OC Panel Kit

In keeping with the Extreme moniker of the board, ASUS bundled in the newest version of their hand-held monitoring device with the Maximus VI Extreme board – dubbed the OC Panel. The OC Panel device serves dual purpose – monitoring board voltages, temperatures, and fan speeds, as well as on-the-fly overclocking of board voltages and bus speeds.

The OC Panel has two modes of operation – Normal mode and Extreme mode. In Normal mode, the panel lays flat in a 5.25" docking enclosure with the screen oriented perpendicular to its body so that is faces out in the dock. In Extreme mode, the panel can be used as a hand-held device or standing upright via its kick-stand. In this mode, the screen is parallel to the OC Panel body. The OC Panel device has a 2.6" LCM display with mode switch and CPU Level Up buttons to the left of the display, and system power and fan speed control buttons to the right of the display. On the body of the device are control buttons for interacting with the device menus and settings, as well as Clear and Reset buttons.

The kit includes an OC Panel cable used to connect the OC Panel device to the motherboard itself using the headers labeled ROG_EXT on the Maximus VI Extreme. ASUS went the extra mile with the OC Panel cable by sleeving the cable wires with dense weave nylon-style sleeving. Note that using the OC Panel cable takes up one of the onboard USB 2.0 headers.

The OC Panel's 5.25" external enclosure is a single bay enclosure made of steel with a plastic face plate. The face plate is embossed with the ROG logo. Also included are 6 screws for mounting the OC Panel into the enclosure and for mounting the enclosure in your case bay.

When using the OC Panel device in Extreme mode, the lower portion of the panel is removable, revealing several headers, switches, and ports that can be used for control and informational purposes. In the upper left corner of the device PCB are the VGA Hotwire headers (6 total headers), two 4-pin fan headers, and Probelt voltage measurement points. The VGA Hotwire headers are used for connecting to wires coming from your system video cards to control onboard settings and voltages. The Probelt voltage measurement points allow for direct system voltage measure using a multi-meter.

In the upper right corner of the OC Panel's PCB are two additional 4-pin fan headers, SlowMode and PauseMode switches, and an ASUS internal debug header. When enabled, the PauseMode forces the system to halt at its current state and illuminates an LED connected to the PauseMode header. The SlowMode switch functions the same as the SlowMode switch on the board, forcing an automate system slowdown, slowing the system boot process and CPU frequency, to help prevent system crashing at extreme cooling speeds.

At the bottom of the OC Panel device are a SATA power connector and the connection port for the OC Panel cable. The device is powered via the SATA power port by connecting a SATA power cable from the PSU to the device.

On the upper left side of the device are the Subzero Sense ports. These ports are used to connect a K-type thermocouple probe to get temperature readouts for motherboard devices while using LN2 cooling. Temperature readings from the port are accurate to -193 degrees Celsius.

When in Normal mode, the OC Panel device mounts to the included 5.25" drive enclosure with the display face flush with the enclosure front panel.

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