As a benchmarker, the biggest milestone you will come across is your first plunge below -100C. Liquid Nitrogen is -196C by nature, and to utilize this exotic cooling material, you need a fantastic evaporator, or more commonly known as a pot. Much like dry ice, cooling the processor down this cold will decrease impedance that [...]

There was a knock, and a large box left at my door. What could this be, we were not expecting any deliveries? Ah…it has been a while, but we were once again entrusted with a mission from Intel. Unboxing In the box was an Intel core i7-2600k processor, an Intel DP67BG Extreme Series motherboard and [...]

Meet The New Kid In Town: MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an [...]

Will this problem be a major issue for a large number of users? Time will tell.

Introduction – Part 1 Recap: On January 2nd, NDA was lifted for the new “Sandy Bridge” architecture from Intel.  TechREACTION was ready with a hands-on look at the new Republic of Gamers motherboard from Asus, the Maximus IV Extreme.  With minimal time for testing, we were only able to bring you a portion of the [...]

Rounding out our coverage of CES 2011, Drew and I stopped by AMD’s meeting rooms at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We had a meeting setup with AMD’s John Taylor to discuss Fusion, as well as the upcoming processor road maps. Some interesting discussion ensued… Check out that image above (Don’t laugh!).  That is a [...]

Many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems, but aren’t sure where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I have seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they follow advice that doesn’t solve or even address their specific problem. I have also seen too much trial and error overclocking, and unless you get lucky, it tends to be far too time consuming and frustrating. What I have attempted to do is create a very simple three step guide for overclocking Sandy Bridge based CPUs. If you want to continue searching out other opinions, please consider each suggestion with caution. Some will undoubtedly be great, while some will not.

My subject today is the new Asus Maximus IV Extreme, a Republic of Gamers (“ROG”) branded model which represents the top end of the P67 offerings from Asus. As always, they’ve managed to pack an overwhelming number of technologies and features into this product….it’s my goal to give you honest feedback based on my experience with each. Does this product deserve the ROG name? Is it truly worth your hard earned money?