Specification: ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT LGA1151 Mini ITX DDR4 Motherboards
Brand
ASUS
Manufacturer
Asus
Item Height
7.3 Inches
Item Width
3.7 Inches
Product Dimensions
23.11 x 9.4 x 18.54 cm, 1 Kilograms
Batteries
1 Lithium Metal batteries required.
Item model number
MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT
Processor Socket
LGA 1151
Memory Technology
DDR4
Maximum Memory Supported
32 GB
Memory Clock Speed
2133 MHz
Graphics Card Interface
PCI Express
Wireless Type
802.11ac
Number of USB 2.0 Ports
2
Are Batteries Included
No
Lithium Battery Weight
0.11 Grams
Number of Lithium Metal Cells
1
Country of Origin
China
Item Weight
1 kg
5 reviews for ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT LGA1151 Mini ITX DDR4 Motherboards
3.2out of 5
★★★★★
★★★★★
0
★★★★★
2
★★★★★
2
★★★★★
1
★★★★★
0
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★★★★★
SJ –
Overall this is very good motherboard. I bought it to build a compact Skylake gaming system in a Shuttle case, which it’s perfect for. The onboard sound is very good, but not audiophile quality as my Asus Xonar DX. That’s too bad because with only one PCIE slot, I have to choose between a graphics card and the Xonar. The Skylake HD 530 graphics just can’t compete with a discrete card, so I had to drop the Xonar. Most people will probably think the sound quality is great, especially with features like bass boost, smart equalizer, and custom equalizer. Compared to most onboard audio, the sound quality is indeed very good, and if you don’t have expensive headphones and a Xonar DX to compare with, you probably won’t notice what you are missing. However with the EQ turned up you will probably notice some disturbing signal loss with more demanding music. The BIOS is modern and slick, and very easy to navigate. RAID setup is literally one click. Overclocking potential looks awesome. I dropped one star from my rating because of the audio not holding up to the Xonar, and because of an annoying feature in the BIOS called Anti-Surge Protection which shuts down the PC anytime there is a voltage change in the system, like during Windows installation when the wireless modem is turned on for the first time. It’s hyper-sensitive, and unnecessary, so I had to turn it off as I found everyone else is doing.
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★★★★★
Nestor –
I assembled my entire system and powered up. What I got was no signal reported by the monitor (using an attached Display Port cable) and the mobo displayed Q Code 99. Of course this number wasn’t documented in the lasted ASUS manual but I found it here: asusqcodes.com and it wasn’t helpful. I removed everything from the system except the power on connection, the power suppy, one stick of memory and I switched to the integrated HDMI graphics (no fans either). Still Q Code 99. After lots of part swapping with a working system and web searching, still Q Code 99. At one point I even removed the CPU just to see what would happen, and nothing happened.. at least I didn’t get a 99! Also, there is no documentation on what those boot LED colors or blink patterns are all about. Gee thanks!
Finally, I flashed the BIOS to 1701 and viola, it posted, yay, what a relief, I don’t have to return the mobo (although I was pretty close to calling it quits). So I re-installed each component/connection one by one and tested at each step, all good until I hit the GTX 670 video card, then back to Q Code 99. Grrrr. This GTX 670 card works great in my old ASUS Rampage III Extreme system, but not on this mobo. I swapped in a new ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970 and, blamo, it was back to posting.
Cons: *Mainboard drivers come on a DVD, while most ITX systems only have USB ports. *Secure boot is enabled by default and discovering how to disable is a pain! (You must disable it to install an OS from a USB boot device). *The mainboard manual (Sept 2015 Edition) leaves much to be desired! *The BIOS GUI requires way too much clicking and so much is buried. *AI Suite 3 would not install on Win 10 Enterprise LTSB, it did install on Win 10 Pro. *Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) Win7-81-10_V11001160_763 would not install on Win 10 Pro but it did install on Enterprise LTSB. *I could not connect to 5G networks until I found a newer driver than what ASUS had posted on their support site (Win10 v12.0.0.149 worked while 137 did not). *So much time spent trying to get this running
Update: After installing AI Suite 3, my WiFI and USB stopped working.. seriously this blows!! I tried to uninstall the suite but part way thru the process it said it needed to reboot, so I did, but the uninstall doesn’t finish and claims you must reboot.. this loops forever.. and you can’t install either!! Digging around on the ASUS forums found many others with the same problem, grrrr.. more time wasted!!!
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★★★★★
B. Meredith –
Asus says they gave it U.2 port instead of M.2 because M.2 is meant to be mobile solution, and U.2 is much faster anyways. While that may be true, I think they are missing the point of their own product. If someone’s building a Mini-ITX board based PC, he or she is probably building a mobile or compact system. So in my opinion M.2 would make much more sense for this product. Technically it DOES come with a M.2 slot, but it is pre-occupied with their MU-MIMO Wi-Fi module. (Which is a pretty good wi-fi module btw.)
