Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula – VRM cooling by EKWB

1. Introducing Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula2. Taking a closer look at the features3. Performance and Overclocking - CPU tests4. Performance and Overclocking - Gaming5. Cooling Performance and Power Draw6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

We like the look of the Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula and were generally impressed by the build quality and list of features. It’s a good piece of kit but when you have a price tag around £400 you would expect nothing less as the going rate for a quality Z390 motherboard is £250 to £300. It is clear that Asus has spent a significant sum of money on the CrossChill EK III VRM cooler.

It is clear to us that a conventional finned VRM cooler would be cheaper to manufacture, however we can only speculate whether it would work as well as the EKWB hardware. We note that Asus uses the type of cooler we have in mind on the ROG Maximus XI Extreme so they have clearly made a deliberate choice about the cooler they arrived at for the Formula board.

The list of features on the Formula is extensive and pretty much beyond reproach. We assume the Maximus XII in 2020 will include WiFi 6 and that is the end of our wish list. OK, if you were to really push us, perhaps the HDMI output on the I/O panel could be changed for a DisplayPort.

Our criticisms of Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula mainly relate to the thermal performance of Core i9-9900K which is, of course, down to Intel rather than Asus.

Aesthetically we love the look of the Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula however it is a shame the Armour is plastic and offers no thermal assistance to the motherboard. We do not much like the way that Asus has mounted an aluminium heat sink on the Z390 PCH and then covered it with the plastic shielding. Surely it would be possible to use Armour that is functional, along the lines of the Gigabyte Aorus X570 Xtreme.

We were intrigued by the Asus AI overclocking feature in the excellent BIOS. It works well enough that you could seriously consider leaving it in training mode for perpetuity and simply rely on the silicon to do the work for you. When Intel launches its 10th Gen desktop CPUs with the rumoured ten cores and we run even deeper into Thermal Hell we can easily imagine that Auto settings will become more important, in which case we expect to see Asus AI moving to the fore.

You can buy the Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula for £355 HERE – its significantly cheaper than the OCUK price right now.

Pros:

• Excellent BIOS includes AI Overclocking.
• CrossChill EK III VRM cooler looks awesome.
• OLED LiveDash display is a delight.
• Good selection of USB ports.
• Aquantia 5Gb Ethernet is included.

Cons:

• Plastic Armour does not assist heat dissipation.
• VRM layout is unusual.
• Vcore droop seems excessive at 50mV.
• Hefty pricing.

KitGuru says: You pay a hefty chunk of change for Asus ROG Maximus XI Formula. In return you get a motherboard that looks superb and has excellent features.

Become a Patron!