ASUS MAXIMUS VI IMPACT Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z87 chipset is a single-chip solution, which is also known as a PCH (Platform Controller Hub). This chip has six SATA-600 ports, supporting RAID (0, 1, 10, and 5). The ASUS MAXIMUS VI IMPACT offers four of those ports, as shown in Figure 5. Another of those ports is used as an eSATA-600 ports at the rear panel of the motherboard, and the last one is available in the M.2 slot.

Figure 5: Four SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset

The Intel Z87 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS MAXIMUS VI IMPACT offers six USB 2.0 ports, four located on the motherboard’s rear panel and two available through one header located at the motherboard; and six USB 3.0 ports, four available on the motherboard’s rear panel and two available through a header.

The ASUS MAXIMUS VI IMPACT does not support FireWire ports.

This motherboard comes with a separate high-quality audio card. It uses the eight-channel SupremeFX codec with an electromagnetic shield. According to the manufacturer, this codec provides 115 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, and a 110 dB SNR operational amplifier for the headphone output. Unfortunately, the specifications of signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs are not available.

This sound card, shown in Figure 6, uses a proprietary connector and has only three analog jacks.

Figure 6: Sound card

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel I217-V chip.

The rear panel of the MAXIMUS VI IMPACT is unique, because of the presence of four buttons and the two-digit POST display that shows an error code in case of a boot failure. The buttons are: Clear CMOS, ROG Connect, MemOk!, and DirectKey.

Obviously, the Clear CMOS button clears the BIOS setup data. The ROG Connect button turns on and off the overclock control via a USB port. The “MemOK!” button allows you to test the compatibility of the memory modules that are installed. And the “DirectKey” button allows you to enter directly into the motherboard setup program.

In Figure 7, you can see the motherboard’s rear panel with an optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA-600 port, four USB 3.0 ports, and one Gigabit Ethernet port.

Figure 7: Motherboard rear panel