![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , January 26, 2010
- Author:
- Daniel Dobrowolski
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS Maximus III Gene Motherboard Review
The ASUS Maximus III Gene expands not only the Republic of Gamers product line, but the lineage of "Maximus" motherboards ASUS has created under the name. Thus far every Maximus board has been nothing short of excellent and even bordering on legendary, the Maximus III Gene continues this tradition.
RC TweakIt RC
RC TweakIt is a recent feature I've only seen on one other board. The Maximus III Formula. Like the Formula, the Gene also supports this feature. It's a neat feature that I really liked from the first moment I realized what it did. As a value add the "value" it provides is subjective, but the utility can be very useful under certain circumstances. This software essentially provides three functions, all of which are displayed on a laptop connected to your Gene motherboard. The first very cool feature is overall system monitoring. You can monitor thermal conditions, voltages, and clock speeds of your system via a laptop or another machine provided it's within the length of the included cable. The monitoring capabilities also come into play as it will allow you to monitor temperatures and voltages while the system is in a full screen application like a 3D game.
The second application for this feature is overclocking. Quite simply you can overclock your system without having to install additional software on the machine built around the Maximus III Gene. This is useful if you chose an OS other than Windows for the machine or in case you just want to try overclocking through RC TweakIt instead of through BIOS. In any case it's a elegant solution in my opinion. Whether or not this sort of thing will catch on or not is anyone's guess. When it comes to overclocking, the RC TweakIt function is almost the same as the TurboV EVO software. It looks very much like it, and operates just as easily.
The last thing that this is good for is diagnostic testing. This is probably the most useful thing that this software can do. Rather than trying to open the case to find an LCD display on the board which may or may not be visible, only to have to try and decode the POST codes, you have the RC Poster as an option. It's a solid replacement for the LCD poster dongle thingies that used to come with the ASUS ROG boards. Using a remote computer you can actually monitor POST codes in real time. Additionally it translates the POST codes into English text. If that doesn't work for you, there is still the option to read the POST codes in their original "code" form. Why you'd want to is a concept that escapes me right now, but it's there if you want it. The RC Poster can conceivably help you diagnose all kinds of issues. It would especially be useful when you aren't getting any video during the POST sequence. This will help you quickly isolate certain types of problems.
Overall I'm really impressed with this solution, and it's about time ASUS came up with something better than the "LCD Poster" dongle.