Moving swiftly on and we already knew Asus is expanding its ROG range yet again, this time aiming even lower than the Maximus VII Hero with the Maximus VII Ranger.
Side by side, the boards actually look very similar, although as we reported in our Asus event article, the Hero will be illuminated and also offer enhanced components and other features.
Even so, if you're after some ROG factor for your system, Asus is looking to offer it below £130, which is unheard of, even for the micro-ATX Maximus Gene, which usually retailed for £10-20 more than this.
You could question whether this reduces the premium factor of ROG, but Asus is still keeping the Maximus Formula and Extreme lines, and these are still the die-hard ROG boards that offer the top-end components and features as well as third party support for full-cover waterblocks (in addition to the Formula's built-in waterblocks of course) - something the Hero, for the moment, lacks.
As you'd expect, there are power and reset buttons on the Ranger, plus an LED POST code readout. However, there's no SATA Express - that's not a Ranger-specific omission, though, as all the Maximus VII boards will apparently lack the feature in favour of M.2, so as to support devices that already exist.
Will your next upgrade be a shiny new Z97 board? Let us know what you think in the forums.
Side by side, the boards actually look very similar, although as we reported in our Asus event article, the Hero will be illuminated and also offer enhanced components and other features.
Even so, if you're after some ROG factor for your system, Asus is looking to offer it below £130, which is unheard of, even for the micro-ATX Maximus Gene, which usually retailed for £10-20 more than this.
You could question whether this reduces the premium factor of ROG, but Asus is still keeping the Maximus Formula and Extreme lines, and these are still the die-hard ROG boards that offer the top-end components and features as well as third party support for full-cover waterblocks (in addition to the Formula's built-in waterblocks of course) - something the Hero, for the moment, lacks.
As you'd expect, there are power and reset buttons on the Ranger, plus an LED POST code readout. However, there's no SATA Express - that's not a Ranger-specific omission, though, as all the Maximus VII boards will apparently lack the feature in favour of M.2, so as to support devices that already exist.
Will your next upgrade be a shiny new Z97 board? Let us know what you think in the forums.
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