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Some motherboards get the job done efficiently. Others go above and beyond the proverbial call of duty and offer bells and whistles and dual-tub kitchen sinks with detachable sprayer faucets. The latter tend to cost a lot of money, appeal to hardcore enthusiasts, and feature the word extreme in their monikers.

Here at, ahem, ExtremeTech we’re not really in a position to criticize the use, or overuse, or homogenization of the word extreme. We did recently find it amusing to receive a couple of motherboards, one from ASUS and one from Gigabyte, that come in huge, deep boxes and blare Extreme in striking, bold lettering.

What else was there to do besides pit them against each other in a head-to-head shootout to see which one is more extreme than the other? Of course, we took lots of things into account, such as performance, features (especially unique, special features), and extra goodies included.

In the end, which of these boards with the huge packaging out-extremed the other one? Continued…