Asus rog maximus xi code review

Building Code: How the Maximus XI Kits Out

I built a test system around the Asus ROG Maximus XI Code to see whether the board creates any challenges for DIY-ers. I mounted the board into a SilverStone Primera PM01-RGB chassis and paid special attention to the I/O plate, since it’s permanently attached to the motherboard. It filled the plate cutout perfectly, so no complaints there.

I installed an Intel Core i7-8086K Limited Edition CPU into the ROG Maximus XI Code’s LGA 1551 socket once the board was in the chassis. Next, I attached a Corsair Hydro Series H60 CPU cooler to the board and mounted the radiator at the back of the system.

The MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X video card covered most of the slick LED logo on the chipset portion of the ROG RGB Armor, which was a little disappointing. That’s a common issue for chipset-heatsink LEDs; the location of the chipset means the lights sometimes get blocked by add-on cards. Seeing as Asus had a big spread to work with, thanks to the ROG RGB Armor, I’m surprised it didn’t move the LEDs a little lower. After all, most folks will be installing a dedicated video card in a high-end board like this.

Here’s what I’m talking about…

Overall, the build process was quick and painless. I like the location of the debug LED. It’s easy to spot in that upper-right corner, provided your case window is big enough.

A True Gaming Motherboard

The Maximus XI Code is a solid gaming motherboard with excellent LED support on all fronts: built in, on the board’s shielding, and via the accessories kit. When you’re paying north of $350 for a motherboard, you expect a regal loadout, and this board delivers. The ROG RGB Armor gives the motherboard dual doses of toughness and attitude, which is perfect for hardware in a high-end gaming PC built into a case that exposes the innards.

As you’d expect, Asus does a nice job with the small, easily overlooked details, such as the accessories package and the product box. If you’re someone who enjoys the unboxing experience, opening the Maximus XI Code will be a bundle of joy.

One downside to the unusual design of the Maximus XI Code is that the two M.2 slots effectively share space. Manufacturers usually avoid that by sandwiching the M.2 slots between different PCI Express slots. Even so, I’m guessing that this will be a non-issue for many gamers.

Although the ROG Maximus XI Code is a quality motherboard, it’s also a board that gamers will buy (at least in part) for its killer looks. It would be a shame to buy this board and hide it in a sealed, no-windows chassis. So, assuming a tricked-out, high-visibility PC is the goal, many users looking for an ultimate Z390 bling board will shrug at the minor quibbles, and open both their eyes and their wallets wide.

Asus ROG Maximus XI Code

4.5

Editors’ Choice

(Opens in a new window)

See It

$758.88 at Amazon

(Opens in a new window)

MSRP $364.99

Pros

Slick ROG RGB Armor coats much of board.
BIOS designed for new and experienced overclockers.
Solid accessories package.
Discrete Wi-Fi antenna.
Plenty of RGB and ARGB LED headers for your light strips.

Cons

M.2 slots share space.
Installing a video card will obscure some lovely LEDs.

The Bottom Line

Built on the Z390 chipset for the very latest Intel CPUs, the Asus ROG Maximus XI Code ATX motherboard brings serious gaming attitude and excellent overclocking features to your PC. (And don’t get us started on the LEDs.)

Like What You’re Reading?

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.

Thanks for signing up!

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Ports and Headers

The ROG Maximus XI Code’s I/O panel sports a built-in I/O plate instead of the usual snap-in panel. That shouldn’t be a problem in most cases (limp pun intended, of course), so long as the I/O plate fits correctly in the chassis’ cutout. I’ve never encountered a problem with built-in I/O plates, but I’ve spotted the occasional rant online when some esoteric combination of case and built-in plate collide.

The I/O panel sports the usual audio suspects, which are backed by the ROG SupremeFX 8-channel S1220 codec. Two Wi-Fi antenna connectors sit by the audio ports, powered by an Intel Wireless-AC 9560 chip. The panel also has a Gigabit LAN port, naturally for a board of this price and gravitas.

As for the USB ports, Asus put a total of 10 here, including a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port. Of the other nine USB ports, three are USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A and six are USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A. Asus tucked a lonely HDMI port onto the panel, too, though this board will surely sport at least one hulking video card. The best features on the panel are the two buttons: one for the BIOS, and the other for clearing the CMOS. Those are features that get the attention of enthusiasts, particularly gamers who overclock and need to reboot and reset in rapid succession as they experiment.

