Asus ROG Maximus VII Impact

The title says it all. I decided to put the crappy stock cooler on my i7-4970K and try installing Windows on my M7I's Plextor 256 GB M6e PCIe x2 SSD with everything just connected on my desk.

First, I updated the motherboard BIOS and then I updated the M6e firmware (bloody DOS bootable USB needed!). I had already downloaded the ISO file from Microsoft, so I followed the guide on Neowin to prepare an 8GB USB flash drive with the Windows 10 installation files. What can I say? It went very smoothly with no surprises. A couple of automatic reboots and a bit of patience were all that were needed.

In the BIOS (yeah, I know UEFI) Boot menu, the first boot device is now "Windows Boot Manager" and the second device is the Plextor M6e. Windows 10 boots nice and fast so I'll leave everything alone unitl I finish my build in my Ncase M1.
 
Thanks for the heads-up and good to hear it works well !

I'll be waiting for Windows 10 for a while, until it's finished. And I hope they don't discover nasty privacy-violating crap like the so-called "keylogger" in the finished product.
 
Does anyone know if someone has used an Apogee Drive II with the VII Impact? I don't know of any build that has the two together, and some (very) rough math suggests the possibility that the fittings could interfere with the RAM slot or the power daughterboard.

Update: I've answered my own question incidentally - yes, the Apogee Drive II will fit both the VI and VII Impact. If the fittings are over the memory slot, VLP memory is probably needed, but you can orient the fittings the other way and they won't hit the power daughterboard or anything else. Sweet!
 
Last edited:
Phuncz said:
The first BIOS update has finally appeared:

MAXIMUS VII IMPACT BIOS 0412 (2014/10/17)
1. fix HyperExpress can't work on EFI driver.
2. Improve System performance.

Link (File Size: 5.65 MBytes)

It might be me, but why fix the HyperExpress support on this board when this board doesn't have SATA Express ? As I expect, it's just a blanket fix that all Z97 chipset ROG boards will receive.
Click to expand...

I've updated to this bios and I cant boot at anything other than stock settings on my 4770K. It was driving me mad so I've reverted back to the release bios.

Has anyone else had any issues with it?
 
Nitro16 said:
I've updated to this bios and I cant boot at anything other than stock settings on my 4770K. It was driving me mad so I've reverted back to the release bios.
Has anyone else had any issues with it?
Click to expand...

Yes, with the new 0412 BIOS installed the ASUS Maximus VII Impact refuses to see my Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 SSD as bootable. Both Windows 8.1 and the Windows 10 preview refuse installation complaining about lack of motherboard support.

Owners of this motherboard should avoid version 0412 BIOS, and hold off until a working version becomes available.
 
The BIOS update fixed a few things for me though... well, maybe, so i'll need to wait a few more days.
 
Ah, mind to explain ? Because the patch notes don't mention anything about this because the first change is not relevant to the board (no SATA Express port) and the second is just ambiguous.
 
IVEST said:
Yes, with the new 0412 BIOS installed the ASUS Maximus VII Impact refuses to see my Samsung XP941 256GB M.2 SSD as bootable. Both Windows 8.1 and the Windows 10 preview refuse installation complaining about lack of motherboard support.

Owners of this motherboard should avoid version 0412 BIOS, and hold off until a working version becomes available.
Click to expand...

I take that back. With these instructions from RamCity the OS installs just fine. (It did for me anyway.)

https://www.ramcity.com.au/blog/how-to-install-windows-8.1-on-the-samsung-xp941-ss/138296
 
I wonder about if bios could have been installed incorrectly. I no longer have a booting issue and my mic seems to work better after the bios update. I wonder what would happen had I flashed the original bios over what came with the board. But it now works, so I'm not touching it.
 
I have not completed my build, but I updated the BIOS to version 0412 prior to some initial tests. I was able to install the Windows 10 Technical Preview onto my Plextor M.2 (PCIe x2) SSD without any difficulty.
 
Synomenon said:
So you got your XP941 working again after the latest BIOS update?
Click to expand...

Yes, booting the PC from a USB stick as per the above instructions from RamCity, everything worked as advertised. I tested both BIOS versions with identical results, so I kept the newer one.

