ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact Review - PAGE 7

The new Maximus VIII Impact is a perfect example for the quote "great things come in small packages". ASUS managed once more to distill its ROG essence and bottle it in this mini-ITX board. The ROG pedigree can be first seen on the eye-catching package that also holds a great deal of details about the product features. ASUS includes a solid hardware and software bundle with the unit, which covers the essentials needed by system builders and then some. We also get some "exotic" hardware that's unique to the ROG family including the magnetic wireless antenna, 3-fan extension card, and CPU installation tool.

Out of the box, the board looks sharp with the signature red and black ROG color scheme. The component layout on the relatively small PCB shows that ASUS put some serious thoughts into designing and building the Maximus VIII Impact. This lead to a pretty stress-free build that just required some strategic planning during the installation phase. The area around the CPU socket is clear, and there was nothing interfering with installing an AIO cooler. I would suggest installing the video card last, otherwise access to the memory DIMMs might prove challenging.

The Maximus VIII Impact not only looks pretty, it's also built to the high standards one would expect from the ROG brand. ASUS implemented a selection of high end components to ensure performance and stability for gamers and enthusiasts alike. Looking at the SupremeFX Impact III daughter board for example, we get ESS ES9023P DAC, 2VRMS headphone output, Sonic SenseAMP, NEC De-pop Relay, and Nichicon capacitors. Another example is the Impact Power III system that implements a 6+2+2 power phase design and uses MicroFine Alloy Chokes, PowIRStage MOSFETs, and 10K black metallic capacitors. ASUS pairs the hardware with a solid suite of software and utilities to make the Maximus VIII Impact a worthy bearer of the ROG badge. The board comes with Ai Suite III, Dual Intelligent Processors 5, Sonic Studio II, RAMCache, RAMDisk, and the very useful KeyBot II utility, just to name a few.

The specs and features wouldn't mean a thing if they do not translate into tangible results. The Maximus VIII Impact did not disappoint and delivered excellent performance, both in stock configuration and when pushed through overclocking. This ASUS mini-ITX board managed to trade blows with similarly equipped full ATX boards, achieving the highest overclocks I could get so far on a 6700K CPU. Without much effort and using the refined ASUS UEFI BIOS, I got a stable overclock of 4800MHz on the CPU coupled with 3200MHz on the memory. I am comfortable running this configuration as my daily setup since the board is very well equipped to handle such abuse on a 24/7 basis.

Overall, the ASUS Maximus VIII Impact is a well-balanced board that offers an extensive feature set and comes with a solid accessories and software bundle. At the time of writing, the board retails online for about $235 USD. Compared to other Mini-ITX offerings, you will be paying a premium price for all the luxury! However, the Maximus VIII Impact showed outstanding performance out of the box and achieved overclocking levels compared to larger boards without breaking a sweat. Keeping that in mind, this little beast is a steal at $235 in my book!