During the Dreamhack event in Sweden later this month, ASUS is launching a new high-end motherboard, the Maximus III Extreme P55. This motherboard is designed for socket LGA1156 Core i5/i7 processors and is part of the company's 'Republic of Gamers' line of products. Because a high-end motherboard also needs to be pleasing aesthetically, ASUS has provided the board with a black-red colour scheme. To ensure maximum stability during overclocking, an extensive 11-phase digital PWM is present. An LN2 OC jumper is also present, which is to simplify overclocking whilst using liquid nitrogen.
While the integrated PCI-Express controller of the Core i5/i7 processor only features 16 lanes, ASUS has added five graphics card slots on the board. This means that beneath one of the heatsinks, one or two PCI-Express switchchips are positioned. ASUS' latest creation can be used for quad GPU configurations, but it's still unclear how much effective bandwidth remains for each individual card.
To complete the featureset, ASUS has added USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps connectors to its new Maximus III Extreme P55. The I/O panel sports Gbit LAN, onboard audio, USB, PS/2, eSATA and FireWire. A USB-like ROG connector also seems to be present, allowing the system to be connected to another computer, from where overclocking software can be used on the board. According to ASUS, the motherboard should even be capable of being overclocked through a Bluetooth mobile phone. Though prices have not yet been mentioned, it's estimated that the board will cost over 200 euro.