Time to boot up: About 4½ seconds from BIOS beep to login screen. :D
 
Printermeow said:
Thermal pads are the only way to avoid any inferference with audio card

I will report about temperatures tomorrow

Fujipoly Premium Thermal Pad 2.5mm Thermal Conductivity 6.0 WmK - is used on top and 1mm Gray thermal pad on the other side of the SSD Board

I will post some more pictures tomorrow of the card in place and will play with some thermal pads since Im adding a waterblock for ram anyway. Stay tuned for tomorrow
Click to expand...

Hate to drudge this up, but what kind of temps did you manage after installing the thermal pads? Given the prominence of the XP941 in this thread and the general lack of space most of our setups naturally have, a solution that doesn't involve extensive additions of fans or heatsinks is very desirable indeed. That 111c peak is pretty horrifying.
 
Not sure if the problem I'm having is with the motherboard or my case (NCase M1 rev. 2).

One of my front USB3.0 ports / port 1 (the one on the left when looking at the front of the case head-on) runs at USB3.0 speeds and the other port (port 2) runs at about half the speed.

The flash drive I'm using is a Patriot PSF32GTAB3USB:
http://www.patriotmemory.com/product/detail.jsp?prodline=7&catid=99&prodgroupid=252&id=1373



OikZXwO.jpg
s5FFTJF.jpg

Patriot PSF32GTAB3USB Port 1 - CrystalDisk Mark-----------------------------Patriot PSF32GTAB3USB Port 2 - CrystalDisk Mark

SPHSEMR.jpg
CWX7Zk4.jpg

Patriot PSF32GTAB3USB Port 1 - SpeedOut-----------------------Patriot PSF32GTAB3USB Port 2 - SpeedOut
 
I'm having the same 200/175MB/s read/write-speeds on both ports here.

Have you tried fitting the stick without the front panel on ? I've noticed my USB 3.0 stick working as a 2.0 stick if I don't plug it in properly.
EDIT: never mind, I see you have a "micro-stick".
 
Oh, I've made sure the thing is plugged in all the way. I also made sure to do a quick format on the drive between tests and I always get results similar to what's in the images, with port 1 faster than port 2.
 
Ok, so had some problems with the mPCIe Combo card (the one the wifi card and M.2 drive go into). Flakey connection.

Pulled the combo card out and saw what looks like extra solder in some of the pin sockets.

B1pnJph.jpg
cHhX3B9.jpg




Has anyone else had this issue?
 
About the "issue" that using an M.2 drive reduces the bandwidth of the GPU from PCIe 3.0 x16 to 3.0 x8, TechPowerUp did an extensive test with the latest GTX 980 to see the difference:

TechPowerUp said:
For the majority of games, there is no significant performance difference between x16 3.0 and x8 3.0 (and x16 2.0, which offers the same bandwidth). The average difference is only 1%, which you'd never notice.
Click to expand...

The only two games that have a measureable difference are Ryse: Son of Rome (CryEngine 4) and Wolfenstein: New Order (ID Tech 5). But in the future, I'd rather take a 300% higher read speed and multitudes of lower latency on my storage than 5-10% FPS difference in two out of eightteen games on 1080p (much less in higher res).
 
Anyone other than CHANG3D's SupremeFX sound board have streaky stain on it? I'm wondering if I ended up with his returned motherboard ....
 
Hi I have been following this thread for some time now and now that I got my hands on the motherboard in question, I would like to share my experience if it helps anyone in future.

I also had problem with screws on the SupremeFX card. I managed to get one of them out using pliers to hold the bracket (after taking it off the board) and screw it off. But, sadly, I broke the other bracket in half. Amazingly, I still have not managed to take the screw off. I think I would have easier time pulling Excalibur out! But I found that the board stays intact pretty firmly even without the screw. Although one has to be careful when putting it in the case because of the cushion on the shielding. (My case is FT03-mini and I found it quite tight and had to kind of force the board in to its standoff positions)

I then managed to install XP941 as boot drive (win 7). XP941 was sold stating that its not for bootable drive so I was a bit worried but it was pretty straight forward. Basically using Rufus program has simplified everything. I believe same result can be achieved using disk part but Rufus program only needs few clicks to do the same job. Then once the USB installation is created the motherboard detected it on its first try without changing any settings. But like previous post in this thread said, it gets quite hot!

