Aristotle wrote that "Change in all things is sweet" and change is something that the Maximus IV knows very well. Normally the ASUS range consists of an Extreme, a Formula and a Gene variant of the same basic design. The Maximus IV definitely changes this as the Extreme is two versions of the P67, the original and then the B3 revision which fixed the SATA issue and otherwise enhanced the basic model. So we'd expect the Gene to be a P67 B3 based motherboard but in micro-ATX format? Not so. The Gene is a Z68 based motherboard. So we've got a m-ATX Z68 board with onboard graphics, quite a departure from its bigger brother. However there is a Maximus IV Extreme-Z on the horizon which will be the actual bigger brother to this Maximus IV Gene-Z, rather than the current Maximus IV Extreme. It's confusing stuff indeed. Anyway, let's see what is contained within this pocket powerhouse.