Introduction

Over at the Computex exhibition there was one motherboard on display from ASUS that has been on the taste buds of many consumers for a while now. Yes, the ASUS Maximus V Formula has finally arrived on the Guru3D playgrounds. The Formula series equals style, features and highly tweakable motherboards -- all made with the ROG (Replublic of Gamers) backing it up.

The ASUS Maximus V Formula is a product that oozes with features and overclock potential. Taking the Core i7 3770K processor towards THE 4.6~4.8 GHz REGION on air cooling simply is a fairly easy task to accomplish. 

Next to the tweaking possibilities this is a ROG (Republic of Gamers) motherboard, and that means extra enthusiast features alright. New FAN Xpert 2 FAN regulation has now been embedded, we spot Smart DIGI+ Technology (Smart DIGI+ Key & Smart CPU Power Level), USB 3.0 Boost and the lovely USB BIOS Flashback (simply insert a USB stick with firmware, press a button and boom your mobo firmware was flashed). 

What defines the Formula as the best however is that the heat sinks are in fact waterblocks, the Maximus V Formula can be used on both air and water as the Maximus V Formula eliminates heat with a unique aluminum-finned heatsink that combines an all-copper water channel and heatpipe in one. 

All that on a Z77 motherboard that looks fantastic. Z77 is of course the Intel chipset predominantly released for Ivy Bridge based processors. These motherboards will have a slightly altered feature set and thus support the new Ivy Bridge apples from Intel. Good to know however is that Z77 also supports Sandy Bridge Socket 1155 based processors, that's right your favorite Core i5 2500K and Core i7 2600K will be perfect for these motherboards as well. The changes for Z77 primarily can be found in native USB 3.0 support as well as an upgrade towards PCie gen 3 PCIe x16 slots.

So today we have a closer look at the technology and of course a deep review of the the ASUS Maximus V Formula. Armed with the latest gadgets, some ROG lovin' and that Z77 chipset will most definitely surprise you. 

This by the way is a review about the ASUS Maximus V Formula, not the SKU with the ThunderFX audio module.