Now I am having few issues with the board and that is I am having difficulty installing its support programs and drivers such as ASUS suite and USB3.0. (I was able to install intel-based drivers though such as Intel graphics driver). I am wondering if anybody else encountered this problem?
And the wifi connection seem to be dropped time to time so that while browsing the net I will suddenly get no connection page. When I do speedtest I get good stable download and upload speed though. Does anybody else have this problem? I am bit suspicious of the router as well but I heard many things about broadcomm hardware. I am wondering if anyone had this problem and switching it to Intel wifi/bluetooth chip has solved the problem.

Many thanks.
 
Synomenon said:
Ok, so had some problems with the mPCIe Combo card (the one the wifi card and M.2 drive go into). Flakey connection.

Pulled the combo card out and saw what looks like extra solder in some of the pin sockets.

Has anyone else had this issue?
Click to expand...

Yup, I did, I sent it back.
 
I sent that first one back and just got the replacement today. This replacement has the same problem.
 
Synomenon said:
I sent that first one back and just got the replacement today. This replacement has the same problem.
Click to expand...

You'd expect them to at least glance inside the box to check, before wasting your time and their money...
 
deltadia said:
And the wifi connection seem to be dropped time to time so that while browsing the net I will suddenly get no connection page. When I do speedtest I get good stable download and upload speed though. Does anybody else have this problem? I am bit suspicious of the router as well but I heard many things about broadcomm hardware. I am wondering if anyone had this problem and switching it to Intel wifi/bluetooth chip has solved the problem.
Many thanks.
Click to expand...

Swap the stock WI-FI/Bluetooth card out with an Intel Network WIRELESS-AC 7260 H/T 2X2 AC+ Bluetooth Dual Band unit, and your problems will be over. (Assuming your modem and router are working properly.)
 
IVEST said:
Swap the stock WI-FI/Bluetooth card out with an Intel Network WIRELESS-AC 7260 H/T 2X2 AC+ Bluetooth Dual Band unit, and your problems will be over. (Assuming your modem and router are working properly.)
Click to expand...

I guess I will need to order one soon then..

I changed the broadcom driver to 6.30.223.228 version which is apparently released more recently (2014.02.05) compared to the driver on ASUS site which installs 6.32.223.1 version but was released on 2013.08.22. And I feel that drop in the connection is gone now. I am going to see if this can solve the problem for my case and if not then I guess I will just need to swap it.
 
IVEST said:
Swap the stock WI-FI/Bluetooth card out with an Intel Network WIRELESS-AC 7260 H/T 2X2 AC+ Bluetooth Dual Band unit, and your problems will be over. (Assuming your modem and router are working properly.)
Click to expand...

The Intel AC/BT card sucks too.

Major difference for me, is that the Intel wifi and bt can eventually be reset using software, whereas the Broadcom required physically pulling the PSU power plug. The Broadcom never dropped connections for me, but would never wake from sleep (bt always worked).. the Intel randomly drops the connection (both wifi & bt, but at different times).

I'm seriously thinking about burning both cards in a fire and going back to wired or trying a powerline network.
 
AFD said:
The Intel AC/BT card sucks too.

Major difference for me, is that the Intel wifi and bt can eventually be reset using software, whereas the Broadcom required physically pulling the PSU power plug. The Broadcom never dropped connections for me, but would never wake from sleep (bt always worked).. the Intel randomly drops the connection (both wifi & bt, but at different times).

I'm seriously thinking about burning both cards in a fire and going back to wired or trying a powerline network.
Click to expand...

The Intel card has been rock solid here. Perhaps you should "have a chat" with your gateway/router? It takes two to Tango.
 
IVEST said:
The Intel card has been rock solid here. Perhaps you should "have a chat" with your gateway/router? It takes two to Tango.
Click to expand...

My router doesn't control the bluetooth, that's also flaking out on my Intel AC/BT card.


Really not sure what else I can change on my router.. even the advanced settings seem rather basic (enabled "802.11N Protection" to prevent interference between N & AC). Rebooting the router and modem doesn't really help any (firmware is current). About the only thing that I haven't tried is switching from Auto to a pre-set channel, and lowering the bandwidth (866, down to 400 or 192.5 Mb/s).. but the same sporadic dropout happens on 2.4GHz as well.

