ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA1156 Motherboard Review‏

Hardware Installation

In the Hardware Installation section we examine how major components fit on the motherboard, and whether there are any serious issues that may affect installation and general functionality. Specifically, we are interested in determining whether there is adequate clearance in all critical areas.


When installed in the traditional North-South orientation, our Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU cooler had no clearance issues on this motherboard, easily clearing the low-profile MOSFET heatsinks. While the clearance between the 120MM fan and the first DIMM slot is very minimal, there shouldn't any issues unless the heatspreaders on your modules are unusually thick.


However, as always, when we rotated the cooler to the East-West orientation things get a little more tricky. As you can see, in this orientation the CPU cooler overhangs the first DIMM slot completely, which means that you can't use memory modules with heatspreaders taller than 5CM. Clearance is also problematic with the second DIMM slot, but we were able to slowly put the module in place.


The 24-pin ATX power connector and 8-pin CPU power connector are both placed in ideal locations, so there are no issues to report.


Thanks to the expansion slot layout, there is a nice gap between the memory clips and the back of the graphics card.


No matter what orientation the CPU cooler is installed in, there is plenty of clearance between it and the back of the graphics card, which means easy access to the PCI-E x16 slot clip.


Thanks to a well thought out expansion slot layout, when you install two dual-slot graphics cards on this motherboard you will not lose access to the precious PCI slot.


What if you're a Folder and you want to make use of the third PCI-E x16 slot? Well you definitely can, but you will lose access to the Start and Reset buttons, as well as the two upward-facing red SATA ports. You will also lose access to the all the USB and FireWire headers at the bottom of the motherboard. More importantly though, if you install a dual-slot graphics card in the third PCI-E x16 slot, it will overhang the motherboard, so keep that in mind if you have a shorter case.


The six 90-degree SATA ports are obviously accessible no matter how many graphics cards are installed.


There is really nothing on the back of the motherboard that would give us cause for concern regarding clearance issues with an aftermarket CPU cooler mounting bracket.