From ASUS with love: New Crosshair IV Formula & Extreme!

Blacky · 03-02-2010, 08:24 AM

Quote:

ASUS makes a return to the higher-end of the AMD platform with two motherboards in its elite Republic of Gamers (ROG) series, with the Crosshair IV Formula and Crosshair IV Extreme. Both motherboards are based on the AMD 890FX + SB850 chipset, and support socket AM3 processors. While the Crosshair IV Formula targets high-end gaming builds, the Crosshair IV Extreme goes all out to woo overclockers. The Crosshair IV Formula, to begin with, has six expansion slots, of which four are PCI-Express 2.0 x16 (operating at x8 when all are populated, or x16, NC, x16, NC), and two PCI slots. The SB850 southbridge gives out six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, while an additional controller gives out two 3 Gb/s ports (one being eSATA). The CPU is powered by a 10+2 phase VRM, with two phase memory power. Connectivity includes 8+2 channel audio with SPDIF connectivity, gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, eSATA, two USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0 ports. The board supports the iROG feature, along with a host of other overclocker-friendly features.

The Crosshair IV Extreme, on the other hand, is probably the most complex motherboard for the AMD platform. Apart from overclocker-friendly features of the C-4 Formula, C-4 Extreme adds a wide range of electrical enhancements that include better power conditioning with Super ML capacitors, PWM circuitry, voltage measure points, ProbeIT feature, PCI-Express electrical control switches, iROG Bluetooth device control, physically redundant BIOS ROM chips, and a number of other features. The board itself is closer to being EATX sized. There are four PCI-Express x16 slots here too, but with 1U spacing between them. An open-ended PCI-Express 1.1 x4 and PCI make for the other slots. There are six SATA 6 Gb/s ports here, too, with additional SATA 3 Gb/s controllers, and connectivity largely identical to that of the C-4 Formula. We presume ASUS will release these two in late April, around the time when AMD rolls out its Phenom II X6 processors. Pictured in order (below) are the C-4 Formula and C-4 Extreme.

Crosshair IV Formula

Crosshair IV Extreme

Source: Techpowerup

I like the direction ASUS is going now

! for all you AMD lovers now you have a good mobo to play!

DragoonXX · 03-02-2010, 08:29 AM

those are MASSIVE looking heatsinks...I thought AMD chipsets were power efficent (that and everyone else who's showcased boards earlier have normalish sized heatsinks), looks like someone might run into issues with backplates on videocards on those boards in the first slot too

Blacky · 03-02-2010, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragoonXX

those are MASSIVE looking heatsinks...I thought AMD chipsets were power efficent (that and everyone else who's showcased boards earlier have normalish sized heatsinks), looks like someone might run into issues with backplates on videocards on those boards in the first slot too

they are, but I think its for the "bling" factor I guess...

Razzz · 03-02-2010, 09:46 AM

More pictures over here:

http://www.techsweden.org/nyhet/Vj3z...ir-iv-formula/

radaja · 03-02-2010, 09:48 AM

even for bling those heatsinks are ugly,especially on the Crosshair IV Extreme.just my opinion though.

damtachoa · 03-02-2010, 10:51 AM

OMG, it's so nice. Big improvement.

Manicdan · 03-02-2010, 10:56 AM

its great to see a real OCing board for AMD, however i think they put the cpu too close to the ram slots on the extreme. i think if they used a taller heatsink for the PWM, they could have left the cpu slot alone.

wuttz · 03-02-2010, 12:43 PM

so, the xtremesystems ed. is non standard atx? not that its ever going inside a case. xD

zanzabar · 03-02-2010, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragoonXX

those are MASSIVE looking heatsinks...I thought AMD chipsets were power efficent (that and everyone else who's showcased boards earlier have normalish sized heatsinks), looks like someone might run into issues with backplates on videocards on those boards in the first slot too

they have a huge pwm array, and they have to have bling

this is the 1st asus line that ive liked in a long time, im just waiting to hear that it supports sli because they put an nf200 in it so i can hate it

illidan · 03-02-2010, 01:02 PM

feng shui heatsinks

Sadasius · 03-02-2010, 01:02 PM

The Extreme looks very nice.

generics_user · 03-02-2010, 01:33 PM

just give me a 890FX based gene and i'm happy

zerazax · 03-02-2010, 02:00 PM

Thuban + one of these please!

saint-francis · 03-02-2010, 02:20 PM

[sarcasm]Who would have though a company like Asus would make such postmodern garbage?[/sarcasm]

RSC · 03-02-2010, 04:39 PM

The heatsinks are bloody hideous. They seem like they were designed by a cubist painter on crack.

eRazorzEDGE · 03-02-2010, 04:48 PM

Glad they decided to put the top-of-the-line model out at the launch of the chipset, instead of at the tail end of it's life like the Crosshair III. Really like the buttons at the top right of the mobo, instead of down at the very bottom - trying to shove your fingers between the case and GPU to hit one of the buttons is a major pain.

But the red/black color scheme is no dice. It'd be a super sweet idea if they were to offer different color schemed boards.

Will definitely get this and a 6 core, and when somebody comes out with a water block, I'll definitely be replacing that butt-fugly heatsink.

Blacky · 03-02-2010, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razzz

More pictures over here:

http://www.techsweden.org/nyhet/Vj3z...ir-iv-formula/

integrated X-Fi sound card?? interesting...

Chrono Detector · 03-02-2010, 07:06 PM

This is probably one of the best looking AMD boards I've seen, though I'm not a fan of ASUS. Only problem is why doesn't it have dual LAN, I thought most FX boards should have dual LAN.