ASUS Maximus TUF MARK 2, Intel Z270 motherboard, RoG socket 1151 [90MB0ST0-M0EAY0]

The chipsets of the 200 series "Union Point" have a maximum of 24 PCIe Express 3.0 lanes and bring more HSIO lanes with them. This allows more internal connections (such as SATA, PCIE slots) to be used simultaneously. As a Z270 mainboard, the ASUS Maximus TUF MARK 2 allows the overclocking of CPUs of the K series, which have a freely selectable multiplier.

The features of the ASUS Maximus TUF MARK 2 at a glance:

3 × PCIe (3.0) x16 (16/8/2) & 3 × PCIe (3.0) x1
2 × USB 3.1 (Type A) / 8 × USB 3.0
2 × M.2 (PCIe (3.0) x4) / 6 × SATA-6G
Supports DDR4 RAM up to 3.866 MHz
CPU overclocking via multiplier & base clock
The ASUS Maximus TUF MARK 2 in detail

The ASUS Maximus TUF MARK 2 is a very well-equipped ATX motherboard with Intel's Z270 chipset for Intel's 6000 and 7000 series processors. The black board has three PCIe x16 slots, two of which are connected to the chipset with full 16 lanes. The black board has three PCIe-x16 slots, one of which is connected to the chipset with full 16 lanes. The other two PCIe x16 slots are connected with four or eight data lines and the board has three PCIe x1 slots for plug-in and expansion cards. The board supports both NVIDIA's SLI and AMD's CrossFireX technology.

The mainboard has four DIMM slots for DDR4 memory in fast dual-channel mode. Up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM are the total of the four memory banks, and depending on the processor, the motherboard is equipped with DDR4 RAM with a clock speed of 2.133 MHz (with Skylake CPU) or DDR4-2.400 (with Kaby Lake CPU). Overclocking supports memory up to 3,866 MHz.

For hard disks and SSDs, the board offers two M.2 slots for especially fast NVME M.2 SSDs. The M.2 port, also referred to as Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF), allows the use of M.2 SSDs. The M.2 port is generally connected to the chipset via four PCIe lanes, usually in the 3.0 standard, and allows a data transfer rate of just under 4 GB / s in combination with the NVMe protocol. Thus, M.2 PCIe SSDs are up to eight times faster than SATA 6G SSDs!

If no graphics card is available, the integrated graphics processor of a Skylake or Kaby Lake CPU can be used to connect monitors directly to the back of the motherboard - two HDMI and DVI-D connectors are available. For input devices and other gaming peripherals, the I / O panel has two USB 3.1 ports, six USB 3.0 ports, and two USB 2.0 ports.

In addition, the Mainbord also provides six SATA-6G ports, one Clear CMOS reset each, a USB Flashback button, a TMP and COM port header, four 4-pin headers for PWM fans, A 4-pin WaKü header and XMP support ready and shines with various overclocking features.

Technical details:
Format: ATX
Color: Black
Chipset: Intel Z270 ("Union Point")
Socket: 1151 (for Intel CPUs of the 6th and 7th core generation ("Skylake" / "Kaby Lake")
RAM: 4 × DDR4 (regular DDR4-2.133 with Skylake CPU, DDR4-2.400 with Kaby Lake CPU, max. 3.866 MHz with OC)
Dual-Channel
Slots (physical):
2 × PCIe 3.0 x16
1 × PCIe 3.0 x16 (electrical x2)
Compatible Multi-VGA configurations: 2-Way-SLI (Quad-GPU), 2-Way-CrossFireX (Quad-GPU)
3 × PCIe 3.0 x1
Internal connections:
6 × SATA 6G
1 × M.2 Key M PCIe & SATA (2242, 2260, 2280)
1 × M.2 Key M PCIe (2242, 2260, 2280, 22110)
4 × USB 3.0 (two headers)
4 × USB 2.0 (two header)
2 x fan (4-pin)
1 × CPU fan (4-pin)
1 × CPU OPT Fan (4-pin)
1 × WaKü header (4-pin)
1 × Clear CMOS jumper
1 × Reset button
1 × Q connector
1 × COM port header
1 × TPM header
1 × MemOK! Button
Power / Reset / LED / Front Audio
External connections:
2 × USB 3.1 (Type A)
4 × USB 3.0
2 × USB 2.0
1 × Gigabit LAN (Intel I219-V)
1 × HDMI 1.4b
1 × DVI-D
1 × S / PDIF (optical)
5 × audio (7.1 Realtek ALC887)
Power supply:
1 × 24-pin EATX
1 × 8-pin ATX 12V