News Asus Maximus Gene XI - The Return of the King

Finally an "Enthusiast" quality board instead of the crappy STRIX m-ATX offerings. The Maximus Gene is back, long live the king !!!!
Aimed squarely at hardcore Overclockers / Benchers, this board is unlikely to appeal to someone wanting to build an m-ATX workstation or multi-GPU gaming rig.

If you are puzzling over this "Double Capacity" ram, here's what we know: "The Z390 from ASUS bring another feature, which is double-capacity ram support. We have pictures of something called ASUS ZADAK and GKILL’s Trident Z RGB DC memories. Both to be supported by ASUS Maximus XI series (Extreme/Gene)."

DIMM.2 Gives another M.2 slot.
Only 1, 16x PCI-E slot is not something we've seen before on a Gene Board either!


https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-z390-maximus-xi-extreme-and-gene-leaked

Edit: Some clarity on what this "Double Capacity" memory is in the link below!
https://www.techpowerup.com/247949/...actor-a-workaround-to-low-dram-chip-densities
 
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loader963

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Jan 21, 2017
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.... the pci slots ... the ram slots.... very odd.

Edit: dual 8 pin eps on top as well???
 

GuilleAcoustic

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Jun 29, 2015
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What a wasted opportunity, DTX offers more options, overclocking aside....

Clearly a board aimed at overclockers, not a real mATX board to my eyes.



 
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Arboreal

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Oct 11, 2015
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Wow! That is one seriously odd mATX board! I've always loved ROG Gene boards, this is something else - FrankenGene?

Guille, it does look DTX ish, maybe like the 'slim' mATX boards that have a 1x slot in position 1, and a 16 slot below - like the ECS H81H3-M4 that I own, or the Asus H81M R or Asrock versions...

The 'top' PCIe slot looks like 4x with an open rear to take full length cards, odd that it has 2 DIMM slots ITX style.
I can't see the benefit over an ITX Strix at the moment, other than it's Z390, and maybe the super (expensive) double RAM...
I'm intrigued nevertheless, thanks @Legion for posting this new toy
 

loader963

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Jan 21, 2017
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I’m just worried that the dual eps may mean the i9 series can only work with Z390 boards.
 

el01

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Jun 4, 2018
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Does it have Maximus Apex GENES in it?

(by my eye, it kinda does...)

WE NEED GOOD AM4 mATX BOARDS!
 

chx

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May 18, 2016
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I thought even the RTX 2070 doesn't have an NVLINK connector... it is dead, Jim.
 

confusis

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Wow, looks like someone threw up a bunch of components and hoped it'd work.
  • Poor expansion ($50 M-ATX boards have more!)
  • right angle headers pointing towards the bottom of the board.. which a lot of the time is blocked by either a radiator, a panel or fans
  • How much of the aesthetics of the board is actually plastic, not heatsink?
  • I'd rather have four RAM slots than a DIMM.2
  • Is that a pair of 3 pin fan headers to the top of the SATA and at the bottom right?
Hell, I just bought a smaller, low budget LGA1151 board with better expansion than this "premium" board - the Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. Yeah it doesn't overclock, but the extra memory support and expansion slots.. much better IMHO.
 

el01

King of Cable Management
Jun 4, 2018
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Wow, looks like someone threw up a bunch of components and hoped it'd work.
  • Poor expansion ($50 M-ATX boards have more!)
  • right angle headers pointing towards the bottom of the board.. which a lot of the time is blocked by either a radiator, a panel or fans
  • How much of the aesthetics of the board is actually plastic, not heatsink?
  • I'd rather have four RAM slots than a DIMM.2
  • Is that a pair of 3 pin fan headers to the top of the SATA and at the bottom right?
Hell, I just bought a smaller, low budget LGA1151 board with better expansion than this "premium" board - the Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. Yeah it doesn't overclock, but the extra memory support and expansion slots.. much better IMHO.
I think the main reason why ASUS is doing these things is because LN2 overclockers.

