When a digital signal is converted to an analog one (for example when playing audio through speakers or headphones), a certain amount of noise is carried in the signal. A fully digital 10 power phase design is present on the ROG Maximus VIII Hero Alpha which leads me to believe that this board is essentially a fully blown Formula board; the specifications would agree with me to a degree here. ports; all 5 of those full size USB ports will get used on our desk, so that’s where my disappointment comes in.

disk drives supported, ASUS moved the socket to the edge of the board instead of keeping it between the PCIe x16 slots. That being said, ASUS's UEFI is one of the most solid Z170 UEFIs I have worked with so far, and it has the most overclocking features I have seen as well. I’d recommend investing in a water cooler for overclocking purposes and really unlocking the potential in this processor/mobo combo. Customise static, strobing and pulsating effects or have the colours change in time with music or indicate CPU temperature. The Maximus VIII Hero has all the right stuff to be an affordable overclocking motherboard aimed at breaking records.There are three of the latter in total, with your typical two-way GPU setup getting a x8/x8 lane configuration courtesy of the two grey slots, which are double-spaced to aid air-cooled cards. For the astute gamers, you sure as hell better have a window in your case for some of their products. The anti-surge features of LANGuard is designed to withstand higher ESD for better protection, while the use of SMT components reduces transmission loss between 130 KHz ~ 300 MHz when compared to a traditional LAN port," according to ASUS.

Up to 3 graphics cards can be supported on this board, although quad-SLI is supported with NVIDIA graphics cards such as the dual cored GTX 690 etc. Built around the Intel Z170 chipset and featuring the LGA 1151 processor socket, the mainboard works with certain Intel CPUs such as Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Pentium.I imagine perhaps people on limited bandwidth could find this useful, but I always take networking software with a pinch of salt. While features like the ROG cover and Lighting control offer the added bling factor, it's the hardware and software side of the equation that sets the bar. Sound Judgment by Ear: Excellent audio capabilities, I really like the DAC and the boost from the amplifier is also noticeable. EPU will also reduce CPU wattage to a set level and deliver even more savings with Away Mode, creating an extreme energy-saving scenario that shuts down unused extra I/O controllers and reduces the graphics cards' power level. I have designed it so that the motherboard sits in a case and is cooled by fans always on at a constant rate to keep the conditions similar for all tests.