Asus grouped its fan headers into several strategically useful spots. Two stand at the bottom edge, with a third on the lower right side. Two more hide near the I/O cover, and the two CPU-fan headers sit near the top of the board. An eighth H_AMP fan header stands in the upper-right corner of the board. Asus also included a header for an optional fan extension card. (If you need that extra card, I’d love to see a picture of your PC build.)

Because the ROG RGB Armor extends right up to the headers on the right side of the board (and even encircles some of them), Asus inscribed the header labels right on the armor. I like that choice, as it makes the labels easy to spot. Too often, you need a magnifier and flashlight to make out the labels.

The right side of the ROG Maximus XI Code has the usual suspects, including six SATA ports and a USB 3.1 Gen 1 connector, both of which face off the side of the board. Asus also added a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C connector for your front-panel port, provided your case has one. Asus wrapped a debug LED in ROG RGB Armor and even built Start and Reset buttons into the Armor.

Despite packing the lower edge of the ROG Maximus XI Code with headers, Asus managed to squeeze in a Retry button. Typical users aren’t likely to ever need it, but overclockers can use it to quickly reboot the system. That’s the sort of tweaker- and gamer-friendly feature you want to see on a motherboard like this one.

An ARGB LED header and RGB LED header sit on one side of the Retry button, while two of the board’s fan headers are on the other. A Node connector sits at the center of the bottom edge, providing more support for certain fan extension cards.

The BIOS: A Brief Look

Asus has added a few BIOS updates to its support page for the Asus ROG Maximus XI Code in the short time since its release. That’s not unusual, and the updates have been for standard reasons: adding overclocking support for specific processors, fixing occasional bugs, and improving performance. As of this writing, BIOS update 0805 was the most recent, featuring several improvements.

Anyone familiar with Asus ROG motherboards will recognize the BIOS for this motherboard. My test board arrived with version 0602, so I plugged in a USB drive (with the latest BIOS update on it), clicked Tool at the top of the Advanced menu, and then clicked Asus EZ Flash 3 Utility. At that point, it was a matter of selecting the update file and pressing Enter to advance through a few confirmation screens. The utility took care of the update and restarted the PC.

I didn’t notice any aesthetic differences in the updated BIOS. As you’d expect, it has both Advanced and EZ modes. The EZ mode targets new users and emphasizes displaying information, rather than providing granular control over the board’s options. If you want to dig deep, you’ll stick with the Advanced menu, which has a sub-menu (Extreme Tweaker) dedicated to overclocking.

Interestingly, the BIOS also has an overclocking guide. If you’re new to overclocking, you can read the instructions here and get started right away. Of course, the EZ mode also features some auto-overclocking capabilities for players who want to get a quick performance boost.

Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) – Дизайн и особенности

Спецификация ядра Hero хорошо настроена для ПК с одним и двумя графическими процессорами с небольшим разгоном процессора.

Он имеет три слота PCI-E x16, а два верхних имеют стальные опоры и могут работать с 8-кратной скоростью – так что, наряду с возможностями двойной графики AMD и Nvidia, вы можете легко вставить два GPU в эту материнскую плату. Третий слот заблокирован на 4х, так что это хорошо для других карт расширения.

Эта конфигурация PCI-E x16 соответствует более дешевой плате ASRock, хотя продукт Asus имеет три слота PCI-E x1 – на один больше, чем Phantom Gaming 9.

Asus сочетает твердое распределение PCI с лучшим эстетическим дизайном, чем ASRock. На плате Asus имеются темные матовые металлические радиаторы на северном и южном мостах, а также коренастая задняя крышка ввода-вывода, а сама плата полностью черная. Он, безусловно, более гладкий и более зрелый, чем более легкие металлические, красно-белые полосы на ASRock, а также у Asus более обширное покрытие задней панели ввода-вывода.

Плата Maximus оснащена RGB-светодиодами на задней панели ввода-вывода и радиаторах южного моста, как и ASRock. Asus соединяет свои RGB-светодиоды с четырьмя RGB-заголовками на плате, и все они работают с Asus Aura Sync – так что они могут быть синхронизированы с другим оборудованием ROG.

Плата Asus поддерживает стандартную память DDR4 объемом 64 ГБ и имеет шесть портов SATA и два разъема M.2. Один из сокетов M.2 может использовать как пропускную способность SATA, так и PCI, а другой просто зависит от скорости PCI. У обоих есть радиаторы.

Только один из разъемов ASRock M.2 имел радиатор, но на этой плате было три разъема M.2 и восемь портов SATA. А вот для хранения ASRock – явный победитель.