The right angle headers probably won't be used by LN2ers, really all most LN2 overclockers need is a x16 slot if they aren't doing crazy Crossfie/SLI/NVLink, LN2ers don't really need 4-pin fan headers, and the 2 memory slots help with overclocking. Also, yes, just having the SATA ports without anything plugged in affects overclocking.

The VRM looks to be an 8-phase (probably doubled), not sure about current capability.

You could argue that the M.2 next to the chipset would be unnecessary by EXOC standards, and I totally agree.

I sound like I'm going to bust out the LN2, but that's just my 2 cents.

I do think DIMM.2 is unnecessary on an overclocking board (M.2 isn't commonly used in EXOC), and the RGB modern art heatsinks really aren't necessary.


On the same VideoCardz article, there is the Maximus XI Extreme (good), TUF and PRIME (Do we really need a sticker over the CMOS battery), and the classy-looking Formula and Code.
 

Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
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Wow, looks like someone threw up a bunch of components and hoped it'd work.
  • Poor expansion ($50 M-ATX boards have more!)
  • right angle headers pointing towards the bottom of the board.. which a lot of the time is blocked by either a radiator, a panel or fans
  • How much of the aesthetics of the board is actually plastic, not heatsink?
  • I'd rather have four RAM slots than a DIMM.2
  • Is that a pair of 3 pin fan headers to the top of the SATA and at the bottom right?
Hell, I just bought a smaller, low budget LGA1151 board with better expansion than this "premium" board - the Gigabyte B250M-DS3H. Yeah it doesn't overclock, but the extra memory support and expansion slots.. much better IMHO.

Spot on there, that alleged Gene has some very odd characteristics! Maybe someone is trying to create 'our' SFF' dream DTX board that was discussed many moons ago!!
I recently bought a used Asus Prime B250M Plus quite cheaply recently, and like your Gigabyte board, it's SO well specified.
Ok, it can't OC, and doesn't have the WiFi on board like the Strix Z270G, but it does have 4 RAM slots (it's 22cm wide, not 24), 2 M.2 slots, BOTH on the top of the board (unlike the Z270G), no wasted PCIE 1x slot under the GPU and a full (16x) length 4x lower PCIe slot.
I can't see getting much better without spending out a lot of money for a 'better' board.
 
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TheHig

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Oct 13, 2016
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Many very good points have been made regarding expansion and honestly overall usefulness. Looks this board is clearly aimed at sort of sff OC show builds under water with the new K chips and bling. Super expensive Memory if you push for a workstation and need more than 32Gb of memory.

Not the Maximus Gene I expected frankly
Lots of m.2 storage is nice but really not liking the loss of 2 memory slots.
 
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Bun-Bun

Minimal Tinkerer
Oct 11, 2018
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Just wanted to add my thoughts on this board from a not extreme OCing perspective.

2 dimms provides better compatibility and latency vs 4 dimms, I always limit my performance systems to two dimms anyway, so the others are wasted.

the dimm m.2 slot is direct to CPU instead of through the PCH. I am excited to see what benefit there is to this regarding latency and iops.

Definitely a different beast. Waiting to be able to order it for the three workstations I am currently building.
 
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VegetableStu

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Aug 18, 2016
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the dimm m.2 slot is direct to CPU instead of through the PCH. I am excited to see what benefit there is to this regarding latency and iops.
on one hand, that shares lane with the x16 slot when populated (which turns into x8/x4/x4)

on the other: bifurcation mods? o_o
 
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Bun-Bun

Minimal Tinkerer
Oct 11, 2018
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on one hand, that shares lane with the x16 slot when populated (which turns into x8/x4/x4)

on the other: bifurcation mods? o_o

Yes that definitely is a consideration. In my usecase the reduced pcie lanes to the gfx will not matter at all.

Bifuracation mods?
 
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el01

King of Cable Management
Jun 4, 2018
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Bifurcation on mATX kind of defeats the point of going mATX over mITX.

Honestly, I hardly find a selling point for that motherboard outside of the overclocking world.
Lol Imma overclock in a few days my phenom (am2). The board has a 3+1 vrm. Wish me luck.

Although it would make an interesting PCIe raid bench...