Updated the Intel drivers again tonight, and so far so good.. but 90% of the time, the card works perfectly fine. It's just that 10% that's maddening :)
 
I was having an issue that my machine was crashing after left idle for a while. I think "Hybrid Sleep Mode" was causing it, not sure why, but I seem to be good since disabling it. Anyway, I wanted to test my memory with Memtest86+ and just cannot see to boot to it (USB or DVD).

Memtest86 (non +) booted fine from USB, with Memtest86+ the USB isn’t recognized in the boot menu and when I select the DVD it just boots in to BIOS. I’ve changed RAID to ACHI, and UEFI to legacy OS, and same issue. Nothing will boot to Memtest86+ that I can figure out. I assume it’s my XP941 messing things up but who knows.

Anyone able to boot to Memtest86+ (preferably anyone running a XP941)?

Thanks.
 
AFD said:
but 90% of the time, the card works perfectly fine. It's just that 10% that's maddening :)
Click to expand...
Just for the info, I only use the BT-part of the Intel AC-7260 card but it works flawlessly on my end. I disabled the WiFi since I'm using Ethernet. With the AzureWave (Broadcom) chip on my ASRock Z87E-ITX board, I have had about 50/50 chance of getting BT to work (until I power-cycled), also with WiFi disabled. I haven't tested the AzureWave card I removed from the Impact yet, I will when I'll start my build with the ASRock. But that might take anywhere from 3 to 6 months.
 
essentialjpm said:
Anyway, I wanted to test my memory with Memtest86+ and just cannot see to boot to it (USB or DVD).

Memtest86 (non +) booted fine from USB, with Memtest86+ the USB isn’t recognized in the boot menu and when I select the DVD it just boots in to BIOS. I’ve changed RAID to ACHI, and UEFI to legacy OS, and same issue. Nothing will boot to Memtest86+ that I can figure out. I assume it’s my XP941 messing things up but who knows.
Anyone able to boot to Memtest86+ (preferably anyone running a XP941)?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just for you I burned the latest available Memtest86+ ISO to a fresh CD-ROM disc, stuck it into the NCase DVD slot, booted into the BIOS, and from the "Boot" screen scrolled down to "Boot Override" and selected my Panasonic Blu-ray drive. It immediately boots Memtest86+ without a whimper.

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus VII Impact and Samsung XP941 M.2 x4 as standard boot drive, latest v0412 BIOS.

Give it a shot.
 
IVEST said:
Just for you I burned the latest available Memtest86+ ISO to a fresh CD-ROM disc, stuck it into the NCase DVD slot, booted into the BIOS, and from the "Boot" screen scrolled down to "Boot Override" and selected my Panasonic Blu-ray drive. It immediately boots Memtest86+ without a whimper.

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus VII Impact and Samsung XP941 M.2 x4 as standard boot drive, latest v0412 BIOS.

Give it a shot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the effort. I did try that, when I click on one of the boot override options, it's almost like a quick flash (or maybe it's all in my head) but nothing happens, stays in BIOS. I also have the latest BIOS. I have an external ROM drive, not internal, if I tap F8 during startup I get a boot selection screen which shows the UEFI Pioneer BD-Rom drive, but when I select it I just go in to BIOS.

I'm confused because the "Memtest86" USB installer worked fine, machine booted to "Memtest86" fine from USB, but something isn't working right with "Memtest86+" for me and it's very frustrating.

Maybe I'll try installing an internal ROM drive and see if that makes a difference although I'm not sure why it would since BIOS recognizes my external ROM on boot up.
 
essentialjpm said:
...if I tap F8 during startup I get a boot selection screen which shows the UEFI Pioneer BD-Rom drive, but when I select it I just go in to BIOS.
Click to expand...

When you go into the Boot Override section of the BIOS is the BD-ROM drive listed twice, once as a UEFI device and once more as not UEFI? If so, select the non-UEFI listing. The same goes for trying to boot from a USB flash drive that is not formated as a bootable UEFI device, but rather in a legacy bootable manner.
 
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