Ooh, the box -- seriously we always show it so you guys know what to look for in the store. Well, do you guys still go to stores or just order online ?

After unpacking you'll notice a well styled and designed motherboard. That's a nifty looking, feature-rich motherboard alright. Nice black PCB with red coloring scheme and the usual complementary products.

ASUS always does it's bundle well and as such you'll find one motherboard, a manual that explains every aspect of the board. Other than that you'll find a back I/O panel protector, SLI and Crossfire bridge connectors, various chassis stickers and also four S-ATA cables, little jumper extensions, Bluetooth RC add-on card, RC connect USB cable, an extra performance fan, USB and eSATA port header, thermal sensors and yes yes .. a manual + driver CD.

We stated this already but expect the Maximus III Extreme to be found in the 325 USD / 300 EUR price range. The board has the classic Republic of Gamers design with the red themed color scheme and the always black PCB. But look at the connectivity on that toosh there, that's quite stuffed. Let's zoom in a little and focus on the back-panel connectors.

Check that out, from left to right that's a PS2 keyboard connector. Then I count a total of ten USB ports of which the blue colored ones are USB 3.0, then one eSATA port, Firewire, unfortunately only one Gigabit Ethernet. Digital audio in the form of optical TOSLINK connectors, and then all the way to the right the analog audio connectors.

You can also spot a button for CMOS clear and ROG Connect. Well, that certainly is a good start, that back panel is stuffed full to the last square inch. Audio is managed through VIA's VT2020 High definition Audio chip allowing an absolutely juvenile 10-Channel sound output.