Anyways, it is a great motherboard otherwise. The fan extension card that came with it was very handy and useful as well.
*** And if you plan to use Corsair Link enabled PSU *** Beware that this board does not come with USB2 internal socket.
Helpful(0)Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
★★★★★
Nestor –
This thing comes with an absurd amount of features. Pretty much all the features you could get from its bigger brothers are somehow cramped in here. So much so that they had to go vertical with daughter board likes for the VRM and audio. The socket is centralized and the back of the motherboard doesn’t have any interference for noctua’s cpu air cooling backplate.
Overall a good motherboard, but it does have some key differences from the VII Impact that seem like bizarre changes to me.
This motherboard comes with Asus’ new fan header extender card. Allegedly they’re making it a stand alone product later on. The previous Maximus VII Impact came with a solution unique to this motherboard that allowed for more fan headers directly on the motherboard. This new solution may make sense on larger motherboards, but I think is terrible for mini itx. The extender board has to be mounted somewhere, it has to be connected to the motherboard with a very long cable, and requires a molex power connector. The manual doesn’t even mention its existence. Good luck getting it mounted anywhere on your mini itx case. I ended up just using a fan splitter cable. Was much simpler and took up less space.
M.2 was replaced by U.2. U.2 is pretty much dead and even if it wasn’t makes no sense for a mini itx board. Again, they for some reason chose the less compact and simpler solution that would make more sense for an ATX board, but not for a mini itx board. The Maximus VII Impact has a pretty great M.2 mounting solution that allowed it to be mounted sideways on the front of the motherboard. Most other mini itx motherboards put it in the back, which makes it very hard to manage once your build is complete in your case. It would’ve made more sense for them to include two M.2 connectors. One in the front like in the Maximus VII and one in the rear of the board. This would’ve been great for enthusiasts looking to take advantage of Samsung’s ultra fast NVMe drives. One for OS/core programs. One for games. No need for 2.5″ drives and the extra cabling that comes with that.
The U.2 connector also removes space away from the rear IO due to its location. This means that we’re missing the USB 2.0 and PS/2 stack that was present in the Maximus VII Impact. This board’s rear IO could’ve really used that since there’s a rather low count of usb port with one of them being a Type C connector. I have a Nexus 6P, which uses that, but I don’t see myself needing to connect my phone to my PC on regular enough basis that I don’t just use my adapter to hook up to my case’s front usb 3.0 ports for simplicity.
Asus. This is an enthusiast board. It’s a mini itx board. You must consider both when updating it in the next version. It really feels like the mini itx aspect of this board was forgotten when designing this board.
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★★★★★
Cliente de Amazo –
Mal por asus muchas fallas con esta placa . eni caso nunca posteo por fallo 00 en debug tuve que hacer RMA .
SJ –
Overall this is very good motherboard. I bought it to build a compact Skylake gaming system in a Shuttle case, which it’s perfect for. The onboard sound is very good, but not audiophile quality as my Asus Xonar DX. That’s too bad because with only one PCIE slot, I have to choose between a graphics card and the Xonar. The Skylake HD 530 graphics just can’t compete with a discrete card, so I had to drop the Xonar. Most people will probably think the sound quality is great, especially with features like bass boost, smart equalizer, and custom equalizer. Compared to most onboard audio, the sound quality is indeed very good, and if you don’t have expensive headphones and a Xonar DX to compare with, you probably won’t notice what you are missing. However with the EQ turned up you will probably notice some disturbing signal loss with more demanding music. The BIOS is modern and slick, and very easy to navigate. RAID setup is literally one click. Overclocking potential looks awesome. I dropped one star from my rating because of the audio not holding up to the Xonar, and because of an annoying feature in the BIOS called Anti-Surge Protection which shuts down the PC anytime there is a voltage change in the system, like during Windows installation when the wireless modem is turned on for the first time. It’s hyper-sensitive, and unnecessary, so I had to turn it off as I found everyone else is doing.
Nestor –
I assembled my entire system and powered up. What I got was no signal reported by the monitor (using an attached Display Port cable) and the mobo displayed Q Code 99. Of course this number wasn’t documented in the lasted ASUS manual but I found it here: asusqcodes.com and it wasn’t helpful. I removed everything from the system except the power on connection, the power suppy, one stick of memory and I switched to the integrated HDMI graphics (no fans either). Still Q Code 99. After lots of part swapping with a working system and web searching, still Q Code 99. At one point I even removed the CPU just to see what would happen, and nothing happened.. at least I didn’t get a 99! Also, there is no documentation on what those boot LED colors or blink patterns are all about. Gee thanks!
