ASUS ROG Maximus II Formula spotted

Today we have laid eyes upon the successor of the popular ASUS R.O.G. Maximus Formula, the on Intel's P45 chipset based Maximus II Formula, in ASUS' Republic of Gamers series.

As expected of a highend motherboard like this, ASUS has set the bar very high to create an even better board than the prior one. The board features a 16-phase power connection for the processor, three for the Northbridge, and two for the DDR2 memory. According to ASUS this ensures a very reliable solution that allows excellent performance under all circumstances.

The detailed power connection offers more stability while overclocking. Like it's predecessor, this board comes with software to allow overclocking based on Intel's processortypes. This model also has the new 45 nm processors added to the selection list.

We find another option at the two additional SATA-ports that are attached through a Silicon Image-controller. When you add two hard disks to these ports they are automatically configured in RAID 0 (striping), however this controller can easily be configured differently.

This motherboard comes with a Supreme FX soundcard featuring gilded connections. Surprisingly, (ASUS has it's own Xonar soundcards) this card is compatible with Creative's X-Fi. The card is based on an ADI HDA-chip and is connected through a special connector and can also be used as a PCI-Express x1 port. This soundcard is incompatible with other motherboards.

The X-Fi compatible soundcard of the new R.O.G. motherboard.

Other remarkable details are the red on/off switch (under the bottom PCI-slot) and the detailed heatpipe cooling. It is expected that ASUS' Maximus II Formula will hit shelves next month.