ASUS MAXIMUS VII FORMULA/WATCH DOGS Motherboard

On Board Peripherals

The Intel Z97 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 VII FORMULA offers those six ports, plus two additional SATA-600 ports controlled by an ASMedia ASM1061 chip (no RAID support) and one SATA Express port, controlled by an ASMedia ASM106SE chip.

One of the SATA Express connectors (controlled by the chipset) can be used as two individual SATA ports, but the SATA Express connector controlled by the ASM106SE chip cannot.

The SATA ports are installed on the motherboard edge and rotated 90°, so the installation of video cards will not block them. Unfortunately, ASUS used the same color for the ports controlled by the chipset and the ports controlled by the auxiliary chips.

Figure 5: the two SATA Express connectors, the four SATA-600 ports controlled by the chipset and the two SATA-600 ports controlled by the ASM1061 chip

The Intel Z97 chipset supports 14 USB 2.0 ports and six USB 3.0 ports. The ASUS MAXIMUS VII FORMULA offers six USB 2.0 ports, two at the rear panel and four available through two headers located on the motherboard. There are eight USB 3.0 ports (six at the rear panel and four available through two headers), six of them controlled by the chipset and two controlled by an ASMedia ASM1042 chip.

The portrayed motherboard does not support FireWire or Thunderbolt ports.

This motherboard supports 7.1 audio format, i.e., eight channels. On this motherboard, the audio is generated by the chipset using the Cirrus Logic CS4398 codec, which is a professional-level audio codec, providing 120 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog outputs, 107 dB signal-to-noise ratio for the analog inputs, and up to 192 kHz sampling rate for both inputs and outputs, with 24-bit resolution. These specifications are outstanding and will allow users to work professionally capturing and editing analog audio (e.g., converting LPs to CDs or MP3, converting VHS to DVDs or any other digital format, etc.) without generating white noise on their work. The codec chip is shielded against electromagnetic interference.

The motherboard comes also with a high-fidelity audio amplifier and high-end audio capacitors. The analog audio outputs are independent even if you use a 7.1 analog speaker set.

Figure 6: the audio section

The portrayed motherboard has one Gigabit Ethernet port, controlled by an Intel i218V chip.

The MAXIMUS VII FORMULA comes with a module called mPCIe Combo III, which features at one side an M.2 slot and, on the other side, a mini PCI Express slot, which comes with an AzureWave AW-CE123H Wi-Fi card, compatible with IEEE 801.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0.

Figure 7: mPCIe Combo III adapter and antenna

In Figure 8, you can see the motherboard rear panel with Clear CMOS and ROG Connect buttons, PS/2 shared connector for mouse or keyboard, two USB 2.0 ports, optical SPDIF output, HDMI output, DisplayPort output, six USB 3.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and the analog audio jacks.

Figure 8: motherboard rear panel