ASUS will soon be launching its latest ROG Maximum XII Extreme Gundam motherboard which is based on the Z490 chipset and themed after the Gundam series. The motherboard was pictured and leaked by Videocardz and is themed in the E.F.S.F (Earth Federation Space Force) colors while featuring an EK Monoblock for the CPU, VRMs and PCH.
ASUS’s ROG Maximus XII Extreme Gundam Is A Very Uninspiring Gundam Themed Motherboard With A Enthusiast-Tier Design
Update: it’s not just the ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme that has received a Gundam overhaul. Slides posted by Twitter fellow, HXL (@9550 Pro) show a whole range of products including the ASUS GeForce GTX 1660 series TUF Gaming, Z490 TUF Gaming motherboard, and a range of AIO coolers, cases, and monitors that will also feature the Gundam inspired theme.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme Gundam is more or less a standard ROG Maximus XII board which has been slapped with an EK Monoblock and some new yet uninspiring colors which ASUS could definitely have done a better job with. The upper shroud that covers the PCIe slots has the same livery as the E.F.S.F but ASUS could’ve offered a better design given that this is going to be a limited edition product for Gundam series fans.
Regardless, let’s take a look at the specifications of the ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme Gundam motherboard. The specifications for the Maximus XII Extreme are quite intense as we are looking at VRM that consists of 16 Infineon (TDA21490) power stages which can handle up to 90A, 45A Microfine Alloy Chokes, and high-quality Japanese capacitors capable of over 10,000 hours. This 16 phase VRM is powered by dual 8-pin connectors which provide power to the PWM unit and the LGA 1200 socket itself.
Other specifications include four DDR4 DIMM slots which can support up to 128 GB capacities with speeds of up to 4800 MHz+ (32 GB capacities operate at DDR4-3600 CL16 with Optimem III). The board makes use of an 8 layer PCB and comes with the prementioned EK Monoblock that covers the CPU, VRMs, and PCH for extra cooling on custom loop setups. There’s also an aluminum heatsink cover near the PCIe slots which provides cooling to the M.2 slots. ASUS uses high conductive thermal pads to ensure that heat is transferred to the heatsink blocks effectively.
The board features 2 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, a single PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, and a total of 4 M.2 slots, two of which are cooled by the aluminum cover heatsinks & two on the DIMM.2 module which is shipped with this motherboard and houses its own heatsink. The ROG Maximus XII Extreme is an insane motherboard and hence, it comes in an EATX form factor.
You should also expect the best range of I/O on this motherboard such as a total of 22 USB ports (Internal + External) with the ones included on the rear panel being 6 USB 3.1 Gen 1, 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 Type-C), 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, there’s SupremeFX S1220 codec for the audio, dual ethernet LAN (Aquantia AQC107 10G / Intel I225-V 2.5G), WiFi 6 AX201 with Bluetooth V.5.1 support, a bundled ThunderboltEX 3-TR card and support for both SLI & CFX. There are also 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 front panel headers on the motherboard.
You can also find a BIOS flash-back and a Clear CMOS button on the rear panel which is a must-have for ASUS ROG series boards along with the various tuning switches and buttons on the PCB too. The motherboard offers a total of 8 SATA III ports. It also doesn’t make sense to get such an expensive board unless you’re a big Gundam fan which this board is marketed towards since Z590 boards are suggested to release in the next few months with much better features. The ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme had a price of $749.99 US so the GUNDAM limited variant should retail at around close to $1000 US since it also has the premium Monoblock installed. The board could be limited to the Japanese market too.