Test Setup
The ASUS Maximus VI Gene will become a fixture in our test bench moving forward thanks to ASUS Australia. We have an i5-4670K that can hit 4.6GHz before things get unstable and our Noctua NH-U12S does a good job of supporting our overclocks even though it’s not one of the biggest coolers we have in the cupboard. The Corsair HX-850 is overkill but it allows us some headroom for SLI configurations and the Lian Li Pitstop T60 open air test bench makes it easier to both relocate and keep our testing area “neat-ish…”
| CPU | i5-4670K |
| CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-U12S |
| Memory | 16GB Corsair Vengeance Low Profile – Black (4x4GB) |
| Case | Lian Li Pitstop T60 |
| Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 2TB & Samsung EVO 250GB SSD |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 |
| Graphics Cards | Gigabyte GTX670 OC 2GB Windforce3 (in SLI)
Tested without a discrete GPU for a number of scenarios |
| Audio | Level 10M Gaming Headset & Sony stereo ear bud headphones |
| Network | Direct connection to the cable modem & Shared Gigabit connection via Netgear WNDR3700 router |
| Optical | Samsung SATA2 BluRay drive |
| OS | Windows 7 |
Overclocking
I was able to achieve a manual overclock of 4.6GHz with our i5-4670K @ 1.31v on air cooling. The ambient temperature was 24 degrees and the maximum temperature we saw on the cores was 83 degrees with an average maximum temperature of 79.5 degrees Celsius. Overclocking manually through either UEFI BIOS or the AI Suite 3 software was dead simple.
ASUS don’t have any TPU switches on the Maxiums VI Gene so overclocking is all done via UEFI BIOS or AI Suite 3 “4 Way Optimisation”. There are overclocking presets for 4.2GHz, 4.4 GHz, and 4.6 GHz and we were stable at 4.6GHz. In previous testing with the MSI Z87M Gaming, we were unable to push the i5-4670K any higher and the same scenario played out with the ASUS Maximus VI Gene. Whilst we saw 4.7GHz, it wasn’t stable under load for more than about 20 mins and the temps were pushing 90 degrees.
UEFI Configuration
The UEFI BIOS really is a tweaker’s paradise – everything from the standard configuration options through to detailed overclocking s covered. You can even turn the LEDs on the motherboard on or off. We didn’t experience any compatibility issues with our Logitech G110 USB keyboard or Corsair M65 USB mouse.
I’ve embedded a video of the UEFI flow and options below, captured via an AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable. There is no commentary, it’s just included if you wanted to look at the configuration options available.
See the photos below to get an idea of how the board looks with some components in it including dual GPUs. Note the clear access to the internal headers along the edge of the motherboard and also the clearance between the 120mm Noctua NH-U12S and the first PCIE slot. As we have seen before, if you buy a micro-ATX motherboard you need to make sure that you don’t go too wide on the CPU cooler but 120mm is usually a pretty safe bet.
