Must-read Before Buy ASUS ROG MAXIMUS V GENE

ASUS ROG M5G(MAXIMUS V GENE) is a new Intel Z77 chipset M-ATX motherboard. It inherites ROG classic red/black coloring, plus a bonus m-sata slot. To some extents, it’s an upgrade of MAXIMUS IV GENE-Z/GEN3

The 6-layer PCB M5G is integrated of a variety of functions. It supports 3rd generation IVY BRIDGE processor, SupremeFX III, mPCIe Combo, SLI/CrossFire(dual x8 mode) and LucidLogix Virtu MVP.

There’s a Mini PCI-E port (picture below), where you can put a wireless LAN card in combo card to make your desktop computer connect to wireless device, such as wireless router. I have run a few tests on the wireless LAN card and find out that M5G is absolutely compatible to Intel product, so I suggest Intel 6300

The mPCIe Combo card can also connect a M-sata3GB SSD to the Mini PCI-E port. The m-sata SSD don’t need extra power supply but only from M5G.

The m-sata SSD is cool to store system files and boot system disk. Though M5G limit the speed of it to 3GB/s, the read/write still has approved performance. Again, for the sake of compatibility, buy Intel SSD for mini pcie

Even though it supports SLI/CFX, in reality, the space is limited that it’s hard to use two video cards on M5G at same time. However, you can install a video card and sound card with no compromise.

This motherboard supplies enough power to overclock CPU, but this M-atx requires smaller CPU heatsink. There’s only 1.2cm space between video card PCB and Thermalright HR-02

I recommend for overclocker to use heatsinks with no CPU fan, think about the height of RAM and case as well. Thermalright HR-02 Macho

Summary
If you already have Asus Maximus IV Gene Z68 Motherboard, there’s no need to upgrade. Both boards support PCIE 3.0 and IVY BRIDGE processor, the only difference, in my point of view, is the mini PCIE connector.

Still, for people who want to DIY a HTPC system, this board is a good choice.

Now M5G’s price is £175.99 on Amazon.co.uk