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The Asus Blitz Extreme motherboard is a typical ATX2.0 form factor design with a few additions that make it quite distinctive. For starters, the black PCB may not be something new, but helps to set off the brilliant appearance of the copper heat-pipe cooling system and other motherboard components. And as can be expected, the Asus Blitz has been branded with the honorable 'Republic of Gamers' tag. It may be a simple emblem and marketing name, but it has come to embody the best Asus has to offer in terms of gaming performance and overlocking potential. Such was the case with my not too long ago review of the Asus Striker Extreme motherboard, another 'Republic of Gamers' favorite.

The black PCB really works well for the Asus Blitz Extreme.

The Supreme FXII Audio Expansion card exposed. 

Our first stop is the Supreme FXII 8-channel audio card. It has become practice for motherboard manufacturers to bundle add-in audio cards with their higher-end motherboards, saving some valuable real-estate around the rear I/O panel, reducing production costs and expanding audio capabilities. This Supreme FXII card plugs into the mini PCIEX slot slot up near the rear I/O ports, a space saver if one would plan on running dual graphics cards. The gun-metal grey shield doesn't do much of anything except look pretty. I took a minute to remove the shield simply to illustrate that it's still the same old audio card we're all used to. There's also a pin header here for front panel audio and a port for the Analog CD audio. It's all based upon the ADI 1988B 8-channel Audio-Codec with Coaxial, Optical and S/PDIF over at the rear I/O panel. High Definition sound is quite expected for a motherboard of this caliber.

The Supreme FXII card towers over all when installed.

The Asus Blitz Extreme boasts an impressive number of internal connectors for the likes of hard drives, USB and FireWire.

• 6 SATA ports
• 1 IDE Parallel port
• 1 Floppy port
• 3 USB2.0 pin headers allowing for 6 USB channels
• 1 IEEE 1394 port
• 2 optional Temperature Probe pin headers
• 8 optional Fan pin headers
• 1 S/PDIF Out pin header
• Front panel pin connectors  

Quite the assortment of connections. Don't worry, I've got some pictures too.

6 SATA ports in a stacked configuration.

Each one of the USB2.0 pin headers has two channels, allowing for 6 USB ports in total.

An IEEE1394 FireWire port in flame red.

On-board Power and Reset buttons, located right between the USB ans FireWire pin headers.

These little surface mounted power and reset buttons are simple and sweet (especially for us hardware reviewers), no longer the need to jumper a motherboard to life with a screwdriver. 

Out back we have the usual assortment of I/O's. Most are standard while a select few are new and interesting additions. A basic list to start.

• PS/2 Keyboard port (in purple)
• 6 USB2.0 ports
• S/PDIF port
• Optical port
• Clear CMOS button
• IEEE FireWire port
• 2 eSATA ports
• 2 Gigabit LAN ports

A fair assortment of expansion possibilities. I'm glad that Asus elected to retire the PS/2 Mouse port, after my many various rants about how legacy ports like these should be dropped. It's likely a safe assumption to say that very few people (if any) still use such an antiquated piece of hardware. The PS/2 Keyboard makes sense since it is required in order to enter the BIOS, but I hope to see those legacy ports go away in the near future too.

As for the Clear CMOS button, I like this location. Asus had in the past placed it on the motherboard right along side the surface mounted Power and Reset buttons. Not a large concern, but difficult to reach when said button in obscured behind wires whilst mounted inside a case. There's also the slim possibility of pressing the Clear CMOS button when hitting the surface mounted Power or Reset buttons. I did this quite by accident once while testing the Asus Striker Extreme motherboard.

The Clear CMOS may have it locked on or off by the CMOS jumper.

Additionally, Asus thought it wise to provide a sort of fail-safe to prevent users from ever accidentally clearing their CMOS setting by inadvertently bumping the Clear CMOS button. This little jumper block up next to the Southbridge heatsink can be set to one of two positions; 1-2 to disable the Clear CMOS button and 2-3 to enable the Clear CMOS button functionality. Just a little added security.

And let us not forget the IDE and Floppy ports.

Yep, IDE and Floppy still exist.

The 24 pin power connector upfront and the 8 pin power behind the CPU socket.

Small pin headers for the glowing I/O Shield and the LCD Poster.

Here's a picture of the connectors for the I/O shield and LCD Poster, both located up and in behind the 8 pin CPU power plug.

The DDR3 slots and a maco shot of their voltage rating.

The DDR3 memory slots are in the typical placement and color coded for quick and painless dual channel operation. If you look closely at the second macro shot, you can see how the slots have '1.5V' stamped into them. That 1.5 volts is the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard for DDR3 memory voltages. The BIOS may be pre-configured to run it higher though.

A very hidden connector.

Nestled in between the rear I/O's and one of the VCM heatsinks is a hidden S/PDIF header for internal connections to a sound card or video card, providing you can find the hardware to take advantage of it. S/PDIF does offer some moderately noticeable improvements to sound, but the added hardware expense isn't really worth it.

A small host of expansion slots.

• 2 PCI-e 16x Graphics slots (for 8x by 8x Crosslinx)
• 2 PCI-e 1x slots
• 1 PCI-e 1x Audio slot
• 2 PCI slots

One of the more interesting characteristics of the Asus Blitz motherboard is the heatpipe cooling system. It's quite well crafted and even boasts some ports on the Northbridge chipset heatsink for water cooling.

The Northbridge heatsink with ports for water cooling.

Two heatsinks down below.

The Southbridge heatsink is a given, while the Crosslink heatsink is a bonus.

The VCM behind the CPU socket gets a big heatsink.

And a simpiler heatsink for the other VCM.

Needless to say that Asus did a pretty decent job cooling the Blitz Extreme, but the inclusion of water cooling on the Intel P35 chipset isn't that necessary. From my experience, the Intel P35 doesn't get that toasty, at least not to the point where one should start considering water cooling. That isn't to say of course that it wouldn't be a bad idea, and it could even allow for a little extra overclocking headroom in some cases. But honestly, I'd save the liquid chillers for something like the NVIDIA 680i SLI chipset. That hunk of silicon damn near glows it gets so hot.

Solid state capacitors and ferrite core casings are the norm for Asus.

Last but not least, solid state capacitors are the new standard while the small black ferrite core casings have become very common place.

Seems like Asus has build a very nice piece of hardware with the Blitz Extreme. The placement of that lone S/PDIF connector was a little odd, but everything else was quite expected and quite well built.

The BIOS awaits.