ASUS Maximus Formula Special Edition

Throughout all of our benchmarks regardless of what we are reviewing, testing is done in a clean and stand-alone version of Windows XP Professional with SP2. The exception is SYSmark 2007 Preview and PCMark Vantage, which are tested under Windows Vista. Prior to testing, these conditions are met:

• Desktop and scrap files are cleaned up, including emptying of recycle bin.
• No virus scanner or firewall is installed in the stand-alone installation.
• Computer has proper airflow and room ambient temp is >80°F.

The testing rig used for today’s benchmarking is as follows:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 @ 3.0GHz
• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus Formula (0504)
• Memory: OCZ 2GB NVIDIA 7200 (DDR2), OCZ 2GB DDR2-1333 Platinum (DDR3)
• Video: ASUS 8800GTX 768MB
• Sound: Onboard HD Audio
• Storage: Seagate 7200.10 320GB
• Etcetera: Antec P182 Chassis, Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows Vista Ultimate
• Cooling: Corsair Nautilus 500
• Power Supply: Corsair HX620W
  Compared Motherboards
  • ASUS P5E3 Deluxe Wi-Fi AP @n
  • Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6

Please note that for our DDR3 motherboards, we use DDR3-1333 speeds with 7-7-7-20 timings, and for our DDR2 boards we use DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15. Also, due to Intel’s 45nm being right around the corner, we decided to use only three motherboards for our testing today, as we plan to make the QX9650 our primary testing processor once released.

SYSmark is an industry leading system benchmarking tool, which is completely automated but utilizes real-world tests. It installs common applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, Photoshop CS2, 3DS Max, SketchUp! among others.

SYSmark grades the performance of the system by how well it could handle different operations. Systems with more than one core will benefit in the tests, since there is a lot of multi-tasking throughout. Once the test is completed, it will provide you with an overall score, in addition to showing areas where the computer excelled.

Although by a very small margin, the Formula fell slightly behind the other X38 boards.

Interestingly, the board fell behind the other two in all tests except for the VideoCreation. Next up are our Futuremark runs, including the new PCMark Vantage.