Connectors and I/O

In total, ASUS equipped the ROG Maximus X Apex motherboard with four SATA 6Gbps connectors, which have all been natively wired to the PCH and angled by 90°. With this motherboard you get three PCIe x16 Gen 3.0, one PCIe x4 Gen 3.0 slot and two PCIe 3.0/2.0x x1 slots. While the first three received metal reinforcements, the last one doesn't feature any reinforcements. From top to bottom the full-sized PCIe slots have been wired using 16 lanes, 8 lanes and 8 lanes. This means you can build 16x/8x SLI/CrossFire and 8x/8x/8x CrossFireX (3-way). These are basically the standard options you get with any Intel Z370 based motherboard, that does not feature a PLX chip. The placement of the PCIe slots has been well-thought. Having a look around the board we find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons and there is also a debug LED on this board. Furthermore you get a MemOK button, which has proven to be a useful many times.



There is a total of eight fan headers on the ROG Maximus X Apex which is enough, to provide a well equipped E-ATX system with fresh air. The headers have been located close to the CPU as well as spread over the board. Other than that it's a good thing that all of them feature four pins, which allows for rpm regulation in BIOS as well as under Windows. Furthermore there is a plethora of additional headers you find listed below:

Fan headers

• 1 x CPU Fan connector(s)
• 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector(s)
• 3 x Chassis Fan connector(s)
• 3 x 4-pin Full Speed Fan connectors

Watercooling connectors

• 1 x AIO_PUMP connector
• 1 x W_PUMP+ connector

 

Connectors

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard (purple)
• 1 x PS/2 mouse (green)
• 1 x DisplayPort
• 1 x HDMI
• 1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF out
• 1 x Clear CMOS button(s)
• 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)
• 5 x Gold-plated audio jacks
• 6 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 (blue)
• 1 x USB 3.1 Gen 2 (red)Type-A
• 1 x USB 3.1 (black)USB Type-C
• 1 x 5G LAN(RJ45) port(s)

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 11 - SiSoft Sandra 1
Page 2 - Specs and Delivery	Page 12 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 3 - Features	Page 13 - UC Bench
Page 4 - Layout	Page 14 - Super Pi 1M
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O	Page 15 - Right Mark Audio Analyzer
Page 6 - BIOS	Page 16 - Crystal Disk Mark 5
Page 7 - Test setup	Page 17 - Power Consumption
Page 8 - Preview / Gallery	Page 18 - Performance Rating
Page 9 - 3D Mark	Page 19 - Price Comparison
Page 10 - Cinebench R15	Page 20 - Conclusion