Asus drops ROG Maximus VIII Impact motherboard to $145

If you're looking to build a compact system that is small in size but big in performance, a good place to start is with Asus ROG's Maximus VIII Impact. It is a mini-ITX board that normally runs close to $200 but is available today from Newegg for $145 after mail-in-rebate.

To get that price, you'll need to enter promo code EMCSRFRH4, which knocks $20 off its $195 sale price. There is also a $30 mail-in-rebate available that comes in the form of a prepaid card.

The Maximus VIII Impact is based on Intel's Z170 chipset. It has two DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 32GB of DDR4-4133 (OC) memory, along with a single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, four SATA 6Gbps ports, and a U.2 port.

Built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi is part of the package here. Same goes for Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. External options include two USB 3.1 ports (one Type-A and one Type-C), four USB 3.0 ports, GbE LAN, and HDMI output. There is also a USB 3.0 header for connecting up to two additional USB 3.0 ports.

Asus makes much ado about the audio on this board.

"You benefit from the best gaming-audio inputs and outputs, with color-coded LEDs to guide to the right audio jacks and a collection of carefully-selected professional-grade audio components, including an ESS ES9023P digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with Hyperstream technology, ultra-low-jitter clock, Nichicon capacitors, 2VRMS headphone amp, and Sonic SenseAmp that automatically detects and optimizes any headset (32-600ohms) for purest sound quality," Asus says.

This board is also tuned for overclocking, provided your mini-ITX setup offers enough cooling to ramp up clockspeeds. The Maximus VIII Impact is a great board, and while we didn't pick it for our best Z170 motherboard list due to its higher price, it's s till a fantastic board, made better now at the discount.

You can grab the Asus ROG Maximus VIII Impact on sale here. The printable rebate form is available here (PDF).

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

TOPICS

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).