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  • Glock24 - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Wow, has integrated cassette player :P
  • madwolfa - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Exactly my thoughts!
  • ddriver - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Kudos to them engineers, they sure know how to make it look silly.
  • Lord of the Bored - Friday, May 5, 2017 - link

    So close to the perfect motherboard! Pay for the license, put a decepticon logo on it and it is the Asus Soundwave!
  • close - Friday, May 5, 2017 - link

    What about gold plated port covers? You're telling me that there's no value in that? Or that people just don't want it?

    Maybe I'm too old but I remember not long ago for 100E I'd get the very best enthusiast (OC) MoBo. Then it was 150, then 200, now I have to pay 650 to get a board that gives me what I'd like to buy myself because I'm a freaking enthusiast and "pre-built" is not in my vocabulary? I think this is just a branding exercise and people start associating price with product value (must be 3 times better than e $200 mobo).
  • vladx - Friday, May 5, 2017 - link

    One word: inflation.
  • fanofanand - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link

    We have not experienced 400% inflation over the last 20 years. This is a cash grab plain and simple. P.T. Barnum is nodding in approval somewhere.
  • JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Kind of an interesting value proposition. For a high end-enthusiast that would've been buying a high end motherboard anyways AND a separate cpu monoblock, the two are sold here, along with extra watercooling add-ons, like plenty of onboard fan-pinouts, etc, for potentially lower price than buying all those other components separately.
  • ddriver - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Curious about where did you see the "value" part? Because 400$ for a water block ain't exactly a good bargain.
  • fanofanand - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link

    I think by "interesting value proposition" he meant "grab your ankles"
  • Shadowmaster625 - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    $629, and it doesnt come with a CPU? Puff puff pass mofo, u smokin way too much.
  • DanNeely - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Is that another new header type I spot below the 24pin power header for the single front panel 3.1 port? If so, I have to ask what's wrong with the existing USB3 header; AFAIK 3.1g2 doesn't use any more pins, so there doesn't seem to be any need for a new connector. And also, like USB3 a new connector is going to need several years to get a decent availability in new cases while rendering most existing ones little more than over priced scrap metal.
  • JoeyJoJo123 - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    I don't believe it's another header type, it's literally a USB 3.1 type C port on the motherboard which you can run an extension cable for a front panel USB 3.1 type C connection.
  • DanNeely - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    If that's what it is (from the quality of the pictures I'm not convinced either way); it's marginally less awful. But putting the most modern port behind the most brain-damaged short term implemented kludge until we have a proper header way of connecting a front panel port is idiotic. Just offer a proper USB3 header with 2 port support and if the paucity of cases with C ports on the front to consume it is still low enough to be problematic include a bay device with 2 of them on it. (It's not like this product needs to worry about keeping price in check afterall.)
  • bolkhov - Friday, May 5, 2017 - link

    Nope, the header is different.
    Mobo user manual -- http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/MAXIMU... -- shows pinout on p.1-24.

    While there's no standard for USB-3.1 header, at least Lian Li has a FP with such a connector in their lineup. Part number is either PW-IC3DAH45 or IC2DAH85 -- see http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pw-ic2dah85...
  • HomeworldFound - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    It's just a port to make life easier, the board will still have headers. Mine has a type C there instead. I think the idea is to allow you to have a thumb-drive inside your case or maybe a controller dongle so when you move your computer you don't snap it off.
  • DanNeely - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Those dongles are the things least likely to have any need for a 10G USB connection though.
  • HomeworldFound - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    I can't really think of anything else you'd attach internally through USB that would require that much bandwidth. Perhaps they've used it to update the bios without having hardware installed, although on mine that's on the rear panel.

    Maybe the port is there because of an upcoming silly cache feature?
  • Tylanner - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    I am convinced that it is the ultimate goal of these companies to raise the price of PC component parts until the pre-built enthusiast PC market makes sense....
  • ddriver - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Geez, really? You think that business is about making money? That's an interesting new theory ;)
  • Tylanner - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    You missed pretty much the entire point.
  • ddriver - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    I've been at the point. A long time ago. I took a dump there. Worms ate it and pooped it, then an apple tree grew there from the nutrients. And you just ate an apple from it.

    Something else that's new - that thing they call sarcasm ;)

    Average Joe has been getting the progressively shorter end of the deal for many decades now. How fortunate you finally notice one tiny aspect of it.
  • TEAMSWITCHER - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Hmmm... Let me look at my pile of money.... No, it's not large enough to waste any on this.
  • Morawka - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Asus just keeps going up $100 each year on these Extreme Zxxx Boards.. They used to be $350 and came with a OC panel and a PLX chip for 4 way SLI. Then last year they went up to $500 with the OC Panel but without he PLX chip. Now this year they go bat shit crazy and price a mainstream motherboard at $630.

    Including a expensive water-block on a extreme motherboard by default is really being ignorant to their target market. By pricing it so expensive, this board is now only being marketed to WC enthusiast, and no OC Panel. Before, you bought the zxxx extreme for the LN2 features or the quality components.

    The average enthusiast would spring for the extreme board because it was only $100 more than the average gaming board. Now this motherboard is priced totally out of the average enthusiast. the Zxxx is a mainstream platform, and is marketed by intel as such. Pricing it at $600+ is crazy. I'd only pay that for a X99 or HEDT platform.
  • HomeworldFound - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Bitspower products are very expensive, usually 50% or more than the competitors products. That explains the price for you.
  • Ian Cutress - Friday, May 5, 2017 - link

    Just a note on PLX chips - since Avago bought them up, the price has risen 3-fold at a minimum, putting them out of reach for most mainstream (non-HEDT) boards. Slapping on a PLX-8000 series chip now adds $100+ to the BOM, which means for $350 you don't get a lot else, and the manufacturers now see little point in it given how NV is focusing on 2-way for gaming.
  • mapesdhs - Saturday, May 6, 2017 - link

    Perhaps a bit of chicken & egg going on? IC cost rises, vendors stop including the chips, proper driver support for SLI/CF fades (not that it was ever really there the way it should have been, all the ridiculous game-specific optimisations in every driver release), lesser gains year after year, etc.

    Tech generation aside, I think the M4E is a better board (apart from the NEC USB3 issue).
  • fanofanand - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link

    As someone who had an X38 Maximus I know exactly what you are talking about. After the board failed prematurely I realized those "Japanese capacitors" etc. weren't doing squat for me. i saved $200 on the next board and bought a basic P45. That P45 got me the exact same overclock as the X38 (3.6 on a Q6600) but for $200 less. These overpriced boards are just that, overpriced. Leave these to the competitive overclockers, they bring nothing to the table for average enthusiasts.
  • jtd871 - Thursday, May 4, 2017 - link

    Seems a little overkill given the limits of Z270...
  • fanofanand - Monday, May 8, 2017 - link

    Wow, I need this thing BAD! I would really like to get my minesweeper fps over 500.

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