ASUS Republic of Gamers Announces Maximus IX and Strix Z270 Gaming Motherboards

ASUS
Republic of Gamers Announces Maximus IX and Strix
Z270 Gaming Motherboards

Code
and Apex revealed as the latest additions to flagship Maximus IX lineup, plus introduction
of Strix Z270 series for unbeatable performance for all gamers

KEY
POINTS

Singapore
(4th January, 2017) — ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced its full
lineup of gaming motherboards, comprising Maximus IX Extreme, Maximus IX
Formula, Maximus IX Hero and two brand-new additions — the Maximus IX Code and
Maximus IX Apex. The 2017 roster also includes the Z270 motherboards from ROG
Strix, a new recruit to the ROG fold.

Based on the latest Intel® Z270 chipset and ready
for the new extreme-performance 7th Generation Intel® Core™ (‘Kaby Lake’)
processors, ROG gaming motherboards are packed with world-leading innovations
and ROG-exclusive technologies to deliver epic performance for all gamers, from
value-driven newcomers and style-conscious modders to enthusiast overclockers
who want to build cutting-edge air- or water-cooled rigs that push the accepted
limits of performance.

The ROG 2017 lineup provides the best gaming
audio with exclusive SupremeFX codecs and the best air- and water-cooling
innovations, with both built-in options and easy expansion. They also offer the
industry’s best automated-overclocking performance with refined design choices,
optimized board layouts and class-leading features. For this generation ROG has
also added Aura Sync, the world’s first motherboard-controlled synchronized RGB
lighting, and has 3D-printing-friendly design — ushering in a new era of
personalization and customization.

The full Maximus IX lineup includes Extreme,
redefined for water-cooling veterans and gamers who demand cutting edge technologies,
Formula for performance-hungry gamers and modders that want to dip their toes into custom water-cooling, and
Hero for everyday gaming brilliance,. The new
additions are Code, an accessible aesthetics-focused motherboard made for those
who love to mod, and Apex, a high-end performance-driven motherboard to appeal
to power-user overclockers and gaming enthusiasts. .

Maximus IX
Extreme: Best of the best innovation

Maximus IX Extreme is ROG’s flagship gaming
motherboard tailored for water-cooling enthusiasts in pursuit of the maximum
performance, and is the result of years of industry expertise.

The new board comes with the world’s first
integrated monoblock, expertly manufactured by Bitspower. Maximus IX Extreme is packed with ROG innovations that
refine traditional solutions: The monoblock detects the flow rate of the water
coolant, and has dedicated circuitry to detect both the inlet and outlet temperatures
and coolant leakage. The monoblock also integrates the neighboring M.2 heatsink for unmatched heat-dissipation to eliminate throttling — therefore improving both reliability and
enabling greater performance.

Maximus IX Code:
Simply luxurious

Inspired by the enormous popularity of the ROG
Maximus Formula motherboard series, the brand-new Maximus IX Code board gives
gamers the aesthetic appeal of Aura
Sync RGB lighting, the convenience of onboard Wi-Fi, and the reliability
of long-lasting components.

It is christened Code to echo the defining
layer of ROG Armor that protects and streamlines the board, with the name
derived from the Latin codex — describing
the precursor to modern books that became popular due to its unique and durable
cover. Maximus IX Code sets a new standard in motherboard design by making ROG
Armor more accessible to gamers.

Maximus IX Apex: Redefining limits

Maximus IX Apex motherboard is the latest
ground-breaking addition to the ROG product family, drawing players back to ROG’s
origins — a one-of-a-kind community for world-class cutting-edge enthusiasts that
seek to reach the apex of performance and gaming.

Maximus IX Apex is engineered with the best
overclocking engineering coupled with the revolutionary DIMM.2 design, which
allows two M.2 drives to be vertically mounted in a DDR4 interface. Users can
then mount DIMM or case fans to prevent throttling and ensure the system never
breaks a sweat. To broaden the new board’s appeal beyond extreme overclockers, Maximus
IX Apex’s aesthetics include a unique X-shaped PCB that allows Aura Sync to shine
through, an aircraft-inspired heatsink design and an illuminated customizable
nameplate. Apex is crafted to be a natural fit for showcase PC builds for gaming
and style-conscious enthusiasts — where pure adrenaline meets style.