Asus также отстает в сети. Его двухдиапазонная беспроводная связь 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0 и двойной гигабитный Ethernet, безусловно, неплохие, но у ASRock был порт Realtek Dragon Ethernet со скоростью 2,5 Гбит / с.

Обе платы имеют звук Realtek ALC1220, усиленный дополнительным оборудованием – плата ROG имеет SupremeFX, а ASRock – Sound Blaster. Оба отлично справятся с играми и фильмами.

Похожие: Лучшая видеокарта

Asus имеет восемь разъемов для подключения вентиляторов, дополнительный четырехконтактный разъем питания процессора, кнопки запуска и сброса и дисплей POST – все функции, которые также включает ASRock.

Однако, когда дело доходит до подключения, ASRock немного лучше. На плате обе модели имеют разъемы USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C на передней панели, но Asus имеет только один встроенный разъем USB 3.1 Gen 1 – в то время как на плате ASRock их два.

На задней панели платы Asus имеются кнопки Clear CMOS и BIOS Flashback, а также три порта USB 3.1 Gen 2 и выход Type-C. Его задний ввод / вывод дополнен двумя портами USB 2 и пятью аудиоразъемами.

Это хорошо, но ASRock имеет семь портов USB 3.1, одно соединение типа C – и не медленнее USB 2.

Таким образом, в некоторых областях спецификация Asus выглядит незначительно по сравнению с ASRock. Это можно объяснить более детальным рассмотрением цен: плата, которую я рассмотрел здесь, – это Wi-Fi Asus Maximus XI Hero, который стоит 286 фунтов стерлингов и стоит дороже, чем ASRock за 271 фунт. Однако, если вы хотите отказаться от беспроводного интернета, вы можете выбрать стандартную доску для героев, которая стоит £ 258.

An Armored Motherboard

Hard as it is to believe, the ROG Maximus XI Code isn’t the most expensive Z390 board in the Maximus line. The Maximus XI Formula(Opens in a new window) (with its advanced cooling features and extra lighting) goes for more than $400, for example, and the Extended-ATX Maximus XI Extreme(Opens in a new window) clocks (and for the money, overclocks) in at about $600, more than the most expensive CPU it can accept. Nonetheless, the Maximus XI Code is a luxury board, and Asus equips it as such.

You Can Trust Our Reviews

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. Read our editorial mission(Opens in a new window) & see how we test(Opens in a new window).

Thanks to its Z390 chipset, the ROG Maximus XI Code supports Intel’s 8th Generation and newer 9th Generation processors like the Core i9-9900K, on the long-running Socket 1151. As people following the recent history of Intel’s mainstream CPUs know, 6th and 7th Generation Intel CPUs aren’t supported by the Z390 chipset, despite using the same Socket 1151 physical interface. If you’re looking at Z390 motherboards, you’re looking to house an 8th or 9th Generation CPU, or you’re planning to pick one up at the same time.

Asus separates the ROG Maximus XI Code from other brands in more than one way, but the most notable difference is the sheer amount of plastic and metal covering the motherboard’s PCB. Shields and heatsinks over the I/O and power-phase areas aren’t unusual on any motherboard, but Asus extends those coverings to the side of the board and deep into the PCI Express slot’s territory.

The result? The ROG RGB Armor (as Asus calls it) is a virtual canvas of bling for Asus. And the motherboard maker doesn’t miss the opportunity with this board, decorating the ROG Maximus XI Code with multiple RGB LEDs, including a backlit logo of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. The Code has more personality than most boards I’ve seen of late, and it’s tailor-made for a PC with a late-model case featuring tempered glass on one or more sides.

The LEDs adorning the ROG Maximus XI Code are part of Asus’ Aura lighting system. Aura also controls any RGB LED strips that you attach to the board’s two regular RGB headers and two addressable RGB (ARGB) headers. You can extend the control throughout your PC by picking up Aura-compatible hardware or peripherals, if you’re so inclined.

Heatsinks, ROG RGB Armor, and memory slots create a square fortress around the LGA 1151 CPU socket and leave few channels for discreetly routing away cables. But Asus handles this by keeping four fan and AIO pump headers inside the walled-off CPU socket area. It also opts for a low heatsink just above the memory slots, making room for your ARGB strip near the top of the board.

As for the memory slots themselves, the dual-channel slots max out at 64GB of DDR4 memory. All four slots have push-tabs at the top ends. The RGB Armor plastic lines the memory banks on three sides, but it doesn’t interfere with memory installation, in my experience. Even the thick heatsinks of the memory I used for the test build didn’t come into contact with the surrounding plastic.

