Aura is installed but making any changes only affects the lights that are already on. Plus the chipset lighting is extremely dim

Weird, I've got a Maximus X Hero in a different system and that board is extremely bright.

Okay, so I turned it all to white and shut off the bit of other case lighting and it is working. Holy crap, no kidding it's dim. Not sure what Asus was thinking there. I do prefer understated lighting for effect, but this is almost nonexistent.

Problem solved, sort of.

Hockster wrote:
Weird, I've got a Maximus X Hero in a different system and that board is extremely bright.

Okay, so I turned it all to white and shut off the bit of other case lighting and it is working. Holy crap, no kidding it's dim. Not sure what Asus was thinking there. I do prefer understated lighting for effect, but this is almost nonexistent.

Problem solved, sort of.

Yep, it's pretty pathetic considering what they show in their advertising and how their rep says "the Formula has the most extravagant RGB lighting" in a youtube video at CES (I think it was CES). The Maximus X line had much better lighting implementations IMO. I really like the way my X Code looks. I wish they would have just used the same lighting and panel design as the R6E instead of trying to copy the same style (in a way that I assume is cheaper) and using these mirror panels, it clearly hasn't worked they way it should have but they are selling them as is anyway. The mirror panel on the I/O shroud is really cheap and poorly held on. Mine actually popped out just by peeling the protective film off of it. I've found a lot of concerns with this board so far which I am in talks with cl-adrian@asus about right now. Should have been at most a $500 AUD board instead of $720 AUD. Of course this is all just my opinion but for me it has been a very disappointing experience for the price.

Zammin wrote:
I've found a lot of concerns with this board so far which I am in talks with cl-adrian@asus about right now. Should have been at most a $500 AUD board instead of $720 AUD. Of course this is all just my opinion but for me it has been a very disappointing experience for the price.

Please do post if your talks with ASUS go anywhere.

I tried that route, but I ended up with the impression that ASUS Customer Loyalty has no interest/power to do anything beyond saying "sorry for the inconvenience."

dingo99 wrote:
Please do post if your talks with ASUS go anywhere.

I tried that route, but I ended up with the impression that ASUS Customer Loyalty has no interest/power to do anything beyond saying "sorry for the inconvenience."

I sent a very long email to Adrian with pictures of my board's poor onboard lighting detailing this and all the other issues with the product after he replied to my review of the board on Newegg only addressing the misuse of the "twin 8-phase" terminology. He has told me that he is currently in talks with the R&D department about it via email right now. I told him my main frustration aside from the lying advertising where it literally says "all ASUS Z390 motherboards have at least 8 phases" (which they later quietly changed to read "stages" instead of phases) was the pathetic lighting that does not at all resemble what is shown in any of their advertising. So far he has only heard back from R&D once in which they said "The Maximus XI Formula website image is focusing on highlighting the lighting part, so it looks brighter than real light". That is essentially their corporate way of saying "we deliberately misrepresented the product with in it's images to make you think it's more impressive than it really is". Adrian seems to understand that it's simply not good enough and is pursuing further contact with them about the issue along with all the others I mentioned to him.

The Z390 launch has not been a good one for ASUS. There is now 2 counts of false and/or misleading advertising for this board in particular. This will surely hurt their image as a manufacturer of premium high end motherboards if nothing is done to make up for it. Information spreads fast. I always take screenshots now of their advertising before they silently change it so I have proof of my claims if I ever decide to make a return or something.

I will keep you guys updated as things progress. I am hoping there will be some kind of resolution to these issues (like perhaps a partial refund or an exchange/return option) and not just a "sorry, but we have your money now" type of situation.