, there are also several other models within the family alongside Maximus X Formula which include Maximus X Apex that has significant focus on overclocking, Maximus X Code that has amplified aesthetics, and Maximus X Hero which is the series entry model for the initial roll-out of Z370-based motherboards. All of them are ATX motherboards as there are no EATX, Micro-ATX, and Mini-ITX ROG Z370 models for the time being.
While ASUS didn’t share the performance statistics for each of its ROG Z370 motherboards, the company did reveal what the OC-oriented Maximus X Apex able to achieve when paired with Core i7-8700K:
As for availability and pricing, the company didn’t share such details for these new ROG Z370 motherboards in Malaysia during their media briefing earlier this week. Nevertheless, expect to see them at retail stores just as Intel rolled out its equally new 8th Gen Core processors into the market.
