ASUS ROG Maximus XII Extreme Intel Z490 LGA 1200 EATX Gaming Motherboard (16 Power Stages, Wi-Fi 6, DDR4 4700+ MHz, 10 Gbps LAN, Intel 2.5 Gb LAN, Quad M.2, OptiMem III, USB 3.2 Gen 2 x 2, Aura Sync)

This review is for the ASUS Rog Strix Z490-E Gaming motherboard.I have been running with this motherboard for a couple of months now and I've had absolutely zero issues with this.First things first, this is one of the best "mid-range" ATX motherboards that is considered high end. For the price range, you get a motherboard that is essentially future-proofed for quite some time.It has an LGA 1200 socket which is compatible with top end Intel processors such as the i9-10900K and i9-10850K.In terms of looks, it's quite eye-catching when the LED's are turned on. To control the RGB lighting for the motherboard, case, ram and any other compatible Aura Sync items connected to the motherboard, the Asus ArmouryCrate program should be installed to make use of Aura Sync where users can pick from many different modes and colour options .This program was automatically installed without me having to go onto the ASUS website which was helpful.To make overclocking easier for people who aren't as savvy, the BIOS has two modes - EZ mode and Advanced mode.The EZ mode is exactly as it sounds, it sums up all the information in an easy to understand format.From the BIOS, you can overclock the CPU. There is also an option for AI Overclocking for convenience.ASUS have detailed, comprehensive guides on their websites which beginners can understand!Connections: 9x USB-A ports, 1x USB-C Port, 1x DP 1.4, 1x HDMI . Out of the USB-A ports, 5 make use of USB 3.2 (3 of these make use of USB3.2 Gen 2) and the single USB-C port makes use of USB 3.2 Gen 2.For internet connectivity, it has Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 ax) built in which is the latest Wi-Fi standard that allows for significantly quicker speeds and reduced latency can be utilised by the Dual-Band antenna that is provided.It also has a 2.5G ethernet port which has a much higher performance capability.A driver CD is also provided for those who have CD trays but if not, these drivers can be installed from the ASUS website anyway.It has the added benefit of having the IO Shield built in, which is beneficial for those who forget to attach that and it also makes things more convenient as it can save time when installing it in.Downsides:- For those looking to get the most recent PC builds is that the LGA 1200 socket platform will be replaced with a newer socket platform - LGA 1700. New CPU's on the LGA 1700 platform will not be compatible with LGA 1200 motherboards.- Upper M.2 slot is covered by the heatsink so if installing there, it will have to be done before plugging in the GPU as access would otherwise be blocked.- Some common issues with boards in the past but unclear whether ASUS have sorted them.Overall, I would definitely recommend this motherboard for those building PC's. It is futureproofed for quite some time and will easily last until such time the motherboard requires an upgrade.I've had no issues with this so far and I am extremely pleased with this!I hope this review has been informative and helpful! If so, please let me know by tapping that Helpful button below - thank you!

Excellent motherboard. It offers many features and robustly built. Makes overclocking a breeze with its AI overclock feature. I highly recommend this motherboard over others because it has built in WiFi and lots of slots and ports for extras. ASUS generally offer more than other brands. The lighting is a nice touch with various patterns you can choose from and the ASUS AURA sync works well with other devices and peripherals like keyboard and mouse. One of the great features of this board is that not only it supports the latest 10th gen Intel CPU's but it also has 2 M.2 slot for NVMe SSDs. I found the BIOS quite easy to navigate. Only issue I had was enabling either XMP with a Corsair Vengeance 16GB 3200Mhz so I currently have it running at 2800Mhz!

Purchased item ASUS ROG Strix Z490-G Gaming (Wi-Fi) Intel Z490 LGA 1200 micro ATX motherboard to pair up with i5 10600k, cooler master hyper 212 black edition. With artic cooling thermal paste MX-4. Took me approx., 2hours to put together, as instructions were not so easy to follow, so ensure to give yourself enough time, I didn’t realise that the m.2 screw and mount were located under the bottom of the board, underneath a cover. Plenty of USB ports and USB-C . The cooling on this board is excellent thanks to its large heatsinks, I have a small case (cooler master FT03) and my average pc temps for CPU is early 30 degrees, air cooled, I’ve not tried any overclocking as its super quick as it is. The Bios features are excellent, and the super-fast Wi-Fi, is a bonus, great price for a great board. My PC was up and running in two hours, with two SSD and one M.2 NVME device, Asus have really done well with this board, the heatsinks and the board with the RGB lighting really look it means business! No issues what so ever!

The Z490-E is easy to install and setup. The BIOS is easy to navigate and overclock with its automatic profiles. My M.2 drive worked great straight away. Built in Wifi is stable.The board looks great even if getting the aura sync software to work is a bit of a hassle and if you have a lot of fans in your case it can bit a little tight fitting and fiddly getting some of the cables in due to the amount and size of the heatsinks. Minor problems but annoying nonetheless.I would highly recommend this board to anyone who is interested.

Excellent motherboard to overclock the 10900K, no issues with VRM temperatures and held a stable 5.2GHz overclock with a much lower LLC than previous generations. Also automatically clocks the VCCIO & SA to safer voltages along with adding a 1.35v soft cap to the vcore for safety unless manually turned off.Plenty of USB ports and room for two m.2 nvme drives which is a bonus. WiFi-AX built in is rock solid and suffered no drops whilst gaming.Also much happier with the onboard IO LEDs this gen as they stand out much more.As always the UEFI is personally the best on the market.Would highly recommend.

I've always been a fan of ASUS hardware and would usually choose them over any competitor. However, this motherboard has been a nightmare. I have two PCs side-by side running the exact same hardware and have now tried 3 of these motherboards, all with issues.The main issue is system instability. Even while under a light load, the PC can randomly turn off and then restart after a few seconds. I have updated to the latest BIOS version, I have swapped out every piece of hardware in the PC and no improvement. The only thing which has made any difference is disabling processor c-states and ASUS MCE in the BIOS, but even then the issue hasn't completely gone away.Another issue is that XMP I or II simply don't work. Attempting to use them causes the PC to freeze a few seconds after booting and then turn off. This is a known issue as can be seen from a quick google search.End result is I have two £1,500 PCs which turn themselves off a few times per day without warning.