It seems like these days motherboard vendors have overly complicated lineups which cater to every conceivable niche or combination of features. For buyers, navigating these confusing waters can be frustrating but of anyone that wants to buy into a more compact form factor, things get a lot easier. While the mATX segment has been expanding as of late, there isn't a massive amount of competition and the offerings typically fall into one of two categories: higher boards that offer a broad range of gamer / overclocker-centric features and more affordable options that offer value above all else. ASUS new Maximus VIII Gene falls into the former segment.

ASUS has been on a roll lately with their Z170 motherboard series but we have mainly been focused on their ATX offerings. Indeed, while the Z170-A and Maximus VIII Hero are both awesome boards in their own respect, they aren't particularly unique. Meanwhile, the Gene series caters to that rather large portion of PC gaming enthusiasts who want performance and portability go walk hand in hand. ATX systems are simply too large to be comfortably carry from LAN party to LAN party, while ITX based systems lack advanced features like SLI and CrossFire.