It’s called the Maximus VII Formula, and this Socket 1150-based motherboard sports Intel’s Z97 chipset, which you can use to slot in either 4th-generation or upcoming 5th-generation “Broadwell” CPUs.
On top of that, Maximus VII Formula has two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, so you can slot in more than one graphics card. There also will be a single PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, three PCI 2.0 x1 slots, and a single mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 slot. On top of that, you’ll also get 10 SATA ports, two SATA Express ports, and an M.2 slot. With four DIMM slots, you can outfit your Maximus VII Formula-based system with up to 32GB of RAM. In short, there’s plenty of room for upgrades here.
Around back, you’ll find eight USB ports, six of which are of the 3.0 variety, along with DisplayPort, HDMI, audio, and S/PDIF connections. This ATX motherboard measures 12 x 9.6 images, so make sure that you get a case that supports this form factor.
You can get the Asus Maximus VII Formula for $319 once it’s released. Starting sometime next week, you’ll be able to get it for $369 from Newegg and TigerDirect, and it’ll come with a copy of Watch Dogs.
This is an interesting time to be building a PC. Yes, if you can afford them, you can outfit your rig with a powerful 4th-gen Intel processor. However, Intel’s next batch of chips, code-named Broadwell, are due for release sometime around the end of this year. That’s why, if you’re thinking about building a system, you should consider getting a motherboard like what Asus just announced, which supports Intel’s next generation of CPUs.
You can learn more about the Asus ROG Maximus VII Formula motherboard here.
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