ROG Strix:
ROG’s newest recruit, ready to strike up gaming excitement

ROG Strix is the all-new gaming creed, consisting
of boards crafted to appeal to every type of gamer: ROG Strix Z270E Gaming, ROG
Strix Z270F Gaming and ROG Strix Z270H Gaming ATX gaming motherboards, mATX ROG Strix Z270G
Gaming  and mini-ITX ROG Strix Z270I
Gaming. ROG Strix Z270 gaming motherboards combine bold aesthetics with premier
performance and incredible SupremeFX audio to deliver unrivaled gaming
experiences and style. Unique, angular patterns inspired by the slashes of a
sword lend to ROG
Strix series’
striking visual accents,
and a reflective polychrome ROG logo emblazoned on a diamond-cut metal
nameplate shines as a mark of gaming pride. Additionally, Aura Sync technology adds a burst of vibrancy as it syncs with Aura-enabled
components for a system that glows in a nearly infinite spectrum of colors.

Support for the latest 7th Generation Intel Core
processors and technologies, plus exclusive ROG innovations, take performance
to the next level to give ROG Strix gamers the edge against their opponents.

World-leading
innovations: The newest and best air- and water-cooling technologies

The new ROG Maximus IX and ROG Strix Z270
motherboards are loaded with the newest and best technologies for those who
love to cool with air or water.[1]

These technologies include several M.2 cooling
solutions that efficiently remove heat from this vital area. Maximus IX Extreme
has a liquid-cooled M.2 heatsink, the result of expert design that integrates the
M.2 heatsink with the monoblock for unmatched heat dissipation. Maximus IX Apex
comes with DIMM.2, which allows two M.2 drives to be vertically mounted in a
DDR4 interface. ROG Strix Z270I Gaming features an innovative double-decker
heatsink design that allows the M.2 SSD to be
stacked on top of the PCH heatsink, which is then topped off with an additional
metal heatsink for the M.2 drive. The two heatsinks are thermally isolated to
prevent the PCH and M.2 from affecting each other. The double decker design not
only cleverly maximizes the board space on mini-ITX board, but also
dramatically improves heat dissipation, cooling the M.2 SSD by up to 20°C for
better stability and enhanced gaming performance while featuring a stylish
angular design to enhance the look of ROG Strix Z270I Gaming builds. Additionally,
selected ROG Z270 motherboards also support a 3D-printed M.2 fan holder.

Maximus IX Formula features CrossChill EK II, the
renowned hybrid heatsink. Redesigned with the cooling masters at EKWB, CrossChill
EK II delivers MOSFET temperatures that are up to 23˚C lower with water versus
air. The latest CrossChill EK II design also features new, thinner fins that offer
a 4˚C cooling improvement over the previous version ─
delivering efficient, quiet cooling.

ROG’s Water Cooling Zone lets gamers monitor the
speed of both cooling fans and water-pump output power. The dual
water-temperature headers and flow-rate header feed information straight into
ROG’s intuitive Fan Xpert 4 utility, which itself has been upgraded to allow
DIYers to set the GPU temperature as a fan-tuning source — enabling a dynamic
cooling response to system power output.

Overclocking
and performance: Frequency-pushing innovations for the fastest-ever speeds

ROG motherboards
are revered for their overclocking credentials, and the new Maximus IX models
enable enthusiast to push frequencies further than ever for the fastest speeds.

The Maximus
IX Apex is positioned as a true performance-oriented motherboard, with ROG’s
R&D team breaking all the boundaries to create the most optimal
circuit-board layout and highest-quality power delivery. With its 2-DIMM DRAM design,
Apex has already gone beyond the performance peak by placing multiple world
records (WRs) and global first places (GFPs) to break several long-standing
records. These include the best CPU-frequency score with Intel Core processors
since the X58 platform-based motherboards with a single-core, single-thread
frequency of 7.383GHz, and 7.328MHz at four cores and eight threads. It also
set a reference clock (BCLK) record at 584MHz and a memory frequency surpassing
5GHz in single channel, with 5041MHz. In total, Maximus IX Apex has secured
eight WRs and 13 GFPs.

SupremeFX:
Exclusive codecs for the best gaming-audio experiences

The latest ROG and ROG Strix motherboards
benefit respectively from the exclusive S1220 or S1220A audio codec. Designed
in close collaboration with Realtek, the codec improves performance to provide
120dB signal-to-noise ratio for the stereo line-out and up to 113dB SNR for the
line-in, to capture pristine audio; and has an impedance-sensing circuit that
automatically adjusts the gain to ensure the optimal volume range for
headphones.