Asus keeps the PCI Express slots to a minimum on the ROG Maximus XI Code. A single PCI Express x1 slot sits just above the first PCI Express x16 slot. Two more PCI Express x16 slots allow for SLI or CrossFire support. The ROG RGB Armor surrounds three of the four PCI Express slots, but the covering doesn’t interfere with the insertion or removal of add-on cards. One area of concern turned out not to be one: I was able to push the tab on the top PCI Express x16 slot easily enough to remove a video card, for example.

Pop two screws from the ROG RGB Armor at the lower end of the ROG Maximus XI Code, and the surface comes off, giving you access to two M.2 slots. One slot supports storage devices up to Type-22110 (110mm long), and the other tops out at Type-2280 (80mm long). Here’s the catch with Asus’ head-to-head M.2 positioning, though: You can’t max out both slots simultaneously in terms of module length. Install a 110mm-long device in one slot, and you’re limited to 42mm for the other slot. That said, most mainstream SSDs measure 80mm or shorter, so this should not affect most folks. (See our picks for the best M.2 SSDs and check out our guide to SSD lingo.)

Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) – производительность

Asus действительно проигрывает ASRock в нескольких отделах, когда дело касается встроенных функций, но это более чем компенсирует это, когда дело доходит до тестов.

Его результаты Cinebench 211cb и 1,503cb находятся в середине таблицы в более широкой группе, но легко побеждают ASRock, что оказалось неутешительным в этом тесте. Точно так же Asus хорошо показал себя в Geekbench – а ASRock томился.

Asus была одной из самых стабильных плат, которые мы тестировали. Его потребляемая мощность в холостом режиме, равная 56 Вт, была самой низкой в группе Z390, а его эталонные скорости SATA и NVMe были хорошими – неизменно среди самых высоких во всем тесте.

Он хорошо показал себя в играх. Его 3D Mark Fire Strike, набравший 17 667 баллов, является солидным, и он превзошел наши таблицы результатов с результатом 7 679 в Time Spy.

Это была одна из самых быстрых досок в Shadow of the Tomb Raider, и она была одной из самых быстрых в Средиземье: Shadow of Mordor.

Плата ASRock была абсолютно средней во всех игровых тестах, а результаты NVMe были плохими.

Более подробное изучение результатов Asus показывает, что эта плата не столь быстра, когда речь идет о сложных задачах с высокой загрузкой процессора, таких как многопоточные тесты Cinebench и Geekbench или арифметический тест процессора Sandra.

Это означает, что эта доска не лучший вариант для сложной работы. Тем не менее, для повседневных вычислений и для игр высокого класса, это очень хорошо – и легко лучше, чем ASRock.

Стоит ли покупать Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi)?

Asus ROG Maximus XI Hero (Wi-Fi) – интересная материнская плата.

Он неизменно быстрее, чем продукт ASRock, как в приложениях, так и в играх, поэтому он легко выиграет, если вы захотите материнскую плату с высочайшей производительностью.

Однако, хотя у Asus есть хороший набор функций, ASRock немного лучше, когда речь заходит о хранилищах, сетях и портах. Если вам нужны эти функции, то плата стоит потраченных на производительность.

Спецификация Asus, однако, должна насытить подавляющее большинство сборщиков, и она будет последовательно быстрее. И, в качестве дополнительного бонуса, можно сэкономить значительную часть денег, если вы хотите отказаться от беспроводного Интернета.

The Accessories Package

The ROG Maximus XI Code ships with a solid accessories package. The most important component is the external Wi-Fi antenna that attaches to the twin connectors coming out the I/O zone. Thanks to the antenna’s cable, you can move it to find the best signal, rather than having to move your whole PC to give better positioning to the usual antenna rods.

The SLI High-Bandwidth Bridge is another worthwhile inclusion. If you’re looking to install two late-model GeForce cards, this may save you some bucks. So are the extension cables for your RGB and ARGB strips (one of each kind), which will let you position your starting point for your RGB strips as you like. Asus also tosses in stickers, a coaster, and other ROG-branded paraphernalia.

Asus routinely tucks quality manuals into its motherboard boxes, so I wasn’t surprised to see that the ROG Maximus XI Code ships with one. The booklet features clear instructions for installing important components and has plenty of illustrations. It also covers the BIOS, which is useful for new DIY-ers and veteran overclockers, alike.