ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Formula Review

Up Close – Contents and Overview

Every ASUS Republic Of Gamers box is an event to open, and the Maximus Z690 Formula is no exception. Thick cardboard reveals a very weighty motherboard indeed, and once you’ve given yourself a hernia taking that out you can catch a glimpse of the many supplied accessories.

  

First up the ROG Hyper M.2 card and screws that expand the M.2 potential of the already bulging Maximus Formula by providing you with another two M.2 slots for all your high-speed storage requirements. Beneath the shroud you can see the diagonal alignment of the slots themselves, something which we find curious and yet, because it’s different, enticing. You don’t realise how much at right angles everything on a motherboard is until you see a diagonal.

  
  

The newest model of the ASUS Wi-Fi antenna is present and correct. Very flexible in its positioning to ensure you get the best possible signal.

  

As well as four regular SATA cables you get a pair of braided models, or what ASUS are calling “ROG Weave”, because if you can brand something you might as well.

  

Flexibility in positioning your RGB accoutrements is vital and with an extension for both regular RGB and ARGB ASUS have got you covered. There is also a USB stick with the drivers, Q connectors, stickers and all the stuff you’d expect to find from a ROG product.

  

As always we’re going to be showing you the Z690 Maximus Formula in closer detail on the next couple of pages but we know that an overview is also handy to have, just to get a feeling for it. It’s certainly white, and the pointilist ROG logo and Eye are features that appear on other Z690 motherboards we’ve seen, so we hope you like them because it appears that, for this generation at least, they are here to stay. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice the combined air/water VRM cooler, but what you can’t see is the twenty (count them) 105A power stages beneath. Blimey.