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Asus Crosshair V Formula Review

Manufacturer: Asus
UK price (as reviewed): £169.19 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $229.99 (ex tax)

As the most expensive board on test, Asus' Crosshair V Formula demands plenty of attention. The RoG-branded red and black colour scheme is in full effect, which thankfully detracts from the cramped PCB - a problem we identified last time we saw the board. This is mainly due to the large heatsinks attached to the VRMs and chipset.

However, the various components are laid out neatly, with all the regular power connectors located at the edge of the PCB. Like the Sabertooth, the Crosshair also has two 4-pin CPU fan headers which, as you’ll know if you’ve recently been looking for a new cooler, can be very helpful.

As you’d expect from a RoG motherboard, there are on-board power, reset and overclocking switches, along with a clear-CMOS switch located on the rear I/O panel. There are four 16x PCI-E slots too, although only triple-card SLI or CrossFireX setups are supported out of the box.

If you’re this way inclined, be aware that the second and third slots will only provide eight PCI-E lanes apiece, while setups based on two graphics cards will see the second slot offering the full 16x PCI-E lanes.

There’s a fair amount of space between the first and second 16x PCI-E slots too, although this is also where the Crosshair V’s only 1x PCI-E slot is located. Meanwhile, a single PCI slot is located beneath the second 16x PCI-E slot for legacy card support.

At stock speed, the Crosshair V recorded the fastest overall Media Benchmarks score on test of 1,563 points. The same was true for its minimum frame rate in Arma II – 60fps was just ahead of two of the other boards. Having updated the EFI, we used the same settings as with our review of the FX-8150 CPU and managed an HTT of 350MHz – the same we managed with a Phenom II.

Strangely, we found that our happy medium of an HTT frequency of 242MHz and a CPU multiplier of 20x was slightly slower than using an HTT of 205MHz and a CPU multiplier 23.5x, despite the former also sporting a slightly higher CPU frequency – 4.84GHz, as opposed to 4.818GHz. We used voltages of 1.45V for the vcore, 1.2V for the CPU/NB, 1.2V for the Northbridge and 1.25V for the NB HT. This saw the overall Media Benchmarks score rise to 1,860 – just ahead of the MSI 990FXA-GD65. Meanwhile, the minimum frame rate in Arma II jumped to 69fps, again just ahead of the MSI, which managed 68fps.

Conclusion

The Crosshair V Formula provided a pain-free path to moving from previous- to current-generation AMD CPUs. There are plenty of options to tweak when it comes to overclocking, the EFI is easy to use, and unlike the MSI or ASRock boards, overclocking is straightforward too. It’s a high price to pay, however, when the cheaper Sabertooth 990FX offers a similar experience, albeit with less lofty overclocking limits. Setting aside the disappointment concerning AMD’s new CPU’s, the Crosshair offers more for your money. However, unless you have the cash to burn and exotic cooling on tap, the Sabertooth is a better bet.

Specifications

• Chipset AMD 990FX
  
• CPU support Socket AM3 Athlon II, Phenom II Sempron 100-series, Future Socket AM3+ CPUs
  
• Memory support 4 slots: max 32GB DDR3
  
• Expansion slots four 16x PCI-E 2.0 slots (two 16x or one 16x, two 8x and one 4x), one PCI, one 1x PCI-E
  
• Sound 8-channel HD Audio via Creative SupremeFX X-Fi 2
  
• Networking Intel 82583V Gigabit Ethernet
  
• Overclocking HTT frequency 100 – 600MHz; max voltages, CPU 2.1V, CPU NB 1.875V, Chipset 2V, HT 2V, RAM 1.8V, Southbridge 1.8V
  
• Ports 7 x SATA 6Gbps, 1 x PS/2, 14x USB 2, 6 x USB 3, 2 x FireWire, LAN, 4 x surround audio out, line in, mic, optical S/PDIF out, eSATA 6Gbps
  
• Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244 (ATX)