ASUS Maximus II GENE P45 mATX Motherboard Review

Included Software

Now that we have the motherboard unpacked and installed, it is time to take a look at some of the software utilities that ASUS has included with the Maximus II GENE.


Here are the setup screens for the included software CD. As you can see, ASUS has really not left anything out when it comes drivers or utilities.


PC Probe II


PC Probe II is a system monitoring utility that displays information regarding fan speeds, component temperatures and voltages, as well as alerting users once preset thresholds have been surpassed. Since it part of the Republic of Gamers line, the MIIG has an abundance voltage and temperature readouts, which makes utilizing PC Probe II even more enjoyable than usual. We wouldn't mind seeing some integration with Vista's sidebar though, just to clean up the desktop area a bit.

AI Suite


The AI Suite provides basic system information, but its main function is to host shortcuts to five other ASUS utilities and features, namely the EPU-6 Engine, AI NAP, CPU Level Up, Fan Xpert, and TurboV. The AI NAP is an advanced sleep feature that allows users to put their computers to sleep without terminating any tasks. Fan Xpert allows users to select from 7 fan speed profiles that can be individually applied to any fan.


TurboV


TurboV is an overclocking utility that allows users to adjust all essential system parameters, such as the CPU clock frequency, CPU voltage, memory voltage, FSB Termination/VTT voltage, CPU PLL voltage, northbridge (NB) and southbridge (SB) voltages, all from within Windows and without the need to reboot. This program also allows users to also save profiles and load them from within Windows. Generally speaking, we had a good experience with the program, but if we booted into Windows at 500Mhz FSB and above, and tried to manipulate the FSB, we would get an "error code 669" message and the FSB would revert back to whatever FSB you booted up with. We're hoping this gets fixed in a future BIOS release or program update.


EPU-6 Engine


First showcased on the P5Q series, the EPU-6 Engine has been one of ASUS's most highly touted new features. This utility works in coordination with the EPU (Energy Processing Unit) controller in order to minimize your system's energy consumption. It does this by continuously monitoring and altering the speeds and voltages of the CPU, VGA card, hard drives and fans. There are four manually selectable modes and an automatic mode that varies settings according to system load. Regrettably, unlike Gigabyte's Dynamic Energy Saver (DES) technology, EPU-6 will not work when your system is overclocked, which obviously makes it a less attractive proposition from our power user point-of-view. Let's be frank though, these programs achieve most of their energy savings by downclocking and undervolting the CPU, which is something that Intel's C1E and SpeedStep technology does anyways. So, do you really want or need applications loading up everytime you boot into Windows? It is hard to make a case for it.