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BIOS/UEFI
The Maximus VI Impact has a similar UEFI/BIOS interface to the regular ASUS
boards of the current generation with many more settings and tweaks to make
the experience as user-friendly as possible.
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A sample of some of the frequency/voltage settings available.
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The UEFI BIOS is littered with all sorts of voltage and frequency settings,
too many to detail. If you're skeptical about software voltage readings, there
are specified spots on the motherboard you can probe with a multimeter. There
are also a host of smaller touches that make life for the hardworking enthusiast
a bit easier. You'll find preset settings for popular memory kits, a favorites
menu where you can bookmark settings that are changed often, and before exiting
out, it displays a list of everything that's been altered for you to double-check.
It even allows you to leave a quick note about each setting — that's right
— you can leave your own annotations.
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Fan control options.
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Most mini-ITX motherboards have only two fan headers. The Maximus VI Impact
is designed for enthusiasts who often use specialized enclosures with plenty
of cooling so it has four fan headers. Each header can be controlled individually
with three different presets or a manual option with designated minimum/maximum
fan speeds and temperature thresholds (the system reacts to CPU temperature
changes only).
While this is impressive, it does have some restrictions. First of all, only the CPU fan offers both PWM and voltage control; the other three fan headers, despite having 4-pins, treat the fans connected to them like 3-pin models. The CPU fan's lowest speed limit is 40% while the Chassis fans can only drop down to 60%. Also, the Chassis fans' minimum temperature is grayed out and stuck at 40°C, while the CPU fan can start reacting at 20°C.
Boot Performance
To test boot time the BIOS/UEFI was optimized by setting the hard drive recognition and other delays set to minimum, taking care not to disable common functionality like full USB support, POST messages, etc. and measured the time it takes to reach the Windows loading screen (we stop here because this is the point where the O/S, CPU, and drive become factors).
The Maximus VI Impact's level of sophistication may work against it when booting
up. At 17.1 seconds, the process was noticeably slower than the last few Intel
boards we've reviewed. If you're constantly tweaking the UEFI BIOS settings
this delay adds up over time.
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