Sonic Studio III has an all-new intelligent routing
feature made for streaming. The new routing system transports different audio streams
to different outputs. This gives gamers full control over who hears what — such
as browser audio to headphones and game audio to speakers. It also enables app-level
preferences for instant audio profiles and improved noise filtering for
conversations with total clarity.

Sonic Radar III is ROG’s evolved audio engine
that processes sounds more accurately than ever, ensuring gamers always know what’s
going on around them. A new on-screen arrow has also been added to instantly pinpoint
enemy positions.

Aura Sync:
The world’s first motherboard-controlled synchronized RGB lighting

ASUS Aura Sync is the world’s first
motherboard-RGB-synchronization technology, delivering up to nine distinctive
lighting effects across Aura Sync-capable motherboards, graphics cards and
peripherals3 — all controlled via the simple and intuitive Aura app.
Users are able enhance their illumination still further, either via the
integrated 4-pin/12V Aura RGB header or the included extension cable. Aura
offers a brilliant spectrum of colors, and can react to the beat of music and even
change shades to reflect the CPU temperature, providing valuable information at
a glance. Aura takes motherboard aesthetics to extremes and creates immersive
gaming atmospheres for gaming builds.

3D-printing
friendly: Unlimited personalization and customization opportunities

ROG has always strived to make it easier for
users to customize the cosmetic appearance of their PC components, and now it
has become the world’s first motherboard brand to support 3D-printed components
— making it easy for users to print their own parts to customize the
motherboard’s appearance, improve system performance or manage cables.

Dedicated onboard 3D mounts that use the same
screws as M.2 and standard motherboard mounting holes make fitting 3D-printed
parts easy, so users can quickly add custom nameplates, cable covers, or even
an M.2 fan holder to lower M.2 temperatures by up to 30°C — preventing throttling. ROG has
also designed a series of 3D-printable accessories, including 2-way SLI™ bridge
cover, fan grill, ROG-font letters and all sizes of cable combs, keeping PC
tidy and adding style to any build.

ASUS worked with Shapeways, the world’s largest
3D-printing service company, to launch the ASUS 3D
Printing store. This online
store hosts the full selection of ASUS 3D-printable parts, enabling users to select
the parts they want to print — replete with preferred materials and color — and
order directly via Shapeways.

Gaming
networking: Faster, smoother, safer and more intelligent online experiences

ROG and ROG Strix motherboards have the very
latest Intel Gigabit Ethernet to reduce CPU overhead and deliver exceptionally
high TCP and UDP throughput, freeing up more computing power for gaming and
gameplay. They also feature exclusive LANGuard with signal-coupling technology
and premium surface-mounted to ensure reliable connections and better
throughput, plus electrostatically-guarded and surge-protected components (ESD
Guards) for 1.9X-greater tolerance to static electricity and 2.5X-greater
protection (up to 15KV) against surges.

With an eye on the rising demand on network
resources and bandwidth, ROG will also introduce ROG Areion 10G, the world’s
first consumer Ethernet card to use the latest PCIe 3.0
interface. Manufactured by Aquantia, ROG Areion 10G comes with an extra-large
and stylish heatsink for cooler and more stable performance for super-speed
10Gbps[2] data transfer for serious performance.

GameFirst IV optimizes network traffic for
faster, lag-free online gaming, and includes Multi-Gate Teaming that enables
users to team all their networks for maximum bandwidth and the smoothest-ever
gameplay. GameFirst IV also includes all-new Intelligent Mode, which
automatically compiles a database by parsing new app data to ensure that every
game is optimized to maximize performance potential.

Some models[3] also include next-level 802.11ac Wi-Fi with
2×2 dual-band 2.4/5GHz antennas for up to 867Mbps transfer speeds, plus the
very latest Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology to ensure that every connected
user experiences the best wireless and online speeds.

Gaming
connectivity: Breathtaking speeds, brilliant convenience and flexible
expandability

The new ROG and ROG Strix Z270 motherboards are
all equipped with USB 3.1 Type-A ports for ultra-fast transfer speeds of up to
10Gbps with great backward compatibility, and most models also have at least one
USB Type-C™ (USB-C) socket3 — the futureproof reversible connector
that makes attaching USB devices quicker and easier. These motherboards also
have a USB 3.1 front-panel connector3 for
everyday convenience.

Dual M.2 is also a key feature of the latest
ROG and ROG Strix Z270 gaming boards, enabling gamers to quickly and easily
expand their storage options and tap into a blistering 32Gbps of PCIe
bandwidth.

AVAILABILITY
& PRICING

Pricing to be announced
after 6th January due to NDA restrictions.