ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT Mini ITX ?

scotslad · 4 Dec 2015 at 22:24

Hi, what do you guys think of the "ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT Mini ITX Gaming Motherboard" ? (with a Skylake i7 6700K installed).

From what I have seen and read up on it it seems to more or less come top of the class, but one of the things that I also see a few people question is the U.2 connecter rather than an M.2 :confused:

What does that mean though as its completely lost me to be honest :confused:

Let me know what you guys think eh, cheers.

kayomani · 4 Dec 2015 at 22:43

Its a similar tech which will replace sata as its cable rather than a port, the intel ssd's use them. You can get M2 to U2 Adapters so I wouldn't worry about it.

scotslad · 4 Dec 2015 at 22:50

kayomani said:
Its a similar tech which will replace sata as its cable rather than a port, the intel ssd's use them. You can get M2 to U2 Adapters so I wouldn't worry about it.

thanks mate, what if your getting a setup that is configured and you buy an M.2 ssd rather than a U.2 one, will the builders that are building it for you such as overclockers or whoever just use an adaptor like you say, yeah ?

Is the U.2 actually better than the M.2 as far as maybe in the future proofing aspect, is that what its all about ?

kayomani · 4 Dec 2015 at 22:58

I think the M2 is likely to be the more popular in the long run despite there is a space limitation on the board meaning most only have one or two slots. Dunno really I think your just as likely to end up with a PCIE card.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...r-insight-when-buying-the-intel-750-nvme-ssd/

scotslad · 4 Dec 2015 at 23:11

kayomani said:
I think the M2 is likely to be the more popular in the long run despite there is a space limitation on the board meaning most only have one or two slots. Dunno really I think your just as likely to end up with a PCIE card.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...r-insight-when-buying-the-intel-750-nvme-ssd/

lol, snap, thats the exact same article I was reading just now too (thank you though), not a heck of a lot of stuff on the internet that I can see so far that gets right into the details.

So I guess this is just for Intel SSD's buy the looks of it to me anyway but I am still unsure on that, I cant see the point if there isnt any difference really, a few things I read say that U.2 is better but others say not even worth thinking about, so makes me think waste of time (possibly) , but again I aint anywhere near an expert, so I dont know, kinda confusing though especially for people just ready to fork out loads of cash for new set ups etc.

scotslad · 4 Dec 2015 at 23:16

oop's, I overlooked a part that says "SFF-8639, or U.2, is standardized for NVMe and supports PCIe 3.0 X4, providing five times the speed of a typical SATA SSD"

wow, now this is going to drive people up the wall because it surely will make some people to want to go down this road as it looks like its much better, hmmm

Edit, further reading that article, no the U.2 doesnt apear to be any faster than the M.2 after all, lol, they are the same after all by the looks of it, thats just crazy eh, lol

To get more back on the subject of the actual motherboard now that the u.2 v m.2 subject has been covered, I wonder if anyone has opinions on that motherboard as a whole please maybe ?

scotslad · 9 Dec 2015 at 02:37

I ended up just getting a normal high speed SSD instead of bothering with u2 or m2 as they seem to me a bit early to bother with, so yes, simple pro model sammy SSD instead, sorted

8 Pack · 9 Dec 2015 at 11:45

Impact is ASUS's most efficient overclocking board. Great performance.

scotslad · 9 Dec 2015 at 17:12

8 Pack said:
Impact is ASUS's most efficient overclocking board. Great performance.

great stuff

Gazb · 14 Dec 2015 at 00:07

Saw one of these at the Asus stand at i56.
There's an impressive amount of stuff crammed onto a very small board. Tempted to build an m-itx setup for the living room, though I'm not sure I'd really save that much space over a m-atx setup.

Random Guy Esq. · 14 Dec 2015 at 00:24

I think this is the board I'll be going for as well. I really want an ITX build, but I've also grown used to having dedicated soundcards in all my previous builds... this seems like a great compromise. Don't mind it having U.2 instead of M.2, though I understand why it might put others off. The rest of the feature set looks great too.

My big question now is do I go for a Cougar QBX, or push the boat out for something like an nCase? Decisions decisions.

scotslad · 14 Dec 2015 at 03:32

Random Guy Esq. said:
I think this is the board I'll be going for as well. I really want an ITX build, but I've also grown used to having dedicated soundcards in all my previous builds... this seems like a great compromise. Don't mind it having U.2 instead of M.2, though I understand why it might put others off. The rest of the feature set looks great too.
My big question now is do I go for a Cougar QBX, or push the boat out for something like an nCase? Decisions decisions.

well I picked the Node 304 case, tiny little thing if thats anything to go by, dedicated graphics card too, 700watt psu and a corsair h80i GT Rad plus the case fans obviously that come with the case..

Far as I am aware now after looking it up, the U.2 is actually much better than M.2, (U.2 can do both though with adapter, so best of both worlds).

And from what I see too the board has its own sound card that is quoted as being much better than a lot of dedicated sound cards, if you look at some videos about the VIII Impact itx you will see what I mean, they tell you about all things, my eyes are sore watching them all now, lol, but yeah its some type of extra special sound card they have stuck on the board, you will see it when you look the videos up.

Ram is meant to Overclock extremely well on the board too, I think its pretty much the best of the best they say, the daddy of itx's pretty much.