Asus ROG Introduces Aggressive Looking Maximus VII Formula Motherboard

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Only power users need apply

Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) today topped off its crop of Intel Z97 chipset motherboards by introducing the Maximus VII Formula, a mean slab of tasty features for enthusiasts covered in an awesomesauce cooling solution to help with overclocking and stability. This particular flavor of awesomesauce is called CrossChill Copper, which is a hybrid-cooling solution engineered around a highly-conductive, corrosion-resistant copper cooling channel.
You can't help but spy the hybrid cooler, though what you won't spot at a glance are the internal fins that add to the surface area to keep temperatures from getting out of control. If you take advantage of the built-in 1/4-inch thread fittings and go the liquid cooling route, Asus says you can expect MOSFET temperatures to be lowered by up to 23C.
Getting down to the nitty gritty, there are four DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of DDR3-3300+ memory, two PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, three PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, a mini-PCI-E 2.0 x1 slot, 10 SATA 6Gbps ports (4 shared with SATA Express), two SATA Express ports, a single M.2 Socket 3 with M Key, GbE LAN, eight USB 3.0 ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, ROG SupremeFX Formula 8-channel audio with a 120dB SNR, and a few other odds and ends.
Asus says the Maximus VII Formula with Watch Dogs tossed in will be available next week for $369. There will also be a standard edition (no Watch Dogs bundle) that will be available shortly afterward for $319.
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