Finally, I flashed the BIOS to 1701 and viola, it posted, yay, what a relief, I don’t have to return the mobo (although I was pretty close to calling it quits). So I re-installed each component/connection one by one and tested at each step, all good until I hit the GTX 670 video card, then back to Q Code 99. Grrrr. This GTX 670 card works great in my old ASUS Rampage III Extreme system, but not on this mobo. I swapped in a new ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970 and, blamo, it was back to posting.
Cons:
*Mainboard drivers come on a DVD, while most ITX systems only have USB ports.
*Secure boot is enabled by default and discovering how to disable is a pain! (You must disable it to install an OS from a USB boot device).
*The mainboard manual (Sept 2015 Edition) leaves much to be desired!
*The BIOS GUI requires way too much clicking and so much is buried.
*AI Suite 3 would not install on Win 10 Enterprise LTSB, it did install on Win 10 Pro.
*Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) Win7-81-10_V11001160_763 would not install on Win 10 Pro but it did install on Enterprise LTSB.
*I could not connect to 5G networks until I found a newer driver than what ASUS had posted on their support site (Win10 v12.0.0.149 worked while 137 did not).
*So much time spent trying to get this running
Update: After installing AI Suite 3, my WiFI and USB stopped working.. seriously this blows!! I tried to uninstall the suite but part way thru the process it said it needed to reboot, so I did, but the uninstall doesn’t finish and claims you must reboot.. this loops forever.. and you can’t install either!! Digging around on the ASUS forums found many others with the same problem, grrrr.. more time wasted!!!
B. Meredith –
Asus says they gave it U.2 port instead of M.2 because M.2 is meant to be mobile solution, and U.2 is much faster anyways. While that may be true, I think they are missing the point of their own product. If someone’s building a Mini-ITX board based PC, he or she is probably building a mobile or compact system. So in my opinion M.2 would make much more sense for this product. Technically it DOES come with a M.2 slot, but it is pre-occupied with their MU-MIMO Wi-Fi module. (Which is a pretty good wi-fi module btw.)
Anyways, it is a great motherboard otherwise. The fan extension card that came with it was very handy and useful as well.
*** And if you plan to use Corsair Link enabled PSU *** Beware that this board does not come with USB2 internal socket.
Nestor –
This thing comes with an absurd amount of features. Pretty much all the features you could get from its bigger brothers are somehow cramped in here. So much so that they had to go vertical with daughter board likes for the VRM and audio. The socket is centralized and the back of the motherboard doesn’t have any interference for noctua’s cpu air cooling backplate.
Overall a good motherboard, but it does have some key differences from the VII Impact that seem like bizarre changes to me.
This motherboard comes with Asus’ new fan header extender card. Allegedly they’re making it a stand alone product later on. The previous Maximus VII Impact came with a solution unique to this motherboard that allowed for more fan headers directly on the motherboard. This new solution may make sense on larger motherboards, but I think is terrible for mini itx. The extender board has to be mounted somewhere, it has to be connected to the motherboard with a very long cable, and requires a molex power connector. The manual doesn’t even mention its existence. Good luck getting it mounted anywhere on your mini itx case. I ended up just using a fan splitter cable. Was much simpler and took up less space.
M.2 was replaced by U.2. U.2 is pretty much dead and even if it wasn’t makes no sense for a mini itx board. Again, they for some reason chose the less compact and simpler solution that would make more sense for an ATX board, but not for a mini itx board. The Maximus VII Impact has a pretty great M.2 mounting solution that allowed it to be mounted sideways on the front of the motherboard. Most other mini itx motherboards put it in the back, which makes it very hard to manage once your build is complete in your case. It would’ve made more sense for them to include two M.2 connectors. One in the front like in the Maximus VII and one in the rear of the board. This would’ve been great for enthusiasts looking to take advantage of Samsung’s ultra fast NVMe drives. One for OS/core programs. One for games. No need for 2.5″ drives and the extra cabling that comes with that.
The U.2 connector also removes space away from the rear IO due to its location. This means that we’re missing the USB 2.0 and PS/2 stack that was present in the Maximus VII Impact. This board’s rear IO could’ve really used that since there’s a rather low count of usb port with one of them being a Type C connector. I have a Nexus 6P, which uses that, but I don’t see myself needing to connect my phone to my PC on regular enough basis that I don’t just use my adapter to hook up to my case’s front usb 3.0 ports for simplicity.
Asus. This is an enthusiast board. It’s a mini itx board. You must consider both when updating it in the next version. It really feels like the mini itx aspect of this board was forgotten when designing this board.
Cliente de Amazo –
Mal por asus muchas fallas con esta placa . eni caso nunca posteo por fallo 00 en debug tuve que hacer RMA .