ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z Motherboard
Other Features
Contents
The motherboard is loaded with additional features. The most important is the presence of two BIOS chips. If the main BIOS is corrupted by an unsuccessful BIOS upgrade or virus, you can still turn on your PC and fix the defective BIOS using the backup chip.
Figure 10: Dual BIOS
Like other members of the Republic of Gamers (ROG) series, it allows you to connect a laptop to your computer to remotely control the overclocking settings of your system. The inspiration of this feature is the racing car scene, where technicians connect a laptop to the car’s system in order to tweak the injection system and improve performance. To use this feature, you need to install the special white USB cable that comes with the product to the USB 2.0 connector available on the motherboard rear panel, and press the ROG Connect button located on the rear panel. See Figure 9.
If your computer doesn’t turn on, the product has a series of four LEDs that tell you which device (CPU, memory, first video card or boot device) failed to initialize. It also has a POST diagnostics display that indicates, through a two-digit code, which device failed.
Figure 11: POST LEDs
Figure 12: POST display
The motherboard allows the installation of three thermal sensors for you to monitor the temperature of any device or spot inside your computer you want, also allowing you to control the speed of auxiliary fans based on the temperature levels read by these sensors. These optional senso
rs must be installed in the “OPT_TEMP1,” “OPT_TEMP2,” or “OPT_TEMP3” headers. They are available next to the “OPT_FAN1,” “OPT_FAN2,” and “OPT_FAN3” fan headers. The motherboard comes with these thermal sensors, which is great.
Figure 13: Thermal sensors
The Maximus IV Extreme-Z also has a switch labeled “LN2_MODE” that must be used when you can’t turn on your computer under a very low temperature. A button labeled “Q_BUTTON” can be used if the “LN2_MODE” switch doesn’t work.
In Figure 14, you can see all the accessories that come with this motherboard.
Figure 14: Accessories
