So right down to the nitty gritty then , what makes this motherboard tick ? Well , as stated before , if it wasn ’ t obvious already . This is an overclocking board , not by name only or via meaningless adjectives and deplorable attempts at being “ hip ” that are often thrown about . The APEX is genuinely an overclocking motherboard , which makes some concessions to those who may wish to under utilize it by sticking it in a box . This one is built for extreme overclocking and it seems to be where it is most comfortable .
In the short stint one had with the motherboard and some LN2 , despite some stability issues related entirely to some faulty operating systems , it was a breeze to overclock . Add the ability to eliminate completely the dreaded cold boot bug ( CBB ). It was the most OC friendly motherboard one has used ever . To say it simply works out the box is again an understatement . Every single feature related to overclocking that was on the previous generation Extreme motherboards finds its way here with a few extras as well thrown in for good measure . There is also a handy guide as always from ROG overclockers which is all you need to get going exploring the north side of 6GHz on your shiny new 7700K CPU .
When it comes to memory overclocking , one must admit that the APEX is without equal
right now . The ease with which you ’ ll push all kinds of memory frequencies is ridiculous . Again , you can simply load a profile or take your chances with the most aggressive memory timings and watch in sheer amazement as the motherboard pulls through and delivers the goods . This may not be entirely convincing though when you ’ re dealing with the new SAMSUNG-B die ICs ( labeled as such in the UEFI under one of the memory overclocking profiles ). Thus , verifying this superior memory overclocking , required one to to test with a CRUCIAL DDR4 2133MHz kit . None of the other motherboards available to me were capable of pushing this kit as far as the APEX could .
32 The OverClocker Issue 40 | 2017