ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z Motherboard

Overclocking Options

Let’s first talk about the hardware-based overclocking features present on the Maximus IV Extreme-Z.

This motherboard has three LED sets to indicate at which range the voltages from the CPU, memory, and chipset are at any moment. They can be in three different colors: green (normal), yellow (high) or red (crazy). On pages 2-20 and 2-21 of the manual, there are a few tables showing the voltage ranges that trigger each color. On the motherboard setup you can configure which voltage each LED will be displaying. For example, you can change the CPU voltage LED to display the CPU core voltage (VCC), the memory controller voltage (VCCSA), the CPU I/O voltage (VCCIO) or the CPU embedded clock generator (VCCPLL).

The product allows you to manually monitor voltages using a voltmeter. The following voltages can be manually measured: CPU, VCCSA, VCCIO, CPU PLL, chipset (PCH), chipset PLL, memory, and NF200 chip.

Figure 16: Voltage monitoring connectors

As already mentioned, the “GO” button available on the product has two functions. If pressed while turning on the computer, it tests the memory modules for compatibility. If pressed after the operating system is loaded, it allows you to recover an overclocking profile you saved before.

Let’s now see the overclocking options present on the motherboard setup.